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“No, they can’t,” he says.

“What is it you want, exactly?” I ask.

“Darkness. Shadow. And lots of it.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THEREN

Fae Realm

“I’m a catoptromancer without a mirror,” I explain. “Though I use blood magic in battle and have other spells at my disposal, that’s nothing compared to what I can do with a reflection.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Dragan demands.

“As Unseelie, I draw my power from the darkness, and you are theKing of Shadow,” I hedge, hoping the stone brute will catch my meaning without my having to actually say it.

A mirror of pure shadow would be my ultimate weapon, aside from my spear staff. With my army now at Variant’s beck and call, I need whatever help I can get. And at the moment, that help comes in the form of Dragan.

I wish it didn’t.

“You want me to craft you a mirror of shadow?” he asks.

Pyre shifts uncomfortably and I understand why. Our magics may be on the same spectrum of light and dark, but on different scales of taboo. I’m wary of him, as well—even as I begin to respect his craft. Baron, however, walks a frail line between what he was and what he will become.

Like Eilish, he hasn’t matured into his powers and could stumble past the point of neutrality and end up swimming in inky black darkness until he’s swallowed by the abyss. So could I and so could Cambion, but I’m ready for whatever comes next. Only now do I see I have more in common with the necromancer than I initially thought.

“It will take time, but once it’s complete I will take you to the grimoire,” I promise. “It lies in a parallel between our world and another, a pocket realm of sorts that can only be accessed by mirror gating.”

Dragan’s mouth pulls into a tight frown. “And how do you know this?”

I smile. “Because I was the one who put it there.”

The gargoyle whirls around, wrapping his fist in the front of my tattered robes. I lift my hand to keep the others from interfering.

“Why?” he demands.

“Myerdoth’s witch asked me to,” I continue. “She knew I was the only one who could protect it, and I’ve done so for many years. Imagine what would have happened if Morrigan had gotten her hands on it. You already saw what Variant can do to the gargoyles. They’d be mindless slaves, forced to fight against their king. Is that what you would’ve wanted for your kind?”

With a low growl, Dragan releases me, and we resume our trek toward the succubae breeding grounds. As we scale yet another peak, I notice there are more ruins like those we found in the mountains.

“There was never a forest here, was there?” I ask, looking over at Pyre. His sightless eyes bore into me as he gives a steady nod.

The ground is littered with bones and armor, as though a great battle took place under the mountain. Charred earth rests beneath the trees that have grown here to hide the truth. Silvanus must have come here, trying to obscure what really happened. I grab Baron’s dagger from his belt and slice open my palm.

The blood floats in the air like paint against an unseen canvas as I draw the symbols of arecallspell. Images begin to flash all around us, becoming more solid as I summon an illusion of the past.

Fire falls from the sky. Succubae scream out in agony as they flee for their lives. Lamia stands there in her armor, ready to fight beside her female warriors, when a large shadoweclipses them. The Incubus. Throwing his head back, he releases a roar that causes the volcano to erupt, spewing a river of molten lava that flows across the mountaintops. It scorches the succubae hiding in their homes. Cries echo up towards the sky as Gildlorthoine, the lost King of The Succubae, lays waste to them all. His sword of flame sweeps low, severing heads and cleaving through armor. Lamia retreats with her daughters, abandoning her people to be slaughtered.

The illusion breaks.

Dragan takes a deep breath. “Lamia said she and Variant were responsible for the extinction of her race…”

I hand the dagger back to Baron and seal the cut on my hand with a quick spell. “After Gildlorthoine destroyed most of the mountain, Silvanus planted this forest. He must have been the one protecting Eilish’s father. But something had to have triggered the Incubus’s rage.”

“Perhaps the loss of the one he loved,” Pyre suggests. “If Maeline was killed, it would have sent him into a rage. Eilish says she sensed Silvanus’ presence the day her family was murdered by the Cockatrice. If the Cockatrice told Gildlorthoine, that would explain why he killed the succubae. He couldn’t bear to breed their numbers anymore without feeling as though he betrayed her.”

“But Gildlorthoine abandoned Eilish and her mother,” Baron says.