Chapter 12 #2
“You?” He jerked his head my way. “You think you destroyed it?” He paused, then let out a laugh.
“Ms. Kovacs, you may not be human, but you are certainly not powerful enough to annihilate one of the most powerful objects in the world. Some of the most formidable fae have tried to own it, use it, and never could. I doubt you could simply come along after decades and turn it obsolete.”
“Don’t underestimate me.” Pushing off the wall, I strolled to him, my spine unyielding.
“You can’t even fight off fae glamour.” He motioned to me. “How could you supersede a fae treasure?”
A wicked smile teased my mouth. “Don’t you get it?”
“Get what?”
“I am the nectar.”
The crackle of the fire was the only sound, Killian going utterly still, though I felt him in every fiber of the room. His energy popped like the flames.
“Excuse me, Ms. Kovacs?” His voice cut through like a sharp blade with deadly precision. Not one syllable was afflicted, though danger lurked under it like lava.
I didn’t flinch or buckle. “More accurately, the nectar is me.”
One nerve jumped in Killian’s jaw.
“Did I not warn you?” He stepped for me again. Slow. Calculated. Everything about Killian was smooth and controlled. Graceful in his fury, it did not make him any less dangerous than someone who barreled for you. If anything, it made him more so.
“I do not take kindly to liars.” The ruthless lord watched me with no sentiment. The ruler who could be fair and kind could also slit your throat in a blink.
“And I’ll tell you again. I’m not lying.” I stood my ground, fighting the impulse to drop to my knees and beg under the wrath wrapping around me. Most would. But with or without my powers, I would bow to no man.
Ever again.
Women have always had to apologize or bend to their will. We were punished for their weak character. In doing so, we helped them keep us down like pitiful creatures they claimed us to be. When in truth, we were the dragons.
Even in death, I’d go down with talons and flames.
“I don’t know what you are gaining from this.” Killian’s eyes burned bright. “If this is some trick. But you took an oath. If you break it.” He gritted his teeth. “I will make sure torment and suffering rain down on you for a century.”
He reached for me, his magic already knifing into my skin. My chin ticked up higher.
“She’s telling the truth.” A voice came from the doorway, jolting our heads to it.
Tad stood there, his cane in one hand, helping him balance out his twisted back.
“What?” Killian faltered back.
“She is not lying to you, my boy.” Tad huffed, slowly hobbling into the room. “She is what she claims.”
For the first time ever, shock came over Killian’s features, his head darting back to me with awe.
“How—how is that possible?”
“Sometimes this thing still works.” Tad grinned at me, tapping at his head.
“Took me a moment to find those lost memories. My mind does not work on the same timeline as others. When your mother did a spell right when the wall fell, she blocked my mind from anything that had to do with you. The veil has now been lifted. I can see it all.” He wagged his head.
“She was deviant and smart enough to piggyback on the Otherworld’s magic with her own, understanding the force that was coming.
There would have been no other way to do a spell that could obstruct me from seeing even when it was in my hands. ”
“What are you talking about?” Killian folded his arms.
“The nectar is part of Brexley.” He confirmed. “It’s her afterbirth.”
“Her afterbirth?” Killian blinked, a frown crinkling his lip.
“It is more like a sponge, soaking in all the magic, becoming one of the most magically infused substances in the world—as powerful as the four treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann. Even more so because on top of that, she has magic from a druid.”
“But I thought you said my mother was a witch again.”
“In title, yes. And they lost potency of their magic, but high kings and queens don’t have the power of the gods and goddesses.
They can’t strip them completely. Your mother’s clan still held special magic.
Human witches, remember, can’t do any real magic or be cursed in their death to be necromancers. ”
The memory of my mother and my Aunt Morgan fighting in battle came back to me. I recalled them being able to lift people off the ground and break their necks with a spell.
Human witches couldn’t do that.
“So you’re saying this afterbir—nectar.” Killian quickly jumped back to the original name, his head ticking like it was gross. “Is holding both fae and druid magic?”
“Yes,” Tad affirmed. “Not simply holding, but merged together.”
“How is it possible?” Killian exclaimed. “They don’t mix! The fae and druids have always had contention between them.”
“Not completely true.” Tad adjusted his weight.
“The Druid Queen of the Unified Nations is mated with a fae dark dweller, and has kids . . . both have dual abilities, which is a first in existence. Though I think their powers are still separated by which form they are in. They can’t use druid magic in their dark dweller form, and they can’t use their dark dweller abilities when using druid magic. ”
“Because they don’t mix,” Killian stated again, arms flaying about.
“Well, in this one case.” Tad gestured to me. “They did.”
My mouth hung open. “But I don’t have powers of both druid and fae.” I shook my head. I didn’t, right? “Even when I had it, I wasn’t that powerful. Not what you are suggesting.”
“I think you were a lot more formidable than any of us understand, including yourself. However, for a true blending of both, no physical form could handle that amount of magic. Not the level I felt that night.” Tad’s skinny fingers squeezed my wrist. “The afterbirth has no such boundaries. It is still you. Your power, except kept on the side. Sort of like a familiar.”
A familiar? A familiar was a witch and Druid term, usually an animal companion with supernatural abilities, which was exactly what it felt like when I touched it. Part of me, but its own entity. Capable of even more greatness . . . and destruction.
In my case, because nothing was ever normal with me, my familiar was my pet afterbirth.
I shall name him squishy.
“Fuck the gods . . .” Killian’s head dropped back. He rubbed at his face, his legs starting to move back and forth. “If this stuff is so powerful, how is it worthless now?”
Tad cocked his head in my direction.
“Well . . .” I nipped at my bottom lip. “I kind of brought my uncle back to life . . . along with seven necromancers.”
The stunned silence and blank stares from the men almost made me laugh.
“Didn’t expect that one, did you?” I tucked hair behind my ear, shifting on my feet, their weighted gazes making me nervous.
“No.” Tad’s hand dropped away from me. “And there is not much that ever surprises me. But you, girl, seem to be the one thing I can’t foresee.”
“Explain,” Killian commanded. He didn’t like being shocked by anything, either. He wanted to be the one in control, the one who could see everything coming.
I was not one of those things.
Inhaling, I watched the flames reflect off my boots and started telling them.
It seemed pointless to keep the information from them now.
We were all in too deep. I gave them the highlights of the night at High Castle, finding my mother, the nectar, and the commotion raging past the stone wall in the heart of the city.
They took it all in, not questioning me on much . . . until I had to explain how I knew my uncle’s place had been bombed, how I saved him when I wasn’t there. The connection between not only Warwick but also Scorpion tangled them up.
“I knew you had a special connection to Warwick, but also this other guy too? You saved both that night in the fae war?” Tad stepped back, lowering himself down on the sofa.
“Yes.”
“But she was just born.” Killian’s confusion was making him angrier.
“Oh, deities.” Tad’s head raised. “The fae book. It took you back.”
I didn’t have to respond; he already connected the dots.
“The fae book . . . it wouldn’t let me in, but it wanted you.
Still, I’ve never heard of one letting anyone be more than a viewer.
I am a high druid, and I’ve never been more than a spectator of history.
It let you become history. You should not hold so much sway over a fae book.
” Wide-eyed, Tad gulped, his lids shutting as if something was dawning on him.
“What?” I whispered, my heart tapping rapidly against my ribs.
“Do you know anything about the first fae books?”
“Ash told me they were made by druids for their masters. The old kings and queens.”
“Yes.” Tad nodded. “And those books were bound to that family line. Most books aren’t now, but then the nobles wanted to own everything .
. . including books. Druids had the rulers’ signatures magically laced in with the binding.
Every person has a special signature of magic, and every family has one too. ”
“Ash mentioned something like that. He also said they all had been destroyed by now.”
“I thought so too.” Tad absently rubbed at his shoulder, his gaze faraway. “I didn’t pay attention that day, but now I can feel it.”
“What? What day?” Fear tickled at the base of my spine.
“The day you came down into the tunnel . . . when we went into the book . . . or at least I tried.” His dazed expression sharped, stopping on me. “It kept me out. It wanted only you.”
My chest went concave, waiting for him to finish.
“Because you are its owner.”
“What?” Killian and I spat out at the same time.
“Have you lost your mind, old man?” Killian barked. “Books aren’t owned anymore.”
“This one is different. This one is old.” Tad gripped his cane. “It is one of the original fae books. And can you guess to which family it belonged?”
My lids shut, already knowing the answer.
“Queen Aneira.”
My head dipped forward more, letting it sink in.
“It recognized her signature in you. To the book, you are part of that same family, its true owner now.”
It was why it picked me over both Ash and Tad. It called to me. At least it used to. “Brexley Kovacs, the girl who defies nature.”
“It knows what I am . . . was.” I shook my head. “That I’m not right.”
“Doesn’t matter. Aneira’s magic is part of you; her family line is in you. It bows to you.”
“Doesn’t Aneira have actual family out there, a niece?”
“Yes. And if the book was in her hands, it would do the same. It’s owned by the family, not the person. And whether it likes it or not, you have slipped under that umbrella.”
“Great.” I huffed. “I have one of the most evil queens to ever exist as part of me.”
“First, there were plenty of evil rulers before her, but her magic wasn’t necessarily evil, nor her family line.
I knew Aneira as a child. As well as her sister, Aisling, who was kind and full of life.
Her power was fire. Aneira was always jealous of that.
Circumstances, isolation, and her father’s severe strictness are what turned Aneira petty, jealous, and cruel.
Especially watching her sister be pampered and adored.
Free to love and be herself, adored by her father and mother.
Aneira was always treated like a future queen, not a daughter.
” Tad tapped his finger against his cane.
“Though in that great power, are you as capable of such evilness? Oh yes, my dear. All power can be. It’s up to you how magic is used. ”
“Moot point anyway.” I shrugged. “I don’t have it anymore.”
“We shall see, won’t we?” Killian stated.
“What does that mean?”
“You are taking us to the High Castle,” Killian stated. “You are getting me what you promised.”