Chapter 68
Sixty-Eight
Opalus
All at once, my body jolts into motion.
Even as confusion swirls through me, all I can see is the dark, sticky substance pooling around Adrian.
He coughs—wet and raspy—causing blood to splatter his chin.
I drop to my knees, scrambling as I press my palms over his chest. “Please,” I beg—my magic, Eurydice, anyone.
I grapple for my magic, hoping my Woodland Essence can heal a human.
But nothing happens.
Nightfall. I don’t have any magic. And Adrian is going to die because of it.
My mind races; the only option is to try to stop the bleeding. I press my hands down harder.
But it isn’t enough.
Wetness seeps from the wound, leaking out over my fingers and rolling down Adrian’s sides.
“Lunaria,” Adrian rasps, his eyes slowly blinking closed.
“Lu,” I say quickly. “Call me Lu.”
If anything, Adrian deserves to know he’s more than earned my forgiveness. He made mistakes—a lot of them—but in the end, he did what was right. Not for himself, not even for me, but for the entire realm.
Without him, I may not have been able to get close enough to Moros with Nightfall. Without him, Graylen and I wouldn’t have even been able to cross over into Crea.
He huffs a laugh, but it turns into a bone-rattling cough.
“I was never the right ruler for this kingdom,” he rasps. I try to quiet him, but he keeps going—even as his voice fades to a choppy whisper. “If anyone can bring the kingdoms back together, it’s you.”
My throat tightens.
“Let me go, Lu,” he says quietly. “It’s my time.”
“You did the right thing,” I say quickly. “You saved the realm.”
He shakes his head, his eyes slowly drifting closed. “I did good, didn’t I?”
Tears begin to spill over my cheeks as I nod. “You did so good, Adrian,” I manage to get out. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
A small smile tugs at his mouth just as his head falls to the side.
“Adrian?” I press, tears flowing down my face.
He doesn’t respond, and I realize his chest is still beneath my palms.
My insides twist, and nausea crawls up my throat.
“Without your magic, there’s no use in trying,” Opal muses lightly from above, snapping me back to the present.
I blink slowly, struggling to process it all, then jump to my feet, needing to know what the fuck just happened.
Opal smiles as my gaze meets hers, revealing a row of pearly white teeth. Darkness swirls in her eyes, a smoky depth of cunning brewing in an ocean of blue.
“I always knew you were bound for greatness, Lunaria,” Opal says with a sigh. Her voice is different. Sharper. “Adrian was a loose end that needed to be tied up.”
My hands begin to shake. “Opal?”
The smile on her face is sharp—nothing like my best friend.
She examines her nails, a motion I saw her do time and time again in the camp. But something about it this time is different. Sinister.
“Did the duke do something to you?” I press, stepping closer to her. My heart beats wildly in my chest, panic seizing my muscles at the thought.
“You really thought that old man was capable of all this?” She laughs bitterly, dropping her hand to her side. “Moros may have had a hand in dividing the empire, but he wasn’t even able to secure himself as a ruler when the war was over.”
My mouth parts.
She called him Moros—she knew he was the human ruler of the Valon Empire before the split. How would she know that?
I take a step toward her, my hands shaking for an entirely different reason now. “What did he do to you?”
Her eyes flare with anger, which only fuels my confusion.
“Moros didn’t do this, Lunaria,” she whispers, but it comes out more like a hiss. “I am not from Crea, just as you aren’t.”
Slowly, she begins to circle me, her eyes staying fixed on mine.
“Opal,” I say steadily. “You can’t be from Penyth.”
She laughs again, the sound sickeningly sweet. “I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m from Penyth.”
My heart stills. “What are you saying?” I breathe, almost afraid of the answer.
Because if she isn’t from Penyth and she isn’t from Crea…
“The Vale is home to many creatures,” Opal says with a shrug. “I may be biased, but I think a kitsune is the most extraordinary.”
The word scratches something in my memory, bringing to mind a lesson from Ellerry when she was teaching me about Penyth’s history and creatures:
A kitsune is a particularly stunning creature that hasn’t been seen in centuries…
But that’s all I can remember, my thoughts too jumbled to think of more.
“But you’re human,” I whisper hoarsely. “Your brothers are human—your father.”
Her left eye twitches. “And humans are so very weak, wouldn’t you agree?” She smiles, smoothing out her face. “The opportunity came for me not to be weak any longer. You can hardly fault me for wanting that.”
“What did you do?” I demand.
“I became a kitsune.” Opal cocks her head to the side.
“And all I had to do was give over the remainder of my humanity—which was the plan for me all along, a burden I was eager to bear. It wasn’t much of a loss, really.
But marrying the duke?” She shivers. “I could’ve done without that man, but Vidaris promised he would only be around for a short time. ”
I press my lips together, if only to stop them from trembling.
Adrian lies dead at my feet while my closest and oldest friend still has speckles of his blood on her hand.
“Besides, Vidaris needed your Essence to be unlocked before she could have use of you.” Another sickly sweet grin. “And you just wrapped it up in a pretty bow inside of Nightfall for us.”
Vidaris has been orchestrating this entire thing. From Moros becoming Duke Wyman and convincing Reichardt why he should bring me to Crea, to placing the pieces just right so I could escape to Penyth… All the way to now, and getting me here. To use Nightfall and put my magic into it.
“Think of it as safekeeping while we prepare you,” Opal adds.
My hands begin to shake—being up against Moros was one thing. He was evil inside and out, corrupted by his own greed. But Opal? She’s my oldest friend—at least I thought she was. This isn’t her; it can’t be.
Maybe this kitsune has twisted her, stolen what goodness was inside of her.
“But your body… You can’t withstand this thing inside of you—the magic will kill you, Opal.” My voice strains. “Please—it isn’t too late.”
This woman in front of me isn’t the girl I learned to use a sword alongside. Isn’t the child who ran with me by the creek or did chores with me during the day.
Opal lets out a shrill laugh, nothing of the friend I once knew remaining. Or…thought I knew.
“Have you heard of what happens when a fae and a human mate?” Opal smirks. “I’m sure you were educated on it while in Penyth.”
I think back to what I was told when I first arrived, when I thought I had a human father and fae mother.
“It isn’t always guaranteed the offspring will have magic,” I whisper hoarsely.
Opal pats my head like I’m a good little student, and I fight back a cringe at the chill from her hand. Her smile is feline as she watches me. “If I had it my way, I wouldn’t claim my father’s blood. Unfortunately, it runs through me just as my mother’s does—stronger than my mother’s, in fact.”
Warning bells clang in my mind.
“For years, I grew up between worlds—fully human in Crea, but pulled into another space by my mother.” Opal watches me—waiting for me to piece it together—but my brow wrinkles, the story not clicking.
She sighs and runs a delicate finger down a curly strand of her golden hair.
“The Vale is a bit warmer than Crea, wouldn’t you agree? ”
My blood turns to ice. “You’ve been to the Vale?” My voice comes out hoarse as my chest tightens.
Not only is she implying she’s been to the Vale, but that she knows I’ve been there, too.
“Why would you know what it’s like there, Opal?” The question is cautious even as I press for an answer, hoping she’ll laugh and tell me this is all a misunderstanding.
But she just smiles. “Because it’s where I was born. Even now, it’s the only way I can visit my mother. You see, she’s a good friend of Vidaris’s, and together, they ensured I wasn’t a boring, weak human.”
The kitsune…this creature she’s saying she invited into her body… If her mother is fae, then she could’ve had this thing inside of her for years. Humans may not be able to withstand magic, but half-fae? They might.
“Ah, there it is.” Opal’s nose crinkles in delight—an expression I once found endearing.
“You’re starting to realize this has always been me, aren’t you?
That this didn’t magically happen after you left for Penyth.
” A harsh laugh. “You’ve always prided yourself in being smart, but you never did see that your only friend was using you this entire time. ”
The air in my lungs stalls as panic crawls up my chest.
I think back to how long I’ve known Opal, to the days she accompanied me to the market, the time she helped mend my wound after I tried to escape from camp.
“Even when we were children, you—” I can’t say it. Can’t admit aloud that the oldest friend I’ve had was playing me all along.
She nods, a flash of sadness in her gaze. But it’s gone so quickly that I could’ve imagined it—hoping she feels something.
“My mother has always had a very specific plan for me,” Opal states. “A plan that’s required me to keep an eye on a girl who was supposed to be delivered to Vidaris the moment her magic surfaced.
“Only, the girl’s magic never came.” Her jaw ticks. “Because her human father found a way to keep her Essence hidden—which in turn caused Vidaris to lose interest. But then the girl, brave and wise, ran off to a faraway land—bringing what was thought to be dead back to life.”
My mind begins to race, and my palms grow slick with sweat.
The girl is me, that much is clear. Opal was placed in my life like a pawn on a chessboard, watching over me only to give me to Vidaris the moment I showed any signs of having magic.
Then it dawns on me.
Opal called Reichardt my father. They don’t know my real father is not only fae, but the Lord of Shadows.
Why wouldn’t Daimon reveal that if he was working with Vidaris?
A tremble works its way through my body.
Unless he hasn’t been working with her this entire time.
Unless there is some good in him, after all.
Opal tsks, bringing my focus back to her. She’s always been this way—eager for the attention to be on her.
“Why would my father do that?” The question could point at more than one man, so I clarify: “Hide my magic?”
Opal shrugs and picks at her nails as if she’s in danger of growing bored. “I suppose he had a soft spot for you.” She snorts. “Never trust a man to do a woman’s job.” She smirks and adds, “At least you got rid of him for me. You were always smart.”
I hardly hear her last words.
Reichardt did something to protect me?
My thoughts feel like a spider’s web, words sticking together and jumbled up in all different directions.
Reichardt was an evil, selfish man—that I know. In his own twisted way, he might’ve thought what he was doing protected me. But he still stole me away from my mother and home, still kept my background hidden from me.
I won’t forgive him for that.
But that leaves Daimon, someone I thought was on the same level as Reichardt.
What are his motivations? He’s kept me a secret from the Goddess of Vengeance, let me go free with Graylen, and returned the shard to me. He almost killed us outside of the Shadow Realm, but he didn’t—as if he wanted to prove he could but wasn’t actually going to do it.
In fact, it wasn’t just me he chose to let live; it was everyone with me.
But he also told me he was the only one who could move in and out of the Vale. Did he know about Opal? Or was Vidaris able to keep that hidden from him somehow?
“You said you went to the Vale,” I say slowly, trying to make sense of my world being turned upside down in a matter of minutes. “That your mother was there.”
Opal’s features twist into an eager, gleaming smile.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she squeals.
My stomach drops.
I feel like the little girl stuck in camp again, the one shut out of her house while her father had important meetings. The one who was never picked to spar because girls don’t do that.
But this time, the feeling caused by someone I once thought was my ally—my friend. And from the look on her face, whatever she’s about to tell me is going to change everything.
“My mother is Carwyn,” Opal says with a sly smile. A smile that once made me feel safe now leaves ice stabbing at my chest. “Sister of Queen Evelina, and rightful heir to the Valon Empire throne.”
I squeeze the hilt of my blade. “You’re—”
“That’s right.” Opal walks closer to me, her movements as fluid as a fox. “Hello, cousin.”