Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
MAVERICK
W hen they said “feast,” I’d expected a little more. A long snake lay in the middle of the table, cooked, split open, its green scales glinting under the light of the twilight sky, visible through the glass ceiling above.
We sat around a long table, easily big enough to seat thirty of us, but with our small numbers, our group gathered at the very end, El heading the table.
The sleek black thrones that sat behind her were cracked in half, toppled to their sides, the stairs leading up to the dais broken and splintered. Overhead a chandelier hung sideways, threatening to tumble down at any moment.
A green, murky pond sat next to the thrones, laid in the ground, swans flapping their wings, splashing the water. Emory had been right. The king’s swans were still here, and they seemed so... normal. No sharp teeth or enlarged eyes or warped bodies. They looked and acted like swans, and it made me wonder about their lifespan. I hadn’t realized swans could live so long .
The chandelier swayed, creaking, and Emory gulped, gaze flicking upward.
Aron leaned over and whispered to her, “It hasn’t fallen in sixty years, so you should be safe.”
She gave him a small smile but glanced up at it again. I sat on her other side while Annalee and Driscoll sat across from us. Emory’s snowy alpine scent wrapped around me, and I balled my fists under the table. It took all my self-control not to reach over and place my hand on her leg. Our adventure earlier had been fun, but it had also reminded me far too much of our time as bone collector and white rabbit. Back when we had no chance.
“Snake.” Driscoll grimaced at our dinner. “How delightful.”
“Our resources are limited here,” Aron said.
El raised her hand, folded it in half, then shoved it up in the air. “You’re welcome to shove it up your ass.”
El might not have been able to speak, but she had no problem getting her meaning across.
Driscoll looked from Aron to me. “She just cussed me out, didn’t she?”
Aron cleared his throat. “El said that no one is forcing you to eat.”
I smirked, and Emory sent me a knowing look.
Aron reached forward and stabbed the middle part of the snake, using his bent fork to pry the meat from its body. Driscoll gulped, a look of horror on his face.
I shrugged and lifted my fork, stabbing into the snake as well. Roasted snake was common in Gilraeth. Not so much in the other courts. Those from Elwen preferred deer and bear, so Driscoll was definitely out of his element.
I plopped a huge chunk of the snake meat onto my plate while Driscoll just continued to stare.
“We have other options I can find for you,” Aron offered. “But you probably need your strength after our rigorous activities this afternoon.”
I choked on my bite of snake while El just rolled her eyes. Well, this was a new development. Driscoll and Aron. Together. Annalee shot me a sympathetic look that I hated. I didn’t need my baby sister feeling sorry for me. I could be happy for others finding love, even if my own love life was in shambles.
“I think I’ve lost my appetite.” Driscoll pushed his plate away, then caught Aron’s eye. “Not for sex, just to be clear. We can have all the sex you want, Wolf Man.”
A faint smile lifted the corner of Aron’s lips. “Noted.”
“This is the weirdest dinner conversation ever,” I mumbled, and Annalee hid a smile behind her hand. “And it’s about to get weirder.” My gaze landed on El. I didn’t care if it was impolite to talk about this while eating. I couldn’t wait any longer. “We know you have the lightning bolt.”
All the air got sucked from the room, everyone going completely still. El’s expression revealed nothing.
Aron’s brows scrunched, an utterly perplexed look pasted across his face. “Lightning bolt?” He frowned at El, who looked away, her long black hair curtaining her face. So Aron hadn’t known, and I’d wager a guess that El felt guilty for not telling him.
Annalee’s lips pursed, and she looked as confused as Aron.
I nodded to Emory. “Emory and I went on a little stroll and stumbled across the bolt in your dungeons.”
“Holy fuck.” Driscoll straightened. “It’s here? Spirit Sky’s lightning bolt is here?”
“Spirit Sky?” Aron echoed. “I am not following.”
“Neither am I,” Annalee said, propping her chin in her hands.
The swans flapped their wings, feathers ruffling, and I followed Emory’s gaze as she stared at them with a parted mouth, then looked back at El, and then back at the swans. I knew that look. Her mind was working through something. Solving something. A puzzle of some sort.
“You’re the princess of the star court,” she said slowly, turning her wide eyes onto El.
I stiffened, while Aron’s brows furrowed, and Driscoll’s mouth dropped open.
El huffed and rolled her eyes, signing in quick succession. Aron translated for everyone, but his voice fell into the background as I watched El, reading her movements .
“Close,” she said to Emory. “But no. I’m not Shiraeth’s princess. She died with her brothers, her parents. Like I told you.”
My shoulders sank. It had been a good theory on Emory’s part, and it had made sense.
Emory leaned forward. “Okay, maybe I’m wrong about your exact identity, but I’m right about something. You’re connected to these swans...” She snapped her fingers. “The caretaker.”
El’s jaw locked, her impassive face still revealing nothing. She was hard to read. Had years of practice hiding her thoughts, I’d wager. But the question was why did she ever need to? What was she afraid of us finding out?
El glanced back at the swans, tears filling her eyes. “My father,” she finally signed, her movements slow and careful. Measured. She sniffed, and it was the most emotion I’d ever seen from her. “Caretaker of the castle swans.”
Emory had been right. My clever little rabbit.
El continued signing: “You’re wrong. About history. King didn’t buy swans. King stole swans. My father begged the king for them back. When the king refused, he begged for a job instead. As caretaker. King agreed. He loved the swans. He fed them, bred them, healed them. My older brothers grew up in castle. Helped father.”
El stood and walked to the creatures, kneeling at the edge of the pond and laying a hand on one. It bent its long neck into her touch. She looked back, fingers picking up speed in their movement. “When Spirit Shadow escaped his tomb, he ripped through everything. Everyone. Then the curse happened.” She gestured to the castle walls, to something far beyond the palace. “ Everyone started transforming. Except Father and brothers. Father said they lucky. Hidden away. Protected. I was lucky too. Protected in my mother’s womb.”
That would have to be some kind of luck. Not only did El’s brothers and father live through Spirit Shadow’s attack, but on top of that, when this mysterious curse came and affected everyone else here, it somehow didn’t hurt them? I understood why El was protected, still in her mother’s womb. But the rest wasn’t adding up, and based on everyone else’s confused expressions as Aron translated, I wasn’t sure it made sense to them either .
“Mother was not so lucky,” El signed. “She turned to a creature. Forgot herself. Father kept her imprisoned until she gave birth to me. After she had me, she escaped. Now she tricks travelers who come to her forest. Clever cat.”
Emory met my gaze. Her mother was the cat woman I’d run into. I couldn’t imagine the pain of knowing your own mother was alive but no longer herself, no longer with her own mind or faculties. Maybe not even recognizing her own daughter.
“My father, brothers, me lived in the castle for ten years,” El signed. “A safe place. Until she came.”
I didn’t know who she was, but the haunted look in El’s eyes as she signed the word sent shivers down my spine.
“I never liked her, never trusted her, but my father fell in love. Like my mother never existed, like she wasn’t out there. It made no sense. My brothers were wary, confused, but they trusted my father.”
I watched El as she signed, trying to understand where this story was going.
“The woman was cruel to us. Mean. Kept our father away. Dangerous accidents happened to brothers, to me. One of us would take a tumble down the stairs. Were fed a poison berry. Involved in a wild animal attack.”
Emory and I exchanged concerned glances while Driscoll and Annalee did the same. Aron just sat back, translating in his calm voice for everyone else. Emerald ribbons lit up the room, casting their hue over everyone’s faces.
El still crouched by the pond, more swans gliding over to be near her. “Father was becoming a shell of himself. Like a ghost. Someone I no longer recognized. He was angry, temperamental, withdrawn.”
El paused, taking a shuddering breath that rippled through her body. No tears fell, but her eyes shone with them.
“Me and my brothers planned to leave, go into Wilds. Get my father away, start over. She caught us, right by the lake outside castle. My brothers forced me to hide, lied to her, saying I escaped. I watched her use a magic item.” Her hands flailed for a moment before she spelled it out letter by letter. “N-E-T. Threw it over my brothers.”
My brows furrowed and Emory looked at me and mouthed, “ Net? ” It must’ve come from Sorrengard. That was the only place a net with magical powers would exist.
“When she lifted the net, my brothers had turned into swans. It wasn’t a coincidence that those were my father’s favorite animal. The curse was a punishment, a mockery. But I didn’t know why. She disappeared with him. I haven’t seen them since. But I’ve never stopped asking myself why. Why did she hate Father so much she did this to his sons?”
El swallowed, still not a single sound coming from her.
“My brothers have been trapped as swans for fifty years.”
Annalee’s eyes shone with tears. “I’m so sorry.”
El’s jaw locked. “ For months I didn’t know what to do. I was alone. Sad.” She strode back to the table and lay a hand on Aron’s arm. “I met Aron. It was his idea to welcome other creatures, to lead them. He gave me community. He gave me purpose. But now I want revenge.”
“Against your stepmother?” I guessed.
El shook her head, eyes flashing with mirth and malice. She swiped her hand across her body. “ Against Spirit Shadow.”
“Spirit Shadow?” I asked. “You’re planning revenge against him? Why?”
She gestured around as if to answer the question.
I sat back in my chair. “He’s a spirit, El. You don’t even know how to kill him. I understand he was responsible for what happened to your mother, for what happened to the entire star court, but this is not something you can take on by yourself.”
The set of her pointed chin and raised nose said otherwise.
“That’s what you intend to do,” Emory guessed. “And you want Annalee to show you the way out so you can do it.”
She nodded, then bit her lip, eyes sweeping around our little group as she signed, “The lake outside the castle—where my brothers turned to swans. We avoided it, always knowing something wasn’t right, not since the curse. Last year, my brothers escaped the castle, fled to the lake. I chased them, almost drowning—but the lake showed me future. Not all. Flashes.” She pinched her fingers together . “Pieces. I learned I can fix my brothers. The lake showed me how. Must not speak. Must knit sweaters made of... N-E-T-T-L-E W-E-E-D. Must put the sweaters on my brothers. Then, they will come back. ”
My brows pinched together. “The vision showed you all that?”
El nodded.
“Nettles?” Driscoll asked as Aron finished translating, shooting us unsure glances. “Sweaters made of nettles? That sounds awful. They’ll pierce your skin. They’re full of poison. Your hands will become swollen and bruised.”
El’s lips thinned.
“She’s aware,” Aron said gravely. “To undo magic like what her stepmother used takes great sacrifice. She will have to be that sacrifice.”
“Do you think your stepmother is the one who cursed everyone here?” I asked, thinking through everything El revealed.
She shrugged.
“We don’t know,” Aron said. “In all the years I’ve known El, I’ve never been able to piece together who her stepmother was or why she came into El’s life to wreak such havoc. Nor why she would disappear with El’s father. It’s clear she must have had a vendetta against El’s father, but we can’t figure out why.”
“So why haven’t you started knitting the sweaters?” Driscoll asked. “Or have you? Are the sweaters laying around somewhere?” He glanced around the room like they might be strung up.
El sighed, looking back at the swans.
Aron pushed his plate away, the snake barely eaten. “There’s only one court where the nettle weed grows. In her vision, El saw it. The poisonous plant, the shadowy castle, the island and its crocodile-infested waters where they lay.”
I drummed my fingers on the table. Only one place like that existed. “Sorrengard,” I said.
El’s shoulders tightened.
“So you don’t just want to go there to get revenge on Spirit Shadow.” Emory leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. “You also have to go there to save your brothers.”
She signed, “Solves all my problems. I get my brothers back and kill spirit who took everything away. Then I can focus on my stepmother.”
“Two birds with one stone.” I shook my head. “I get it. I still don’t think it’s smart. If you want to survive, if you want your brothers to survive, you can’t make an enemy of an actual spirit. You have no idea the power he wields. You don’t even know how to kill him. No one knows how to kill a spirit.”
But my words had no effect. I could see in the set of El’s shoulders, in the fire behind her eyes, that she wouldn’t back down. She’d been planning this for a long time. Now that Annalee was here, she had a way out. If I would allow it.
I peered at her. “So how does this connect to the bolt?”
El shot me a sharp look, then signed, “No connection. Aron brought bolt. I hid bolt somewhere safe.”
I snorted, not sure I believed her. “You’re telling us you want nothing to do with that bolt? That you don’t think you could somehow use it to aid you in killing Spirit Shadow?”
Emory stiffened beside me. It wasn’t a confirmed theory. In fact, it wasn’t a theory at all. Just something Emory and I had pondered over the years through some of our findings.
El gave a vicious shake of her head.
“Okay,” I said warily. “Then we’ll be on our way with the bolt. Tomorrow. You can come if you’re looking for a way out. Annalee will leave with us, so this will be your only chance to escape.”
“And we’ll have to hurry.” Emory lifted the pocket watch from where it lay on her chest. “Annalee knows what this watch does. It’s counting down to the next time the border will open. We have days.” She glanced at the ticking hand, now halfway between the eleven and twelve. “I think.”
I thought I heard Driscoll mutter “great” under his breath.
Annalee glared at me from across the table.
“We have to go home,” I said as gently as I could. “We’ll find a way to save everyone here. I know you’ve formed a bond with these creatures, and now you can bring that expertise with you to the outside world.”
El looked no happier than my sister. Her jaw worked back and forth, but she gave a stiff nod, then stood, signing “Excuse me” before sweeping out of the room and leaving all of us in silence.