Zoey’s eyes narrowed, and she looked to be on the verge of making some snide retort, but then she just shook her head. “You don’t understand. I didn’t mean I don’t love her-or my parents. But there’s a bond…It is created when we are brought into the Akazzani, and nothing short of expulsion can break it.”
“Don’t argue, please.” Luna let out a short sigh. “If we are to work magic for Grieve, we have to be united. Let it go, Kaylin. If Zoey is happier with the Akazzani, she should remain with them.” And that was the end of that.
Wrath intervened as well. “Cicely, you must be exhausted. Rhiannon, Grieve, Chatter, Kaylin, all of you as well. Go rest. You will need the reserves tonight.” He stopped me as we filed out of the room, drawing me to the side.
“What is it?” I glanced up at him.
He lifted my chin, looking into my eyes. “Tonight be cautious, my daughter. There will be bloodlust flying. I have foreseen it. The power of the winds, they are now a part of you in a way that you do not yet realize. The fan-open it now.”
I pulled out my fan, spreading it open. As I held it in my hand, I realized I couldn’t feel any sparkle of magic from it, no tingle, no…nothing. “What happened?”
“You became the hurricane. You became the wind. The power of the fan transferred into your soul. You no longer need it to harness the winds. You can pass it on to another because now you are part of its Element. But it’s a double-edged sword. Because you no longer need an anchor, it makes you dangerous. You haven’t had a chance to train yet, to realize just all you can do.”
I sighed, leaning against his shoulder. “First, I find out I’m not just magic-born but that I’m also half-Cambyra Fae. Then I find out I was Myst’s daughter in a past life and that obsidian sets off the bloodlust still in my soul. And now you tell me that the winds have settled in my being? I feel like I’m losing myself.”
“No, my daughter, you are actually in the process of finding out who you really are. In time, all of this will become second nature. You are evolving, Cicely, into a force like none I’ve ever seen. You are vulnerable, in danger, but the potential within you is frightening.” He stroked my shoulder gently, placing a soft kiss on the top of my head. “When we go to protect Lannan this evening, you must be cautious when you call on the winds.”
“Let’s pray I don’t have to do that.” After a moment, I asked, “What of the Unseelie? If Myst was Unseelie and she is now Queen of the Indigo Court-what of the rest of the darker Fae? Did they all become part of the Indigo Court? And Lainule, is she the Queen of Seelie?”
Wrath looked surprised at my question but walked me toward the grand staircase leading upstairs. As we ascended, he tried to explain.
“There are the Grand Courts, and then the Lesser Courts. There are Fae Queens all over the world-each rules a different region. Lainule-and I-are Queen and King of about half of this continent. Myst wasn’t the Unseelie Queen before she was turned, but she killed Tabera, who was, by destroying her heartstone and set herself up in her place. She may have taken the title of Winter, but she is not recognized as the Queen of Ice and Snow here, though. She is an upstart.”
“So what happened to the Unseelie under Tabera’s-is that her name-rule?”
“Myst terrified them. They scattered. The Wilding Fae are remnants of some of them, and others joined the Court of Rivers and Rushes even though they don’t really fit in.” Wrath frowned, looking very much like he was trying to decide whether to tell me something.
“What is it?” I pressed him. If the Fae were part of my heritage, it was important I know things like this. “I want to learn. It’s my heritage.”
“So it is.” After a moment, he stopped and leaned on the curved railing. I sat down on the step next to him. “The balance has been disrupted in this region for so long that chaos became normal. As I said, when Myst reemerged, she took the place of the Unseelie Queen-the Queen of Winter, who rules over chaos.”
“Myst doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to share.”
“No, she does not. Myst seeks to conquer. Here, it’s easier to build her armies because the Grand Courts live far away on the other side of the world. Summer and Winter are the sun and the moon-day and night, and while they do not necessarily like each other, they accept the necessity for both powers to instill a natural balance.”
I nodded, slowly beginning to understand. “But why haven’t the Grand Courts stepped in?”
“There are many things that are too difficult to explain in one brief talk. They are old, Cicely, in a way that Lainule and I are not, and they often overlook the dangers that evolve outside of their area. The Grand Courts are so far removed from the world in which we live that they ignore things until it’s too late.”
“Almost like Crawl is for the vampires…”
“Yes, they live in a different realm, so far in the mists…”
“So Myst was able to sneak in and cause havoc.”
Wrath clapped me on the shoulder. “You do understand. Very good. But we cannot allow her to succeed-her idea of normalcy is to fill the world with skulls and sinew, to rip and shred and destroy. She is destruction incarnate, without check. She is the untamed force of the storm, of death on a rampage.”
“If she is a force and fury, then perhaps she cannot help herself,” I said softly. “If Myst killed Tabera, and for a time there was nothing to check Lainule as Myst gained her power, why didn’t Summer rage through, since she has had no opposition all of these long years?”
“My Lady rules with justice. It may not seem kind, at times, but the Queen of Rivers and Rushes understands the nature of checks and balances. She sees the universal scale of creation and destruction and understands the need for both, even if we haven’t had our opposing force for so very long.”
Cautiously, I said, “When we were in the woods, Rhiannon could see the door to Lainule’s chamber. Only Cambyra Fae can see those magical doors.” I looked at him, waiting.
But my father merely shushed me and I knew better than to press the matter for now. “No more questions now. Up and to bed. Sleep deep. We will all need our strength tonight, my daughter.”
As he sent me on my way, I thought about what he’d said but the swirl of his words became a fog in my head, and I yawned again, barely able to drag myself into my room. Ignoring the leering pictures and tapestries around me, I stripped, then crawled into bed, sighing as I drew the soft covers up around my chin. The mattress was heaven. The blankets were soft against my skin. And even the thought of the evening to come couldn’t intervene as sleep claimed me and carried me off to my dreams.
I was walking through the forest, with Rhiannon beside me, and we were holding hands. I turned to her. “Show me. Show me yourself.”
“I don’t know how,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “I don’t even know where to begin.” She let go of my hand and walked over to one of the cedars that towered in the woodland. As she played with one of its boughs, fingering the needles, she said, “These are not the forests of my dreams. I dream of forests filled with oaks…with rowan and hawthorn. I dream of the smell of peat and the misty mornings overlooking the ocean.”
Nodding, I glanced up at the tree. “These are my roots-this land is my anchor. Even when I was Myst’s daughter, this was our homeland. But where were you?”
Rhia smiled faintly. “I’m only beginning to remember. But long ago and far away…it’s in a fog, but I remember the forest. And I was there. I was on my belly…” Her voice dropped and she lowered herself to the ground, stretching out. “I remember, on my belly, through the grass and the trees. Through…”
Silence fell between us. Rhia looked up at me, her irises shifting, her pupils becoming slits. “On my belly…in the grass.” She began to transform, and as I watched, her legs fused together and her arms to her sides.
I stepped back. No, she shouldn’t be this…
I shifted into owl form effortlessly, still wearing my clothing, and flew up into the branches of the tree. This was my homeland, this was my land, this was my rightful place. And below…
Below, Rhiannon’s skin scaled over, and her hair flowed into the scales, creating a beautiful diamond pattern down her back. She wove back and forth, rising, sleek and muscled and mesmerizing. I watched as she coiled, staring up at me, her tail rattling. I could feel her hunger, and my own was stirred. I had carried off snakes before, my talons keeping them from striking me.
But something stopped me from sweeping down on her to snatch her up. Some recognition that we were both necessary, that we could not harm the other. And in her gaze, I saw the same feeling reflected back at me.
