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I met Conreth’s eyes. “Are there any humans who would help us?”

He gave an elegant shrug. “Even if they would, it’s unlikely my people would trust them. The humans never seem to remember our shared history, and yet the fae never forget.”

We sat in silence for a long moment. If we could achieve such a thing, we could ask the other kingdoms for help. There had to be some kind of deal we could strike in return.

Finally, I sighed.

“How do we take the barrier down?”

“That is a conversation we should have when others can join us. I have a feeling it is only a matter of time before this conversation is cut short. You should ask your other questions now.”

Was this because he wouldn’t be under a blood vow the next time I asked the question, or because we truly were running out of time? Either way, I recognized the stubborn set to his jaw. I’d certainly seen his brother wear it more than once.

Fine.

“Tell me about the amulets.”

Conreth angled his head. “I’m assuming Lorian hasn’t told you about the loss of our family’s amulet.”

“No.”

He sighed. “He will be…angry that I interfered. But—” a faint smile touched his mouth “—I’m currently angry at him too. And perhaps one day he’ll thank me.”

He paced, as if it was taking everything in him to resist his memories. Finally, he took his seat once more, gesturing at the chair in front of him. “This will take some time.”

I sat. Conreth’s gaze grew distant.

“My people don’t often talk about this time. Especially Lorian. Of all of us…” His voice trailed off, and he pinned me with his stare, his eyes hard. “But I want you to understand just what Regner did to the fae. It wasn’t only the loss of our amulet that did so much damage to our people. It was the loss of our ability to trust those we loved. The loss of some of our most precious souls.”

Several men walked past the tent, voices loud, weapons clanging. Conreth raised his hand, and it was suddenly entirely quiet, our tent encased in some kind of silence ward.

“The amulets allow my people to share power. To bolster our forces when necessary, to heal our sick, and to take power from those of us with more than enough to spare and share it during lean times. Our father wore his amulet every day, conscious of what had happened to the other two amulets. Of how they had been stolen from us—and how our people had been too arrogant to see Regner as a true threat until it was too late.”

So, the first amulet we’d found was actually the last to have been lost.

“Can anyone free the power from the amulet?”

“Regner has been slowly leeching power from the amulets, but they require fae blood in order to release all the power at once. This is perhaps the only reason the human king hasn’t yet laid waste to this continent.”

A fine tremor took up residence in my hands, and I shoved them into my lap. I had no doubt that if Regner ever found enough power, he would completely eradicate the fae and hybrids from this continent. He had to be stopped.

“What happened when Lorian took the power from the amulet? Did he take it all?”

Conreth’s lips twitched. “No. My brother would never take what isn’t his. The power automatically dispersed to those it originally belonged to.”

That meant Lorian was naturally that powerful. It was difficult to reconcile that knowledge with the man who’d been in my bed in his human form last night. And yet I knew deep in my bones that Lorian would never become like Regner. He didn’t thirst for power.

“What do you know of the sleeping spiders?” Conreth asked.

I blinked at the sudden question. “They’re believed to be a myth. We play…played King’s Web in my village. According to legends, one of Sabium’s distant ancestors broke the minds of children and slipped them into foreign courts. They were called sleeping spiders, and when a specific phrase was whispered in their ear, they were awakened…completely under the king’s control.”

Conreth shook his head. Perhaps at the fact that humans had made a card game out of a myth so horrific. “They’re not just stories. And before we were at war with Regner, his grandfather did, indeed, learn how to slip his so-called spiders into our courts.”

“How?”

“Some believe he used the same ancient text Regner used to create the barrier, passing the knowledge down to his son, who eventually passed it to Regner.”

When precious children couldn’t be trusted not to grow into adults that would kill and maim for a foreign court…what did that do to a culture? Especially one with fertility rates as low as the fae, where every child was celebrated.