“What?” I said. “Why?”
“The Winter Witch has prophesied your future. She says your blood is poisoned.”
“She said the same to me. It could mean anything. Do you have any idea how many value-brand cookies I eat per day?”
“That wasn’t all of it. I’ll show you.”
He leaned down and cupped my forehead, his hands warm and gentle on my skin. I closed my eyes.
For a moment, my mind went blank. Just totally empty. Then, a winter storm whipped up around me with whirling eddies of sparkling snow. The Winter Witch trudged closer, her eye blinking.
Hair whipped into my eyes—the same blond color as Lyr’s. It took me a moment to understand that this was one of his memories. He was channeling his memory directly into my skull.
The Winter Witch was upon him now.
“Tell me,” Lyr’s deep voice boomed over the white landscape. “What will become of Nova Ys?”
The witch’s mouth opened. “She of the House of Meriadoc seeks to bring a reign of death. She of the poisoned blood seeks to rule a realm of bones.”
She let out an ear-curdling shriek. Then, “The daughter of the House of Meriadoc. Her beauty hides her true nature. Her heart turns to ash, her soul infected by evil. She seeks to sever your head from your body, to fertilize Nova Ys with your blood. Death spills from her.”
Another ear-piercing scream, one that sounded harvested from the depths of hells.
Then, Lyr pulled his hands away, and the vision vanished from my mind. “The Winter Witch is never wrong.”
I tried to catch my breath, and I stared at him, my heart slamming hard against my ribs. And as prophecies went, that one did not sound great.
It didn’t sound like me, though. I didn’t want to cut off his head and fertilize Ys with his blood. And why would I want a kingdom of bones?
I felt a sharp chasm open up in my chest, a wild desire to prove to him that he was wrong. “You can’t really think that’s me.”
His deep blue eyes drank me in. “It’s you. The Daughter of Meriadoc.” He brushed a strand of my blue hair out of my face. “The Winter Witch has never been wrong before.”
“So if you think I’m going to cut off your head, why are you letting me hang around you? Why are we working together?”
“She said that you’ll seek to do it. Not that you’ll succeed. I intend to stop you.”
Electric energy crackled between us. “And how do you intend to stop me?”
“By whatever means necessary.”
I was grateful for the sheath cutting off circulation to my leg right now, because it had a weapon in it. At any moment, Lyr could decide that I was about to cut off his head, and he’d feel compelled to try to stop me.
“I don’t believe it.” I didn’t want a kingdom of bones.
Unless something changed me… The athame, perhaps? When I touched it, would something change me?
“I have no desire to fertilize a city in your blood. I’d cut off your head, maybe, if you deserve it, but the dang thing would probably grow back.” My stomach rumbled, and I was getting so hungry that maybe I was a little at risk of trying to drown a city in Lyr’s blood. I needed toast or something before I actually did try to decapitate him.
“But mostly, I don’t care a lick what the Winter Witch says. She’s wrong,” I said with much more conviction than I felt. “Put it out of your head, and let’s get breakfast.”
“Wait here a minute. I’ll get you something to eat.”
He crossed to a coffee stand in the center of the pathway, striding up confidently in his cloak and crown, as if he didn’t look bizarre. What was he going to do? Terrify them into giving him some croissants?
The barista slid a tray with a coffee cup and two brown paper sacks onto the counter and called out the name “Shira!”
Lyr shot out and snatched the tray, moving in such a fast blur I wasn’t sure anyone else saw him.
I wasn’t even sure if he understood that you usually paid for food. For most of his time in the human realm, he probably just had servants handing him things.
He’d crossed the road and joined my side again within moments, and he shoved the tray at me. “Fill your belly. Then try again to find the athame.”
Fill your belly. Weirdo.
By my side, he was striding along the wide sidewalk like he knew exactly where we were going.
“Do you know of a space around here we can use?” I asked. “For my athame tracking?”
We crossed the road again, heading for what looked like an apartment building. “I’ll find one.”
Hungry as I was, the coffee smelled amazing. I grabbed Shira’s latte from the tray. It burned my tongue just a bit, but once the taste of caffeinated drink hit my tongue, I couldn’t stop myself. Ahhhh, glorious stimulants mixed with milk… “I love coffee. I love Shira right now. I even love you, Lyr, you brooding, coffee-providing monster.”
He shot me a confused look, and I took another long sip.
As we walked, I peered into the paper bags. Shira had amazing taste, too, because she’d selected a pain au chocolate and an egg sandwich on French bread. My mouth watered.
“Do you want any of this?” I asked, hoping for a no.
“I’ll eat later.”
Brilliant.
Lyr stopped walking in front of a short concrete building. Above us, narrow balconies overlooked the sidewalk.
Lyr stopped at the door, then pushed all six of the apartment building’s buzzers. After a moment, someone spoke in what I thought was Hebrew. Lyr replied fluently. No idea what he said, but the buzzer sounded a moment later.
Apparently, Lyr knew more about the human world than I’d given him credit for.
He pulled open the door, and I followed him into the cool hallway, and the door shut behind me.
He turned to me. “Just give me a moment. I’m going to discreetly find an empty apartment.”
By the look of him, Lyr wasn’t the best choice for discreetly scoping out a building. Nothing about an enormous blond fae was particularly discreet. Except that Lyr had a certain way of moving fluidly though the shadows that I couldn’t mimic. It was how he’d been able to steal Shira’s breakfast out from under her nose. A breakfast I now desperately wanted to devour.
I leaned against a door. Then, I balanced the tray on one knee, taking a bite of the pain au chocolate.
Our plan was starting to feel increasingly ridiculous. I was supposed to sit in an apartment and just listen out for the sounds of an athame. Lyr seemed sure I could find it if I simply focused enough, but that wasn’t how it worked.
I took a huge bite of the pastry, and I felt the hair raising on the back of my neck. Someone was using a scrying mirror to watch me. I started to run for Lyr, but I had only taken a few steps when the world fell out from under me—the floor rumbling, cracking open.
I plunged into an icy portal, and a hand clamped around my ankle. Tragically, the chocolate pastry fell into the water with me.
Underwater, I fought to swim to the surface. Swimming I could do, even in the most powerful of currents. And yet now, magic was dragging me under like light pulled into a black hole. It happened fast—the break through to the other side, the rush of air as rough hands yanked me from the portal.