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“You won’t need to return to the castle, my girl. The third relic I require is King Oberon’s crown. Without it, I can never heal the damage Queen Arya has done to my court.”
“If only Finn had known,” I say, still laughing. “Oh, but he does. So does Prince Ronan. Why do you think they both care so much for your welfare? Why do you think they’re both working so hard to steal your heart?”
There, on my head, is a string of starlight that weaves through my hair to form a glowing . . . a glowing crown.
THE CROWN SITS ATOP MY HEAD, twinkling in shades of purple and blue and everything in between.
“It’s a magical crown,” King Mordeus says. “This kingdom is dying so long as it’s worn by a human. Only one with Unseelie blood can rule here.”
“My brother, Oberon, loved your mother.”
“He was once trapped in the mortal realm and fell in love with your mother,” he says. “But when he was finally able to return to Faerie, she refused to go with him. While he tried to reclaim his throne from me, she remained in the mortal realm, met your father, and fell in love. By the time Oberon had fortified the portals and could safely return to her, your mother was already married and had two little girls—you and your sister.”
“He didn’t want her to suffer the heartbreak of losing her child, so he saved you with the only option available to him.”
“The moment of your death, he surrendered his own life to save yours.”
Please save her. How desperate she was, how heartbroken when she seemed to understand the price. I do this for you.
All these years, I’ve hated the fae, never knowing that their magic is the only reason I’m alive.
“When a Faerie king dies, he chooses which of his offspring will take his throne. When he makes that choice, his power passes to the heir, and it is only with that power that the land truly recognizes the new king or queen. But Oberon didn’t pass his power to a son or daughter. He gave it to you—it was the only way to save you, to heal you, and to protect your mother’s mortal heart.”
I can’t wrap my mind around the reality of it or the idea that a faerie—a male I would have assumed selfish and cruel—loved my mother so much that he died to save me.
Mordeus is here telling me he needs the crown. Asking me for it. Which means that all this time when Finn pretended to help me, pretended to be my friend, his true purpose was to get closer to his crown.
It can only be given, never taken, as my brother gave it to you.
But if you give it to me through a bonding ceremony, the crown will shift to me, and you will save your sister in the process.” “Just . . . bond with you and it’s over?” A lifelong bond with the darkest, ugliest soul I’ve ever encountered. Never. “Yes, my dear.”
A simple bonding ceremony, and he could take you away from me forever.
Remember that the only way anyone can have it is if you allow it. If you value your mortal life, you won’t do that—ever.
“When a human bonds with the Seelie, do they die?” The goblin glares at me. “No.” “And when a human bonds with Unseelie fae?” The goblin looks to Mordeus again, but I don’t need him to answer. Now I understand the truth. That is the pure evil of the curse. To prevent Oberon from bonding with his human love, the queen cursed the Unseelie so that bonding with a human would kill the human.
“Surrender your life to me, and with it the crown, and I will revive you with the Potion of Life.”
Before, I needed to see that my sister was safe, and the mirror gave me just that. With shaking hands, I lift the mirror, stare at my reflection, clear my mind of expectations, and focus on my desire for the truth. “Show me Jasalyn.”
All I see now is Jas, chained in a dungeon, a pallet of hay on the ground and a bucket in the corner. She’s thin, pale, and sipping at a cup of water with chapped lips.
I’ve been eating like a queen and making friends. I’ve been dancing and laughing and falling in love. And all the while my sister . . .
I knew how this would end when I entered the portal. Part of me . . . part of me knew I wouldn’t be going home.
How ridiculous that I once believed I’d live long enough to save women like her. How ridiculous that when Lark talked about me being a queen, I thought it might mean I’d have a chance to make a difference.
This numbness is something else. Resignation. Disappointment. A hopeless heart.
Once the three artifacts are returned to my court where they belong, I will send your sister back to a location of your choice in the human realm. Where they belong.
“Now all that needs to be returned to the court is Oberon’s crown,” I say, my heart racing. “But I am not going to die today.”
Drawing in a breath, I offer a prayer to the gods above and below that I am right about this. Then I make a quarter turn away from the false king and take a seat on the Throne of Shadows.
THE POWER OF THE THRONE and the crown and the court pumps through me. The crown has been returned to its rightful place in the Court of the Moon.
“Your turn,” I say, mustering all my bravado. I still don’t know if this will work. “Return my sister safe and alive to the mortal realm—send her to Mage Trifen’s so he can tend to her.”
“And I hear you’re like my nephew in your fondness for protecting the weak.”
“You think you can trick me, but your unskilled magic is no match for my power. Your mortality and empathy make you weak. Bond with me, and she will be spared. Refuse me and watch countless others just like her lose their lives because of you.”
The girl’s blue eyes are wild before landing on me. I watch the moment she takes me in. Then I see it there in a flash: hope. Hope. Even with another girl dead on the floor before her and a blade digging into her throat, she has hope.
The king loses his grip on the girl as he lunges forward to stop me, but I reappear behind him, the adamant knife Sebastian gave me in my hand. The moment he spins to face me, I plunge it into his heart.
But I was prepared for Mordeus to be devious. I wasn’t prepared for the same from Finn.
The catacombs hold row after row of glass coffins. I rush forward. The woman inside the first one is young—probably my age—and her long blond hair is pulled over one shoulder, her eyes closed. Her hands are folded across her stomach.
“I know you planned to kill me from our very first dance.” I can’t keep the pain from my voice. “Everything you did to win me over you did for the crown—to get me to bond with you so you could be sure the crown would be yours.”
“Do you even know their names?” “Every single one.”
“I’ve lived my whole life in a world that thought humans could be bought and used. I will never give the crown to someone who is part of that problem.”
“You should make use of the dagger you’re hiding in your hand and kill me then. Because as long as I live, I have an obligation to my people. So as long as I live, I will fight for that crown you wear.”
Finn betrayed me, I betrayed Sebastian, and it all hurts more than I can handle.
“You were in an impossible situation, and you did what you had to do.” He strokes my cheek with the back of his hand. “My love isn’t so fickle that it fades under stress.”
“Only one with Unseelie blood can rule from the Throne of Shadows, but all any shadow faerie would need is that crown and the throne would be theirs. I hope you understand now why I didn’t want you to come here.”
“It is tied to your very life, and it remains a part of you until the moment of your death.”
For the price of her life, she was able to hide you from them for seven years.
“I asked Mordeus to send her to Mage Trifen’s.” “I had to find somewhere else for her to stay,” Sebastian explains. “Mage Trifen doesn’t do charity.”
Jas shakes as she curls into my chest, sobbing quietly. “I knew you’d come. I knew you’d find me.”
Her hands shake harder and harder until her whole body is vibrating with fear. “The things I saw in the dungeons . . . the horrible things I heard—”
“Visit me in my dreams like you did when we were kids.” She grins and waves goodbye, but as Sebastian hurries me toward the portal, I remember the old joke. After we moved in with Uncle Devlin, Jas would wake up some mornings and thank me for the adventure I took her on in her dreams. Were they just dreams, or did I have access to that part of my power even as a child in the human realm?
