“How can we trust you?” Darius hissed. “You could be working for them.”
“I can do no harm to you here. All I can do is show you memories of the past. I was never weaved into the web of souls, but I managed to save a thread from Drusilla’s glove when she died that has since allowed me to connect to this place, to my son.”
“Please listen to him, Orion,” Diego’s voice came out of the dark, a plea so desperate in his tone that I knew I had to give Miguel my attention.
“Alright,” I said. “What is it you want to show us?”
“You must understand that the Nymphs are not all loyal to the Shadow Princess,” Miguel said hurriedly. “Many of us are enslaved as I was, but many more are in hiding.”
“Wait, what if Alejandro is able to hear this discussion?” Darius hissed.
“He cannot see anything but the memories in the web,” Miguel promised. “And he is no longer uploading memories here himself, believing it a pointless endeavour now that his sister is dead and there is no information to be shared.”
“So what is it you want to tell us?” I asked.
“I know what you are doing,” he said excitedly. “You closed one of the rifts and have weakened the Shadow Princess. She is most aggrieved, and it has been hard to hide my jubilation and pretend I am still a slave among her ranks.”
“What do you know about the rifts?” I asked hopefully.
“I don’t know their locations, but I do know how you can find them. You see, I was there the day Vard was gifted a shadow eye. I know of its power. And I believe it can be used to find the rifts.”
“Are you saying we need his eye?” Darius asked in confusion.
“Yes,” Miguel said eagerly. “It is no normal eye, it’s infected with the shadows. If you could make a spyglass strong enough to hold it, I believe it could show you the locations of the rifts.”
“How are we supposed to get close to that asshole?” Darius asked.
“Perhaps you can think of some way,” Miguel said anxiously. “For if you can find those rifts and close them, you will be able to block Lavinia off from her power.”
My heart drummed harder at that. If we could weaken her entirely, cut her off from the shadows, then not only could we end her, but it could also destroy the shadow curse she’d laid on Darcy once and for all.
“Mierda, I must go,” Miguel said anxiously. “I will try to contact you again soon. Viva las verdaderas reinas.”
His presence vanished and I pushed away from the connection to the soul web, my eyes blinking open as I fell back into my body and yanked the hat off my head.
I looked to Darius across Seth’s sleeping form, a fierce purpose resounding between us.
“How the fuck are we going to get that shadow eye?” Darius murmured.
“We have to find a way into the palace,” I said thoughtfully. “So we just need a plan and the balls to pull it off.”
I sat in the smaller of the two offices I knew resided within the Palace of Souls, despising that I still couldn’t gain access to Hail’s quarters and his main study which likely held countless secrets within its depths. But I would crack my way in in time, and at least for now I could revel in dominating this space that he had once occupied too. Hopefully he was watching me from beyond the Veil, seeing the man I had become and seething with vitriol over the better Fae who had won his crown.
I dominated the oak desk that ran the length of the enormous window on the back wall, my fingers flexing across the grain of the wood. The light was crisp, casting shadows through the room including those of the Hydra heads that made up the iron chandelier above. I’d toyed with the idea of gutting the palace, stripping out the mark of the old king entirely, but there was something abundantly satisfying about sitting in the place of a man who’d once thought he was far greater than me.
But Hail had been a puppet of my design and this whole ascension would have gone much smoother had he not married that whore of a queen from a savage land. She had made things far trickier for me, her Sight a difficult obstacle to navigate. But eventually, I had found ways by allying with the Nymphs and using the shadows to hide my plans, a thing even a powerful Seer like her could not foresee.
Their deaths should have been the end of my troubles, but now their daughters had returned to lure away my Heir and his Guardian with their pussies. No matter though, I had things under control. I would soon produce another Heir to ensure the Acrux line was upheld, and those who opposed me would be crushed beneath my heel and ground into the earth like the worthless ants they were.