But Keir merely focused his magic upon himself.
He forged a new body, one that looks fae enough to pass, and he tore his court from the mortal planes, anchoring it in an Other World that sits alongside ours. Now he’s nothing more than a powerful prince in the eyes of the Blessed courts.
If anyone knew the truth of his heritage, there would be war again.
It was never a relic I was searching for. But his heart is another matter. If my father could cut it from Keir’s chest, he wouldn’t merely have the power to break the curse that afflicts wraithenkind and binds us to the icy north, he could tear apart the entire Seelie hegemony.
And I can stop him.
All I need do is keep this one secret from him. I can finally thwart him, even if it costs me.
So I lower my eyes. “My mistake, Father. I’m sorry.”
Ruhle’s smile is the kiss of a knife against my throat. “We’re only ever allowed one,” he whispers. “You seem to be at your quota.”
I swallow down the temptation to retort. “What would you have of me, my king?”
“Your sister is missing,” Raesh tells me.
Not a dream. It wasn’t a dream at all. Which means that Keir truly demanded I find the Horn of Shadows for him.
“What do you mean?” I ask slowly, because I need to sound surprised.
“I sent her to carry out a task for me, and she hasn’t responded to the last three of my communications.” The king clamps a hand around one of the vials around his throat. “She’s not even responding to this.”
“What happened to her?” I can’t stop my gaze from dropping to the tiny vial. The wisp of her soul lies still and dormant at the bottom of the soul-trap. They’re never quiet like that.
For the first time, I feel true worry.
When Keir mentioned her disappearance, I shrugged it off. Soraya is a survivor. No matter what she must face, she puts herself first. Even the sight of her amulet wasn’t enough to know true fear.
But this….
She’s not dead. The little wisp of soul in that glass vial would have evaporated if she was, but something is wrong with her.
The king waves off my concern. “She will either return or she will not. What matters now is that her task remains incomplete. And you will finish it.” His eyes become hard. “The Lord of Mistmark is marrying the Prince of Blood’s cousin. I want you to steal something from Malechus—"
I almost laugh, barely hearing the words. What are the odds? If he dares say it….
“I’ve heard rumor the Lord of Mistmark has managed to get his hands on a certain horn…, one that controls the hounds of the Great Hunt. And those hounds can lead me to the Cauldron of Creation.”
Fuck you, Fate. Fuck you, you capricious bitch.
“The cauldron?”
The Wraith King leans toward me, both pallid hands curling around the ends of his throne. “I warned you once that I would have an end to the curse that binds us to these misbegotten lands and tethers us to this warped flesh.” He holds up his claws. “You failed to bring me the Dragon’s Heart. The only other relic with the power to shatter our chains is the goddess’s cauldron.”
“There has to be another way.” The words blurt out of me. I can’t let him do this. I can’t let him say the words. “If we—"
“Enough. Bring me the horn,” my father declares. “And I will break our curse.”
What am I going to do?
If that was truly not a dream, then Keir just demanded I fulfill my debt to him. I can feel the magic of his glyphs under my skin. The agony as they branded themselves into my skin was indescribable. I can only imagine what would happen if I dared defy him.
But my father….
My lungs still ache. Every inch of me is cold and clammy and echoing with the caress of death.
If I betray my father, then he won’t just kill me.
He will make me suffer endlessly.
And with my lifespan, it might be centuries before I ever see the mercy of light again.
“Yes, my king,” I breathe, bending knee once more before I turn toward the doors in a flurry of sweat-fueled nerves.
“Zemira?”
I pause, glancing back over my shoulder.
“No more failures,” the Wraith King says in a menacing whisper.
Ruhle smirks at me from his side. “Fail again and maybe I’ll ask for a boon. Maybe it will be my hand that ends your wretched life.”
It’s not an idle threat.
I have no choice.
The only one who can save me is me.
My shoulders straighten. “I will find the Horn of Shadows. I will not fail you again, Father.”
I do not dare.
Even if I have to betray Keir in order to do so.
4
Torn between a vicious king and a powerful prince.
I sigh as I stare at the ceiling of my bedchambers at the inn I’m staying at. All I really need right now is to throw my treacherous sister into the mix, but she’s missing.
And the Lord of Mistmark’s name keeps being mentioned in relation to Soraya. My sister was sent to kill him and for the first and only time, she failed.
I know how she played the ruse.
From what little I know of the Lord of Mistmark, he’s powerful, dangerous, and rules his own lands, separate from any court. She tried to seduce him and something went wrong, for she either couldn’t kill him, or she didn’t have the heart to kill him.
Until this moment I wouldn’t have thought her to have a heart, but I taunted her about him once and she nearly put a knife in me. I saw the look that crossed her face. Just one fleeting, unguarded second of pain. It was a look of lost hopes. And dare I say it, broken dreams….
And now he’s marrying another and my sister, who was
