“So you’re thinking your parents must be magical.”
“Yep. I think they’re the answer to all my questions. And I want to find them. Not just to understand my magic, but to know where I come from. It’s been eating me up inside.”
She gripped my hand, and I took comfort from her touch. “I can help you.”
“You’ve got to be busy.”
“Not too busy to help a friend.” She frowned, then sipped her drink. “But I think you’re going to need more than just me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think you could get answers from the Truth Teller, but I don’t know how to reach her.”
Annoyance shot through me at the thought of the seer who had appeared at the end of the competition and declared me the winner.
“We just need to find her.” Meria stood up and looked over the balcony to the right. “But you’re not going to like how we do it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Evelyn.”
“She knows where the Truth Teller is?” Evelyn had been our primary competition in the fight to become queen. She’d started out as a real bitch. She might still be one, but when the competition had nearly killed Meria and me, she’d helped us. So she wasn’t a monster, at least. And I usually liked bitches.
“I heard her talking about it,” Meria said. “The Truth Teller told her to come to the competition. So she did.”
“And yet, she didn’t win.”
Meria shrugged. “Maybe she was meant to compete for another reason. There’s a lot to be gained from being a competitor.” She gestured to the beautiful apartment around her. “Like a fresh start.”
“Does Evelyn also have an apartment?”
“On this very street. Let’s go see if she’ll help us.”
“Now?”
“No time like the present. And you want to know, right?”
“Desperately.” So desperately that I didn’t mind bugging Evelyn late at night.
With any luck, she wouldn’t bite my head off.
2
Lore
* * *
I stared blindly at the book in front of me. I’d selected it in an attempt to keep my mind off of Sia.
It hadn’t worked.
She hadn’t left my thoughts since the competition yesterday.
It was killing me.
Next to me, Wolf rumbled low in his throat. I rubbed his head. “Someone’s coming, eh?”
He rumbled again, and I heard the footsteps in the hall. A moment later, a knock sounded at the door. I turned, welcoming the distraction.
Thank fates.
“Come in.”
Vusario entered my study. The seer was dressed in a cloak the color of blood. Dark shadows hung beneath his black eyes. “My lord.”
“Vusario. What do you need?”
“I’ve come to discuss arrangements to go to the High Court for your wedding.”
“We’re not going. You know the High Court is full of backstabbers and threats. We’ll do the wedding here.”
Shock flashed across Vusario’s face. “That’s unheard of. The marriage will be more powerful with the support of the other members of the High Court. You need them.”
“No, I don’t. I need is to fulfill the prophecy and defeat the witch with the deathly magic. The High Court doesn’t play into it.”
I hated the damned High Court. The leaders of each of the fae kingdoms had a seat, me included. And though there were alliances to be found there, it was more common to find a knife in your back.
Especially since Sia was now queen. She wielded a power we didn’t understand, and my spies suggested there was at least one member of the High Court who would like to see her dead.
The idea of her death made me break out in a cold sweat.
“Of course the Council plays into it,” Vusario said. “Are you willing to risk war with them by violating the terms of the alliances we’ve formed?”
“They can be dealt with. No one would rise against us. Not after what I did to the Court of the Northern Fae.” I still occasionally felt guilt over the harshness of my vengeance. I’d killed anyone who had resisted, and many had. Their court had shattered afterward, and those left had moved far away.
Some said the extent of my vengeance had been too much, and there were times I agreed.
In the middle of the room, Vusario shifted on his feet, a frown creasing his brow. It was more emotion than he usually showed.
“Sire, we must attend.”
“Why are you so insistent about this?”