He knew it would, thanking her for it. The three of them studied the stains as Áine caught my attention. Quietly, she made sure it was just me. “You need to go to my summer home and retrieve a book that resides in the library. It has the ritual you will need to unlock your primordial bodies, but it’ll take Cian joining you and the woman you are getting.”
“You have my word, Áine,” I promised her.
“Cullen, there will come a moment when you discover what you have to do. Just know she has filled what you’re missing. It can still be done through the old ways.”
Unsure what she meant, I knew she couldn’t tell me the full future without it causing problems for us all. “But the old ways were outlawed.”
“There is no more law,” she chided. “You must do what needs done in order for there to be proper courts again.”
Knowing I was the only one who could hear her, I knew there were only a handful of rituals that were shunned by us now from the unbreakable bonds it created. After giving us more details, we knew our path had just begun. Áine told us then it was her time to leave this existence, but before we could stop her, she spoke in her enchanted tongue, creating a dagger. The rest of her began to turn into a spirit, filling with light as she died.
“This weapon is for your champion. It will guide Briar into knowing what to do. You boys have served us all well, but just know you might need to merge with her in order for this to work more.” Before she could say anything else, the goddess was gone.
2
Bain
Somehow, I was always the one who magically held a shovel when it came to us getting to dig something Fergus’s magic couldn’t retrieve. I wanted to roll my eyes as Cullen studied the castle in the distance. Thick thorns had taken over the kingdom, growing up the side of the castle in a way to keep people out. It was going to be interesting trying to figure out how to get in there.
As I kept digging up a grave, I kept muttering my condolences to all the old bodies I hit in my search for the right one. I had no doubt that they didn’t have time for a proper burial when it was all said and done because of what was happening with Morrigan. There were so many lost in this destitute land, making me see the future of ours that was to come.
None of us wanted to lose our home the way this woman had, so we worked even harder to make sure we got what we needed. Fergus was using his magic to sense where the boy had been buried, but he wasn’t able to help me dig. Much like our own magic, his no longer had a say in this area due to the impact Morrigan had on it. By draining the source of all energy, she was conquering worlds to complete extinction.
“Does this feel wrong to anyone else?” Alasdair popped up from his spot in the back. None of us answered him because we knew this was wrong on more levels than one, but what else were we to do when it came to our home needing us? The journey that led us down this path made us a little less human ourselves, but we all chose to do it for our people. Monsters were the easiest definition to give someone who asked us what we had become, but I knew we’d all do it again if it gave us a chance to save Faerie. None of us wanted to lose our home, so we all worked harder to ensure we wouldn’t turn into what this one had.
Once the tip of my shovel finally knocked into something that felt solid and gave me the sound of being hollow, I knew I had run into another body. Fergus was the one to confirm with the nod of his head that this was the man we were looking for thanks to the cloth Áine gave him.
“This is our Prince Philip,” Fergus answered from holding the piece of cloth. That was what guided him to help us find his body now. With me being in the pit below, I was the one who was going to have to hand the skull up. Not wanting to waste time, I got right to it to get the hell out. The smell of decay was haunting enough when standing where they were, but it was magnified by all the dead bodies here. In the dirt around me, white chunks stood out from the others who were lost.
After handing the skull up to Fergus, I paused climbing out when something glinted from below. I reached down to find the skeleton hand of our prince, but I wasn’t ready for what I found engraved into his ring. We weren’t the only princes of the courts because Áine had two sons of her own. I knew something all the others didn’t when I quickly removed the ring to hide it from them.
Prince Philip wasn’t a mortal one. No, he was the best friend we all had as children named Muir. Now knowing what truly happened, I wasn’t sure how to tell the others what I had just found. We all believed him to choose this instead of us because he had fallen in love. Now, I knew he never returned because he had died, and we were about to wake the woman he loved with his skull.
A pang settled within my heavy chest, unsure how to continue this expedition. Cullen stuck his hand down the hole I was in to help me out, so I took it. The others had already begun their walk toward the castle, leaving us time to chat before everything went down.
Brushing off the black soil from my legs, I paused to make sure the others were out of hearing range. “I found something that Áine didn’t tell us.”
“What do you mean?” Cullen matched my slower stride to stay back for a minute, understanding that I needed to talk to him about this.
“This was on that body’s finger.” Fishing out the ring from my pocket, I let him see the starburst crest of Áine’s kingdom. Mine was a phoenix from being the protector of the flame. Closing my fist, I felt the band of the ring on my center finger.
Cullen took it almost as though he wasn’t sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. His eyes set on his own ring with three paralleled lines that curved making it look like wind. Clutching the ring I handed him, his eyes closed as though something made sense to him. “Muir…”
“This Prince Philip wasn’t of the human variety.”
“Which means there’s only one heir left to the light throne.”
Terror shivered down my spine from knowing who he was suggesting. “We best keep it to ourselves right now. At least until we know more.”
“Only we can wear our rings, Bain. If that skeleton had this on, then we know we lost our friend who chose this world over ours.”
“No, it tells us he died here before he could return. Maybe Muir never intended on staying in this realm.” My new conclusion bothered both of us because our anger was mistaken for grief with this new knowledge.
“Tell no one, Bain. Not until we learn more.”
Dipping my chin, it was no secret among us that he was our strongest, so we followed his lead. “How do we handle the woman? You know just as well as I what Áine was suggesting we do to enhance her power. It feels wrong now.”
“Our plan doesn’t change for the sake of our people. Like I said, don’t tell the others.” Cullen and I found them waiting near where the front doors were supposed to be, but the entrance was covered by prickly vines with thorns the size of my forearm.