Page 55 of Reign of Stars and Fire

Bo’s twisted grin was warped into something different, a look not native to his features. His eyes had gone cold and gray, the blue of a hazy storm.

“You want to sleep well into the dawn.” The prince snarled his command.

Bo’s lip curled and twitched, but his lashes fluttered and his body slumped, striking his cheek on the bars before he toppled back.

Niklas crouched, studying the contorted wince left on Bo’s features “What the hells was that?”

My shoulders heaved in great swells of harsh breaths. I couldn’t draw air deep enough. I blinked, fighting to find the words.

“Saga,” Niklas snapped. “What happened?”

“That was Davorin.”

Rune clenched his fists at his sides. “The more folk he overtakes, the more strength he gains. His power is linking him to them all, like a bleeding hive.”

“He takes their magic.” Gunnar’s voice was dull, almost anguished. “That’s what we wanted to tell you. He can rob his wild fae of their gifts. The longer he has control, the more he feeds.”

“No.” I shook my head. “No, he . . . he never could do such things before. He mimicked. He stole their likeness, he could possess, but—”

“It grows, Princess,” Stefan said, touching my arm. “Dark glamour grows.”

Dammit. I speared my fingers through my hair and tugged at the roots. It was no wonder the other kingdoms needed to stay away. Davorin would take fury, mesmer, he’d rob them of their gifts and become unstoppable.

Niklas rolled the glass vial of Bo’s blood between his fingers. “My mesmer helps me break down poisons and other magic. Give me time, and I will know the smallest of his abilities.”

“He’s a leech,” Stieg said. “He corrupts them, uses that connection, but also takes from them.Gods, I hate him.”

Niklas scrubbed his face, pacing near the cell door.

I stared at Bo’s unmoving form. “Davorin is taking Bo’s glamour. Bo can findanything.”

“And if he’s looking for secrets in the stars,” Eryka whispered, but let her voice trail off. “He will know how to track.”

All gods.

“Think he can take any magic?” Gunnar pressed. “Like Uncle Valen’s? Or Kase’s?”

The room silenced.

“To take from the fated gifts found in other kingdoms would make him strong as the fate king.” Stefan rolled an herb roll between his thumb and finger, but never lit the end.

“Fate King?” Niklas pressed.

“My brother,” I told him. “A true fate king connects to all the magicks. He could write fate for anyone, no matter if they were mortal, Night Folk, forest fae, or Alver.”

“Your war never ended. It faded.” Niklas rubbed his chin. “It could be his plan. He had his power which did not defeat your brother, but nor was this battle lord defeated. If he keeps the dark glamour he had before, while also becoming connected as your brother was to various magicks—he’ll be damn hard to stop.”

Davorin was a plague to the whole of the world.

“Until he takes every throne,” Sofia said lightly. “And when there is no other king to worship, the people will have no choice but to bend the knee to their battle lord. He won’t need to corrupt them anymore.”

Rune’s face blanched. No mistake, he thought the same as me, as all of us. Bo would die from Davorin’s poison, an expendable pawn in his war games. He’d continue to spread, to ruin fae folk, until the rule of every land was his.

“Wonderful.” Frey pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, with the other he gestured at Bo. “What are we supposed to do with him if he’s a bleeding window to us?”

“Kill him,” Cuyler said, easily.

“No.” Rune ground his teeth.