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“What does Instant Lady Boner mean?” Eclipsa drawls over my shoulder, knowing exactly what it means.
Against my wishes, my chest turns blotchy red, and I slam my phone facedown on the marble counter so hard it nearly cracks. “Nothing. So, I have to meet Mack back at the academy. Can we get back to the earlier conversation?”
The levity in the air disappears, any traces of humor gone from their faces, and I mentally prepare myself for whatever comes next.
Valerian tips the last of his drink back and then turns to face me. “The extent of most Evermore’s powers don’t show up for thousands of years, which is why we wait to enter the academy until typically around the middle of our third millennium of life. But we’re tested every five hundred years.”
“Okay.” I twirl my straw nervously inside my empty glass.
“You were a mystery to all of us,” Eclipsa says. “The only true power you ever consistently showed was an affinity for creatures.”
“That explains the griffin,” I mutter.
“Most Fae claim two or three major powers not reliant on spells or outside magic, and perhaps one shifter form. But you . . . every new testing you showed something different.”
“What does that mean?” I’ve given up pretending I’m not nervous and am chewing the crap out of my poor straw.
“The final time you were tested, I was there. You performed the most remarkable soulmancer spell I’ve ever witnessed—and I hated you for it. Afterward, your father pulled strings to keep you from testing publicly ever again.”
“So my powers are soulmancy and talking to animals?” My mind is spinning, sweat from my palms coating my smoothie glass.
Valerian shakes his head. “No. We don’t think your major power is soulmancy. We think it’s something else, something so rare that it’s either never been recorded or been lost to time. An ability to somehow . . . borrow magical abilities from other Evermore. That would explain how you continuously showed different powers. We think you accidentally took Eclipsa’s soulmancy powers during your last test, but amplified it somehow.”
I’m nodding. Just nodding and nodding like I’m not freaking the eff out. “Makes sense . . . uh, huh. Totally. And now the big D wants me because I can channel a soulmancer’s powers, but stronger somehow?”
Eclipsa shifts on her stool. “Soulmancers have been going missing recently. A lot of them. We think whoever took the soulstone is responsible. If someone could act as a conduit for all those powers, could merge them somehow—they could break through the wards on the Darken’s soulstone and . . .”
“Bring him back to life,” I whisper. My heart is racing, clammy sweat wetting my palms.
“They would need all the pieces of the axe, first,” Eclipsa adds.
Valerian frowns. “Summer, do you need a break?”
Realizing that they’re all staring at me, and that I’ve nearly chewed my straw in half, I stop attacking the poor disposable utensil and force out a shaky breath. “I’m fine. I need to know the truth. So the public SOS call I sent out somehow during the Wild Hunt? What power is that?”
“It could be part of your ability to talk to animals. Perhaps that power to mentally communicate isn’t limited to animals, but Fae also. We don’t know yet.”
Yet. My mind is spinning with everything they’ve just told me. I have magic. Strange, rare magic that I mainly steal from other Fae. Magic that could bring back the mad ruler who nearly broke our world.
Steadying my voice, I ask, “Does the Darken or his collaborator know about me?”
They share another grim look. “We don’t think they know who you are yet,” Valerian admits. “But they may still be looking for you. Last year, we believe someone paid the orc to kidnap you because they suspected, but didn’t know for sure. That person could be the Darken’s collaborator or simply someone who was hoping to sell you to them. With a bounty as high as yours, hundreds of mortals and Fae have been kidnapped over the years and passed off as you.”
Oh, God. The thought makes me sick. “But the basilisk . . . it tried to kill me,” I remind them.
Valerian’s eyes darken with barely veiled rage. “We now think the basilisk was compelled to kill you and retrieve your soulstone. Whoever has that controls your soul.”
“And could put me into a new, compliant body.” I shiver at the thought of being owned by the Darken, body and soul.
“If they knew for sure,” Valerian says, his voice soft, “they would already have you. But they don’t know . . . yet.”
Yet. There’s that dang word again.
My fingers flutter over my chest as I work to drag air into my lungs. My body is both hot and cold. My belly twists. I have no idea why, after everything that’s happened recently, this is what’s sending me into a full-blown panic attack.
But the one thing I know for sure is that I would die before I brought the Darken back. Even without my memories, something inside me must still remember him, and icy dread slithers through my insides at the thought of him returning.
I clutch my neck as bile slams into my throat.
