Page 44 of Fate and Flame
Legs weak, I moved to sit on the tidied bed in the small room. “What else could he possibly need?”
Nadra pushed her hands through her hair. “There are dangerous creatures trapped somewhere within this world. Behind a hidden door. He intends to find it and release them upon Alewyn. That’s why he needed Gaea. He wanted to send her to find the door. He has been hunting for it but can’t find it. He was trying to find a seer, but last I knew, he still hadn’t found one.”
My mind faded back to Oleonis. His visions, and the king being so incredibly suspicious—that had to have been the truth behind his death. The king had found out Oleonis was a seer, and when he refused him, he’d had him killed. Of course, he would have never admitted that to me, even in chains, he didn’t think he owed me that. I scanned the visions in my mind, the female on fire, another lost underwater, a group wandering in a dense fog. Nothing fit.
A tingle of doubt embedded itself within me. There were too many things to do and only two of us. We needed help. We needed to find somewhere safe and craft a plan. “We have to tell the others,” I said, still pacing.
“We have to wait. I think we have to warn the southern prince. But first, we need to find the ancient tree and steal the ashes before he can get to them. If we have two things he needs, the flower and the ashes, we can go south, warn the prince, and hopefully, he can secure the artifact in the dunes.”
I stopped and took her hands into my own. She stepped between my legs and I hugged her, laying my head against her stomach. Taking a single moment I probably didn’t have to caution her. “You’re sure you’re up for this? It isn’t going to be easy.”
“As long as we are together, that’s all that matters, Temir.”
“We need the truth serum and only people we can trust as we get through this.”
“Where is the adda?” she asked.
I pulled away, reached under the bed, and lifted out my hidden bag. “It’s here.”I removed the glass box from the overstuffed bag and set it on the chest of drawers.
She crossed the room in a trance and reached out, gliding her fingertips across the top. She turned the artifact back and forth several times until finally I took it away and placed it back into the bag.
“It has that effect on people. It draws you in so powerfully you can’t help but reach for it.”
Her face slackened as she moved forward, her cheeks flushing. “If that’s only one of the missing items, I’d hate to see what the others feel like.”
“Well, we know he’s been hounding your mother for the fabric, and now he can’t have that either. He does have the sword from Oravan though.”
“It won’t do him any good if he never gets the other pieces. But I think the only thing that will stop him from hunting is his own death.”
Nadra paused, her racing mind likely realizing the finality of her own words. This would never end until we found a way to kill King Autus. He would continue to hunt us and the pieces until he could steal the power and conquer the world. It was the only thing he had ever wanted. Complete control of every single fae.
I opened my arms and she stepped into them.“We’ll do this together. And we are not alone. Let’s get going.”
We started frantically shoving all my things into the bags I had brought, trying not to break anything. I double-checked the room and turned the lock to open the door just as the screaming began.
The soldiers had come, and we were trapped underground.
Chapter Eleven
Ara
Fucking fish. The mermaid—with her siren’s high-pitched laugh—dragged me through the bay and out into the deep cold waters of the ocean. I hadn’t grown a tail or a fin, thank the gods, but I could breathe. Under normal circumstances even my fae sight wouldn’t be able to see this far below the surface, but the earring she had clipped into my ear had transformed me. I wondered if my mysterious magic would have allowed me to save myself, but with the handcuffs Lichen had kept from the dragons, I would never know.
I would kill him. I was foolish for believing the king was poisoned. Was it possible? Yes, but I should have been sure. I should have reached for Fen. The void, the great chasm of space that was once my mating bond with him, was incapacitating. Only that tiny flicker of a flame remained within me. A reminder of where my prince once was.
I heard stories of Morwena’s grand castle under the sea. Some said it was made of coral, some said it was made of millions of pearls, but no one mentioned the bones. No one mentioned the aura of trepidation pulsating through the water as we got closer. On top of a shelf of coral, there were millions of tiny bones framed to the shape of a sea beast’s tentacles holding up the castle pillars. Towers equally placed on each side donned massive pearls the sun would never touch. If Morwena was going for elegant death, she had accomplished it perfectly.
I kicked my feet behind me as the mermaid dragged me between the doors, through the castle, around the sea fae, and shoved me toward Morwena. She sat in her true form: a leviathan. Terrifyingly enough, she reminded me of a slightly smaller version of Pathog, the dragon, with her upper body in her high fae form and her lower body a massive sea serpent with shimmering blue scales the size of my hands.
Unable to sit on her throne, she sat coiled around it possessively as she laughed. “My, how the tables have turned.”
Her eyes twitched sideways, and I followed her line of sight to Lichen, standing in the crowd like the slimy little fish he was. I lunged for him, seeing nothing but red. It took six armed guards to pull me back. “How could you?” I screamed.
“How indeed.” He stepped forward and locked his arms behind his back. “I’ve been working for Morwena for years, stupid girl. And while none of the southerners were smart enough to figure it out, not even when I slipped poison to their queen, you were so skeptical. Right from the start.” He walked back and forth along the sandy seafloor like it was the most natural thing in the world.“This all began during the Iron Wars, you see.”
“Oh great. A life story,” I said behind clenched teeth. I looked around him, up to Morwena. “Just kill me now and save me the headache.”
“You won’t be dying, girl. I intend on controlling that power of yours, but until I learn how, you’ll stay locked up. I plan to keep you from Autus’ hands.”
