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Did I care they were feeling the same travesty they’d forced Aria to feel when they’d allowed others to hunt her down? Not necessarily. Should I have fought to keep the high throne? Maybe, maybe I could’ve pretended I cared a little about the title. But I didn’t. I couldn’t even drum up enough to give a fuck to bother myself with it right now.
Aria’s absence, and the hole she’d left within me had distracted me. A hole so deep and vacant without her here to fill it, that I’d walked away from Laveran and hadn’t looked back. Not even once. Not until news of the witches overthrowing the council, then declaring one of their own as the newly appointed high queen reached Dorcha. That was something I couldn’t ignore, even though I was doing just that.
My stare slid from Laveran to the Dark Mountains, and my stomach plummeted. If the witches continued forward, they’d reach the mountain passes, which was the last place Aria was inside of the Nine Realms. If they marched through the edge of the forest, then veered northeast, they’d be at the kingdom where Aria’s people remained, hidden and protected by magic both she and I had placed to prevent their discovery.
“They’re making their way toward Vraegary, which means they’re now marching to the pass within the Dark Mountains.” I pondered as my mind was fueled by worry. “If they’ve been scrying for Aria’s location, that’s where it would take them. It would hit on the last place she was within the Nine Realms. They’re hunting my girl.”
“That’s a fucking problem,” Killian muttered, before scrubbing his palm over his face.
Nodding my head, I agreed with his sentiment on the matter. Turning toward the crackling flame, I studied the delicate features of the woman dominating my mind. So much had happened since the night that she’d walked right into the engagement party, terrified I’d turn against her. As if I’d ever chance losing her again? Not fucking likely.
Aria had changed me so profoundly, that I no longer cared to think of a world where she didn’t exist. She’d healed the wounds I’d allowed to control my direction, shifting the course until it aligned our paths together as one.
“That’s a huge fucking problem.” Sitting up, I slid my regard between both men, even as the crease in my forehead deepened. “If the realm spits her out where she went in, Aria will end up falling right into their laps.”
“I can dispatch men to the passes to defend it from them accessing it, or being there when Aria returns,” Brander offered.
“We can’t afford to be spread that thin.”
As it stood, I had deployed men to guard the castle where Aria’s people were hiding. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to be spread thin with Hecate making waves with her needless murdering sprees. Not without Aria being here to access her power to deflect the attacks occurring frequently throughout the realms.
“Hecate and Aurora are both making moves to prevent Aria from rising to power. Aurora is afraid of what Griffon will do once he’s aware of his daughter’s existence. I don’t share her fear. I think he knew about her long before anyone else did. In fact, I think he knew what she’d become, but also knew the part she’d play in preventing Hecate from total domination of the realms.”
“Lore said you’d discovered a book written in the first language?” Brander inquired as he leaned back, placing his booted foot on the table. My gaze lowered to it, even as he removed it from my table.
“I did,” I admitted after a moment of silence passed between the room. “I think Scylla Prometheus died when she used the magic of seidr to manipulate the future. It spoke of a savior, one born in the darkest hour, to deliver salvation to the Nine Realms. At one time, Scylla was friends with Draghana Karnavious, or as close as two warring queens could be. In the tome I found, it claimed that in order to change the fate of the realms, each queen was forced to sacrifice something deemed worthy in the eyes of the Fates to forge two parts of one prophecy.”
Killian whistled before standing and moving to the decanter of whiskey. “You’re saying that both queens agreed in order to forge Aria?” Returning with glasses, he placed them on the table before pouring two fingers of brandy into them. “How would that even be possible? They couldn’t have known she would ever exist. Both died long before she was ever born.”
“Seidr magic is used to sway outcomes, or the future. It was widely known that Scylla could use it to wage battle. I think she used it to save her people. If I’m right, Scylla forged an alliance with our lines, one which forced both of our people to unite. The only time our people have been at peace with the Kingdom of Fire, was right before the beginning of the Last War of Fire. Scylla Prometheus died in a skirmish according to the tome. Though, they blamed us even though we’d been at peace with them.”
“You’re saying Scylla forced the Fates to create a savior, which is Aria?”
“Seidr doesn’t offer a timeline for when something unfolds.” I rubbed my temples. “It gives the user a price which must be paid, then throughout time, it weaves the fibers until the perfect solution is brought into existence.”
“That’s a lot of fucking weaving.”
Leaning forward, I accepted the glass he offered, then continued explaining what I’d stumbled upon. “No, Aria is merely one aspect of the prophecy and it doesn’t mention her defeating Hecate alone. She is one piece on a board, which has many other pieces already set into motion. The book stated that in order to find a savior, Scylla and a person from the Kingdom of Fire had to make sacrifices. A son born of the first people through a Hecate witch’s womb. We know without a doubt that Aria’s the one Scylla forged through the means of seidr magic. The question is, who was the second being forged through Draghana’s sacrifice?”
“You’re saying Aria isn’t the only one prophesied to end Hecate?” Brander pondered out loud, his finger causing his glass to whistle as he slowly rubbed it over the rim.
“If the book is correct, then Aria’s merely one half of the power needed to end the goddess.” Heat rushed through me as the image of Aria fucking me sliced through my mind. The girl was mine, period. I didn’t give a fuck what preordained bullshit our ancestors had put into work. I wouldn’t be sharing my girl with anyone else. Fate be damned. “It forced Draghana to sacrifice something for what she molded into existence through seidr magic—”
“I know we all assumed it was Hecate’s doing, with us not being able to take dragon form. But what if Draghana’s sacrifice was our ability to take our feral forms?” Brander questioned as he cut me off. “If she was the last to take dragon form, maybe she gave it up to protect her people.”
“It is possible,” I agreed with his perceptive reasoning. “But we need to consider Dracarius as well. After all, he held the ability to foretell the future and shapeshifted into a dragon in order to breed with Draghana. I think they prevented us from shifting, but it’s weakening. It is possible that it wasn’t what she sacrificed. In fact, I don’t think she would remove our ability to protect ourselves or that of future generations. Whatever she did, she did it after Hecate was within the Nine Realms. I don’t believe she’d leave us defenseless against the goddess demanding we concede to her reign of terror throughout the land. I think Dracarius bound our ability to shift in order to protect us from ourselves. Whatever Draghana sacrificed is irrelevant right now. It’s who she sacrificed it for, that is.”
“You’re saying both women sacrificed something in order to create one weapon?” Killian asked with a perplexed look tightening over his face. “You?”
“I don’t think so,” I admitted. “I can wield her magic. That isn’t a question, but it takes a lot of effort for me to manage siphoning enough to do serious damage. It doesn’t come freely to me, which it should if Draghana sacrificed to create the second half of the weapon designed to force the goddess back to her tomb.” It was irrefutable. Acting as a conduit for Aria’s magic was difficult. If they’d used seidr magic to forge me, it wouldn’t be so.
“You think the one prophesied to be the conductor of Aria’s magic is within the new realm?” Brander questioned as a soft rap of knuckles sounded from outside the library. He waited until Lore and Greer both entered the spacious room before continuing.
“It’s possible, but in order for her to be what they prophesied, she had to reach for the crown. Once she reaches for her throne, it will set everything else into motion. Once Aria reaches for her crown, whatever the old gods promised Draghana will come to pass in all the realms. Her going there was inevitable. If it wasn’t, I’d have prevented her from leaving us.” Greer’s eyes met mine briefly before he sat down beside me.
“It’s rather amusing that you think you could prevent her from going, Knox. I assure you of this, that girl’s chaos in motion. Aria Prometheus is the chaos effect. What Scylla and Draghana did, it’s the butterfly effect. A small action that produced something larger. Aria is small, but her impact within the Nine Realms won’t be. Scylla wasn’t selfless. She was a great queen skilled in both warfare and seidr magic,” he said with a sly look in his eyes.
“That much I’ll agree with,” I uttered.
