She knew. She knew all along when I first came to her, rash with promises.
We stare at each other.
“You have the crown in your possession,” she says. “But you did not bring it with you.”
“No, I didn’t.” I pace the circle of stone below her dais. “Did you know that my mother spent years stealing my memories from me so I would dance to her tune? I thought I found freedom with Thiago, but there you were, whispering in the shadows…, manipulating me just as she did.
“I’m tired of being manipulated. I’m tired of being a pawn. I’m tired of having everything I’ve ever loved, everything I’ve ever hoped for taken away from me.”
“You have more to lose.”
“Is that a threat?” My voice roughens.
“It is merely an observation.” She slowly shakes her head. “You are so young. So rash…. You made a bargain with me, Iskvien, and you have not paid the terms of it.”
“It’s not yet the end of the year. I owe you nothing.”
There’s an ancient sense of sadness in her eyes that I didn’t expect. “If you go to the Black Keep, a part of you won’t return.”
And there it is….
Confirmation of everything I know in my heart.
I try to breathe through it, try to ignore it. I’m not ready to die. I want to see Amaya smile. I want to tell her how much I love her. But if there is one thing my mother has taught me, it’s how to lock away your heart and focus on what’s right in front of you. I swallow. Hard. “Worried about your crown? If we’re all dead, then our bargain is broken. You get nothing.”
“You are no match for the Horned One.”
“But that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t have to be.” Striding up the dais, I rest both hands on the edges of her throne and lean forward, until I can almost taste her breath. “Because all I need is an Old One to counter his magic, and all my books say you were the only one with the power to stand against him. You want the crown? Then you will protect me from Angharad’s magic and the Horned One’s power. If I return from the Black Keep with my daughter, I will give you the fucking thing the second I arrive in Ceres. I will ram it so far down your throat that you can taste it.”
Her black eyes remain unmoved. “You are growing in power. But you should be careful how you speak to me, Daughter of Darkness. Because we are not done yet.”
“No? Well here is what I know…. You need me or you need my daughter in order to free yourself and your kind. Right now, Amaya is in danger. They’re going to use her as a sacrifice to bring that bastard back. And I am going to rescue her. If you want to protect your asset, then you will do as I say.”
I turn and walk away.
And with a click of my fingers, I tap into the power of the Hallow and step back into the real world.
It’s becoming a little easier each time.
But I see the relief on Thiago’s face as he drags me out of the circle and into his arms. “What did she say?”
“Nothing. But she’ll protect me.” I give a rough, bitter-edged laugh. “She has no choice.”
I stare through the open arch of the Hallow at the full moon that floats through darkening skies. Not quite night, though the caress of it darkens the horizon. Soft footsteps pad through the snow behind me, and I know before I turn who they belong to.
“You,” I say dully.
Grimm curls his tail around himself, staring at me. “Well?”
“Well, what?” I snap. “Have you not done enough?”
“For a creature with such large tapered ears, you do not seem to listen very well.”
I’ve had enough. I rest my hand on the hilt of my sword and stalk into the Hallow, where Eris is dumping weaponry in preparation for our trip to the Black Keep.
“Ask me again when the moon is full, your heart is torn in two, and you have no more hope remaining,” he calls.
And my feet slow.
My heart beats with rage. The others are waiting at the Hallow for me. And my daughter—
But I slowly turn around. “You want me to ask how Maia defeated Sylvian now?”
He looks pointedly at the full moon.
“Fine.” I stalk toward him. “Tell me, o wise one…. How did Maia defeat her sister-queen? How does any of this help me find my daughter?”
“Tell me about Charun.”
I swear…. “I don’t have time for this—”
“Yes, you do.”
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. “Charun was an ancient Hallow that was destroyed when Maia battled Sylvian.”
“It was an origin Hallow,” he corrects.
“Fine, it was an origin….”
And a stray thought occurs.
The origin Hallows are where the Old Ones are bound into their prison worlds. But Charun was never one of the prison Hallows—there was no Old One tied to that Hallow. It was destroyed thousands of years ago. And there were only thirteen Old—
Wrong, whisper my instincts. There were dozens of Old Ones that the otherkin worshipped. Pages and pages of them in Imerys’s book.
The image of those three moons sear themselves in my mind’s eye, and suddenly they’re superimposed by the golden lines of three moons bound together—the symbol for the Daughter of the Three Moons.
Suddenly, there’s a furry gray cat in my vision, staring at me smugly.
“Behold,” he mocks. “The pieces fall into place.”
“I don’t understand what this has to do with anything. The Hallow at Charun served the Daughter of the Three Moons, who no longer exists. I’d thought the Mother of Night absorbed her into her mythos and stole her worshippers, but how does Maia fit in?”
Grimm leans closer. “Do you think you are the first leanabh an dàn?”
The world drops out from beneath me.
Of course not. The Mother told me that herself.
But….
He leans closer. “Maia bound herself to the
