Everyone looks up at me like they’re seeing me for the first time. I shift my weight and cross my arms defiantly, uncomfortable with their appraisal. “What? I’m sure she’s just being hyperbolic. The whole thing sounds like that.”
Tiernan arches a thick brow. “Maybe it sounds like that because you’re like the messiah of the fae. You’re Dark Jesus.”
The twins snort laugh, and I do my best to school my features so I don’t do the same. Sometimes the things that come out of his mouth are so ridiculous laughing is the only response. “Shut the fuck up, Tier, before I knock you unconscious like I did the last time you were being an ass.”
He glares at me. “That was a sucker punch, and you know it. I’ll be ready next time. And then I’ll throw you in the dungeon that I plan on making for those two fleabags,” he says, jerking his chin at the twins.
“Tiernan,” Fiona says, still poring over the letter.
“Yes, my queen?”
“Shush. I can’t think with you making ridiculous threats you don’t mean.”
Miraculously, he does in fact shush. But not before he mouths the words you’re dead to me over the top of her head. I just grin back at him, satisfied I won this round. Dmitri gestures between me and Tier to his sister. “See how they do this? Innocent sibling fun. No one is stabbing their brother with a silver dagger.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” she says. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll only use regular daggers from now on, so it won’t burn. Much.”
Me and the other guys laugh, glad the focus is off us for once, but Bryn and Fiona are in full-on investigative mode, talking to each other and volleying ideas back and forth.
“Okay, listen to this part,” Bryn says. “‘Remember the path to victory is not in combatting the darkness but in melding it with the brightest of flames. Only then will you be able to vanquish the oppressive light.’ Darkness, flames, and light. She has to be talking about Finn and Taryn combining their powers to fight against Edevane.”
Taryn nods. “That makes sense. She never mentions me by name, but we think she might have foreseen me working with him because some things he wouldn’t have been able to do without me. I recognized the flame lilies in the Conservatory and used my magic to form them into an arrow that pointed to the next clue. And then in the cavern, my Armas is what unlocked the box that held the second hidden clue.”
Fiona looks up. “Maybe your Armas is spelled. That’s why Finn felt such a strong need to find you when he had it. It was literally trying to bring you together. Who gave that to you?”
Taryn fingers the pendant on her chain. “My father had it commissioned for me. It’s customary for all Fire jewelry to be made from Ember, the metal from our region in Faerie. But he insisted the fabricator make it from Luna, which is from the region previously occupied by the Darks. He disappeared before it was delivered, so I never knew his reason for that. Until today, when it unlocked a box made of the same metal.”
Bryn, who’s always been a big believer in destiny and fate, looks awestruck. “If that’s not enough to convince you that fate is real, Finni, I don’t know what will.”
My eyes find Taryn’s and hold them from across the table like I want to hold her and never let go. I’m still shaken up from the realization that I almost lost her today, and part of me wants to tell my family to fuck off so I can simply be with her and reassure myself she’s okay.
But there will be plenty of time to do that once we figure out how to stop Edevane once and for all. Right now, this has to be the priority.
Without looking away from Taryn, I say, “Oh, I’m a hardcore believer now, little sis.”
Taryn blushes, then clears her throat and changes the subject. “Fiona, what do you think Moira meant by ‘to break the bonds that trap the night, you must spill the blood of the One True Power’? She’s not saying we need to kill my mother, is she? I thought that’s what we’re trying to prevent Edevane from doing.”
Fiona frowns. “No, I don’t think it’s referring to Aine. Like you said, the whole point is to save her. But it could be referring to you. As her daughter, you have her blood.”
Caiden speaks for the first time in a while. “I think that’s the most likely explanation, especially since Moira references Taryn in the other parts of the letter as well.”
Dmitri nods, as though it’s already a foregone conclusion. “This makes the most sense. Your Armas was key for box, and you are key for Faerie.”
Taryn’s brows knit together. “Wait, what? How can I be the key for Faerie?”
“You can cross the veil still, yes?”
“I mean, I haven’t tried, but unless Aine locked me out like she did…” Her wheels start turning, and I love the way I can see her beautiful mind working. “Bonds that trap the night. That’s the curse locking out the Night Court, meaning Finn. She says he’s not meant to carry his burden home alone. And if I’m the key, that means my blood will get him through the veil. Dmitri, you’re a genius.”
“I know,” he says nonchalantly.
I brace my hands on the table, realizing something else. “That must be how Edevane checked the original ToR.” All eyes swivel to me. “He told us in the cavern that he knew the other half of the spear wasn’t in Faerie like Moira made Cormac believe, but he wouldn’t tell us how he knew. He’s been able to go through the veil because he has Taryn’s blood in him.”
Connor and Conall look at each other, saying, “Damn.”
I rake a hand through my hair, releasing a frustrated breath. “Bottom line is that the vision Moira had about what happens once Edevane has the spear is a total annihilation of Faerie. We can’t stand by and let that happen.”
Tiernan nods, “I’m with you, baby bro. Got any ideas on how we stop him?”
Taryn and I share a helpless look. “No,” I say. “We didn’t get a look at the clue before he took it, so we can’t beat him to the location of the spear.”
Caiden crosses his arms over his chest. “That means our only play is to stop him once he already has it.”
Tiernan places his hands on Fiona’s shoulders affectionately. “He might not even be able to use it. Legend says its power died with Lugh.”
“That would be ideal,” I say, “but when I spoke to him before his escape from the ToR, he said something about Moira knowing how to activate it. I have no idea if that’s true, but we have to assume that the knowledge is out there somewhere, or Moira’s vision wouldn’t be centered around the damn thing.”
Tiernan nods. “Good point. I doubt Ede-Lame could start an end-of-times sitch using a regular long pointy stick.”
Conall catches my gaze and winks. “So, future king of kings, what’s the plan?”
I narrow my eyes at one of my oldest friends and sparring partners. “Let’s all agree that Grandma Moira had a flair for the dramatic and ignore the parts of her letter that are obvious flattery, shall we?”
Tiernan claps a hand on my back. “Whatever you say, Dark Jesus.”
I sigh. “I need a drink.”
After brainstorming and trashing several plans, we finally land on a Plan B, with Plan A being a no-go since we don’t know where the spear is and can’t prevent Edevane from getting it. So, Plan B, it is.
“All right, so to recap,” I say from the where I’m standing at the bar, “Staying here will be Brynnie because she’s too pregnant, Caiden because he can’t be far from her or he dies, Fiona because she’s human, and Tier because he’s a cosseted king.”
Tiernan looks up from playing a game on his phone. “Bite me, bro.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I banter back with a flash of fangs. “That leaves me, Taryn, Connor, Conall, and Dmitri who will head to the veil in Joshua Tree to wait for Edevane to show up with the spear. If he does, we stop him with an as of yet TBD plan. If he doesn’t show up within forty-eight hours, we’ll have to assume he beat us to it, which means we stop him in Faerie. Since time moves much slower there, the hope is that he shouldn’t be able to do any real damage before we get to him. Questions?”
Taryn raises her hand a little sheepishly, drawing my attention. “Just one. If we have to travel to Faerie, you guys will need my magic to cross the veil. Except Dmitri. Ironically, the only one who doesn’t need to drink my blood is the vampire.”
The vampire shrugs. “I bring my own for snack.”
“What’s your question, solnyshko?” From the corner of my eye, I see Dmitri raise an eyebrow at my use of the Russian endearment, but I ignore him, focused on what Taryn and whatever has her nerves showing.
“My question is how. I mean, are we just going to…” She gestures at the side of her neck, and the image of the Woulfe brothers drinking at Taryn’s throat has me seeing red.
“Fuck no, we’re not,” I growl. Stalking over to her, I take her hand and pull her up from the couch. “Come on.”
I grab a glass water bottle and a knife from the kitchen, then lead her into my private bathroom, closing the door behind us. Taryn perches on the counter, her wrist extended towards me. The knife in my hand feels heavy, its blade glinting under the fluorescent light, but I remind myself that she’s strong enough to heal quickly when we’re done.
With a steady hand, I make a precise cut across her wrist, the blood welling up immediately, dark and crimson. I hold her wrist over the mouth of the bottle, the sound of the steady drips almost hypnotic in the silence.
