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“Nic?” I asked hopefully, and intense relief surged through me as the form of myaimashimmered into being. It had been so long, or at least it felt that way. “Thank the Goddess, Nic. I’ve missed you so much.”
He floated toward me, and my arms ached to wrap around him, but his body was still made of mist. As he crowded into my personal space, though, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a certain mass and heat to him that I hadn’t felt before.
“I’m here,mon amour. Perhaps not for long, but the mist knows you need my help. It wants you to succeed, Kana. The ancestorsneedyou to save the city.”
My heart beat faster as I noticed I could actually hear the words as he spoke, his rich, cultured voice echoing in my ears as well as my mind now. He was so much stronger than when he’d first found me through the mist, but still so much less than alive.
“I’m trying, Nic,” I said, also trying not to sound whiny. “I was feeling pretty great about protecting the commoners and fighting off the gobbelins. Making nice with the wolves - I’m doing all the same tasks the mist set us during the Trials to prove our worthiness. I’m gathering an army and protecting my people. Solving riddles and puzzles to unravel hidden history. Why isn’t it enough?”
“You need the magic,” he said simply, and I huffed. “And you can only gain the magic by winning the Trial. Be ready,mon amour. The mist will call the final Trial soon, and you will be tested to your limits. You will need a sacrifice.”
My heart lurched.
This was the only piece of the Trial lore that Grand-mère had been allowed to share with me - the final sacrifice.
“She... is she still alive? Grand-mère?” I managed, my throat squeezing closed around the words. Merden had been waiting for something - had the time finally come when Valda wasn’t useful to her?
“Valda is not in the mist,” Nicolas said simply, and I breathed a little easier.
“Can you go to her? In the mountains? I need her help, Nic. I need to know what she knows about the magic. About the book. We were supposed to be able to meet-”
“I will go,” he said, cutting off my desperate words with a soft smile. “The mist is already gathering its power to send me. I can feel its intentions - the ancestors will intervene as much as they can. The vampires must live, Kana. Saori Sang must be saved.”
My shoulders sagged with the weight of what was being asked of me.
The ancestors in the mist could only do so much from their resting place. But so could I only do so much in the face of so many problems and challenges.
“Goddamn her. Goddamn Merden,” I whispered, and Nicolas tilted his head down until his forehead rested against mine, halfway solid.
“You will be Queen, but you must have the magic to save the city. To save Acadian,” Nic added, and a gasp slipped from my lips.
“What can I do? What can I do now?” I begged myaima, even as the mist seemed to be pulling him away. Too soon. Always too fucking soon.
“Protect the city. Love him. Remember,” Nic said, the final word trailing into a whisper as he dissolved back into the smoky essence of the mist.
“Remember,” I echoed, feeling a mix of sadness and frustration. Remember what?
How could I remember things I’d never learned?
CHAPTER SEVEN
LUCA
We’d been all over this fucking lake, and no sign of gobbelins.
Well, according to the trackers, there was no sign. But I couldn’t shake the instinct in me that said we were in the right place. I also imagined I could still smell Kana here, though I knew that was pretty impossible.
“We’re gonna have to dive eventually,” I told Vento as we watched several ice wolves filling in the grid of holes we’d dug searching for any sign of an underground entrance. He was meticulous, for sure. But none of the wolves seemed keen to go in the icy water.
“Are you volunteering, pup?” Vento asked, his voice tired despite the front of endless energy he was putting on for the others.
“I just don’t see any of us surviving that. Kana’s a vampire. They’re attuned to that level of cold, and Kingston said she barely made it out alive.”
“Don’t give me a problem without a viable solution,” Vento growled, showing his teeth at me. We were both half-shifted to make use of our hands to mark a crude map but keep the advantage of the wolves’ thick coats. It was something I’d never seen lesser shifters manage for long, but the ice wolves’ power was different, and I’d picked up the skill quickly with Vento’s instruction.
“Well, can you survive it? Now that the wolves have the amulet again?” I asked, wondering exactly what sort of ice magic Vento could access.
He tilted his head, considering. “Possibly. Depends on how long it took to find whatever you think is down there. I don’t suppose you’ve shared blood with Kana?”
