I’ve felt her power. I would hate to face her with unrestricted access to it.
“So she needs the crown to tie herself to the magic of the lands and break her way free of the prison,” I whisper.
The oracle remains quiet.
If I put that crown in her hands, then I have set her free. I have set them all free. But if I don’t….
My hands lace over my abdomen in horror.
“Where is the crown now?”
“If you find the king, you will find the truth of the crown’s whereabouts.”
“I want a name,” I tell her. “Who was he?”
“But you should already know the name,” she says with a faint smirk. “It was your bloodline that ended his reign.”
I shake my head slightly. I don’t—
“Myrdal.”
The name means nothing to me.
“King Myrdal of Mirthwood.”
Again, nothing. “I’ve never heard of anyone by that—"
Of course not.
It drops whole and fully formed into my brain.
There’s one name that was obliterated from history. One name that was ruthlessly burned from the history books. One name that earned any bearer that spoke it the loss of their tongue.
And suddenly, I see a castle choked with vicious thorns and roses. The king my mother stole her lands—and power—from. The king she wiped from memory, as if to destroy any hint of the man.
“The Briar King. Myrdal.” I breathe the word, and it takes shape, as if to give him a name suddenly makes him real. He’s always been a myth. A monster. A secret we never dared speak of.
And my mother was gifted to him? She was raped and brutalized and forced to heel at his boots like a dog? I can barely breathe. This doesn’t exonerate her actions. Nothing ever will. But there’s a part of me that feels grief for that princess—the young fae woman who sacrificed everything in order to bring down a monster.
I don’t know her.
There’s nothing left of her within my mother’s hard carapace.
But… it explains so much.
“Yes. That king. Your mother took his life and his crown and his lands,” the oracle whispers, leaning closer as if she can smell my sudden fear and wants to drink it in. “You want to find the Crown of Shadows? Then take the crown from Myrdal’s head, and you will understand everything.”
To get that crown means venturing right into the heart of my mother’s kingdom.
Past armies. Past enemies.
Right beneath her nose.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“No. Absolutely not,” Thiago snarls.
I spent the entire trip home to Ceres thinking through my arguments, so I’m calm as I face him. “I know the ruins of Briar Keep. I know every inch of the land surrounding it. It makes sense if I’m the one who goes.”
“You’re with child.”
“We only suspect that—”
“Suspicion is enough for me!” he yells, his voice echoing through the council chambers. “If your mother gets her hands on you and my child, then this war is done. She will win, because I will do anything to get you both back. I will crawl at her feet. I will slit my own throat. I will chain myself to her throne if she so demands it.”
“But I won’t be alone,” I tell him, because I discussed this with Eris on the boat ride back to the Hallow. “Eris will be coming with me.”
“Eris?”
“You were quite content to let her accompany me into Unseelie to visit the oracle. Do you not trust her with my life?” I ask him.
His face reddens and he shoots a glare at Eris. “You’re awfully silent. I take it my wife has your consent for this foolish plan?”
She shrugs. “We need the crown. And we can’t enter Asturia in force. Nor can we enter in secret. The entire countryside is crawling with Asturian troops who have the faces of Evernight’s prince plastered on every propaganda poster nailed to the tavern doors. Vi knows the lay of the land. It makes sense.”
I take a deep breath. “Two riders might be glanced over, especially females. And if not, then… the Hallow at Briar Keep hasn’t been used in centuries, but if anyone can use it, it’s going to be me.”
“No,” Thiago says simply. “No.”
“So we wait?” We cannot afford to wait. Once Asturia and Evernight officially clash, the borders will lock up tighter than Nanny Redwyne’s drawers. “Eight months, Thiago! We have eight months to find it!”
He crosses his arms. “I have concerns with this story. Your mother got her hands on a powerful weapon and she just left it on this Briar King’s head?”
The thought troubles me too. Why would my mother have left it there?
To mock him?
Is she still tied to it?
It makes no sense, for she’d keep it close by, wouldn’t she? And yet, I’ve never seen anything like that in her possession, nor felt its malevolence.
“It fed on the king, and then turned on him when she defied him,” I say. “Maybe she didn’t wish to be bound to such a thing. But the oracle said I would understand everything once I took the crown from his head.”
“I don’t like this—”
“Nor do I,” I counter. “But this is the best hope we have. Please. Please trust me to do this. I need you here. I need you to create a diversion so my mother’s attention is focused on you.”
He doesn’t like it, but he’s wavering.
“You want her to be your queen,” Eris points out quietly. “You can’t smother her. You can’t lock her away.”
“I’m not….” He breaks off with a curse and starts pacing. “I can’t lose you, Vi. I can’t. You’re the only thing that helps me hold this at bay.”
My heart feels like lead in my chest. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Thiago falls into stillness. “It’s reached my collarbone. It’s broken through some of my wards.”
I stop breathing. He doesn’t need to say what.
Mother’s curse.
“Then we don’t have any
