“Don’t you think it strange the Drakaar attacked the palace shortly after Penelope came back to Elfi?” Andromeda asked.
My head was whirling. I refused to believe Penelope was working for Morgana. “No, Penelope couldn’t have done this.”
“Foolish girl,” said Andromeda, banging her hand on the table. “Your grandmother is gone. The wards around the kingdom have fallen—only her power was keeping them in place. Rhiannon is not here to reinforce them. That’s all Lucian needs to move his army into Elfi. Soon they will be at the gates of the city.”
Penelope did send Rhiannon with my grandmother. Did she do it to get them out of the way so Lucian could invade Elfi? As a strategy, it made sense, but I knew Penelope, and she was one of the most humble people I had ever met. She was not interested in power. Was that also an act? Penelope had lied to me before and was an expert on disguising her actions and motives. She was a spy, after all—Elfi’s best, my grandmother had said. Would she betray her own sister to take the throne? Would she betray me? It certainly looked like she already had.
The Drakaar had been there for a purpose: to kill me and take the book. But if Penelope was working for Morgana and wanted to kill me, she’d had hundreds of chances to do it from the first moment I got to this world. It didn’t make sense; there was a piece of the puzzle missing.
“We have made a deal with Morgana,” Andromeda went on. “She has agreed not to invade Elfi if we give you up to her.”
“What! You can’t trust Morgana, you know it’s not only me she’s after. She wants the Book of Abraxas, and she already has three of the keys. She will destroy Elfi in her search for it.”
“No, she won’t,” Andromeda snapped, looking around at the Elder Council.
Everyone was quiet and let her speak. They had agreed to this already, and none of them stood up for me.
Andromeda looked me straight in the eye. “Because we are going to give her the Book of Abraxas.”
The Book of Abraxas
I couldn’t believe she had said that.
“You want to give her the Book of Abraxas?” I repeated. “This is madness! You are condemning the world because you are too scared to fight Morgana.”
The Elders were quiet, their immortal faces grave. I glanced back and forth, studying them. They had all resigned themselves to the fact that Morgana had won.
They had all given up.
“Once Morgana has the book and you, she will leave us in peace,” said Andromeda. “The High Fae have never been concerned with the workings of the mage world. Why should we care what happens to them now?”
“You are all blind,” I said, gritting my teeth at their stupidity. “Morgana is a cunning liar—she will use the book to release Dragath from his prison. And when she does, do you really think he will leave Elfi alone? Do you think Dragath won’t come back here with the Dark Dagger and finish what he started so many thousands of years ago?”
There was a murmur from the Elders as they whispered to their neighbors. Elder Silias stood up. “When Morgana has you and the book in her possession, she will withdraw her troops from the foothills of the Wildflower Mountains and leave us in peace,” he said. “If and when she releases Dragath, she will be able to control him with the book and will not allow him to attack the fae. Morgana has given us her word.”
They had been taken in by Morgana’s lies. I knew she would not keep her word. She wanted absolute power, and with the Book of Abraxas she would have it. How could they be so blind? My grandmother, Rhiannon, and Penelope would never allow them to do this.
And then it hit me.
I looked at Andromeda’s smirk and the face of Tristan’s father and I knew. They had planned this. They poisoned my grandmother so Lucian’s army could come into Elfi. Her son, Aiden, had taken four fire-fae warriors out of the city that day so there would be less opposition to the Drakaar. They expected me to die at their hands. They blamed it on Penelope so she, too, would be out of the way. One of them had to have opened the portal. Did Skye know what her mother was truly planning? Was she part of the conspiracy too? I needed proof, or the Elders would never believe me.
“When Tristan wakes up, he will never stand for this.” I looked at his father. “Does he know you are planning to give Morgana the book and give me up as well?”
Kildaren leaned back in his chair, putting his fingertips together. “Tristan is an immortal; soon he will forget you and move on. My family cannot be married into a line of half-breeds,” he sneered. “As for the book, Tristan will understand it is for the good of our kingdom. We cannot stop Morgana from coming here and taking it.”
“I can stop her,” I whispered softly. “I just need more time.”
“There is no more time,” snapped Andromeda. “There is nothing you can do. Your powers may be strong, but they are not strong enough. There is no magic that can stand against her army. Morgana’s troops are already at our borders and more will be coming once the winter snow thaws in the north. We will meet with Lucian at the Gandren Pass in the northern mountains and hand you and the book over to him.”
I tried to get them to listen to reason. “If you want to give me up to her, fine. I’ll go without a fight. But you cannot give her the book.” I looked around at all their pale immortal faces, and I could see the fear in their eyes. “I understand you are scared. But there is a way to make sure she never gets her hands on it.”
Kildaren’s
