The moment light fills the room again, Sebastian is launched from the throne to the dais steps and is left sprawling. He’s panting and wide-eyed, but he doesn’t look entirely surprised as he surveys the throne from where it has cast him onto the floor.
Jalek backs away from the dais as he stares at Sebastian, but he shifts his gaze to Finn when he asks, “What’s happening?”
“The Throne of Shadows will not accept someone who doesn’t possess the power of the crown,”
Finn says, strolling toward the dais.
“But . . . he has the crown,” Jalek says.
“You knew this would happen,” Sebastian says through clenched teeth, trying and failing to stand.
This is what I felt yesterday, through the bond. The throne tried to kill him.
Finn shrugs. “The possibility occurred to me when Abriella visited my dreams after bonding with you. You wore the crown, yet she still had powers unique to the Unseelie Court. And then there are these rumors about her throwing darkness onto your mother’s precious Golden Palace, and I had to wonder. After all, no average fae would have the power to do what she did and walk away, let alone the power to do it without having the chance to recover from the potion.”
“I’m not leaving,” Sebastian says. “This palace is as much mine as it is yours, and my guard is marching through the capital now. They’ll be here soon.”
Finn shrugs. “Make yourself at home.”
Kane gapes at him. “You’re kidding me.”
“Sleeping under this roof doesn’t make one king. Mordeus proved that.”
Jalek looks back and forth between Sebastian and Finn. “Would someone explain?”
Finn lifts his chin. “Sebastian may have taken the crown from Abriella, but Abriella still possesses its powers.”
Chapter Six
Like jerking awake from a dream, I’m back in my body, back at the table on the terrace with Misha.
Nausea rolls over me, yanking my stomach into my throat. I push my chair back and stand, crossing to the railing, as if the sight of the drop might root me in my own body enough to let me catch my breath.
“I don’t understand. Why can’t Sebastian take the throne? He has royal Unseelie blood, he has the crown, how does he not have the power too?”
“Because you have it,” Misha says gently. “When you bonded with Sebastian, the bond killed you, and since you’d never magically declared your heir, the crown followed that bond like a map to Sebastian.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Sebastian has the Crown of Starlight,” Misha says. “And if he hadn’t done anything but bond with you, he would have the power of the crown as well. But he didn’t stop with the bond. He gave you the Potion of Life and made you fae, and in doing so, he tied the magic of the crown to your life before it could follow the crown.”
Tied the magic to my immortal life. “Magic is life,” I whisper, remembering those words Finn taught me. It feels like so long ago now, but it was merely weeks ago that I learned this about the fae.
“Without both the crown and the power, Sebastian can’t take the throne.”
It’s not over. I shake my head to clear the thought away. “I can’t have Oberon’s power. I’m just a human girl.” Before Misha can point out my error, I shake my head. “You know what I mean.”
“Indeed, I do, but you’re more than a human turned fae. Maybe you didn’t notice that you swamped the palace in darkness when you ran? That you trapped the sentries at the refugee camp in cages of nothingness?”
“Yes, but I thought . . .” I swallow. Magic is life. I knew I’d gotten to keep my powers when I was transformed into a faerie, but I never considered how this would affect the crown.
“No one knew this would happen,” Misha says.
“You seemed to.”
“We all had hunches of how the crown might pass from a mortal to Court of the Moon royalty, but no one really knew how it would work or what would happen if, say, you died without bonding with anyone who could actually sit on the throne. If you’d bonded with a golden fae with no Unseelie blood, for instance, would the crown have gone to him upon your death? It would seem unlikely, since one must have royal Unseelie blood to inherit the crown and sit on the throne. But the way Oberon was able to save you—the way he was able to surrender his life and pass the crown to a mortal— broke all the rules we thought we understood. Then there was all the discussion of what would happen to the crown if you died before bonding with anyone—there were all sorts of ideas surrounding that possibility—yet no one ever questioned what would happen if you were given the Potion of Life upon bonding with an Unseelie.”