Page 16 of Reign of Stars and Fire

“Dispatch your call.” Oviss winced. “Makers of shadows and mountains, come them all. Patience you need when darkness feeds, lest all thrones fall.”

Danna hummed. “A king will rise, but only to his heart’s cries.”

“A caution follows with this tale, should the first bond break, you will fail.” Oviss blinked her eyes open at the final word. She glanced at Calista. “This is the part where she takes our words.”

“It made little sense,” I whispered.

“Never does, Raven Queen,” Calista said with a touch of sadness.

“A final word for the royal her.” Oviss took my hand tightly. “Strike the flesh. Dim the foe. When the moment is right, you will know.”

The old woman turned away and said nothing else.

“Quills,” Danna interjected and handed Calista a pig-skin pouch filled with feathers.

Calista tucked the pouch under her arm and reached into her pocket. A piece of parchment had been folded three times. “Don’t know if this is the wisest, but you’re my only option for post. Send this?”

She dropped the parchment into Danna’s palm with a darkkoparcoin.

Danna’s eyes widened. “Is this the part where she sends word to night to reach the sun?”

Calista quirked her head. “Sure. Yes. This is the part. Send it off in a hurry, now.”

The sisters spared a look between them, then said nothing more before they spun on their heels, escaping through a door at the back of the room, leaving us silent, stunned, and in the dark.

Chapter7

The Raven Queen

“Who will receive the missive?”I asked once we were outside the crooked house.

Calista hesitated. “I assume Lump since it’s for him. I mean, the Sun Prince.”

My brows tugged in a furrow. “The Night Folk prince?”

“We were trapped together in the cells before the Northern war,” Calista said. “I like to think we kept each other alive. I knew he had more to live for than being a big lump of silence in the dark. Didn’t know he was a prince, of course. But he told me to keep connected.”

A prince with the emblem of the sun in his title who lived in the dark. Night was dark.

Send word to the night to reach the sun.

I swallowed the unease that came when I replayed the eerie words of Danna. Or, did it mean night because Sol Ferus was Night Folk? Did Calista not see the connection through the words? Was it possible—even slightly—we were stepping into a cruel game of fate and those old Norns had sensed it?

I shuddered against the thought and focused on the present predicaments. “I don’t know what move to make. If we come up with nothing, Ari could die.”

“As could you,” Calista said. “I thought he was a love worth the risk of death.”

Her words jabbed into my heart. I’d offered up my heart to the man, I’d promised him I’d fight to heal him, I’d fight to bring him back to me. “I will change the whole bleeding world if it means he lives.”

“We’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t come to that. You have a throne to claim. Let’s get out of here.” Calista tugged on my arm, wheeling me away from the shadowed gates ofHus Rose, almost as though it were an instinct.

A knot formed in my belly. I did not wish to sit upon a throne; the thought of ruling seemed too daunting. Unless I imagined Ari at my side. A small grin tugged at my lips. Ari had an aura of a king, the confidence of a leader. He would not overpower me, yet I knew, if needed, he would stand at my side and be a formidable, mesmerizing force.

With Ari, I almost believed I could claim the title of queen.

My eyes dropped to my arm where the faint swirl of silver lived beneath my skin from the blood feather. In truth, if we had the power of the land divided between us, I wasn’t sure there was another option but the raven queen and king to sit atop a broken throne.

I bit my tongue until we stepped back into the muddy street. The air was heavy with approaching rain, and the damp tangled with the hint of rot and vomit in an unpleasant breeze.