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I don’t know where he thought I would go, not without wings.
Morgant straightened, staring at the stars, and bellowed, “Empress of the Forest, Queen Mab of the Dark Cromm, our great ruler.”
He opened the door, and the queen stepped out, every inch of her radiating silver and gold. Her platinum hair hung down her back in waves, and she wore a delicate platinum crown with sharply spiked points. Herpale skin radiated silver light, the same color as the dress she wore, a silver gown beaded with pearls. Only her black gossamer wings stood out.
Her pale gold gaze swept over me, taking in my clothes. Her lip curled. “So. This is the spy.”
I breathed in deeply. The queen of the Unseelie stood before me, looking much younger than I’d expected. She could be forty, I supposed, but she hardly looked it.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you come here so unprepared? Does the Seelie spymaster want you to die?”
“I’m not here as a spy. I fell into your realm through magic. That’s all.”
She arched a black eyebrow. “And the king of the Seelie simply fell in after you? This is your story?”
“Yes. There was a magical rift between our worlds, that’s all. And he’s not the king. His name is Alan.”
She smirked. “The king of the Seelie declares that he does not care for you at all. And yet, he took great care to help you escape. I think someone must be lying.”
“If you let us return home, you won’t ever need to worry about us again.”
“Alan.” She huffed a laugh. “You are a mendacious one. How disappointing. In the Unseelie kingdom, we do not lie. If you’d been raised here, you would have learned the value of honesty.”
I wanted to ask what she thought about the value of kindness, but I had no power in this situation and kept my mouth shut.
She stepped closer to me and lifted my chin, examining my face. She was nearly a foot taller than me, radiating light and power that thrummed over my skin. I could almost see the shimmering magic twisting around her, electrifying the air.
She dropped my chin.
“If you were raised here, you’d feel pain every time a lie fell from your lips. Though if you loved him, perhaps you would do it anyway. Love burns us, doesn’t it? And that fire makes us strong.” She let out a long sigh. “Do you know how a sword is made strong? Like the Sword of Whispers, for example, that your king once possessed.”
I stared at her.Oncepossessed?
“Here in my kingdom, we worship the ash goddess,” she went on. “They say the ash goddess Briga has only one eye, her body covered in soot. She sacrifices for us. They say that she’s a giant in that mountain you climbed, Mount Tienen. The Veiled One made her home there.”
My heart raced faster. We’d been in the right place, then. Was it possible that Torin already had an answer?”
Mab smiled. “Briga’s flames make us strong and purify us. In her sacred forge, a sword must endure the heat, the pressure, and the hammer as the steel is tempered. Only then can it become strong enough to fulfill its purpose. Love is a forge, too, as the ash goddess teaches us. And that is where Unseelie magic comes from, Lost One. From the pain of love and loss. So, perhaps you’d lie for your king, even if it hurt. Perhaps you’d endure the flames, or sacrifice yourself, asshe does. Perhaps you’d come out stronger and truly live as an Unseelie.”
Her words had an entrancing quality that made me wonder if she was putting me under a spell.
She arched an eyebrow. “But the question is, would he do the same for you?”
15
AVA
Achill rippled through me. She was trying to get under my skin, but I wasn’t going to give her a single detail about him. “Don’t really know him.”
“And who, exactly, are you?” she murmured.
There was that question again. “Ava Jones.”
“A human name.”
I shrugged. “I was raised among them.”
“Why? How did you end up leaving this kingdom?”
