Chapter 22
The Danu River glinted ahead, its surface molten with sunlight. Magic danced along the surface. I followed the bend where the river curled lazily around a stand of whispering reeds, while Ace walked closely behind me. The air thickened with enchantment, humming with magic.
My skin prickled.
She was here.
Naiads didn’t travel often, and certainly not without a reason. They preferred to stay close to one another, not isolated like this one. Magic shimmered across the water in a thin veil. Low and melodic laughter twisted through the trees. “You brought me a gift.”
I didn’t smile. She was speaking about Ace.
Naiads didn’t compel obedience. They didn’t need to. They seduced, teased, and lured with a truth you didn’t want to admit—you wanted to go with them.
And if you did… Well, that was on you.
Naiads should never be underestimated. They should be feared and treated with respect and caution.
And I feared this one.
I feared the truth she possessed and the history she had with Ace.
We approached the bank slowly, every movement deliberate and careful. A circling ripple formed in the current like a predator deciding whether I was prey.
I crouched at the edge and touched the river with my bare hand, and let my magic bleed out as an introduction. I wanted to remind the naiad we had met before, and I posed no threat.
“We’re not here to harm you,” I said.
The river stilled and for a moment nothing happened. Would she swim away or pretend she didn’t hear us?
Then, she rose.
Glistening droplets clung to her iridescent skin like jewels. Her hair flowed behind her in thick braids intertwined with rivergrass, small seashells and blossoms. With a willowy frame, she looked as though water and moonlight forged her in a forbidden tryst.
She locked her gaze on mine, her sharp, unblinking eyes the same blue-green shade of deep water before a storm.
“Daughter of Mab,” her voice whispered. Her gaze landed on Ace, and she sucked in a deep breath. “Actaeon.”
“Hello, Avani,” he said.
She pressed her lips together as her gaze flicked between us, back and forth, her scowl deepening with each blink. “What do you want?”
I didn’t flinch. “We need your help.”
She tilted her head, amusement dancing across her face. “Most who come to me want power.” Her gaze drifted back to Ace. “Or pleasure. Or to forget.”
I stood slowly, magic still humming under my skin, and tried to squash the need to throttle her for simply looking at Ace. I couldn’t hate her just because she had a past with Ace. “I want a truth.”
Avani kept her gaze locked on Ace, not acknowledging I spoke at all. “This is why you left,” she said in short, clipped words. She swished the water around her. “She is why.”
Ace grimaced and stepped forward.
Avani held out her hand, indicating he should stop walking. “And now you’re here for answers.”
“There is something sinister going on around us and we’re hoping you can help us,” he said.
“Sinister?” She raised her eyebrows. “Does she know who you are?”
“Avani…”
“Does she know what you are?”
“I’m aware,” I whispered, and it changed nothing.
“Daughter of Mab, you are clueless if you are still standing beside this man. If you knew what he could do…”
I bit back a snarky response. Avani wasn’t talking about Ace’s skills in the bedroom. In fact, she appeared to be trying to warn me. “Ace is not a threat to me.”
Avani snorted and flicked water with her finger. “Love sick fools.” She poked her finger in Ace’s direction. “You should tell her everything. She deserves to know.”
Everything? What was left to tell?
“I will,” Ace said. “We have been a little busy trying not to die.”
Avani shrugged and turned to the river.
“Wait.” I flung up my hand as if I had some power to stop her.
Luckily, she didn’t dive into the water and disappear. Instead, she stilled as the water flowed around her.
“Why do you call me Daughter of Mab?”
Avani turned back toward me and frowned. “Because that is who and what you are.” She glanced at Ace. “You didn’t pick a very bright one to lose your heart to.”
“I grew up in an orphanage,” I said, maybe a little too sharply. “I never knew my birth parents. I don’t know who Mab is. So, I don’t know if you’re calling me an alternative for what I am or if Mab is one of my birth parents or ancestors.”
Avani’s eyes widened and she ducked her head to watch the pine needles float past.
“My apologies,” Avani said. “In your case, it’s both.”
The wind whistled along the surface of the water and played with the shells braided in her hair.
That made absolutely no sense.
“Child of Mab refers to phaanons in general, but you are, quite literally, one of Mab’s biological offspring.”
One of… Either Avani knew of my brother or there were more of us.
“Of course, most of your siblings have long departed this plane—gone like so many others in the galeon-phaanon war. I thought your entire line had perished until the day we met.”
“How are you so certain I’m a descendent of Mab?”
“I saw a memory of the Phaanon Queen once. You look like her and there is no mistaking the magic that encases you. Your blood sings with her power.”
“The Phaanon Queen?” Ace whispered. He leaned in to nudge me with his arm. “Maybe I should’ve nicknamed you ‘Princess’ after all.”
“Shh.” I elbowed him. “Who was the king?”
Avani smiled slowly, revealing her sharp fangs.
“The Phaanons bowed to no king. Mab ruled with an iron fist and took many lovers. Some even said Oberon was once her lover before he married Titania.” Avani flicked up her hand and examined her fingers.
“Some say the war started because the sisters fought over Oberon.”
“Sisters?” I whispered.
Avani stopped examining her nails and pinned me with an unreadable look. “The history really has been lost, hasn’t it?”
I nodded.
“Mab and Titania were not just sisters. They were twins.”
I let out a long breath. Twins. Titania was my aunt and had sent me to the orphanage. Did she act out of love, remorse, or guilt? Or was Avani wrong about the war and the sisters getting caught on opposing sides? “Queen Titania and I look nothing alike.”
Avani cocked her head. “Don’t you?”
“She has white hair.”
“Her hair turned white after the war. Some say it’s because she expended too much power. Others suggest it was grief. But if you look past the white hair, you’ll find you look a lot more alike than you thought.”
I didn’t know how I felt about that. About any of it. My head felt like it might explode, but the way my heart was beating, I might have a heart attack first.
“How come we’ve never heard any of this?” Ace asked. “Sure, we’ve lost our history, but how could our society seemingly forget that our own queen is phaanon?”
Phaan. I didn’t even make that connection. Of course, Titania would be phaanon, not galeon, if her own twin sister was the phaanon queen.
Avani smirked and doodled along the surface of the water with her fingertip. “Because Oberon ensured Mab’s name was erased.”
“Sounds like a scorned lover,” I said.
Avani’s lips curled up into a cruel smile. “That was one of the other theories to the war—that Oberon enacted a cruel and deadly war on Mab because she spurned him and the rejection enraged him.”
“If he couldn’t have her…” I whispered.
“No one could,” Ace finished for me.
A few raindrops struck my head and fell. More rain.
“How do you know all this?” I asked. Although naiads had longer lifespans than humans, they didn’t live that long.
“Water always remembers,” Avani said. “The memories remain in the molecules no matter the state, no matter the opinions of humankind.”
Okay…
I guess that explained her earlier comment about seeing a memory of my mother.
My mother…
“What happened to Mab?”
“No one knows. Not even the water. There are no memories of her after the war. There are whispers of a promise, though. A promise to protect her unborn children.”
Unborn children—me and Paul.
Large raindrops splattered the surface of the river. They fell hard and fast.
I glanced at the angry storm clouds above. We’d run out of time. The weather had caught up to us, and we needed to find shelter.
“What do you know about killing galeons?” I asked the naiad.
She chuckled and shook her head. “You’ll have to look within for that.”
Look within?
As in look at my own blood.
So, she knew my blood could kill galeons, too. The information wasn’t as secret as I originally thought and certainly not as secret as the king hoped. He had been in place since the defeat of the phaanons, after all. It was his orders that led to the destruction of all things phaanon.
“But you knew that.” Avani tilted her head. “What you don’t know is who’s responsible.”
Well, my brother was neck deep in this. But I didn’t know who he worked with or why he would resort to such drastic measures.
“Can my aunt be trusted?”
“Can anyone be trusted?” Avani asked. “You need to cut off all the heads of the snake if you want to be safe.”
“All the heads?”
She nodded. “Of the three headed snake.”
The rain hammered down. Heavy, cold and saturating my clothes. Three headed snake. Was she referring to Paul, O’Reilly and their unknown accomplice? Or the king, the rogue hunters and something else? “Can you not speak in riddles? What do you mean when you say the three headed snake?”
“Water has no words, Daughter of Mab. I can only try to translate what it says with images.”
“I know my brother is involved,” I said. We also knew O’Reilly was in on the conspiracy. “Do you know who the others are?”
Ace wrapped his hand on my arm. “Mouse.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance and the sky darkened. The rain pelted down harder.
Avani shook her head. “I cannot see everything, but I can see enough to know you are very much in danger.” She turned to Ace, her gaze dropped to where he held me. “And I see enough to hate you a little less now.”
Ace tensed.
“You were never mine.” Avani tilted her head as she continued to study him.
“You told me that since day one, but I thought you’d change like the tide or the colour of the sea after a storm.
I see now how I was wrong.” She glanced at me.
“You are the daughter of Mab and the rightful heir to the Phaanon throne. We may have played neutral in the last war, but we didn’t in our hearts.
Water always remembers, and we remember the promise we made your mother.
You may not be able to trust many around you, but you’ll find no enemy with me or the other naiads. Call on us if you’re in need of help.”
Ace tugged at my arm. I mumbled a thank you, but Avani had already dived beneath the surface.