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"When a Fae Queen reabsorbs her heartstone, when the energy returns to her body, she forfeits her crown The heartstone, once hidden and separate from the Queen, will forever hold her real n But it was my choice to make I could have died a queen, but I chose to live, to battle Myst and fade into history"

Tears clogged"I don’t understand…"

Chatter stepped up to Wrath "You will go with your Lady, then?"

Wrath nodded "It is the way Once we have routed Myst and reclain to the four of you The Golden Wood will be divided between you Su year, then retreat to her real year"

I gasped "My dream…we met on the solstices…but then that means…"

"Yes…you will be divided, at odds and yet in alliance Sule on the days they e You and your cousin will forever live separate This is your sacrifice This is the way it’s always been"

Rhiannon burst into tears "I’m not ready for that"

"This is your destiny There is no turning away" Lainule stepped forward and e have I wished to welcome you into the family, to tell you who you were, but like Wrath and Cicely, I could not do so until the right time I e could have prepared you both for this, but there was no way War does not give us an easy route, nor does it make allowance for fear"

A knock at the door startled all of us I stepped forward, es over the past feeeks had been intense and confusing Now to find out that Rhia and I had been born to a destiny neither of us had dared even drea I had so many questions, but as I opened the door, I knew they’d have to wait

A group of ic-born from the Consortium waited Ysandra stepped forward "Reinforcements are here" She turned to Rhiannon, Grieve, Chatter, andkilled in this battle? Why you must lead the battle and yet, let others take on the brunt of the fighting? You are the heirs to the thrones You cannot let yourselves be hurt"

I bit ain, ere pawns of destiny, but I had the feeling that would shift once we took the reins of power Then ould be for to it We weren’t ready for this, but then…would we ever be? We were being tested, and fate had a way of shoving people into situations in order to strengthen the tempered Fire and Ice" I turned to Lainule "When do we ainst Myst? Your warriors are here The witches and ht ates It is time for titches to lead their people into battle

I turned to Wrath "I just received aFae are ready We cannot wait for the vao Court"

"Then ill go to battle We will do what Myst did to us, and once again, the barroill run red with blood, but not from the Cambyra Fae this time" He stood, then added, "Do you understand why you cannot carry the obsidian blade?"

I licked ave rips of its energy It forces ave me, I will content myself with that and with the force of the wind"

And so we instructed Lannan’s servants to sweep up the ring of salt and sulfur and silver--no use having him pissed at us because of the mess and the metal barrier--and prepared for battle Lainule and Ysandra instructed their brigades to meet us in front of the Veil House--four dozen Fae warriors, and two dozenFae, I sent a h the slipstream for them to meet us at the Veil House I received a riddle in return that toldLannan’s li thescattered reht before The streets were filled with cars ainst the s I felt a sense of loss, gazing over the exodus With hope, we could make it safe for the back to a town that was so full of blood and bones?

As we pulled into the driveway, the warriors were there, along with theFae appeared as we spilled out of the car and cast our gazes over the assembled army

"Be cautious" Wrath’s voice echoed over the yard as we gathered in front of the burned shell of the Veil House "While Myst and the Vampiric Fae will be asleep, you can rest assured they hen we attack, and the light-rage will o in with the element of surprise, but do not be co Kill all of the Vampiric Fae you see--but do not mistake and harm Prince Grieve, whatever you do Are you ready?"

The warriors let out a loud cry and turned to the Golden Wood

Grieve, Rhiannon, Chatter, and I stood apart, surrounded by Kaylin, Luna, Peyton, as well as Zoey, who had opted to join us We stared at the woodland While the others were focused on finding all the Shadow Hunters they could, it was our goal to find Myst’s personal nest And Grieve knehere she was

"There will likely be creatures guarding the woods," he warned everyone "Goblin dogs and other ill-fortuned Fae Do not be deceived by the see Fae nodded They weren’t speaking limmer in their eyes They seeottenthe snow hag’s round in front of her, neatly wrapped She gave hiht store this, if one had a thought, until after a skir the meat and be off with it and then both parties would be out ht be wise to listen to such advice" He put the meat back in the car until ere done

And then, with nothing to hold us any longer, and the afternoon upon us, we marched across the backyard toward the Golden Wood Toward our destiny

The warriors went first, stretching through the undergrowth Following the Fae spread out to the sides We followed, taking the path with a group of eight guards to the front, and I was surprised to see Lainule waiting at the trail entle sht to regain it for you and your cousin I will not go easily into the fading mists" She stepped into the for the rest of us, they swept into the woods, and we followed

The woodland seean to think that the Shadow Hunters had killed the our best to keep froe and filled with the giant fat snow spiders that were Myst’s pets and sentinels Gold and white, they were as beautiful as they were deadly, and I kepttrapped fro across the path, the warriors went first, shooting the away, but one dropped, and soon a second and third One of the guards stepped up to tear down the web that crossed the trail, but another spider that had been hiding in the trees lashed out, catching him in its mandibles He let out a shout that was cut short as the creature injected him with its venom and he went limp Three others ere at the front of the trail sent arrows into the spider, and it tried to run but then stuht the fallen guard back, but it was too late The poison had worked quickly and he was stone dead Laying hiently to the side, we rew darker<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>