He threaded his fingers through mine. “Could you take us to the stables? I have an idea.”
In the blink of an eye, a door appeared at our side that led us into a stone walkway of arched windows that looked out onto a side of the mountain where the view was exposed rock with patches of red moss.
The temperature dropped, and the air thickened, feeling like the beginnings of a thunderstorm. My brows drew together. We had just come in from what promised to be a warm day.
Beneath our feet, the sloped downward and the arched openings became smaller until they only let in pinpricks of light. We rounded a corner and found our passage blocked by white smoke.
I grabbed Drayce by the arm. “Is that—”
“Fomorian fog.” He stopped walking.
The muscles of my throat quivered in time with my fluttering pulse. “What’s it doing down there?”
Drayce released my hand, wrapped an arm around my waist, and backed us away from the mist. “Command the palace to create an enclosure.”
A wall of stone appeared between us and the fog. I placed a hand on my chest and exhaled. “I thought the generals drove it back last night.”
Drayce frowned. “Apparently, some of it broke away.”
“What does it want?” Suppressing a shudder, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction of the fog.
“Its freedom.” Drayce replied.
Whispers echoed across the hallway, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I couldn’t make out the words as they came from dozens of voices, but it was the first time I had heard the mist without the booming of King Balor.
I quickened my pace and willed the palace to show me a way to escape the sounds, but they followed us wherever we went.
We reached an enclosed chamber, and Drayce placed an arm on my shoulder. “Neara.”
“What?”
“The palace wants you to defeat whatever’s in that mist.”
Chapter 3
Clenching my teeth, I took several steps back until the reassuring weight of the wall supported my spine. I fixed my gaze on the light streaming in through tiny ventilation holes in the ceiling. Drayce couldn’t be right. The palace was supposed to be the seat of the Fae Queen’s power, so why would it conspire against me?
Drayce stood at my side and stared at me with compassionate eyes. “I will help you.”
“We’re leaving.” I squeezed my eyes shut and commanded the palace to create an opening large enough for us to escape. My breaths shallowed until only the barest trace of air touched the top of my lungs. The castle also needed to eject the mist so it could join the others.
“Neara,” Drayce’s sharp tone cut through my increasing panic.
Mocking whispers filled my ears. Voices that spoke over each other and coalesced into roaring waves that crashed through the recesses of my skull. My eyes snapped open, and I stared at the white mist that now covered the chamber’s ceiling.
“What do you want?” I shouted both at the castle and at the Fomorians.
The mist dissipated with a rattle that seeped through my skin, penetrated my bones, and chilled me to the marrow. Cold wrapped around my heart like a shroud and spread through my veins. It was trying to consume me, trying to claim me for the traces of Fomorian blood that raced through my veins.
I clenched my teeth. “Who’s doing this?”
“You.” Drayce placed his large hands on my shoulders, infusing my body with a warmth that melted the chill around my heart.
“It’s the palace.” A shudder ran down my spine and settled into my gut. Why couldn’t the palace just cast the mist out?
One of his hands cupped my face, and he forced me to look into eyes that shone brighter than usual in the diffused light of the mist. They weren’t quite as dark as his cursed appearance. The mist brought out a starburst of gold that radiated from the pupil, leaving behind the dark ring of forest-green that was the Drayce I had come to love.
“Release it.” The patience in his voice didn’t match the urgency of our situation.
I shook my head, wondering if it was Drayce affected by the mist and not me.
“Release whatever’s in that fog,” he said. “Somewhere between defeating Melusina and commanding her generals to drive it from the castle, you must have retained this portion because it was necessary to realize your power.”
“Has it occurred to you that this might be King Balor trying to trick us?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
“No.”
Annoyance flickered across Drayce’s features. I was beginning to prefer the scaly version that didn’t communicate every little expression across his face. He might have forgiven me for killing him, but he was still a male with secrets.
“Apex Palace,” I said in the kind of voice Father Donal used for his most fervent Sunday sermons. “Cast out the foul mist!”
The stones remained in place, and the whispers increased in intensity. Soon, the buzzing and stinging of a bees swarm filled my head, muffling Drayce’s words. I clapped my hands over my ears and clenched my teeth.
“Can you hear that?” I shouted.
“Yes,” he shouted back. “Release what’s in the fog, or the noise will drive you insane.”
“How?” I already knew the answer. It wanted my blood. It wanted me to slice open a vein, coat my blade in the Blood of Dana, and then open up a rift.
Then whoever was in the mist would step out.
And they would use me to release its brethren and turn the faeries into slaves and the humans into cattle.
I squeezed my eyes shut, clenched the muscles of my face, and ground my teeth. Anything to clear my head. Queen Melusina tried to release Fomorians from the mist with Father’s blood, but it was only strong enough to free half-bloods like herself and the Keeper of All Things.
My pulse roared louder than the incessant voices, and I dredged up a memory. In the vision I saw
