Chapter 23
The spirits who become shadows in Erebus’s realms are said to be the least fortunate because they have neither peace nor freedom. They are forced to do his bidding and are out of Noctua’s reach. They will never be free.
—OLD ONES, ANCIENTS, AND THE FOLK
Shock burned through Thea’s body, leaving her numb. Her throat tightened as she forced out a denial. “No. Her tree is in Thirstwood.”
Damon shook his head, his eyes heavy with certainty. “This is not like a Sylvan going into her tree to rest. This is… a transmutation. Your mother is that silver tree.”
Thea put a hand to her stomach and leaned over the side of the boat. She was going to be sick.
Damon muttered something, and the shadows moved closer to Thea. She reared back, but then she felt the cool sensation of them against her neck and realized Damon was doing this to ease her nausea. In a minute, her stomach settled.
After a few breaths, she managed to ask, “How?”
Damon spoke quickly. “Remember my father has sacred places in Thirstwood, remnants from bygone days when he had more power. Trees, fountains, rocks, small glades, groves. Some old pact, some ancient agreement, allows him to pull people from your realm into ours if they violate the boundaries of his spaces.”
Thea had heard of such pacts, of course, and knew that the land folk were often custodians of sacred spaces. “My mother would have known where those places are. My father would have told her to stay away.”
“The Sylvan king has put up barriers or hidden most of them,” Damon explained.
“Brambles or thick trees grow around them. However, there was a Sylvan girl who would not be put off by thorns. Perhaps she even viewed those barriers as challenges or sensed a great power half-concealed and was too curious for her own good. Whatever the reason, she tore them away and climbed one of Erebus’s trees. ”
Thea wished she could deny it. She almost didn’t want to hear what happened next.
“The girl’s mother came here and argued with the king,” Damon went on.
“But he would not be put off: He was owed the girl’s spirit.
The mother refuted his claim and went home.
She tried to pretend it had never happened.
But while she was in this realm, my father put a curse on her that made her sicken.
When the queen grew so ill she could no longer survive, she returned. ”
Thea wished she didn’t believe him. That this wasn’t all her fault.
Damon was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees in a relaxed posture, but she felt the tension in him as he finished his story. “Finally, unable to deny the king’s claim but unwilling to sacrifice her child, she offered her own spirit in her daughter’s place.”
“How do you know all this?” Thea asked, shivering. She had never noticed how cold it was here.
Damon met her eyes. “I was in the throne room when she was first brought here. And there again when she offered herself in your place.”
Thea looked away to hide the tears that insisted on rolling down her cheeks.
She put her hands over her face as a sob racked her chest. When was the last time she’d cried?
She couldn’t remember. But now she couldn’t seem to stop.
The pain she’d kept inside for so long insisted on being felt, and she was helpless against it.
Damon’s arm came around her back, and she allowed it, drawing comfort from his warmth.
Finally, when her tears were spent, she wiped her face and straightened her back.
Damon seemed to note her cue, and his arm fell away from her.
She took a deep breath. Though her mind was still in shock over what she’d learned, something inside her eased, as if a tight knot had been untangled in her chest. She finally knew the truth and no longer needed to bear those secrets alone.
“Did you have anything to do with her imprisonment?” she asked, needing to know.
He looked away, his jaw hardening. “Prospect has crows in Thirstwood. Spies. He was the one who saw you climb the tree. He offered your mother the chance to give herself in your place. No doubt he felt the Sylvan queen was a bigger prize in my father’s eyes than a mere girl. ” Damon looked at her. “But now…”
“I saw them kiss,” Thea said unevenly. “I always thought she’d left us for him.”
Damon made a sound of disgust. “He would have tried to charm her, and that could have been part of his attempt. I wouldn’t assume your mother had a choice.”
Thea’s chest ached with regret, along with a renewed urge to murder King Erebus. All this time, she’d thought… The guilt threatened to crush her. “She sacrificed herself to save me.”
“Yes.”
Each breath was more painful than the last. All these years, she had blamed her mother for abandoning her. “She never deserved that,” Thea said in a choking voice. “He shouldn’t have made her stay in my place.” Anger surged up, clearing her mind. “No one deserves to be trapped here.”
“No, they don’t,” Damon agreed, surprising her.
“But if there was a way to fight this, I’d have found it by now.
” He shook his head. “Even some of my shadows could still report to him. That’s why I can say so little without risk.
Though for now, it seems they have not told him about your presence here. ”
“Can I save her?” Thea asked, fixating on that point.
“Yes.” His face lost expression, his eyes taking on a haunted look. “I tried to tell you on your second night here. You can take your mother’s place. And she will be free.”
Thea’s mind reeled. That was too much to wrap her thoughts around. “Why the dresses?” she asked, needing a reprieve from the heavier questions.
He made a sound that seemed self-deprecating. “An invitation. A lure, I suppose, based on what my previous experience told me a young woman might like. The shoes were spelled to bring you to the tree.”
“Did you know who I was when you sent me the first dress?”
Damon looked surprised that she’d ask. “Of course. I found the cracks in the wards of Scarhamm, but it took my shadows months before they could send it.”
“If you can travel by root to Thirstwood, why not just talk to me when I was on patrol? Why send the dresses?”
A hint of humor lit Damon’s eyes. “Do you think I’m foolish enough to risk accosting you in the woods without testing the waters first? You’d have skewered me.”
Thea felt her lips twitch. “Most likely. But why me? What was your plan?”
Damon sighed, his eyes resting on the water for a few moments.
“I thought it unfair that your mother was trapped here.” He turned his head and met her eyes.
“And her daughter, who had been the one who breached the boundary, was free. I wanted to give you the chance to make it right now that you’re no longer a child. ”
Thea was struck by his sympathy, though it hurt to hear that he blamed her. “Why not tell me what was going on right from the beginning?”
He paused, his eyes shifting away from her for a moment. “I didn’t trust you. I didn’t know you.”
Thea shivered at the memory of the way the king had looked at her, like she was something he could acquire. “And now that you do know me, will you tell me what your father wants from me?”
“He also wants you to take your mother’s place. She’s been here a long time, and a new presence will help power this realm and feed his shadows.”
Take her place. As a silver tree.
The reality of it brought a fresh wave of nausea.
This was where her mother had lived for seven years.
Where she would remain unless Thea set her free.
And if she did, this was where she herself would be for the rest of her life.
Sylvans could live a very long time. She might live a thousand years trapped beside that awful king, miserable but sentient.
She looked at Damon with pure bitterness. Better to indulge her anger than to feel the guilt wrapped up with her mother’s sacrifice. “Do the spirits trapped here eventually go to the Netherwhere? Is there freedom after death?”
Damon’s eyes sharpened on hers. “I don’t know.”
She watched the boat’s lantern reflected in his midnight eyes, the way shadows settled under his cheekbones, accentuating the angles of his face.
A beauty used for something evil, to trap souls to feed this realm.
“I want another way to free my mother that does not involve sacrificing my own freedom. I won’t become one of your silver trees. ”
“The silver trees are not mine,” he said, his tone furious. “Don’t ever call them mine.”
She scoffed. “They might as well be. What have you done to help those folk?”
“You don’t know how unfair that is,” Damon whispered. “Every time I’ve tried to defy my father, I have barely survived the punishment.”
She swallowed. She believed him. But could she trust him? After everything she now knew? That Damon had lured her here as some kind of fuel for his father’s land of shadows, a prize he got to toy with for nine days before dooming her very spirit?
The problem was, she had no other options. “Well, you’ve never had an ally before.”
Damon gave her a doubtful look. “You’re offering to be my ally?”
“Yes. You don’t seem to relish the idea of me taking my mother’s place.”
His lip curled. “I abhor it.”
“Then tell me how to defy his claim. Is there any way I can free my mother without being trapped here myself?”
Damon’s eyes stayed locked on hers. “Prospect can trade one spirit for another, but I’ve never seen that done, and no one who has been here nine nights has ever left.”
So there’s no hope. Thea had to put a hand to the edge of the boat to steady herself, as if she’d been dealt a blow.
Damon put a hand over hers, but she drew it away.
Thea saw they were nearing his castle. After a moment, he spoke again.
A muscle jumped in his cheek, making it clear how dangerous he found it to tell her this.
“I do think my father has a weakness. It’s been many, many years since he went into Thirstwood.
Until recently, the wards have kept his shadows from following him there.
Other than the night he went to meet your mother, he remains in this realm.
When I was a child, he started sending me in his place to hunt for folk. ”
“Hunt?” she asked.
“To bring folk here to become silver trees or shadows.”
The boat reached the shore. Thea stood and stepped out. She was exhausted, but her mind was full of the vital information she’d received—answers she’d craved since her first meeting with Damon.
She couldn’t let her mother languish here. That was not an option. Thea was a protector, her role and duty in life. She had always known it. And King Erebus was a power-hungry creature who enjoyed toying with those weaker than himself. She wanted to destroy him.
One of Damon’s shadows touched her shoulder.
Drawn to her fury? She had plenty of it.
She wanted to kill someone. If she could pull Damon’s shadows from him, could she use them to fight the king?
Hold him at bay while she and her mother escaped?
She stroked the shadow, willing it to stay longer.
It lingered for another moment before returning to Damon.
“What calculations are going on behind those magnificent brown eyes?” Damon asked, an intense look of scrutiny filling his own. “It’s like watching clouds move over the moon.”
He was right that she was calculating her plans.
When she returned to Thirstwood, she would head straight to the pixie village.
Ask Autumn to commune with Thea’s mother again.
She might know if the king had a weakness.
Though the idea of talking to her mother after all this time filled her with excitement, it also made her feel a depth of sadness she had shoved down for seven years.
As he watched her, his expression grew concerned. “You seem tired, Thea. Do you wish to return to Thirstwood? It’s very late.”
Thea blinked, realizing she hadn’t spoken in a couple of minutes. She had too much to consider. “Yes. I think I’ve learned enough for one night.”
He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he kept glancing around as if he suspected they weren’t alone. He inclined his head. “Tomorrow, then.”
When the portal opened, Thea stepped through. But instead of stepping into the woods, she found herself back in her bedchamber. Trapped again.
She pounded a fist on her mantel, making the walls shake.