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I had only the vaguest memory of hearing about her. And truthfully, I didn’t even know if she was real. I only knew the legend: an immortal, eyeless crone living on a snowy, fire-licked mountain who foretold the future for the Unseelie.
Would she help us? Was she still on a mountain? And was she even real at all?
Fuck knew.
A sharp tendril of regret coiled through me. I should havetriedto bring Ava back to Faerie. I should have done my best to open a portal when I still could.
I rubbed my eyes. “We need to look for a fire-licked mountain.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Do you mean a volcano? I think I saw it in the distance. East of here. When we get out of the forest, we’ll have a better view.”
“Ava, I can’t promise we will find her, or that we will get what we want from her even if we do.”
She shrugged. “I don’t have any better ideas.”
In the daylight,it hadn’t taken long to find our destination. From the waterfall, we’d spotted it in the distance, a dark, snowy mountain that overlooked a kingdom of stone and red leaves. From a distance, the mountain summit resembled a ruddy jewel resting atop the peak. Wisps of smoke rose into the dark sky, tinged with red light.
And as soon as I saw it, an ember of hope started burning in my mind. If I could get to this oracle, I could get Ava the fuck away from the Court of Sorrows.
Ava was seated astride the horse in front of me. She leaned back, and I breathed in her scent, the smell of the wild Unseelie forest and the air after a storm. I closed my eyes, savoring this moment. Because when I returned to Faerie, my changeling could not come with me.
We’d been ridingfor a full day. On the rocky path, the skies were darkening, violet streaked with pumpkin, and the dying rays of sunlight pierced the canopy of leaves above us.
The air smelled of smoke and ash, and the horse’s hooves crunched over black rocks on the path. “Ava,” I whispered, “how do you know if a volcano is going to erupt?”
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t.”
As the path became too rocky and steep—sleek black rock, covered in snow—we slipped off the horse. Ilet Ava walk ahead of me in case she fell in the dark, and we continued on foot.
Close to the top of the mountain, shadows gathered around us, and the air grew cool. Ash and snow covered the rocks and dark, bare boughs. Beneath the thin dusting of white, black lava scored the mountain.
“Are you worried about what’s happening in Faerie?” Ava asked as she hoisted herself up the rocks.
It was strange how little I’d been thinking about it. Before now, my entire life had one purpose: to look after my subjects and make my kingdom thrive. Here, in the heart of my enemy’s land, my thoughts were distinctly distracted.
The cooling air stung my cheeks. “I can’t imagine what’s happening, but I hope Orla declared herself regent and took the throne…” My voice trailed off. “But I never thought she was strong enough to sit on it. Perhaps she appointed someone else as regent in my absence.”
“You’d better hope it wasn’t Moria.” Breath misted around her.
My chest tightened. “If there is no queen on the throne, I’m afraid everyone will be dead by the time I return.”
As we neared the mountain’s peak, the trees grew smaller until only snow and ash remained. From here, on a narrow, icy path, I still didn’t quite have a view of the summit. But when I turned to look back down the mountain, the blood-red forest spread out far below us.
Ava steadied herself on a rocky wall to our left, and we followed the curving trail that swept up to the peak.
When we reached the summit, red-tinged wisps coiled above us, and an orange glow warmed the air from the crater. Sprays of molten lava rose from the volcano’s depths, shooting into the air.
But my gaze was on the impossible, gravity-defying structure above us, a narrow castle that sat atop a craggy column of black rock. Like a strange flower on a stem of stone, the fortress was bathed with red from the fires below. Rickety ropes made of vines led up to the castle’s entrance. A cold wind whipped over us.
“This is amazing,” Ava whispered, staring up at it.
I exhaled slowly as hope burned brighter in my chest. If anything around here was the home of a weird old mountain hag, this bizarre castle must be it.
And right now, this was our one and only chance to escape and return Ava to the mortal realm, where she belonged.
Everything hinged on what happened next.
“Ava,” I said quietly, “let me go in first.”
