Chapter 45
Cillian
We walked single file down the steep steps while Meera held the lantern, the everlasting light filling the space with its glow. The ceiling skimmed my head, and I had to stoop to walk. With each step we took, the ceiling lowered, the walls so narrow I couldn’t spread out my arms.
“Just keep walking,” Liadan said, her sword pointed toward the three brotherhood members, all of them in front of us.
Lor’s dark hair fell to his shoulders, and as much as I tried to not look at him, my gaze kept flicking up from the steps. I couldn’t believe he’d come back here and brought the brotherhood with him.
I’d always believed in Lor, despite what everyone else thought.
I’d truly believed there was no way the older brother I’d always admired would betray us.
But now there was no doubt. He had come here with the intention of conquering.
Of taking our castle and its magic and using it for the brotherhood’s twisted purposes.
I hadn’t even wanted to look at him in that cavern, and now my mind spun with thoughts of what was going to happen to him.
I hated that I even cared. But once we got these damned trials over with and figured out what Castle wanted, we’d have to take Lor and the other brotherhood members to the royal guard.
The council would decide what to do with them, and it wouldn’t surprise me if their sentence was death. Lor would die, and despite everything, the thought twisted my heart.
A hand squeezed my shoulder, and I didn’t have to look behind me to know it was Ceri.
“Are we almost there?” Siobhan called from somewhere behind us. “This board game is getting heavy.”
“Almost,” Liadan called over her shoulder. “I can see the bottom of the stairs.”
“What does it look like down there?” Meera asked.
“It’s dark and the ground is covered in dirt.”
“Perfect, so glad we decided to do this,” Marsten said.
“Will everyone just shut up?” I asked, needing quiet to think.
Ceri truly believed this wasn’t about finding my queen, but I wasn’t so sure.
What if there was something dangerous down there, something the women had to defeat?
What if none of them were meant to survive except one, and that was who I would marry?
But then the trials would have been pointless.
Why eliminate someone each week if they’d all come back to fight a monster?
I shook my head, knowing that speculating was futile.
I would just have to wait until we got to the bottom of the stairs like everyone else, and hopefully, we’d find some answers.
“Um, Ceri, I think we’re going to need your help,” Liadan said.
“Why?” I asked, my entire body growing tense.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs where Liadan was standing, frowning at a door with a lock.
Ceri gasped and looked down at the key hanging around her neck.
By now, everyone had made it down the stairs, and the space had opened up, the ceiling rising to give us more room. I straightened and stretched.
“Are we sure we want to open that?” Marsten asked as one of the brotherhood members charged Liadan. She spun to react but was too late.
His body barreled into hers, and the axe flew into the air. I leapt forward to catch it, grabbing the hilt and spinning in one smooth move as I held the blade at Lor’s throat.
“Get off her, or he dies,” I said, voice steady.
The man’s shoulders slumped, the fight draining from him as Liadan shoved his body off hers.
“Don’t try anything stupid,” she said, stomping forward and grabbing the axe from me.
Lor stared at me with pleading eyes, but I just looked away and met Ceri’s gaze. “Are you ready for this?”
She nodded, stepping forward with the key already in her hand. She put it into the lock, and it clicked open.
“Wow,” Marsten said. “This really is all connected. I wasn’t sure I believed it until now.”
The door swung open, revealing nothing but darkness.
Meera sighed heavily and trotted forward with the lantern hanging from her mouth. My heart pounded, my mouth dry as I wondered what could be on the other side of that door. Morton had claimed these trials wouldn’t be dangerous, but an ominous feeling settled over me, sinking its claws into my skin.
Meera walked into the room and set the lantern down.
Liadan gestured with the axe, and the brotherhood members lurched forward, filing in, then the rest of us followed.
The smell of must, bones, and dead plants filled the space. Roots hung from the ceiling and dirt, leaves, and bones covered the ground.
“Whose bones are those?” Marsten pointed to the ground.
“It’s better we don’t ask,” Siobhan said.
Meera jumped from the ground up onto a table in the middle of the room. It was rock, and it was carved with a statue of a figure lying on top of it.
“What is this?” She pointed a paw at it.
“Maybe that’s what our trial is about?” Lila suggested, eyes shifting back and forth.
“Of course that’s what our trial has to do with.” Siobhan rolled her eyes. “It’s the only thing in this room.”
I looked back at Ceri, my gaze landing on the heart dangling over her chest, the arrow pointing straight at the statue.
“So what now?” I asked. “The heart led us here, the lantern lit our way, and the key let us into this room.”
Siobhan looked down at the wooden board she held. “What? Do we have to play a game again?”
The board glowed at her words, tiles forming and flipping over in rapid succession. All of us watched as the tiles spelled out a name.
Aoife the Warrior Maiden.
“That was one of the answers during that challenge,” Lila said.
“And why do I have this book?” Marsten held it up.
Ceri had walked forward and was studying the statue, bending down and taking in all the details. “Why does she look familiar?”
I hadn’t even properly looked at it.
“Stay back,” Liadan growled at Lor, pressing the edge of the axe to his chest. “You’re outnumbered and you heard the prince. One small movement, and I won’t hesitate to attack.”
Lor looked at me, once again with that pleading in his eyes as he said a string of words I didn’t understand, all of them garbled with the gag in his mouth.
I turned my attention back to the statue.
“That’s her,” Clio said, voice full of awe. “That’s Aoife the Warrior Maiden,” Clio said. “May she rest in eternal peace.”
“May she rest in eternal peace,” both Meera and Siobhan echoed, looks of sorrow filling their eyes.
Ceri met my gaze. “Doesn’t she look identical with the slave that had been holding this pendant?” She held up the heart, the arrow spinning slightly and once again stopping on the statue.
“That wasn’t what I was looking at that night, Ceri,” I said, and she rolled her eyes.
“It is. This faerie is the one who was kneeling before Fairwitch, this pendant in her grasp. And she was also a winning phrase in the game of Birendelle . . .”
We stood in silence, staring at the statue with wide eyes, and my thoughts raced. “Why would Castle want us to find a statue of Aoife the Warrior Maiden?” I asked. “This makes no sense. It’s a piece of stone.”
“What if it isn’t?” Marsten asked, stepping forward with his book.
My gaze dropped to it, and I remembered the story Marsten had told me. “No,” I said. “Come on, you can’t be serious. You’re honestly suggesting that someone kisses the statue and that Aoife the Warrior Maiden is going to come to life? For what purpose?”
“To find our queen,” Siobhan said, violet eyes alight with excitement.
Right as she said it, a golden glowing crown appeared over the statue.
“Oh my godwitches,” Marsten said.
“Our queen. She’s returned,” Meera said.
Panic filled me. Even though Ceri had assured me we’d work this out, that we’d find a way to be together, I couldn’t help but think that being forced to marry some ancient faerie queen might get in the way.
“No,” I said. “This is ridiculous. You can’t actually believe your ancient faerie queen has been trapped in a statue all this time. This is . . . it can’t be true.”
“Actually, I can believe it,” Siobhan said, staring at the face of the woman.
“Fairwitch claimed they’d killed her, but what if Aoife found a way to turn herself to stone, to keep herself protected until the right time to come back and save us all?
” Her eyes widened. “What if her coming back is the key to reversing the curse from Fairwitch?”
Ceri met my gaze. “I think they’re right, Cillian. We at least have to try.”
“I won’t do it. I can’t.” My voice broke. “I don’t want this life, Ceri. I don’t want to be high prince. I don’t want to marry a faerie queen. I don’t want to rule.”
I just want you.
Lor thrashed against his bindings, but I ignored him, holding Ceri’s gaze, full of so much love and sorrow and hope that I didn’t know what she was feeling. Maybe all of it.
“Maybe you don’t have to kiss the statue,” Clio said. “Maybe it’s not even about you anymore. Maybe Castle just wants her.”
“If I don’t kiss her and wake her up, then who does?”
Everyone stayed silent, no one with a solution. Lor was frantic now, thrashing his head enough to cause his gag to loosen. He spit it out, his jaw locked as he said, “I’ll do it. I’ll kiss this faerie queen.”