Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Those cold, bitter eyes narrow in on my hand on his arm. “When I was young, a soul bond meant something.” She glares at me, and I want to wipe that sneer right off her face.
I clench my hands into fists and focus to control my power.
She continues. “It wasn’t something done on a whim. We bonded only with those we loved, and we were true to that bond until the day we died. But you stand here before me, bonded to one male while smelling of another.”
For the first time since we stepped before her, I bow my head, unable to look into those angry eyes while she shames me. I might not care about being a lady, but my complicated relationship with Finn and Sebastian and the choices I made along the way? I consider that a failure. An embarrassment.
Finn stiffens beside me. “Abriella didn’t know that Sebastian—”
“I don’t want your excuses,” she snaps. “It’s been corrupted. Just like the crown, just like the court. It was never meant to be like this.”
“I agree,” Finn says softly. “Which is why we’re here. The court is dying. The crown and its power have been cleaved, so no one can sit on the throne. There are children falling into the Long Sleep, more and more by the day. And Queen Arya will launch an all-out attack on our lands at any moment. The Court of the Moon needs to be at full strength if we’re to have a chance at surviving this war.”
She swivels her gaze to me, and I fight the urge to cower under its intensity. “You have the power of the crown, but no Unseelie blood,” she says. “The court is dying because you still breathe.”
Finn’s anger rolls off him, and he steps forward, but I stop him with a hand on his arm. “I didn’t have a choice,” I explain. “I was dying, and Oberon—”
“I know the story,” she snaps. “I simply find it disappointing.”
Of course she does. I lift my chin. “Is there a way for me to shift the power to Sebastian?”
“Yes, but he cannot rule,” she says. “This land is full of fae who would see the whole court fall before allowing Seelie blood on that throne.”
I swallow hard. This is what we were afraid of—this stalemate.
“Convince the golden prince to surrender his crown to the girl,” she tells Finn.
“No,” I whisper. There has to be another way. “I can’t sit on the throne anyway. It would be a pointless loss.”
“His death would be step one.” Her smile is wicked and angry. “Then you’d forfeit your own life to pass the power and crown to Finnian, where it belongs.”
Next to me, Finn snarls. “That’s not an option.”
I swallow hard. Maybe it should be.
“Dear Prince, you know how this works. The power becomes one with the life, and only once the life is surrendered does the power move on to the heir. Isn’t it time you made a sacrifice for your kingdom? For once?”
I can feel Finn shrink, and I want to claw her eyes out for hitting him in such a tender spot.
“Not before we’ve exhausted all other options,” he says. “Open a portal to the Underworld so that I may ask the Great Queen Mab herself how to save our kingdom.”
The priestess stares at him for a long time, and I hold my breath. I know the others have been planning for a way to proceed without whatever divine intervention Mab might offer, but I also know that if they’d come up with a true alternative, we wouldn’t be here and Finn wouldn’t be planning a treacherous trip to the Underworld.
The priestess holds Finn’s gaze. “No.”
Finn flinches.
“You were supposed to be king,” she says. “You were supposed to rule alongside Juliana. She is worthy. You were once worthy. Prove that you are again. You’ve failed our kingdom, and now that white-haired Seelie trash lives in our palace and this human filth holds the power of our crown. I will not—” She gags, grabbing her throat as if she’s choking, and then blood spills out of her mouth and her eyes roll back in her head.
Finn’s arm darts out in front of me and he urges me to step back, away from the throne.
“What’s happening?” I ask him.
“The High Priestess swore an oath to Mab when she took residence in this temple,” he says. His eyes are wide as he watches her convulse. “There are consequences to taking that oath and then refusing to act in the best interest of the court, refusing to do Mab’s will.”
The High Priestess suddenly stops convulsing, and the air in the room shifts as something else, something other slides into her body, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Blood spills out of her mouth and splashes onto the marble floor as she leans forward and stares at us with the whites of her eyes. “At the northernmost peak of the Goblin Mountains,” she says, but it’s not the priestess’s voice. This is a voice from far away and all around. It’s the voice of all the shadow priestesses, and it sends chills racing across my skin and my heart stuttering in my chest. “In the cave beneath the roots of the Mother Willow, the portal waits.” She turns her head and stares into my eyes, globs of clotted blood falling to the floor with each word. “Go there, Abriella, child of Mab.”