I turned the pages, scanning the history of the Kingdom. My pulse raced as I saw this book, too, had been defaced.
King——, fallen god of twilight, was the second king of Mag Mell. He ruled for centuries. But he was too wicked to reign, and was cast out of the paradise. He roamed the earth, torturing and burning others for his evil pleasure. His true name was struck from the histories, and he remains cursed to this day. Fire follows him wherever he goes.
Some call him the devil, or the dark lord.
The Merrow holds the key to his demise.
A chill spread through my blood like melting ice. The devil?
I pulled out another stick of wintergreen, popping it in my mouth. It didn’t taste great with the coffee.
At least I had a clue now. The Merrow holds the key…
I read on.
Only one person can vanquish him for good.
The Merrow. The next page was streaked by water damage, and I could only make out a few words. Sinful… lustful… sexual depravity… he torments…
I cleared my throat, straightening.
The Merrow was my answer, and it just so happened that I knew him. He’d been in Ys many times. I could still remember the sound of his powerful magic. Once, I’d helped him with a powerful spell, back when Mama was still alive. He’d captured a monster in driftwood cages, and I’d helped him sink it to the bottom of the sea.
The plan was crystalizing now, though there wasn’t much to it.
I had to lead Salem to the Merrow.
Footfalls had me jumping, and I turned to see Lyr crossing toward me. Between the stacks, shadows breathed around him. His expression was grim.
I let out a long sigh of relief, closing the book. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in days. Apparently, Salem is the devil himself. Lucifer. And he can control my mind.”
Lyr’s body glowed gold, and for the first time, I realized he was dripping wet, his dark eyelashes frozen together in little peaks. “I’ve been with Beira.”
The Winter Witch. He put all his faith in that Winter Witch. “What did she say?”
“You are the only one who can kill him, according to Beira. You have to stop him from trying to fulfill his destiny. If you fail, the whole world will turn to ash.”
4
Aenor
Lyr held out his hand, opening his fist. A white pearl gleamed in his palm. “This contains the prophecy from Beira. Put it in your mouth, and you will see what will happen if you don’t kill Salem.”
“I don’t need the extra motivation.”
Still, I plucked the pearl from his palm. With a nervous look up at him, I popped it in my mouth.
Immediately, the book stacks and arched ceilings around me gave way to a forest of blazing trees. Tree trunks burned like torches, and heat scorched my skin. A woman ran across the flaming landscape, her body on fire. Her cries tore through the air, and her body flailed around.
A creature—just like the one I’d killed earlier—loped through the forest, fingers flaming. Steam curled off his gnarled body.
It felt like I stood on the surface of the sun, the air so dry and hot…
I tried to remind myself that this was only a vision, a possibility… but right now, it all seemed so real.
I couldn’t breathe for all the smoke, and the heat scorched my skin. I blinked as flames curled around me, and I ran. I was trying to find a way out of this inferno. A path cut through the woods, leading to a road. Coughing, I tried to run as fast as possible, desperate for clear air. When I reached the highway, I found a sea of wrecked cars, people running, bodies in flames, cars exploding…
Salem will do this…
The vision ripped from my mind, and I stared instead at Lyr standing before me.
My knees had gone weak, nearly buckling, and I reached out for him.
It was only a vision, and yet sweat dripped down my forehead. My skin felt like it had been scorched. It took a moment for the heat to fade.
I caught my breath. Lyr had seemed to flinch when I’d reached for him, and I stepped away again.
Since Lyr had brought me back from the dead, he seemed… different. Like another part of him had stayed in the death realm.
The fact that he didn’t want me to touch him made my heart twist.
“That vision was bleak,” I rasped. “And believe me, I want to kill him anyway. I’ve been meaning to kill him for a long time.”
“There’s a particular shard of enchanted sea glass we need to use, but she wasn’t clear on where to get it.”
The Merrow. He was supposed to be the key. “Okay, I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is that the fruit I ate means Salem can control my mind. Killing him won’t be super easy.”
Lyr growled, low and deep, the sound rumbling through my belly. “I’ll help you find the sea glass. We’ll kill him together.”
“But here’s the good news. The books said that the Merrow holds the key to his demise. So maybe that’s the sea glass. I can lure Salem to the Merrow. The Merrow traps him, and I stab him.”
Lyr’s eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you tell me Salem wanted to return your power to you?”
At the thought of it, my mood brightened. “That’s the other good news. With my sea power back, I should be able to find the Merrow.”
Lyr shook his head. “No, we can’t allow this to happen. If Salem controls your mind, he controls your power. He could do untold damage. I’ll help you trap him as soon as he arrives to get you. Then we’ll get the Merrow.”
Instantly, I balked at this idea, but it took me a moment to figure out why. “If we trap him as soon as he arrives, I will never get my power back.”
“And the world will be safer.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “First of all, the loss of my power is like missing my limbs. If you’d lost an integral part of yourself, and you had the chance to get it back, you would take it. Second of all, I think only the Merrow can trap him. Beira said I’m the only one who can kill him. But the Merrow is the one who can trap him. The Merrow holds the key.”
He ran his thumb over his lip, seeming to consider this for a moment. “How do you know about this trapping?”
“I’ve helped him do it before. He can trap a person’s soul in an old driftwood cage, tethering their body and spirit to the spot. Long ago, we buried someone under the ocean waters. If I can bring Salem to him, we can trap him long enough for me to find this sea glass. I think the Merrow and I have to work together.”
Lyr’s brow furrowed. “You’ve done this before?”
“Long ago, when I had my power. It was an evil fae of astounding powers. He was going to destroy Ys and turn it into dust and ash. It was… it was exactly like the vision you just showed me. The same exact thing. If we hadn’t trapped him, everything would have burned. I saw it using my own magic. I used to call them what if spells. What if I don’t trap this person? And it was just fire and drought everywhere. Smoldering rock, bodies lying in rubble across our island. So I helped the Merrow. We stopped the world from burning.”
“The Winter Witch said nothing about this Merrow.”
“Well, she tends to leave out important details.”