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“Devlin,” King Callum nodded, acknowledging the man. “What seems to be the issue?”
“You’ll need this to proceed with the ritual, won’t you?” Devlin turned to the crowd, his voice crowing in delight, as he held up something that she couldn’t see yet.
“What is it?” Raven hissed, and Bianca leaned close.
“I think it’s their amulet.”
“Oh. Oh,” Raven breathed, realizing that it meant they could save Kellen’s mother’s ring instead of sacrificing it to the ritual.
“How did you get it?” Kellen demanded, his body rigid behind hers. “You told me the Domnua have it now.”
“They did. We were breached again this morning. While you were curled up with your…with…” Devlin sneered at Raven, and she bared her teeth in response. God, but she hated little men with big egos.
“My fated mate?” Kellen supplied, his voice deadly.
“Is that right?” Devlin snorted out a laugh, and then to everyone’s surprise, he dismissed them by turning back to the crowd. “After a vicious battle, I’ve recovered the amulet. As I’m the holder of it now, I’m claiming my right to rule my people.”
Kellen sucked in a breath behind her, and Raven froze, unsure of how to proceed. It seemed the crowd felt the same way, as many people glanced between Devlin and Kellen, uncertain of how to react.
“I said, I claim the right to the throne. Bow to me!” Devlin screamed, and to Raven’s surprise a good portion of the crowd did. Seemingly appeased, Devlin nodded once before striding up to the platform.
“And you will bow to me,” King Callum said, immediately asserting his authority, as he took the item that Devlin handed him. Though Raven strained to see what the amulet looked like, the king’s hand concealed it. To Devlin’s credit, he jerked his head in a quick bow, not foolhardy enough to ignore the king.
“Did you just steal the throne from me?” Kellen demanded, seeming to recover his speech.
“I don’t think he has. Not really,” Raven said, not caring if she broke some sort of weird Fae protocol. “Not even half your people acknowledged his demand. What kind of leader does that anyway? Walks in the door and demands immediate allegiance? Peacocking is what you’re doing.”
“And my first order of business will be to rule that all humans must leave the Fae realm.” Devlin gave her a silky smile.
“Overruled,” King Callum said, his tone mild. “Otherwise, you’d be telling me that you’re ordering Lily to leave your castle, and I’m certain you’re not doing that, are you?”
Devlin blanched. “No, sir.”
“We’ll sort this out later. For now, it’s dangerous enough to have this many amulets in one place. We must proceed at once.” The king held up his hand, calling for silence, and dug into the bag he held, as he read from the paper that Bianca held in front of him.
“By fire and water, earth and air”—King Callum pulled a necklace from the bag and dropped it into the cauldron, a puff of smoke rising into the air—“through night to day and dark to light…”
Something was wrong.
Raven didn’t know what it was, she justfeltit. Tuning out the king’s words, she scanned the crowd, searching for whatever had put her on high alert. When nothing caught her eye, she turned back just as the king held the last amulet up.
It was the coin. The same coin she’d taken from Alistair’s body the day he’d died. The coin that was currently resting in her pocket for safekeeping. It had never occurred to her that this was the Air Fae’s missing amulet. In her mind, amulet had meant necklace or something statuesque, like a crown.
Which meant, whatever amulet that Devlin had handed off to the king was a fake, since Raven currently had the real one tucked away. Whichalsomeant, if Kellen’s mother’s ring didn’t go in the cauldron with the rest of the power items, the ritual wouldn’t be complete.
“Wait!” Raven cried, lunging forward, but it was too late.
The coin had already dropped into the cauldron, the ritual now complete.
Devlin turned calculating eyes on her and threw his head back and laughed.
“Fools. All of you.”
But the voice didn’t come from Devlin. It came from over their heads, and when Devlin looked up and dropped to his knees, Raven’s heart fell. She didn’t want to look, didn’t want to believe that Kellen’s own father had just sold them out to the Dark Goddess. When her laughter split the sky, Raven’s stomach twisted.
She should have claimed Kellen when she’d had the chance.
19
