Did we absorb their custom?
Or did we steal it?
For the first time in my life, I tune into the other side of my nature, and my blood allows me to go to her.
Amaya huddles on the floor, sobbing into her hands. Chains manacle her narrow wrists, but I set hands to them and I can see every single little molecule that comprises the iron. It burns a little—my fae blood is strong enough to flinch at the feel of it—but I simply break them apart in my hands.
“Amaya.”
She looks up, and the sight of her eyes is another stab through the heart.
I have this, I remind myself. I have this last little gift from him.
“Who are you?” she cries, trying to shield her face.
“I’m your mother.” The whisper is torn from my lips. Her hair’s so soft, and my eyes drink in every little aspect of that face. “I’m here to rescue you. We came for you because we love you.” There’s doubt in her eyes, and I drag her against me with with my uninsured arm, wrapping her in a hug that I need just as much as she does. “I love you. And I have finally found you. And I will never let you go. Never.”
My daughter.
My daughter.
And if I don’t dare look at that shadowy smear on the stone, then perhaps I can pretend my heart hasn’t broken in two.
He’s gone.
But I barely have time for tears.
Because we aren’t safe yet, and if there is one thing my husband would want— Would have wanted from me, it is for his daughter to be safe.
“My queen.” The words come from Finn. He squeezes my shoulder, and I gape at him as he holds out a hand, gesturing for me to step aside so he can carry Amaya. “What do we do?”
Every wall in the castle shakes. Lightning tears through the sky.
But it’s the sound of those words.
My queen.
Without their prince, they have nothing. And it hits me all over again. “Don’t call me that.”
I never want to hear that word again.
Baylor falls into place beside Finn, his expression grim. “We need to leave.”
He’s gone.
And even as that black hole stretches wide inside my soul, consuming me from within, I know I have to pull myself together.
Amaya. Escape. Home.
I have to try.
“Eris?” I call.
She stands on the edge of the Hallow, staring across the distance at Angharad.
“Eris.” I fill my voice with all the command I can muster, and her head snaps toward me. “Come.” I press a kiss to the top of Amaya’s head as I prepare to use the Hallow’s power to take us all to safety. “We have to leave.”
And when we are finally safe in Valerian, then and only then will I be able to let out the trapped scream that is lodged in my throat.
Epilogue
ANDRASTE
Some lies are never spoken. Some of them infuse every pore of your body. You become the lie. You wrap yourself so tightly in it that no one ever knows the truth of your heart.
“The spell backfired,” Mother says, letting the pendant spin on its chain. Light flashes through the ruby, casting red glints across her ruined face. This is the first morning she’s been able to venture from her apartments, and the damage the loss of her oak did to her is written over every inch of her skin. “I couldn’t understand why. How did they steal my crown when it is warded to my hand alone?”
Edain pauses where he’s pouring us both a goblet of wine.
But every inch of me is controlled as I reach for one of the strawberries on the platter between us. “I don’t know, Mother. Perhaps—"
“And then I thought… what if it recognized her blood somehow? After all, you’ve lifted it from my head at times. You’ve placed it back in its cabinet and locked it away for the night. It knows you. It knows I allow you to touch it. But your sister?” Her cold gaze sweeps to mine, and everything within me goes still. “I made certain Iskvien could never, ever take what was mine without consequences. I wove a curse around that crown that would blight your sister’s pretty face should she dare take it from its resting place. And yet, there was not a single blemish on her skin.”
“Perhaps she circumvented the curse.” I stare her in the eyes, trying to control my racing heart. “We don’t know the extent of Vi’s powers. What she did to you at the Queensmoot—”
“Ah, yes.” Mother captures the spinning ruby in her hand, her fingers closing around it like a cage. “The Queensmoot. Where you knelt before me and begged for their lives.”
“A decision I have since regretted.”
Mother turns to Edain. “Tell me, my love. Do you think my daughter stole my crown?”
There’s no hint of his usual cruel smile as he meets my eyes and offers me a goblet of bloodred wine. “Yes,” he says. “I know she stole it.”
But he doesn’t say which one.
This time, there’s no controlling myself. He kissed me, and nothing has been the same ever since. My fingers bump against his, and wine spills as I try to take the goblet from him.
“You never lie to me,” Mother croons, taking his hand and drawing it to her lips. “So many others do, you realize? But you always tell me the truth, Edain.”
And she suddenly laughs.
My gaze jerks to his.
“I always thought that blood was the only thing I could trust, but when you have a daughter who has betrayed everything you ever stood for, you learn to trust nobody.” Mother smiles at him. “And so I made it impossible for you to lie to me, didn’t I, my love? I bound you to me. I choked you with chains of spell work so thick that you can never speak an untruth. You are mine, heart and soul, Edain. And you must never lie to me.”
“I will never lie to
