Page 31 of A Crown of Darkness

All three of them glanced at Laurence, who turned grey and pressed back against the door. ‘What?’

This clearly had never occurred to him, or they had kept it from him. Poor boy. But there was no keeping secrets now. It was time to be honest at last.

‘Quite,’ Oriole replied. ‘But if you enter the caves of the Nox, Wren, being who and what you are, you’ll strip away suchprotections as the light has afforded you in the past. You will expose everything you are to the Nox. A greater portion of the fragments of her power are gathered there. She may seem more convincing. She may even seem sane. But she is still dangerous. Our lady of the darkest night is powerful in these caves, even broken and scattered. This is where her heart lies. I fear…’

‘You’re afraid I won’t be able to withstand the Nox if I go into the caves alone,’ Wren finished for her. ‘That’ll she persuade me to let her in. And that if I give into her there…’

‘There is a reason that the caves were sealed,’ said Hestia. ‘And that the artefacts of power were hidden. But it is the only chance to get Finn back. To demand he be brought anywhere else but the caves of sacrifice is folly. Leander would see right through it. Yet, by entering that holy place, by walking the path which will take you there, you may lose yourself entirely, bringing into being the very thing you fear.’

It was a risk she had lived with for so long now, it almost seemed normal to her. A foregone conclusion that one day it would happen. Something she just kept pushing further down the line. She looked directly at Hestia now, Hestia who she almost trusted.

‘What if I do become the Nox and kill Finn anyway?’

‘It is…a possibility,’ Hestia admitted.

‘Not just Prince Finnian,’ Oriole muttered. ‘Any number of us. Even the sisterhood. The Nox is vengeful. Dangerous. Possibly insane still. And powerful here. Too powerful.’

No possibly about it, Wren thought but said nothing. She couldn’t help but glance at the boy again. He was listening closely now, intently. ‘Then maybe Laurence should have a say as well.’

‘I—’ At first he seemed so confused at that idea, he didn’t manage more than that syllable. ‘I don’t think you’d kill me, princess.’

Wren smiled, tears stinging her eyes. She hadn’t expected that, nor to feel so grateful for his belief in her. Though she didn’t share his confidence.

‘But she would no longer beher,’ Oriole told him.

‘Then give me another solution,’ Hestia exclaimed. ‘One which protects the prince and extracts him from his brother’s clutches soon because Leander is going to torture him and kill him. You know he will and we need Finn if any of us are to survive. He is the king who will set all to right in this kingdom and usher in a period of peace and prosperity. He is the son forsaken by his father, and he will crown our future.’ A flicker of despair crossed Hestia’s face before a different thought seemed to strike her. ‘That wretched body-swapping spell gave Leander every excuse he will ever need. Where did he even learn how to do something like that? You were his teacher, Oriole.’

‘He was always too bright for his own good,’ Oriole sighed. ‘There are factions within our own sisterhood with sympathies there. They would follow Leander if it meant more power for themselves, no matter where it came from. They would take that crown and use it. They would try to harness all magic, break everything apart to get to it.’

A crown, buried deep in the darkest caves of the Nox, one which could control a goddess…no wonder Wren had always recoiled at the thought of wearing one.

‘There would be nothing to take power of if the old magic rages free,’ Hestia warned the other sister.

‘And if Leander can crown Wren as our lost queen? What then? He will control her and the sisterhood. If we could but reach a compromise with him…’

‘No,’ Wren said with an assuredness she wished she felt. She knew one thing though – there was no compromise that would save Finn. And besides, she had thrown down her gauntlet to Leander already. She locked eyes with Laurence who was stillfrowning. Slowly he nodded, his jaw firming. He was as brave as Finn, she thought, and her heart twisted a little.

‘The risk is mine to take,’ she said, cutting across the two of them. ‘And the caves can be sealed, can’t they?’ They nodded, slowly and thoughtfully. ‘Then you seal us in there. If anything goes wrong, if I lose control… Then it’s just Finn and I. Leander won’t be able to reach us.’

That had to be enough. Because if she did fail she was leaving them all to Leander’s mercy.

CHAPTER 17

WREN

Word came far sooner than Wren had expected. Leander had agreed. Still expecting some kind of betrayal, Wren tried to make herself ready when really there was nothing she could do to prepare for this. The caves lay beneath the city, deep in the earth. The way was lit by flickering lanterns and the sisterhood would accompany her there. She didn’t like the way they watched her, these women who served the great darkness. Their eyes were far too knowing, hungry, and she didn’t like the feeling that she was missing something or being used in some way. She had no reason to trust them, not even Hestia or Oriole who had come to her rescue in the throne room.

There were those among them ravenous for power, Oriole had said. And Hestia had not denied it either. Those who would use the Nox or release old magic to get it.

A small treacherous voice inside her said she’d made a mistake. She should have trusted Finn then, should have tried to escape with him. But she hadn’t. Her mind had not known what to think or which way to go. She had looked into the face that had tormented her since they’d arrived here and hesitated. That had been Leander’s gift then, forcing a wedge in the trust between her and Finn. He must have loved that, mustn’t he? Shehad handed him his second victory of the day, more so when she saw the betrayal in Finn’s face.

What must he be thinking now?

He’d seen her choose the sisterhood instead of him, and now she was demanding him as sacrifice.

And she was risking herself to do it. If anything she feared Hestia was downplaying the danger. She could feel the power in the air and in the earth, waiting for her, a sense of the Nox just biding its time.

Once more she wore the gown Leander had forced her into for the presentation to the king; much as she wanted to tear it from her body, it fitted the role she needed to play now. Her hair glittered with gems, and flowed down her back, the longest and most powerful she had ever allowed it to grow. Given the amount of magic in the air around her, she feared that if she tried to cut it off it would just grow back again in moments. And there was dark magic everywhere here, in the air, in the rocks, in the water coalescing on the ground, even in the lantern flames. She could feel it crawling over her skin and tracing invisible fingertips across her scalp. It prickled at the back of her neck and whispered sweet promises just on the edge of hearing.

---