Page 114 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

Anrai nodded. “I am afraid I must ask one of you to stay.” He pivoted on one heel until he faced me.

My stomach sank.

42

For The Love Of A Brother

One of us had to stay behind!

The only explanation I could think of was that Alwyn had failed. His job was to keep winning us more time, to keep that hourglass turning. And without Wickham’s wishing power, he must have run out of luck!

Griffon stepped between me and Anrai. “Why must she stay?”

The ancient lifted his brows high. “Once this business is concluded, my instructions are to request that the DeNoy present herself at the doorway to the High Fae’s Embrace.”

“Over my dead body.”

Anrai chuckled. “That is neither necessary nor relevant, my prince. The DeNoy has been summoned.”

* * *

My friends refusedto abandon me, and we all followed Anrai through the doorway that led out to the judgment desk. We marched around the rear of the counter and to the entrance of the archway with the purple universe beyond, the galaxies swirling like those that had once swirled on Daphne’s fingernails.

Flann waved from the counter where he sat on a stool playing cards with the long-haired ancient woman who seemed to be enjoying herself despite the fact that the top half of the hourglass was full.

I planted my hands on my hips and glared up at Griffon. “I don’t care what happens, you stay the hell back. I’m not going to lose you just because you stood too close to death’s doorway.”

He sucked in a breath and begrudgingly nodded before he put another ten feet between us. I waved the others back too. Then I turned to face Anrai. “Why are we here?”

“You have been summoned, madam, by someone on the other side.” He gestured, and a thin cloud appeared just on the other side of the door. It morphed into the face and then the body of a very large man. Handsome, but unfamiliar.

“Are you Gloir?”

“It’s Afi Cean More,” Wickham whispered beside me. “A younger version, aye, but it’s him.”

The man spared Wickham a long, loving look I hadn’t expected.

I bowed my head slightly to show respect, though this man had run us ragged. After all, he’d been the one to tell me who I really was. “What can I do for you,Seanair?”

He looked a little sad as he shook his head. His voice was deep and raspy when he said, “Take my brother home.”

Anrai seemed shaken, but he waved his hand again. Another cloud appeared and eventually turned into a man who looked surprisingly like the first.

I bowed deeper this time. “Your Majesty.” I just hoped I got that right. “I am…DeNoy.”

The brothers looked at each other as if reuniting for the first time in ages, even though they “rested” in the same place. The king asked Afi, “Why am I here?”

“You’re going home,” his brother said. “Moire needs you. She came—”

“She came to me too. I refused. I will not take death back to Hestia—”

“Then you weren’t listening, so she came to me.”

“You fool. You love her so much, still?”

“No, brother. It is you I love. But there is a need, in Hestia. Think of it. Moire told me where to find the last DeNoy. She believed the need was greater than keeping Orion away from your daughters. You must go. But what swayed me in the end was knowing you would live again. How could I refuse that?”

If it was possible for spirits to weep, I believed the two would be blubbering. The fact that they couldn’t was heartbreaking.

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