Golden threads wrapped around the joining, tugging our hands tighter to one another. “Together,” I agreed, sinking into the warmth that wrapped around us. Imelda stepped forward, lifting the knife she kept tucked into the pocket of her cloak and unsheathing it. She ignored my shocked gasp as she pressed the tip into my finger, blood welling as she repeated the process on Fallon’s finger quickly. The moon carved into the witch’s forehead glowed brightly as Fallon and I met each other’s stares. Her finger was just a breath from mine, blood dripping down her skin as the supernatural pull of the blood magic bound us together.
The moment our fingers touched, my head flew back with a strangled gasp. It was undeniable, the way the blood oath sank into me, striking me in the chest. It wrapped around my heart, the golden threads tightening until they became painful. Fallon jolted back from the contact, clutching her finger to her chest as my lungs heaved.
I turned my hand over, staring at the white teardrop that had formed on my fingertip. The mark glowed like the moon, shining brightly as if it could capture the hope that rang true in the night and place it upon my skin. “All magic has a price,” Imelda said, her eyes meeting mine when I looked up from the mark.
“What will this cost?” I asked, staring down at it.
“You will not know until you pay it,” she said, reaching out to take my finger. She did the same with Fallon, holding the two mirror images beside one another as I heard the sound of a horse’s frantic gallop coming from behind us. “You will protect one another. In some moments, it may benefit you; in others it may cost you. But you will stand together, to face what is coming, as you were always meant to be.”
“But you don’t know what one of us is,” Fallon protested, looking toward me. She had felt the pull to me as I did her, and the mark on my finger changed nothing. I wouldn’t have been able to abandon her without it, anyway.
“No, but I do know that you’ll both be relevant. The guardians wouldn’t have placed you in the same hideaway if you weren’t meant to know one another. There is a method to all that they do, even if it seems to go against their life’s purpose,” she said, reaching out to cup my cheek. “Brander did what he believed to be right.”
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Caldris demanded, dismounting Azra and coming between Imelda and I. He severed the contact of her skin on mine, taking my finger in his grasp and swiping at the new mark as if he could sever it from my skin.
“We took an oath to face what’s coming together. We’ll protect each other,” Fallon answered, holding her chin high. She stared down the God of the Dead as if she didn’t need to fear him, and I supposed she didn’t.
I would never allow him to hurt her.
She was as much mine as he was, even if it was in an entirely different way. Sisters, united in the magic that brought us together.
“And did the witch perhaps explain what happens if one of you fails to protect the other? If there are circumstances beyond your control and one of you is faced with the choice between death and escape?” he demanded, leveling Imelda with a glare that was strong enough to make me shrink back.
“The cost of failure to fulfill your oath is death,” Imelda said, holding his stare before turning it to each of us briefly. “So long as you have the intent to uphold the blood oath, the magic will not demand that price.”
“Matters of life and death are rarely black and white. Sometimes they require hard choices and exceptions to promises such as this. Your magic does not recognize circumstances, Imelda,” he said, turning that rage-filled stare to me. “What if she is Mab’s daughter? You’ve just put yourself at risk for nothing.”
“It is not nothing to protect a friend,” I said, raising my chin in defiance. I yanked my hand out of his grasp. “If you truly believe that, then I am sorry for the life you’ve lived that you would so willingly sacrifice someone you love to save yourself.”
“I wouldn’t,” he said, his tone dropping low. “But I would sacrifice everyone I have ever met to save you. This was a foolish risk.”
“What if it’s me? We’re all thinking about it, right?” I asked, staring back at him in challenge. “If I am Mab’s daughter, I should think it would benefit me to have as many allies outside her influence as possible. Whatever Fallon may be, perhaps she is meant to aid me in dealing with the consequences of my mother.”
“She is not your mother,” he growled, the fury in his voice taking my breath away. “Do not ever say such a thing again.”
“How could you possibly know that? Even you have kept your distance since I started showing signs of her power. You know as well as anyone that the similarities are undeniable, Caelum,” I said, my voice gentling as I trailed off. The broken expression on his face, the outright denial to accept what I was.
He couldn’t.
“I would know if that bitch’s blood ran through your veins. I would feel it. I am far too familiar with all aspects of my fucking step-mother, so I would recognize the way her daughter felt on the inside,” he said, the brutal twist of his features knocking me back a step.
Bile rose to my throat—hot and scorching.
Burning a path up and into my mouth as I resisted the urge to bend over and retch. He…
Oh Gods.
Imelda hung her head forward, her face a grimace as she refused to meet my stare. The horror of realization washed over me, watching as Caldris squeezed his eyes closed. When he opened them, they burned with regret.
He took a step toward me, wincing when I stumbled back to avoid him.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, his voice gentle. “I’ve never had sex with Mab.”
“Then what exactly did you mean?” I asked, letting Fallon step up beside me. She wrapped her arms around me, leaning her head onto my shoulder and offering a small measure of comfort against the pain lacing through my body. The thought that he might have been intimate with my mother had been enough to break me.
How else could he have meant that?
“I meant you. I know what you feel like inside, your emotions. I know your soul, Little One, and I have felt hers. I’ve felt the twisted mess of it inside of me because of this cursed bond. Estrella, you are nothing like her; do you understand me? You are good and kind and so fucking stubborn, but you would turn the world over for those you love. She is incapable of caring about anyone but herself,” he said, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
“So you’ve never touched Mab sexually?” I asked, wanting a step further. There was more to sex than just sex. I wouldn’t fall prey to another Faerie play on words.
“Not directly, no,” he said. He sighed when I jerked back, hanging his head forward. “She had friends who were intrigued by me. They treat all her children like their personal playthings. It's just her way.”
“But you said you were celibate for centuries…” I said, my voice trailing off. There was no way for me to wrap my head around that deception. Unless it was because he’d been unwilling.
Rape was not sex.
My heart broke. He felt it, tilting his head to the side. “She used her influence over us to make us participate, but we were rarely willing. I stopped reacting centuries ago. It took the fun out of it for them and eventually they left me be, once they’d all had a turn. I meant it when I said I haven’t touched anyone. Please, believe that,” he pleaded, taking another step toward me. The first warm tear slid down my cheek, but I didn’t retreat from the touch when he reached out to wipe it away.