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Somewhere, the gods are laughing right now.A thousand years, I’ve spent, avoiding the future the seer read for me.
"The All Goddess is right there next to the Undoing.”
I couldn't imagine a worse fate than to drag back the powers of creation amongst the living, freeing the ability to destroy, change, remake the matter around us all.
And then I watched Darina die before my eyes.
I'm trembling by the time I see the lines forming on my hand, slithering under my shirt at my wrist, but I don't miss how they continue along Darina's skin, covering her chest. I see the vines and leaves run along her leg through the slit of her dress.
"I see you form a primal bond, like All and Nothing did in their days."
I wince, finding my strength declining. All of a sudden, I'm exhausted, numbness seeping through my skin.
"Promise me to take her to the gates," I demand again, snapping.
Loch finally gets out of his funk enough to nod, lower lip trembling.
I almost pass out on the spot.
And then, unexpectedly, a rush of strength courses through my body, so powerful it almost makes me dizzy.
I see a hand clasping one of my shoulders and look up to find Valdred, kneeling right next to me.
"If you think whatever you're doing is going to work, you can have some of my strength."
Caenan takes my other side. Relva grabs my wrist.
Loch is last to move, but he takes his sister's limp hand. His strength feels like spring, and sun, and warmth, and all the things I would never have attributed to our well-known trickster prince.
I guess the Prince of Lies had us all fooled, after all.
By the time the wound is closed, our queen looks so peaceful, as if she were just asleep.
"If her soul is gone…" Caenan doesn't finish the sentence.
"It isn't," Loch states, his eyes fixed on the new markings along my skin and hers. "It's right there, with her mate."
I lift her in my arms, ignoring the stillness. I have to believe this will work. I was told it would.
I turn to Caenan first, noting that his hair is also longer. "Hold the fort. Make up whatever story you must to keep everyone right here."
He inclines his head.
Valdred's golden-blond locks are past his shoulders, too. We’ve all given years of our lives to her; the physical proof are in our hair, our nails, grown in the space of seconds. Mine are the longest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I also looked a little older; I pushed past the point of fae haling, before they came to my aid.
"She gave you her orders,” I remind the bone prince. “Protect the sister."
"With my life," he replies without hesitation.
Relva doesn't wait for instruction. "I'll prepare the entertainment. Distract, distract, distract. With all the wine and fun we'll have, no one will get a chance to even think about thinking."
I laugh. And to think I once believed her useless. "You're the best person I know for that."
She grins proudly.
Lastly, I face the loveliest prince I would gladly have murdered with my own bare hands to avoid this mess.
"Your mother. What is she playing at?"
