Page 99 of Crown of the Fae King

Darkness

Decay

Death”

“Two sides of the same coin. Beauty and Vanity, Hope and Despair, Fertility and Famine, Peace and War. Art and Destruction fit, if you think of Art as Creation—Creation and Destruction. Then we have Light and Darkness, Youth and Decay, Life and Death.” He looked at the circle of faces. “Everyone with me?”

We nodded.

“Now. Look at this. These are the words Sarah used when descrbin’ what her dolls were for.” He read the second column.

“To make me bonny.

To make me happy.

To make me grow.

To keep me kind.

To be helpful.

To help me see.

To keep me young.

To keep me here.”

“Now, these are the names she assigned to those prescriptions.” There was a blank on the first line. “We’ll come back to this,” he said. Then, starting with the second line, he pointed and read…

“Mercail

Thessa

Gilliam

Deona

Palida

Neia

Rowena.”

He tapped on the last and shook his head. “Rowena keeps me here.” He and Urban exchanged a look not meant for the rest of us. I’d been told before that it was Rowena’s power that had been passed to Soni. So it was that power that was responsible for Urban’s resurrection.

“Tell me,” Wickham continued. “If you were the King of the Fae and you had to give away most of your powers—could keep only one—which would you choose?” He used his pointer to circle Beauty. “Assuming he is immortal, why would he need the others?”

He took the lid off a marker and wrote a name in the blank space.Ghloir.The King’s name, from the signature on The Covenant.

“A little girl might remember it as…Lori.” He tapped the paper. “Eight powers. Eight holders of that power.”

I pointed out the obvious. “But those original women are long gone, so we don’t know the names of who holds them now.”

“Aye, aye.” He set aside his marker and brushed his hands together as if there was chalk on his fingers. “But it’s a start.”

Kitch had been sitting with his hands behind his head, leaning his chair back on two legs. Now, he lowered his arms and sat forward, his eyes wide. “Does that mean we go lookin’ for the Fae King first?”

If it weren’t for his blinking, I would have thought Wickham had frozen himself. But eventually, he shook his head. “I hadn’t considered he might still be alive.”

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