Shadowfever
Page 175
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Id tanned in a silk chaise, lying next to him. Id dipped my toes in the surf, holding hands with War. Id admired an Unseelie Princes naked body. Wondered what it would be like to have sex with him. Id conspired with the enemy and never even guessed it. All the while hed been touching and adjusting things, nudging us this way and that.
And it had worked.
Hed gotten exactly what hed wanted. Here he was: standing over the kings Book, absorbing the deadly knowledge, with the unconscious queen lying at his feet so he could kill her and take the True Magic of their race, too. Hed put her on ice in the Unseelie prison to keep her under control and alive until he was certain he was the most powerful male among them all. The king had given up his dark knowledge. Once Cruce had it, would he really be stronger than the king?
I watched the spells scribed in the Sinsar Dubh slide off the page, move up his fingers into his hands, arms, shoulders, and vanish beneath his skin. He was almost done. Why wasnt the king stopping him?
Begun. Cant be stopped. Think Id leave part of the Book in two places when they couldnt even guard one? the king said.
Barrons and the rest of the men were back to slamming the walls, trying to tear them down to get to Cruce.
But it was too late. He had only a few pages left to go.
I stood, shivering, looking between the king and Cruce, hoping the king knew what he was doing.
Cruce turned the last page.
As the final spell vanished, the Book collapsed into a thin pile of gold dust and a handful of winking red gemstones on the slab.
The Sinsar Dubh had finally been destroyed.
Too bad it now lived and breathed inside the most powerful Unseelie Prince ever created.
The transition was seamless.
One moment I was in the cavern with everyone else. The next I was standing on a giant grassy swell of a hill with Cruce and the king.
An enormous moon obliterated the horizon. Welling up from behind the planet, it blocked out the night sky entirely but for a smattering of stars against a cobalt palette above it.
The rounded pasture climbed gently for miles, vanishing into the moon and making it seem like, if I walked to the top of the ridge, I might hop the pine-board fence and bridge planet to moon with a single leap. The air hummed with a low-level charge, and in the distance, thunder rolled. Black megaliths jutted like the fingers of a fallen giant poking into the cool, unblinking eye of the moon.
We stood between towering stonesCruce facing the king, me at midpoint between them.
The queen was slumped at Cruces feet.
I backed out and away for a wider view. I wondered whod brought us here and left all the others behind. Cruce or the king? Why?
Wind whipped my hair into a tangle. The breeze was rich with spice and the fragrance of night-blooming jasmine. Hunters glidedpast the moon, gonging deep in their chests, and the moon answered.
I had no idea what world I was on, what galaxy I was in, but some part of memy inner kingknew this place. Wed chosen the hill of Tara for the resemblance, but Tara was a pale imitation. On Earth, the moon was never so near as it was here, and there was only one, not three, in the night sky. Power pulsed in this planets rocky core and mineral veins, earths magic had been bored to death by humans long ago.
Why the three of us? I said.
Children, the king replied.
I didnt like what his answer seemed to imply. War was so not my brother.
MacKayla, Cruce said softly.
I gave him a cool look. Did you think it was funny? You lied to me over and over. You used me.
I wanted you to accept me as I was, buthow is it you say?my reputation preceded me. Others filled your head with lies about Cruce. I endeavored to correct them, open your eyes.
By telling me more lies? Vlane didnt kill Cruce the day the king and queen fought. You switched places with Vlane.
With the three amulets the king never believed good enough, I deceived them all. Together they are strong. He touched his neck, a smug glint in his eyes, and although I couldnt see them, I knew he wore them still. Hed used them to maintain his flawless glamour of Seelie Prince. Id seen it flicker only a few times, when hed been near the abbeys wards.
That day I called you to help me defeat the guardian in the abbey, the day you hissed and vanished
It was a truth ward made of blood and bone. It sensed me as Unseelie. Had I stayed, I would have been unable to maintain the glamour. But you could not pass it, either. Why is that?
I didnt answer. The queen killed Vlane with her sword, and never even knew it. Youve been impersonating him ever since.
He was a fool. After I had my audience with the queen, it was Vlane she dispatched to confine me in her bower. I took his face and gave him mine. He was not half the Fae I am. He knew nothing of true illusion, could not have created an amulet capable of such if hed lived a million years. Then I took him to her to kill. He was pathetic. Pleaded his innocence. Whimpered at the end and made a mockery of my name. The other Unseelie Princes tried their hand at a curse and blamed that on me, as well.
You hid among the Seelie all this time.
Never drinking from the cauldron. Watching. Waiting for the perfect convergence of events. The Book was missing for an eternity. The old fool hid it. Twenty-three years ago I felt it and knew the time was right. But enough about me. What are you, MacKayla?
And it had worked.
Hed gotten exactly what hed wanted. Here he was: standing over the kings Book, absorbing the deadly knowledge, with the unconscious queen lying at his feet so he could kill her and take the True Magic of their race, too. Hed put her on ice in the Unseelie prison to keep her under control and alive until he was certain he was the most powerful male among them all. The king had given up his dark knowledge. Once Cruce had it, would he really be stronger than the king?
I watched the spells scribed in the Sinsar Dubh slide off the page, move up his fingers into his hands, arms, shoulders, and vanish beneath his skin. He was almost done. Why wasnt the king stopping him?
Begun. Cant be stopped. Think Id leave part of the Book in two places when they couldnt even guard one? the king said.
Barrons and the rest of the men were back to slamming the walls, trying to tear them down to get to Cruce.
But it was too late. He had only a few pages left to go.
I stood, shivering, looking between the king and Cruce, hoping the king knew what he was doing.
Cruce turned the last page.
As the final spell vanished, the Book collapsed into a thin pile of gold dust and a handful of winking red gemstones on the slab.
The Sinsar Dubh had finally been destroyed.
Too bad it now lived and breathed inside the most powerful Unseelie Prince ever created.
The transition was seamless.
One moment I was in the cavern with everyone else. The next I was standing on a giant grassy swell of a hill with Cruce and the king.
An enormous moon obliterated the horizon. Welling up from behind the planet, it blocked out the night sky entirely but for a smattering of stars against a cobalt palette above it.
The rounded pasture climbed gently for miles, vanishing into the moon and making it seem like, if I walked to the top of the ridge, I might hop the pine-board fence and bridge planet to moon with a single leap. The air hummed with a low-level charge, and in the distance, thunder rolled. Black megaliths jutted like the fingers of a fallen giant poking into the cool, unblinking eye of the moon.
We stood between towering stonesCruce facing the king, me at midpoint between them.
The queen was slumped at Cruces feet.
I backed out and away for a wider view. I wondered whod brought us here and left all the others behind. Cruce or the king? Why?
Wind whipped my hair into a tangle. The breeze was rich with spice and the fragrance of night-blooming jasmine. Hunters glidedpast the moon, gonging deep in their chests, and the moon answered.
I had no idea what world I was on, what galaxy I was in, but some part of memy inner kingknew this place. Wed chosen the hill of Tara for the resemblance, but Tara was a pale imitation. On Earth, the moon was never so near as it was here, and there was only one, not three, in the night sky. Power pulsed in this planets rocky core and mineral veins, earths magic had been bored to death by humans long ago.
Why the three of us? I said.
Children, the king replied.
I didnt like what his answer seemed to imply. War was so not my brother.
MacKayla, Cruce said softly.
I gave him a cool look. Did you think it was funny? You lied to me over and over. You used me.
I wanted you to accept me as I was, buthow is it you say?my reputation preceded me. Others filled your head with lies about Cruce. I endeavored to correct them, open your eyes.
By telling me more lies? Vlane didnt kill Cruce the day the king and queen fought. You switched places with Vlane.
With the three amulets the king never believed good enough, I deceived them all. Together they are strong. He touched his neck, a smug glint in his eyes, and although I couldnt see them, I knew he wore them still. Hed used them to maintain his flawless glamour of Seelie Prince. Id seen it flicker only a few times, when hed been near the abbeys wards.
That day I called you to help me defeat the guardian in the abbey, the day you hissed and vanished
It was a truth ward made of blood and bone. It sensed me as Unseelie. Had I stayed, I would have been unable to maintain the glamour. But you could not pass it, either. Why is that?
I didnt answer. The queen killed Vlane with her sword, and never even knew it. Youve been impersonating him ever since.
He was a fool. After I had my audience with the queen, it was Vlane she dispatched to confine me in her bower. I took his face and gave him mine. He was not half the Fae I am. He knew nothing of true illusion, could not have created an amulet capable of such if hed lived a million years. Then I took him to her to kill. He was pathetic. Pleaded his innocence. Whimpered at the end and made a mockery of my name. The other Unseelie Princes tried their hand at a curse and blamed that on me, as well.
You hid among the Seelie all this time.
Never drinking from the cauldron. Watching. Waiting for the perfect convergence of events. The Book was missing for an eternity. The old fool hid it. Twenty-three years ago I felt it and knew the time was right. But enough about me. What are you, MacKayla?
