AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m afraid I can’t accept that, Elowyn,” he said, looking almost apologetic. “You must know by now that a bargain is little more than manners. When the Fae see something they want, they take it. Bargains are an empty courtesy. Like knocking on the door before you invade a home to rob it.”
The way he kept using my name was starting to sound intentional. Like a threat. Like if I didn’t agree, I might no longer get a choice.
I frowned. He had a point, of course. “Then why ask at all?”
“It’s polite.”
I set my jaw. “What are you looking to steal, then? Is this only about the crown?”
He leaned in, and his cloak gaped open, and two things caught my eye—likely both were intentional.
First, he had a sword in his belt. I was no expert in weaponry, but from what little I could see of the blade sticking out of its sheath, even I could tell that it was no amateur bit of steel but a silver, Source-forged blade covered in runes, worth more than the homes of even the wealthiest Fae families in the capital. That was a sword for killing Fae.
Second, he had the obsidian crown.
My eyes narrowed on it. It looked so much smaller tied to his belt just above the sword than it felt on my head. I remembered what Scion had said about the mere act of owning it—possessing it—and hoped that was only superstitious nonsense.
Ambrose looked down at the obsidian crown. “In a sense, yes, it is about that, but no…not entirely. This is part of the greater plan, and as you can see, I already have it.”
I furrowed my brow, confused. “If I doubted before that you are related to this family, I would know it for certain now.”
He barked a laugh, which seemed out of place, his ominous words still hanging in the air. “And why is that.”
“All of you have a way of saying so much and yet nothing at all.”
He tipped his head toward me as if in agreement. “Hear this, then: your family was tied to mine long before you ever came to this castle in more ways than you can probably imagine. There were more threads pulling not only you but your entire bloodline here than you could possibly realize. But I see them, as I was there.”
My heartbeat sped up. Did he know, then? Was this the conversation—the answers that I’d been searching for, both consciously and unconsciously—for months? Longer, really. My entire life.
“Tell me,” I demanded.
I couldn’t keep the longing from my face, and Dullahan—Ambrose, that was—smirked at me. Like he knew he’d hit his target.
“I was sent by my grandmother some thirty years ago now to search for the person who might end our curse.The curse of Queen Aisling plagued the Everlast bloodline for generations, but the catalyst that forced Queen Celia’s hand to truly search for a cure began some thirty years ago or so.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, remembering what Scion had said. Ambrose left the family without warning just over thirty years ago, prior to the eruption at the Source. He reappeared in the northern city of Nightshade, but it was not for several years that the fall of Nightshade caused Ambrose to join and ultimately lead the rebel army against his own family. “But what happened thirty years ago?”
“Have you ever spoken at length with Raewyn?”
I coughed, surprised. “No. Of course not.”
I wanted to add that it was all too strange to me that I was speaking at length tohim. Sometimes, I still found it difficult to speak to Bael—I was hardly about to walk up to his mother, the last remaining child of Queen Celia, and strike up a conversation. Whenever I’d been in the same room with her, she’d seemed to view me as little more than a barnyard animal.
“Raewyn has three children, but only one was born of her true mate. Some thirty years ago, we realized the danger that would come to the family if Raewyn’s willpower were to be tested and went to search for a cure in the form of a worthy head for the crown.”
I gaped. “Bael’s parents are true mates?” I clarified.
He nodded. “And it was that near catastrophe, the almost union of Raewyn and Gancanagh, that set so much else in motion.”
I jerked back. That was a familiar name. Did Bael know? He must—that would be far too much of a secret to keep from him if others in the family were aware.”But what does that have to do with me? I was not to be born for another decade, on the day that the Source erupted.”
The male smiled at me, taking a step closer. “Not so fast, Elowyn. You must also know you do not get secrets without giving something in return.”
“Have I not already given something? Has the city not paid whatever price you could possibly want? You are destroying the castle, killing people—your rebels are ransacking everything as we speak.”
“Do you consider this castle yours to give? Interesting, but no, that’s not sufficient.” He grinned. “I will tell you anything you like if you simply come with me.”
I laughed, and it came out high and musical, a bit too Fae for my liking. “I do not believe there is any price you could pay that would make me want to do that.”
