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“I was thinking I needed to get out of Karn before Reena locked me away forever.” She laughed. “I was thinking I needed to find out for myself if my best friend had been chopped up by the Wild Hunt made into a soup.” I cut a look at Zephyr, recalling our one-sided conversation by the cliffs. "We did what we had to do. Finding the Sluagh was an accident though. We came through the Veil in the marshes and they found us. When I saw her face… Kyre, she looks like you."
Letting her go I stepped back, my eyes bouncing between my family, and my mother, who still stood in utter silence, her eyes still latched onto my face. She was patient and still, and utterly unmoving save for her wild, red hair that looked so much like mine. It waved in the undulating smoke as if she were floating underwater.
“I’m never returning to Karn,” I said solemnly. “Like I told Drys, the Hunt already sold me. She looks like me because she's my mother. The faerie that my father barely spoke of…and I'm starting to understand why.” I gestured at Kirsi. “My freedom is gone, but that doesn’t mean yours is, too. Go to the princes. Ask for sanctuary. Then figure out a way back home without me. I’ll be…” I wanted to say that I would be okay. That I would make it through this, but the truth was, I probably wouldn’t.
Drystan stepped closer, shaking his head. “I know what my mother did. Kirsi showed me.” I blinked at him, shock playing over my face. I glanced at the Sluagh commander again. What did he mean she showed him? Drystan nodded toward her, his eyes full of regret and sadness. “She can’t speak, but she can show you things. Visions of things that have happened, or things that will happen someday. I know what Reena did to those princes. How she killed our father to get him out of her way."
I tore away from Drystan, disbelief and rage coursing through me. “No,” I whispered.
“It’s true,” Neera said, placing a gentle hand on my arm. “I saw it, too. It was like I was there. Reena had it planned from the beginning. Sending Drystan into a sleep was just the last step she needed to take before ruling. You were an obstacle she failed to see coming.”
I spun on my heel and charged toward my mother as Drystan and Neera called out to me to stop. I ignored them. Kirsi didn’t move and I approached her. She didn’t even appear to be breathing. But she stared at me with such…such sadness that I momentarily paused, stopping only inches away. We were nearly nose to nose. Mirror images of one another to the point that it was almost as if I was staring into a mirror, A cursed mirror that reflected the heart of my soul and the darkness that stirred underneath my skin.
“Show me what you showed them,” I asked her. No, more like commanded her. “I want to see the truth of it for myself. I want to know everything. I want to know you.”
She blinked. It was the first movement she made thus far. The first sign that there was any sort of life behind those blackened eyes. Swallowing thickly with my heart lodged in my throat, I reached out and took her cold hand in mine. It was soft to the touch, but a buzz hovered just over the surface as it sometimes did with Erix and Riven. Magic surrounded her like a living shield.
Kirsi’s lips parted, and then my vision went black.
* * *
Cadoc
She emergedfrom the smoke an eternity later. I was by her side in seconds, my sword drawn and ready to pierce the heart of the Sluagh commander.
My brothers were beside me, Erix with his bow at the ready, Vazden ready to shift, Riven’s magic crackling at his fingertips, and Haelo wielding his light like a whip.
The moment she’d disappeared into the blackness it was as if something had clicked inside me. Inside the five of us. Kyre wasoursand she wasn’t going anywhere. She belonged to the Wild Hunt. She belonged to the five princes who were bound to it. She was our bounty, our lover, and our… I wouldn’t even consider what else she could become until I destroyed everything in my path to her.
We were ready to fight to the death to keep her, ready to take on the full force of the Sluagh host. But when she stepped out of the blackness and her eyes met mine, I paused, lowering my blade as I stared down at the vial in her hand. I blinked, and then blinked again, trying to understand what I was seeing.
Behind her, several more shapes stepped out of the dark. Two human men, a halfling pixie, and a chimera—the beast she called Zephyr—her steed. The moment they stepped clear of the fog, it began to recede. That same ominous horn sounded, and the entirety of the wood went utterly still. Like a swift and furious wind, the Sluagh disappeared through the trees they way they’d come, leaving our princess behind.
Kyre
Landing on the rooftop of the castle, I slipped off of Zephyr’s back, my wings fluttering gently to ease my landing. I tried to keep my steps silent and noiseless. Kissing Zephyr on the side of his head. I told him to wait here for me this time, because when I came back it would be in a hurry to escape the queen’s guard.
He nudged me with his big head, inching me towards the entrance to the observatory. I couldn't help but think back to the night that started it all, the night I’d done just this, intent on giving my brother the last of the faerie petals. Tonight, I traveled swiftly through the halls of the castle, skirting guards and servants, using the shadows to keep me hidden.
In my satchel was a vial wrapped in silks, and as I approached the queen’s chambers, I pulled it free. The vial was cold to the touch, and my hand shook slightly as I tried to keep a tight grip. If I dropped it, this entire plan was finished and this would all be for nothing.
My mind was clear and I was ready to end this as I incapacitated the single guard that stood outside of the queen’s chambers. I was no good with combat in any form save for what it took to get me out of a hairy situation, but I was sneaky and I was silent.
I’d spent a week learning how to use magic. Riven and Erix could only teach me so much in such a short amount of time, but we were running out of it. Riven taught me how to incapacitate a human with a single touch to the temple, but it was only temporary. Erix had promised that when this was all over, he would spend the next however many centuries training me in my magic. I wanted so badly to believe he really would. That he believed I could learn to be as strong as any faerie.
My fingers itched to curl around the blade that Cadoc had given me before I left the Void Wood. I hoped I wouldn’t need it, but Cadoc wanted to be sure. It was long, heavy and curved just right so that if wielded properly, it could slice a head from shoulders in one blow. I would never tell him as much, but just having a piece of him with me eased my nerves.
Her chambers were silent and dark. The air was so cold that I could see puffs of my breath in front of my face. Using my wings to keep my steps light, I made my way to the queen’s bedside, my feet nearly hovering so that I wouldn't disturb her sleep. I stared down at my stepmother, her beautiful face soft in sleep. Her blonde hair was sprawled out over her silk pillow, not a single wrinkle marring her skin. For all the world she looked like a faerie herself.
With a whispered word that Erix taught me, I cast a barrier over the room, keeping every bit of noise from escaping. Soon, another guard would happen by and find the other one incapacitated, so I couldn’t waste any time.
I used to beg her to love me. To show me a single ounce of the same affection she showed Drystan. But every time her eyes met mine I saw nothing but sickening disdain and loathing. Now, I understood that feeling.
I let the silken wrappings fall to the floor at my feet, freeing the vial. Wasting no time, I uncorked it, letting the vial hover over Reena’s gently parted lips. Kirsi’s blood dripped into the queen’s mouth. One drop. Two drops, and then three.
Only I could complete this task. The rules of magic wouldn’t allow for the cursed to harm the one who cursed them. But I was under no such curse. I was free to empty a vial of decayed blood down her throat and watch her world shrivel to nothing but ash.
Her eyes flew open and I staggered back, drawing Cadoc’s curved blade. I didn’t make a move. I barely took a single breath as Reena sat up straight in bed, her hands going to her throat as she began to silently choke, fighting for her next breath.
