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“I don’t have the words,” I admitted.
“This is the part of a first bond,” Forbi muttered. Her youth was restored, yet the damn woman continued to speak in riddles. I was beginning to think she did it on purpose.
Instead of berating her, I merely sighed. “Explain, Forbi.”
With Danna and Oviss at her side, the seers knelt on the damp stone. From inside the pouch on her belt, Forbi removed a handful of rune stones. Danna took out a burgundy candle from hers. Forbi clutched her sisters’ hands and began to hum.
The tune was steady, low, and eerie. A chill deepened in the cellar, thick and musty, and pressed against my lungs until I thought it might ache to breathe.
When Forbi’s eyes opened, the milky white practically glowed. “The final gift joins at last, a tale of queens for a deadly task.”
Forbi’s eyes fluttered closed, and Danna’s opened. “A dreary foe attacks the gates, hunting for his crown to take.”
“Hand in hand, you must stand,” Oviss chanted, “all gifts united in our first land.”
Forbi hummed. “Sing a tale.”
“Bring them home,” Danna said, voice soft.
Oviss finished gently with, “Only then will defeat or victory be known.”
Next, the three sisters repeated a line, one that was oddly familiar. One I’d heard before when Saga used the sisters’ voices to help find her way back to Ari.
Now I saw, it was always aimed at me.
“A caution follows with this tale,” the seers said, softly, “should the first bond break, you will fail.”
“I feel to say these crowns afar,” said Danna, “relive the battles once fought before. A curse of blood, a sea seeking revenge, and a plague of darkness across a land.”
“Gods.” Silas closed his eyes.
“What?” I gripped his wrist. “What is it?”
“That’s what he’s doing—he’s reigniting the battles that led to the restoration of each crown.” He held up a finger for each kingdom. “A curse broken by a choice is again restored. The unification in the East with the sea fae brought them to find the queen’s ring, did it not? Yet, it led to a new enemy that would want revenge. And a plague of darkness brought the Raven Queen and Golden King together.”
My head pounded in a sick rush of panic. I didn’t know exactly what was happening in the other kingdoms, but it didn’t take much to guess it was wretched and bloody and dangerous.
“Fight back.” Danna said. “Will the royal her let a cruel him crush her head?”
“We need to help them,” I said, not to anyone in particular, but more a plea to my own desire.
Forbi rose to her feet. “Then you must sing the songs of fate to choose the soul that will make you whole.”
I blinked, looking to Silas. I never wanted to be commanded by the whims of the Norns. It frightened me to know my choices were not my own. But what if, long ago, a path began merely because a little boy and a little girl cared for each other?
What if, before two children even knew anything about heart songs and love of souls, they chose each other?
Silas held out a hand. “I do not know every step. But we have changed paths before. Sing with me, and we might know what moves to take.”
I feared what might come of another song between the two of us. From the beginning we’d altered paths, we caused the beginning of the end to a kingdom. Still, there was power here, a boil to my veins, a truth I didn’t fully understand.
To sing with my Whisper, to unite my words with his, somehow, I knew it was the only way to save them.
“Careful, Cal,” Cuyler whispered. “Your seidr . . . I can feel it. Something is changing. Take care.”
He wasn’t wrong. There was a heady sense that something was about to change. Perhaps something dangerous. Perhaps it would be as devasting as it was the night we sang a song to save my Raven Queen aunt.
I licked my lips, then reached for Silas’s hand.
