Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“I cannot blame you, Your Majesty, but I hope you’ll remember that I am the one who told you about the Stone of Disenchantment. I am the one who helped you find it so your sister would be free of the ring’s magic.”
“And why? Why help me after working for him?”
“I watched the faceless plague sweep through my village and I knew what was happening. I wanted to come here because you’re a good queen, and I couldn’t stand to see his plans play out.”
“What plans?”
“His resurrection. His use of this girl here”—she nods to me—“to steal the throne and retake rule of the Court of the Moon.”
Abriella’s guards are too well trained to visibly react to this information, but I feel their eyes on me. While Brie’s inner circle knows the details of Mordeus’s connection to me, she’s shared it with no one else.
Brie lifts her chin. “We should talk.” She turns to the sentinel nearest Karmyn. “Please take her to my office for questioning. I’ll be there shortly.”
The guard ushers the female down the hall, and Brie watches, only turning to me when they’re out of sight. “I will get to the bottom of this. I’m sorry it happened at all.”
She begins to walk away, and I grab her arm. “You aren’t questioning her without me.”
“I’m not going to have you sit there while we talk about him. I won’t do that to you.”
“Brie, do you really think that female can hurt me while you’re in the room?”
“No, but I have to ask her about Mordeus and—”
“Meaning you’re literally trying to protect me from something that already happened,” I say. And she shuts her eyes, as if this truth is too much to take. “We can’t go back. We can’t change it. What’s done is done.”
She swallows. “Fine. You can come, but if it ever feels like too much—”
“Let’s go.”
The old faerie’s eyes are distant as she sits across from my sister, her gaze on the window and the big blue sky beyond. “I only wanted to help.”
“Tell me what you know about Mordeus’s plan for the princess.”
She blinks rapidly. “He didn’t know she was the princess. He didn’t understand why she was so special. He didn’t care to ask the right questions. All he cared about was the throne, the crown, and the power that came with both. I should’ve done what all the others did and lied about the future. Or simply avoided telling him the truth. But I’d heard the rumors of what he did to seers before me, and I thought honesty would be best. I regret that my gifts helped him in any way. I did what I thought I must to save my son, who was rotting in Mordeus’s dungeons, and to keep my grandchildren from starving.”
“Why don’t you start at the beginning,” I say gently. “You’re the one who told him he would die before ruling from the throne. Is that when it all started?”
She presses her hand to her chest, fumbling until her fingers grasp hold of a silver pendant. “He was so angry. He would’ve done anything to get the answers he needed. Even death couldn’t stop his hunger for power, so when I revealed the truth of his impending demise, he took me to Elora to see the oracle. He wanted to know who would kill him and how, but she wouldn’t tell him. All she gave him was the face of the girl who had the power to bring him back—a girl he already had in his dungeons.”
“How did he know what to do?” Abriella asks.
“Mordeus gathered his most powerful magic wielders to find a way to make it happen, but it was Erith, Patriarch of the Seven, who put it all together for him. He was the one who introduced him to blood magic.”
“But you said he didn’t know her lineage. How was he able to put his plan into place without knowing how it would work—without knowing my sister’s powers?”
“He didn’t need to know everything so long as he had people in place to carry out his plan. And he did. So many people who would trade their souls for a sniff of real power.”
“Including the witch who gave me the ring.” It’s not a question. I’m sure of it. I never doubted that the woman could deliver what she promised. Power radiated off her in a way I’d never felt before.
“I imagine so,” Karmyn says.
“Who was she?” I ask, grasping at a fleeting hope. “Who was the witch?”
“I’ve never gotten a vision involving her, so I don’t have that answer.”
“You haven’t shared a vision with me since you told me about the stone,” Brie says, narrowing her eyes at Karmyn. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“The future is volatile right now. Every vision is accompanied by a conflicting one. You are dancing on the knife-edge of fate.”