Emily hoisted herself onto the counter. “That’s creepy. What kind of mutation?”
Nana crossed her arms over her chest. “Some mutations cause diseases in people. This one isn’t harmful. It just enables the fetus to absorb magic.”
My arm was sore from where Nana had drawn blood, and I rested it on the counter. “Why don’t the Fey just grow their own knights in that garden?”
Nana closed the book. “They tried but failed. Faeries were resistant to the magic.”
A young faery girl came in and stood by the door as if waiting to speak to Nana. Her back was straight, her brown hair pushed behind pointy ears, and her hands stiff by her sides.
“We’re done here,” Nana said. “Go and rest. It may take a few days to produce an ample amount of the cure. This is Nysa. She’s your host while you’re in the Fey realm and will show you and Emily to your rooms.”
“Follow me,” Nysa said and exited the lab.
“Sounds good to me. I could sleep for days.” I stood and headed for the door Emily held open.
“And Gia,” Nana said before I left. “Remember, not a word about our plan to Arik.”
“Yeah, got it.” I closed the door behind me.
I’d always been able to trust Arik. He was the leader of our Sentinel band. We might be at odds with each other, but we had been battle partners. When he discovered I’d gone against his orders—and he would find out—all my attempts at regaining a friendship with him would crumble.
But I would risk it all to save the sick Mystiks and faeries in that infirmary. To save the covens. To save Dag.
Chapter Eight
The ceiling leaked in the dark room. My nose and ears felt like ice; I pulled the rough covers tighter around me. It was strange that the temperature had changed so drastically. Since arriving in the Fey realm, it had been a perfect seventy-two degrees. I sat up when a door creaked open.
I wasn’t in the same room I’d gone to sleep in.
“Your Highness,” a deep man’s voice said behind the flame of a candlestick in his hand. “You asked to be awakened with any news from Asile.”
“That I did,” Athela said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. I was in the head of Royston’s mother, my ancestor who’d lived hundreds of years ago. She was an enchantress, hijacking my dreams ever since I’d entered the Mystik realm, showing me things from her past. Things she felt I needed to know to help her son destroy the Tetrad.
The man turned his back as Athela crossed the cold floor, a flimsy nightgown flowing around her legs and her blond hair swaying against her waist. She grabbed a thick, red robe from a chair and slipped it on.
“What have you heard?” she asked, her voice shivering a little in the cold.
“Taurin’s sons have been murdered. The whereabouts of the Chiavi are unknown. Mykyl—” The man cleared his throat. “Your father’s body rots while the people of Esteril celebrate his crucifixion. Shall I send an army to retrieve it for burial?”
“No.” Athela tied a gold rope around her waist and stared into a distorted mirror. She was older than the last time I was in her body, most likely in her forties. “All is how it should be. My father betrayed our people. Betrayed me. Let them have their revenge.”
The anger Athela had for her father mixed with my sadness for her. She never felt the love from her father that I had from Pop. It must have been hard growing up with a father as cruel as Mykyl.
Why am I here? I thought. What does she want me to know?
The man kept looking back at the door. “As you wish, Your Highness. We must leave. You are no longer safe here. The uprising sends an assassin to your door as we speak.”
“Very well,” she said, turning from the mirror. “Alert Cadby. We leave tonight.”
His eyes went back to the door. “The council has sent Cadby to a Somnium for your son’s murder.”
She covered her mouth with a shaky hand. “He was wrongly accused. My son is not dead.”
“There is no reasoning with the Wizard Council,” the man said. “They fear the uprising. Those who want to overtake the human world won’t stop until you are dead. Taurin’s vision of two separate worlds won’t last. It is only a matter of time before those who want to rule all will rise.”
“My death will shock them all. It will cause the people to vote for a just high wizard to lead the council.” Athela grabbed bottles filled with what looked like insects and herbs. She opened a leather-bound book that I recognized. It was the ancient spell book that Nana had found and Emily now used.
It was her book.
“Taurin’s sons and daughters will keep the peace for many generations.” She read one of the pages of the book. “But it cannot last. His or her time will end, and another ruler will take over. The council will want to use the Tetrad to bring the Mystik world out of hiding. To enslave humans.” She dumped the contents of the bottles into a mortar bowl and worked at grinding them with a pestle.
A loud thump sounded somewhere in the castle, and the table shook.
The man adjusted his stance, his eyes darting to the door. “The assassins are ramming the door.”
She lit a match and set the crushed items in the bowl on fire. “They may kill me, but my spirit will not leave. I will send my own assassin. An assassin of their false truths.”
Her eyes closed and darkness overtook me. She chanted something, and a brightness lit the back of her eyelids. A loud boom resounded through the room, and her eyes flew open. The man lay unmoving under rubble from the ceiling, blood staining his beard and the candle by his hand snuffed out.
“Daughter of the Seventh, you are my chosen one.”
Is she talking to me? A chill ran through my thoughts.
“I’ve waited hundreds of years for you,” she continued. “I’ve cried thousands of tears for peace. It is up to you to guide my son in achieving what he is meant to do. You are the Assassin of Truths. Expose the evil choking the Mystik world. Destroy the weapon they mean to use.”
The roof collapsed, crushing Athela. A tugging sensation overcame me as her soul departed her body. It was as if someone had pulled a plug and everything suddenly turned dark. I was left there alone and cold within her mind.
Sadness hit me, so painful it cut through my soul. She was dead. And without doubt, I knew she would never enter my dreams again. She had shown me all I needed to know. It was her way of connecting with me, touching my heart so that I would understand her cause. So that I would do what she wanted. To expose the truth. To destroy the Tetrad. To finish what Taurin believed was the only way for the Mystik and human worlds to exist. One without the other. Separate. Because those with magic could control those without.
“Gia, wake up.” A whisper tickled my ear.