Page 105 of Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

He chuckled. “It’s ancient, old. It makes sense. So, you’ve been coming here since you were nine? That’s a big risk for a nine-year-old.”

I pulled at my sleeves, unable to stop myself from wondering what Trick had felt following me down this street. “We needed food.” Had he felt the same thing Cole had felt? Or was it much deeper for him because of his power? Did he recognize it?

“You weren’t afraid of them?”

I thought about the question, thought about how I had felt so long ago. “I don’t know,” I finally shrugged. “I heard what everyone was saying, but as a kid you’d like to believe in the impossible. In magic and mayhem and madness. I needed a place to escape. Somewhere good and wild, somewhere free. When I found the alley, I was starving, when I wandered onto the street, the first person I ran into was a Fae. She avoided me. A lotof them avoided me, but I was hungry, so I kept walking while they stared and talked.

“Eventually I found this old wolf who gave me some bread. She asked me why I was there. Where my brain was, why I wasn’t afraid like the other humans, and after I got some food in me, when I was thinking straight again, I told her that I guess I was more afraid of becoming a thing of hatred than I was afraid of the people of the unknown.”

“How long did it take them to stop being apprehensive?”

I thought about it. “I think most relaxed after a year, but as you know, not all are as trusting.”

Cole looked over. “Does it bother you?”

“It bothers me more that they feel they can’t relax around a species that shares this world with them. You said it’s old magic, can you tell what kind?” I wanted them to trust me. I wanted them to be able to relax when I was around, but I understood how they felt and why they felt it.

He inhaled again. “It’s from a god, I would guess, but I couldn’t tell you which kind. Being in Therian, my immediate guess would be the Priests.”

Which meant that they had wanted peace too. I wondered if the original founders of the Human Court knew about that. Knew that the Priests wanted comradery between the species and not animosity. “I wonder if the Gerodia’s just turned their backs on the Priests all together after the War of Ruin. I mean, the Fall was terrible too, but it’s like the hatred was palpable after the War of Ruin. OnceCaduto shattered, that just gave that hatred more room to grow.”

“The magic wasn’t outlawed here until Raphael took the crown,” Cole reminded me. “His father never did anything like that.”

“No, but hatred is learned not bred. Seeds were sown centuries ago; it just takes the right person to water them in the right way. I don’t know what this street will bring you, but I can show you what it brought me.”

He looked over, looking at me through those long dark lashes. “All of your research?”

“People are willing to talk, they’re just afraid,” I explained. “You would be amazed at the things you can hear when you’re just some nobody. I want to know more about the Soldiers,” I went on, shifting subjects if only to keep me distracted from what was to come in the minutes that followed. “Most of the people here don’t even get enough food to be strong enough to work, let alone are trained to fight, and even if they could fight, what would they be up against? Your army? Fae Knights and their Vigils? Warlocks? I don’t see how Evanora believes she can win with that.”

“It’s about numbers, Talons not power. We burn out eventually. If there are enough Soldiers along with the witches, they could push us to the end and then take over simply because we’ve got nothing left to fight with.”

“Burning out doesn’t mean you can’t fight, right? You said it yourself, you are trained to fight without magic.”

Cole smiled. “Your intelligence is vast, and I love that,” he complimented, causing my cheeks to warm.

“Yes, we can fight without magic, but losing magic is different than burning out. When a magic-user burnsout, they’ve lost every ounce of strength they had. Meaning that we can’t even lift a sword, let alone try and combat those types of forces.”

Oh. That part I hadn’t read about. “Does that happen to your High King too?”

He hesitated half a second before he nodded, but I caught that and wondered why. Why the hesitation? What caused it? “He’s burned out once before that I’ve seen. I’m not quite sure how and he doesn’t talk much about his personal life, but it made him sick for a while. The more power you have, the more time it takes to recover once you hit that wall.”

Curious. “How long did it take him?”

“A month.”

My brows lifted. Shit, I was impressed. “Seriously? How long does it take you?”

“A week.”

Shock and a bit of fear fell down my spine. “Holy shit.” That’s the man who was stalking me? Someone so powerful it took him a month to recover? My mouth went dry. I had to admit, I was terrified and irrationally excited at the thought.

He smiled that cocky smile. “Scared?”

I gave him a look and gestured for him to follow. “Come on, I want to introduce you to someone. I’m not sure how she’ll react, but she’s been good to me since that first day.”

He joined my side quickly as I stepped onto my Impossible Street. “That old wolf?”

I glanced around, already feeling the tension growing in my shoulders. “The very same. Her name is MinervaLevine, Madam Levine. She’s reaching the end of her lifetime, I think.”

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