Page 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

P IRMIITH HANDED ME A change of clothes he’d found at the back of the safe house. Dust shot into the air as I unfurled them but they would do. All I wanted was to get back to Aralinth to check on Vrail and Crison. They had seemed fine traveling to the safe house, great even. But that same uneasiness that settled in my stomach every time I watched Gwyn use her magic twisted my belly now.

But I couldn’t do anything for them until we dealt with Kairn. And I would never bring him into the spring city.

There were too many things he could see.

Too many things Damien could see.

I took the glamoured wristlet off. It was useless now that Damien and Kairn had broken the enchantment.

My breath hitched as I lifted the shirt from the pile. It wasn’t a shirt at all, but armored leathers. A vest with no sleeves.

My jaw clenched.

“We should cover his face before he wakes,” Pirmiith said from the other room. Feron had pulled rock from the earth the moment we stepped inside the tunnel. All Damien would see was stone in every direction.

As far as he would know, we were in a cave.

“No need,” I called in Elvish from around the stone wall. “He’s seen the gold of my eyes. He already knows I’m a niinokwenar .”

I fidgeted with the gold ring along my middle finger. It felt like Feron had given it to me so long ago. A safety net for when Damien entered my dreams. The glamour kept him from seeing anything he could use against me.

Like my scars.

I hadn’t needed it for weeks. The elixir worked well enough, and even on the occasions that I fell into a short sleep without drinking it, Damien never called. As soon as I had learned to take control of the dreams, he lost all interest in the connection he’d forged between us.

The ring would keep my scars hidden from him and Kairn. But I trusted everyone else and knew they would see them. I didn’t even know the names of some of the Elverin that Pirmiith had brought, but they would know this truest part of me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Seeing them means they hold no ill will against you , I reminded myself. You can’t hold on to secrets and juggle every decision of this war . You have no use for secrets anymore.

A warm sureness filled my chest at those words. It was a strange feeling; one I had not felt in a long time. One I thought I would never be able to feel again.

Trust. In myself.

The light was dim with only two faelights hovering along the ceiling. Even still, the moment I stepped around the wall, everyone went quiet.

Riven let out a grunt from under his hood, his fingers reaching for the laces at his throat to untie it, but I shook my head.

This was my choice.

Gerarda smiled smugly from the other side of the slab while Elaran’s jaw dropped. Her gaze followed the same path that all the others did, starting at my shoulders before trailing down to the fiery patterns along my wrists. Her nostrils flared as she saw Brenna’s name written bigger, and more rigidly, than all the others.

I felt the weight of Riven’s stare beside me, but I didn’t look at him.

Feron beamed at me. Then he clapped his hands. “Let us begin.”

Gerarda pulled out a small vial of blue liquid that I recognized. Unstoppered, it would fill the room with a pungent odor, foul enough to raise Kairn from his unconscious state.

I looked at Feron. “You can’t just enter his memory while he’s unconscious?”

“It would add a considerable amount of time to the process.”

I glanced at Riven, who was still under his hood. Even though I wanted him to be honest about who he truly was with the rest of the Elverin, having Damien announce it to the room by mindwalking into Kairn was not the way it should happen.

Understanding flooded Feron’s face. He raised his hand and a root shot from the earth, twisting around his wrist. His lilac eyes glowed for a long moment before he dropped the root back into the ground.

Feron turned to Pirmiith. “There is movement along the eastern edge of the forest. Something big.”

“I will bring a group to search.” Pirmiith stood straight, his spear already in his hand.

Feron shook his head. “Send two.”

Pirmiith frowned. “Do you not need help with the mountain man?” His lip curled as he looked down at an unconscious Kairn.

Feron smiled gently. “I think the five of us can handle one Mortal man.” He looked at Riven and me, and then Gerarda and Elaran. The only people in the room who knew the truth about Riven and his connection to Damien.

Pirmiith’s grasp tightened on his spear, though he still seemed doubtful.

I cleared my throat. “If it’s the shirak , we need to know.”

Pirmiith’s jaw pulsed, but he nodded, leaving with the others.

“I could have left.” Riven lowered his hood as the Elverin slipped through the portal.

No one contradicted him. The muscle in his neck tensed. We were not lying for him, but it was too close for Riven’s comfort.

“It will anger Damien more that you’re here,” I said. Anger was a useful emotion. Anything that threw Damien off his collected nature could be helpful. “But put your hood back on.”

Riven’s lips parted in confusion.

I swallowed but didn’t hold back. “He will see your green eyes as a weakness.”

It tore at me to see the hurt on Riven’s face. Not because he cared what Damien thought, but because me saying it meant I thought the same. I was happy that Riven could live the rest of his life without pain, that his sacrifice hadn’t meant he died that day in Elvera, but it was still a loss.

There were no other shadow wielders who could replace him, and that was all his brother would see. A gaping hole in our advantage.

Riven pulled his hood forward and leaned against the wall. In the dim light, the shadows were heavy across his face and body. If I didn’t know his powers were gone, I would have believed that he still had command of the darkness.

I turned my attention to the slab in front of me. Each of Kairn’s limbs were encased in thick roots that wrapped around the base of the slab. I pulled the pendant from my pocket. “Kairn used this to control the waateyshir .”

Feron frowned. “That isn’t possible.”

“Damien has done impossible things before,” I said with a shrug. “I saw him use it. It pulsed just before the beast arrived, like it was answering the pendant’s call. The beast only fled because I made Kairn use the pendant to send the beast away.”

Feron held the pendant in his palm. “Then this is an invaluable asset.”

I nodded to Gerarda. “Wake him. I want Damien to know he’s lost hold of his secrets and his weapon.”

Gerarda opened the vial. The scent of rotten eggs and brine, more intense than any sea I had ever come across, wafted into the air.

Kairn’s nose twitched and then his eyes opened. One dark gray. One black.

I used my gusts to send the foul odor out of the room, and his amber pupil pulsed.

Or Damien’s, from the way the pupil pulsed brighter and turned in a circle to count the people in the room.

Finally, it landed on me.

I held back a sigh of relief when Kairn’s eyes didn’t lower to my scars. Instead, a vile grin grew over his thin lips. It was haunting and unnatural, like a creature had taken its time to cut Kairn’s flesh from his bones and wear it as a disguise.

“I thought I glimpsed a change in your eyes,” Kairn said in a cool tone that was unmistakably Damien. Even though it was the dirty, scarred face of the Blade that looked up at me, all I could see was the man who had carved the scars into my back. “ Niinokwenar ,” Damien spat like the word was poison on his tongue. His gaze shifted to something over my shoulder and his smile turned into a scowl. “You’ve put your remaining days into an hourglass, Keera.” He looked back at me. “Or did you think I would let my brother ride you long enough that your filthy womb could sprout a new Fae?” Damien huffed a laugh. “Or birth an army to rival my forces?”

Kairn’s body tried to sit up, but his head barely moved an inch.

Damien noticed Feron standing at the Blade’s feet. “How long do you think it will take, Lord Feron, for my men to burn your forest to the ground and seize the cities my father was too lazy to take from you?”

Feron lifted his chin but did not deign to respond.

Damien huffed another laugh and turned back to me. “Is that your plan, then? You gave up being the kingdom’s Blade to become Feron’s whore?” He turned to Riven. “Do you let him fuck her too, brother? I suppose it needn’t matter who fathers the brute as long as it has purple eyes.”

Something solid smacked Kairn’s jaw. I whipped around to cool Riven’s temper, but he hadn’t moved.

A bloody root sunk back into the ground. Feron took two menacing steps along the slab and squeezed Kairn’s face. “You will not disrespect the niinokwenar again.”

“Torture this body all you want.” Damien shrugged as best he could against his bindings. “It’s not me who feels the pain.”

Feron’s eyes glowed violet. Kairn’s body shook against the magic as Feron entered his mind. The ancient Fae’s nostrils flared as he rifled through the Blade’s mind, searching for something. Or someone.

Kairn let out a high-pitched scream. Feron’s lips twitched into a momentary smile as Kairn’s body went limp.

Feron let go of him, and his amber pupil was nothing more than a solid, crisp circle. Kairn’s head darted in every direction, taking in the room for the first time.

Feron sat on a stool he’d constructed of roots. “Damien will not bother us again.”

“That seemed unpleasant.” Gerarda crossed her arms.

Feron nodded solemnly. “Mindwalking is a blessing, but like all gifts, it can be sharpened into a powerful weapon when needed.” He tugged at the long sleeves of his robe. “Anyone wanting to access the Blade’s memories with me must touch his bare skin.”

“You’re doing that to me?” Kairn’s voice shook.

“No.” Feron stilled. “How much pain you experience in this process is entirely up to you. A willing participant will feel nothing but warmth. Fight the magic and the more uncomfortable it will become.”

My chest tightened. I was the only one in the room who knew just how uncomfortable it was having Feron walk through one’s memories.

“Or you could just tell us what other uses your pendant has to Damien.” I lifted my brows at Kairn.

Riven’s hand clenched. “And where you took Nikolai.”

Kairn grunted but didn’t say a word.

Feron let the moment stretch for a long while before he stepped toward Kairn’s head. “Very well.” He placed his hands against the Blade’s temples.

Gerarda and Elaran gasped in unison as the warmth of Feron’s magic took hold. A slithering feeling looped around our arms and then branched out from our spines.

I closed my eyes and watched as the blackness behind my lids began to swirl.

There was no source of light, but I could see the others standing beside me in the darkness. Kairn kneeled in front of Feron, not bound but silent. He crossed his arms and refused to look at us.

Feron’s brow twitched as he sorted through Kairn’s memories. The darkness lightened and gray shadows swirled all around us. The memories flew by, too quick and too many for me to understand.

Feron bit his cheek and the shadows became inked with color.

“You make it seem so easy,” I murmured as Feron riffled through Kairn’s latest memories. It had taken much more than a few moments for him to break in to my mind.

“Some minds are more stubborn than others.” He opened one eye at me.

Gerarda laughed. “She’s been told that before.”

I flicked the back of her head.

She lifted her hand to it, not out of anger, but curiosity that she could feel my touch at all. Inside Kairn’s memories, all our minds were connected.

Feron closed his eyes once more and kept searching.

I studied him as he did his work. The fluttering of his eyes behind his eyelids, the small twitches of his head as Feron discarded one memory for another.

There were no restrictions on my powers now. Any gift that a Fae had, I had too as the niinokwenar . Even though mindwalking was usually gifted to Dark Fae, Feron was certain that I could master it if I took the time to train.

I looked at my hands and thought of Vrail and Crison. Two more Halflings I had marked for battle the moment their eyes turned amber. I already had one gift that came with too much power. I wasn’t interested in gaining more.

Feron let out a short breath. And the colored shadows stilled, finally taking the form of something I recognized.

Elaran gasped as the island of Elvera appeared before us. It floated in the sky, high above the Pool of Elvera below. The newly ignited waterfall poured down in an endless shoot, feeding the lake and the Silstra all at once.

It was the day I broke the last seal.

The memory started. It was as if we were all living through that day again, except this time through Kairn’s eyes.

I saw myself trying to cut through the seal and failing. Amber blood poured down my nostrils and throat, so thick I felt the urge to choke again just watching it.

Tears welled in my eyes as Riven came and grabbed my hand. His body fell limp as he gave me every last drop of his magic through the bond. His hand found my shoulder as I cried, reminding me that he’d survived. I watched—both past and present versions of me—as Riven died.

“Take the Elf,” Damien’s voice called inside Kairn’s mind. He glanced at me leaning over Riven and started to run. Kairn grabbed Nikolai by his tunic. Nik kicked but his shouts were muffled by Kairn’s meaty hand. I watched myself as I chased after them, spent and broken hearted, but Kairn jumped into the portal. He turned back, looking over his shoulder, and we all saw the blurred image of Vrail pulling me back from the water, telling me not to chase after them. My throat burned.

I could feel Kairn’s smugness leeching from the memory. He had abandoned all those soldiers below without remorse. Fled like a coward and called himself a victor because he managed to take a hostage with him.

The sensation made me sick, but I didn’t punch Kairn like I wanted to. That would only make Feron’s job harder.

Instead, I held my breath and waited to see where Kairn had taken them. Riven’s hand on my shoulder tightened. The portal that had reopened in Elvera was a rare treasure. It could bring passersby to any portal in the realm.

Kairn could have gone anywhere. I didn’t even know if he understood what the portal was when he had jumped through it. The magic may have taken him to whatever location last flitted through his mind with no conscious effort at all.

But now I had an answer. My hands turned to fists as I watched Kairn drag Nikolai onto the shore of a lake. He kicked him in the head and Nikolai fell. His limbs splayed out at odd angles in the sand, red pooling along his lip.

Kairn panted for breath as he bound Nik’s limbs and threw him onto his shoulder like a sack of flour. Then he stood and faced a view I had seen countless times before.

Out of all the places Kairn could have gone, he chose the island that I knew so well.

My teeth gritted against each other. I had been too quick to listen to Vrail that day. She had urged me not to chase Kairn through the portal. She had said that it was useless, too dangerous to justify since we had no way to know where Kairn had gone.

But my instincts had been right.

Where else would a dog go except back to the cage his master had made him?

I pushed the guilt from my mind as I saw Kairn enter the throne room through his own eyes. Damien sat perfectly straight in his gold throne, his blond hair accentuating the cheekbones that had only grown starker since he’d claimed the crown. His jade eye and his black eye tracked Kairn across the marbled tile until the Blade reached the dais. Kairn threw Nikolai to the ground like he was nothing and knelt before his king.

The other members of the Arsenal stood behind the throne, each one wearing a gleaming fastener at the necks of their cloaks. It had only been days in this memory since Gerarda and I had killed the Dagger, Shield, and Bow during the battle of Volcar, but Damien had already appointed three more men. All just as nasty and brutal looking as the last. All with one black eye and amber pupil.

Damien stood. The scar along his magic eye pulled taut as he looked down at Nikolai with disgust. His scowl became a faint smile as he turned his attention back to Kairn.

“Finally, one of my weapons has come home a success.” Damien grabbed the canister of wine beside his throne and poured two glasses. He picked up his own goblet, savoring a sip, before motioning for Kairn to pick up his own. The Blade was still a servant, after all.

Damien snapped his hands at the guards stationed along the entry. They moved in unison to pull the tall white doors open just wide enough for a gangly young man with a red velvet cushion to scurry through. He clambered up to Damien on knobby legs that could barely hold his weight. Kairn’s gaze focused on the red marks along his skin. The scars looked as if hot oil had dripped along the flesh and was left to burn.

“Look.” Riven pointed at something in the memory. Kairn’s attention had turned from the young servant to the items on the velvet cushion.

Five gleaming pendants sat on the lush fabric. Each a perfect copy of the one Kairn had worn on his chest.

Damien’s lips thinned. “Only five?” He looked like he wanted to spit at the boy. “I told the smith I wanted as many as he could fashion.”

The servant paled. “Th-this was all he could do with th-the measurements you gave him.”

Damien lifted his chin. “There is nothing left?”

The boy shook his head rather than speaking.

“Nothing left of what?” Elaran murmured but none of us answered her. We just watched as Damien dismissed the servant and let the cushion sit on the table beside his throne.

His long finger traced the edge of the middle pendant. “Our enemy may have regained some semblance of their old power.” He tapped the glass covering the pearlescent material inside the pendant. “But I have reawakened an even older enemy.”

Kairn’s viewpoint shifted as he looked Damien in the eyes. “You expect us to fight this war on two fronts?”

“Not at all.” Damien smirked as he picked up a pendant and fastened it to the middle of Kairn’s chest. “The waateyshirak are the natural enemy of the Fae, and these pendants will make them … understand that our objectives are aligned.”

Feron took a step forward, his eyes narrowing as he studied Damien. One Elvish word had revealed so much. Damien had meant for the waateyshirak to return. And he didn’t just know their name or how devastating they were, he thought he could use them to his advantage.

“Can you reason with the waateyshirak ?” I asked Feron. “Do they speak like us? Do they have some kind of language we don’t know?”

Feron didn’t answer; he merely took another step forward, refusing to look away from the memory.

Damien pinned three more pendants to his Arsenal. His hand lingered over the fifth before he assessed the last member. The Bow was brawny but young, pocks still dotting his cheeks and only a few hairs growing on his chin.

“You’re stationed in Koratha, correct?” Damien asked.

The Bow nodded.

“Then I shall keep this.” Damien slipped the pendant into his pocket. “There are only five of them after all.”

Kairn looked down at his chest to study his pendant for the first time. I squinted as if that would make Kairn’s memory clearer or compel him to ask Damien all the questions I wanted him to answer.

Riven noticed the peculiar sheen of the material inset into the pendant. “What is it?”

Feron shook his head. “I have never seen it before. But I will ask Vrail when we return. She may have come across a description that I do not recall.”

Damien addressed the four members who had pendants pinned to their chests. “Keep them on you at all times and use them only when needed.”

Kairn cleared his throat. “And what are they needed for, Your Majesty?”

“To protect my armies and send the waateyshirak feasting on half-blood meat.” Damien sat back down in his throne and took another sip of wine. “If the Faeland is going to commit treason with magic, then I shall defend my kingdom with it.”

A cool confidence spread over Damien’s face, infecting the Arsenal surrounding him. Even though it wasn’t my memory, I could feel the swell of anticipation that had thrashed in Kairn’s belly that day. It was sickening.

The memory faded to nothing, and another took its place. This time we were on an island, but it wasn’t the Order.

Tall trees spanned across the large expanse in front of Kairn. He stood on a beach of pearls across a narrow passageway with Damien and the rest of the Arsenal. It was one of the northern islands of the Fractured Isles. He looked down and the pendant glowed along his chest as a waateyshir opened its beak and rained shadowy death onto the forest below. The forest where the local Halflings had taken refuge after we had destroyed the ports. The ones Gerarda had begged to come with us that day. But they would not abandon their homeland.

Vomit crawled up my throat. Damien had trained his Arsenal on them. As far from our scouts as possible.

In the memory, Kairn muttered something under his breath. I didn’t recognize the word as it left his lips, but I was connected to his mind. I knew the meaning because Kairn did.

Burn them .

My stomach knotted. Dynara had talked of burning people too. That was all this war had become: two wildfires coming to a head with nowhere else to burn. Either one would succeed, or we both would be snuffed out, but either way only destruction would be left in our wake.

Syrra’s words echoed in my mind. Is it worth all this suffering?

The waateyshir flapped its wings and wound back its neck. I thought it was going to attack once more, following Kairn’s command, but it thrashed its head instead.

The beast was fighting whatever control the pendant had on it.

“Let it go,” Damien ordered from his spot along the shore. “We have more important matters than burning a few stolen ships.”

Kairn relaxed, wheezing as he bent over his knees—the pendant took a toll to use.

The new Dagger tossed Kairn a towel to wipe his brow.

Damien watched the beast fly away before turning back to the group with a satisfied grin. “Faelin thought herself so clever when she vanquished those beasts. I doubt she realized how powerful the pieces of themselves they’d left behind were.”

“Pieces, Your Majesty?” the Shield asked.

“The waateyshirak lay eggs like any common bird.” Damien tilted his head to the side as the beast disappeared along the horizon, out to feast on the creatures of the sea before the suns rose. “Some of those shells were left behind. Enough to brandish the weapons I made you and the pendants you wear now.”

Damien turned on the ball of his foot. “The seal was the perfect catalyst. It was a rebirth of magic back into the land. But why couldn’t it birth something else? Magic comes at a cost. If the Fae wanted their magic back, then they would have to take their terrors back too. And with these”—Damien pointed to their pendants—“You can keep those filthy creatures from terrorizing us.”

Kairn wiped his brow. “The beasts will still pose a risk when the rebellion is dealt with.”

Damien merely shrugged. I could see in his casual confidence that he knew the beasts would only feast for a year. “I will face the brunt of any risk as long as it means I stay seated on my throne.” He met Kairn’s gaze. “And I will reward anyone who aids in that cause, far above the handsome sums I’m already paying you.”

The rest of the Arsenal grinned.

“What did it feel like?” Damien asked Kairn, his black eye pulsing with amber.

“It was like trying to ride a wild stallion. No, an entire herd. All at once,” Kairn answered honestly.

The Arsenal paled beside him.

“You must practice then.” Damien clutched his own pendant. “I cannot be everywhere at once to protect my kingdom. They are powerful beasts. I doubt true control is possible, but if we can keep them from attacking our cities, then I can rest easy with whatever damage they do.”

Feron and I shared a worried glance before he waved his hand and launched us out of Kairn’s mind. I had what I needed. Damien only had five pendants, and we now had one.

We could use it to protect our cities from the shirak just as he had planned to do himself.

I turned to Riven, and for the first time in weeks, his eyes were filled with hope. Not at the idea of protecting our borders and the Elverin inside them, but of having something Damien wanted.

Badly enough to trade for.