Page 182 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Pardon? I’m not sure I understand.”

“We do not only believe in blood, but in the stars too. In the bonds that are written in the stars, you still are hers, only she didn’t bear you into this world.”

Calianthe lifts a pale hand out of the water and another stony goblet appears in it, filled with the same liquid as before. She holds it out to me. “Drink. You need it.”

“Thank you,” I mumble shyly.

A few of the little, blue-skinned women step closer and put a crown of fluorescent flowers on my head. I mumble another thank you, and they jump away, giggling.

“How do you know about the bonds? About fate?” I ask after I’ve emptied the new goblet too.

“We do know parts. There are some of us gifted with the eye. Seers, as we call them,” the beautiful queen answers.

“And how—how can you alter fate?”

Calianthe looks down at the water, then back at me, but the softness in her stunning eyes has given way to sorrow. “You can’t always but remember—it’s all about choice. I need to leave you now. Just don’t forget that, when you’re lost in the darkness, the darkness is a part of you too—” She seems to hesitate, as if struggling with herself. “Your fate might have changed that day, young one, but it still might change ours too. It all depends.”

“Depends on what?” I ask, suddenly impatient. I’m fed up with all these cryptic hints and warnings.

She frowns at my tone before she catches herself and the perfect planes of her face smooth out again. Her pale eyes focus on mine with new intensity. “We cannot exist in total darkness. Your motherknew that too. She came here to search for the same thing you’re looking for now. One of the three relics that is hidden here.”

“She wanted the flute?”

“She wanted todestroythe flute,” Calianthe hisses. “It corrupts the body and soul with darkness.”

I swallow. “And why didn’t my mother find it?”

“Becausehecame, and she fled,” the queen whispers with a glance behind me.

Before I can ask more questions, she vanishes. One moment she is there, the next she’s gone, together with everyone else. Only the fruits on the stone are still there, glistening in their syrup.

A rustle behind me startles me. When I turn, I find Caryan between the trees, his eyes black as the forest without the moon. I know I only heard him because he let me.

He looks at the flower crown on my head, then at the fruit, but says nothing.

I glide away from him, to where the queen sat, as he steps up to the spring. He seems to sense my fear and pauses at the edge, his face unreadable.

I glance down at the tattoo on my wrist. “What you want me to find… I can’t… I can’t feel it,” I admit. I’d been too afraid to voice it, but he’d find out sooner or later. “It’s never been that way before.”

He squats down, touching the water with one hand, and I watch the tattoo on his skin slithering down as if it wants to touch the water too. He keeps his hand there, and I feel his magic mingling with the magic in the spring, his body drawing from it, while he looks back at me.

I don’t realize I’m holding my breath until he says, “The elves wove a spell around the relics before they hid them away. You have to get close in order to feel them.”

I allow myself a shudder of relief. “My mother searched for it,” I say then.

His eyes flicker, but he retorts, “She did.”

“And then you came, and she ran.”

“The queen talks too much,” he observes darkly.

“How did she know where to look for it if she didn’t have my talent?”

“She found a book,” he says.

“Where is it now?”

“She destroyed it.”

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