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“The spear? I don’t understand. I’m Medra. I’m your...” I tried again. “I’m your niece.” I looked around the room. It was still night and all remained quiet. “The castle was under attack. I came in here to see if you were all right.”

“I know,” he said. “I saw it. Odessa... The fae woman. I saw it all.”

I stared at him. “How is that possible?”

His lips twitched. At another time, I thought, I might easily have liked this young uncle of mine. “How is anything possible? How do we know? I was asleep. But I dreamed... I dreamed many things. I saw from many eyes.”

“Eyes that weren’t yours,” I said. “So did I. Just now. When I touched you.”

He nodded. “We were connected to the grail.”

“Is that what that was? The object on the bridge?” I thought back. “But it’s broken now.”

“Yes.” He hesitated. “I should have died.”

“But you didn’t.” I stared at him. “You’re still here. Why should you have died?”

He shook his head. “The grail was my lifeline. By rights, when my sister destroyed it, I should have died, too. I could feel it. Couldn’t you? Did you sense its power going?”

“I didn’t feel anything. Nothing from that broken cup.”

He looked at me oddly. “Yet you’re the spear.”

“You keep saying that,” I said, starting to feel annoyed. “What does it mean?”

He licked his lips.

There was water on his bed table in a pitcher. I poured him a glass and passed it over.

He drank it quickly. “It means...” He stopped as if frustrated with his own inability to explain. “Don’t you understand? You saw the woman. The attack tonight. He’s coming for you. The one who made them all.”

My heart sped up. “What do you mean? Who is?”

Kaye shot me a look that said I wasn’t fooling anyone. “Your grandfather.”

I looked around the room. “He’s not here now. He can’t reach me here. We’re all alone.”

“Medra.” Kaye’s voice was gentle and patient. “Stop pretending you don’t understand.”

“But I don’t.” My voice was shrill. “What are you talking about?”

“You saw the children,” he said. “I know you did.”

“What do they have to do with this? What were they?” I thought of the eyes I had seen through. Children? I wasn’t sure they were that.

“Your grandfather made them. Turned them. He’s done that and oh, so much worse. If he succeeds in getting to you, he’ll do much more. My sister and her husband went to stop him.”

“And what? You don’t think they’ll succeed?”

“They destroyed the grail. They’re close. But with you here...” He trailed off. “Don’t you understand? You’re not just the spear.”

“What am I then? Tell me that,” I demanded. “My mother made me to fulfill a prophecy. Is that all I am to everyone?”

“You’re whatever you choose to be. You could be his, if that’s what you wish. Or you could be...” He hesitated.

“What? Tell me,” I said, furious.

Everyone was keeping things from me. No one had told me the truth. Perhaps no one knew what the truth even was.