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“Will he return? Do we have the power to bring him back?”
Faush lifts his gaze from his work. “I can’t see him in the future, but that doesn’t mean he won’t appear. As of right now, I cannot see him. However, I can tell you there are means to get him back.”
“The Book of Shadows?” I ask.
Faush shrugs. “I’m not sure. I know great power will be required, but I guess that’s a given, right? The Crimson River is eternal.”
I’m at least hopeful we can save Lucien, and I haven’t felt that yet. “Anything else?”
Eyebrows drawing inward as if concentrating, Faush gives a slight shake of his head. “I’m not sure what it means, but I’m getting the same feeling as with the veil… time is of the essence. And before you ask, I don’t know what it means. I don’t know if you need to act quickly now or at some point in the future. But it feels the same. Time is important.”
I tuck that away. It’s not helpful now, but hopefully, all will be revealed.
“I thank you for your advice.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull out gold coins that weren’t there a second ago and lay them on the table. They’re enough to put him in much nicer living accommodations, but I get the feeling he won’t use them for such.
“But you haven’t asked all your questions,” he says.
I try to play stupid. “I assure you… I have.”
Which I haven’t. I want him to tell me what my future holds in regard to Zora, but I’m also afraid of the answer. I know the woman and her stubbornness. Her decision has been made, and if I were a gambling demigod, I’d bet nothing will change her mind. She’s trying to live her life as a god as best she can, and she’s convinced that she needs to be hard and closed off to do it. It’s difficult to convince someone otherwise when they’ve known nothing of love and have lived their life behind walls.
“I feel the yearning of your heart,” Faush says as his attention goes back to the rabbits. I refuse to engage him, but I steel myself because I have a feeling he’s going to say what’s on his future-seeing mind.
And yet, he remains silent on the matter.
His gaze lifts to mine. “I’m sorry. I can’t see the gods or what they will or won’t do. That’s always a blank for me.”
Completely unhelpful, but it’s a little freaky he knows my issue is with a god and not another immortal or even a human.
“But I can see that your heart will be healed one day. Not sure when or how it will happen, but I do know you’ll need to let go.”
“I’ve already done that,” I say. Because Zora pushed me away, and I didn’t fight it.
“Then there is nothing more for you to do. I suggest you concentrate on saving the world.”
I thank him again for his time. When I leave, I don’t head back to the town or travel through the veil to the Underworld to report to Amell. Instead, I move deeper into the forest keenly searching.
Though I find no discernible path, the trees are widely spaced and easy to move between. There’s no thick undergrowth, only a pristine carpet of ferny moss. Up ahead, a tree comes into view. It’s at least fifteen feet in diameter, perfectly constructed so the lavender bark is uniformly positioned in straight lines down the trunk. But the closer I get, the more imperfect they become.
Moving, writhing, and reforming until a dark knot in the center grows bigger and bigger.
It darkens even more and stretches into a large oval until it’s wide and tall enough to accommodate me.
As I pass through it, I walk not into the center of the tree but out onto a grassy knoll, the Council’s gazebo in the distance. The minute I step foot into their realm, it ensures they will congregate to greet me, for demigods do not come unless invited. Showing up without petition will indicate to them that I have something serious to report.
It used to be more difficult to reach the gods when Rune was a part of the Council. But given his transgressions and the danger it put the world in, the gods loosened their boundaries.
As I get closer to the gazebo, the gods appear one by one. Zora is the last, and yeah, my fucking heart lurches when I see her.
Those prismatic orbs lock onto me but there’s not an ounce of feeling within her expression.
Cold, aloof and guarded. She’s now a god, through and through.
I push my disappointment aside, and when I’m at the edge of the dais, I offer a slight bow of deference. “Thank you for seeing me.”
“You have news to report from Faere?” Zora asks.
I’m surprised she’d even deign to speak to me. The hopeful part of me wonders if she wants to know what I’ve been doing because she misses me, but the realistic part says she’s cutting to the chase.
