Page 128 of A Promise of Peridot
“How unsafe is Shadowhold for everyone?”
Kane’s jaw went tight, weighing. “The forest functions like another wall around the fortress. Almost my entire army is stationed there. Most of our weaponry, cannons, beasts. But once my father knows we’re there... he could attack any day. Eardley is sending the majority to smaller Onyx towns. The rest of us will just have to be ready.”
So we’d have to regroup quickly and get back on the road for the blade. Maybe take Leigh and Ryder and Mari with us...
“And about what Beth revealed... about your parentage.”
“Ah, yes,” I said, swallowing my fear. “That my father is a Fae God?”
“If what Beth said is true, we’ll need to consult priests and scholars to learn more. If that’s what you want to do.”
The time for sulking and hiding from the truth was over. It felt better to be honest. To be vulnerable, as Dagan and Kane had both encouraged. “I’m a little afraid of what I’ll learn. How is it possible that a Fae God and a human woman created a full-blooded Fae?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, I do want to know more eventually. Once we find the blade and ready our armies to fight Lazarus. I’d like to know who my father was before I die.”
Kane stiffened, his eyes flashing with protest. “You’re not going to die, Arwen.”
But I could tell even he didn’t believe his words. I gave him an honest smile that felt truer on my face than any smile had in weeks.“If anyone can find a way around this prophecy, you can. But still, I’d like to learn more about him before I lose the chance.”
Kane’s face was resigned as he said, “Then I will make it so,” before standing and placing his empty plate in the kitchen.
“Come now, bird, we have a lot to do today.”
I followed him out the front door. For the first time I allowed myself to hope that I would be back here again one day. Leigh would love this town. Maybe I’d take her to the sweetshop. Get her a candied apple or a salted taffy. I didn’t want to think this would be the last time I’d step foot in Kane’s cottage, so I didn’t.
“Do you think any of them will be able to pull something useful from what Beth told us?”
Kane raised his eyes to the sky. “I’m not sure. But my coin is on Mari.”
Despite the morning’s news and realizations, I couldn’t help the smile that pinched my cheeks at the thought of seeing her awake. “Mine, too.”
?“I missed you,” I murmured into Mari’s curled hair. It smelled like cinnamon and cloves and the lilac soap that they used in Shadowhold.
“I feel like I just saw you yesterday,” she said back, muffled by my shoulder.
I had raced off Kane’s dragon form, through the gates of Shadowhold, not stopping for a single soldier, guard, or citizen until I had reached the throne room, where Kane told me everyone would be convened.
My eyes had landed on Mari before anyone else, and I swallowed her into a hug so embarrassing I was sure she had turned beetred. But I didn’t care. My knees shook with the feeling of having her in my arms, healthy and alive.
Finally, I pulled back and looked at her. She was thinner, face a little pale and gaunt, but that didn’t worry me.
It was her eyes that were concerning.
Not anger or fatigue swimming in them, but something much worse. Grief. A chasm of grief hidden in the flowers of her irises. “Are you not feeling well?”
She shrugged, a little self-consciously. That, too, was odd of her. “I feel fine. As if we were in the jungle a day ago.” She swallowed hard. “Arguing.”
“Every single thing you said to me was true,” I said. “I was selfish, and cold, and had built up a lot of walls that were doing just as good a job keeping away pain as all the people I cared about. You were honest with me and I didn’t want to hear it. I’m really and truly sorry.”
Mari dipped her head in a nod. “I’m sorry, too. You were right all along about the amulet being unhealthy for me. I don’t think I’ll be doing magic for a while, though.” She tried for a smile but looked like she might cry.
My heart stumbled over a beat at the sight. Mari wasn’t a quitter. She didn’t back off something when it went wrong—she pushed and prodded and argued until it was right again. She was bullish. Fearless. Stubborn.
Something was terribly wrong.
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