Emon’s authority swept across the table like the cool morning breeze snaking through the windows. “Anything else?”
Across the table the master healer cleared his throat. “General Tyr received word from the Red Cap Mountains requesting your presence when you’ve returned home.” He said softly, giving the king a pointed look.
The air seemed to be sucked from the very room, every shifter in the room inhaling with stiff forms, their expressions solemn.
Emon drummed his fingers on the table and inhaled deeply. “So be it, it seems I will be needing to go there anyway.” His stern gaze casted across the room. “If that is all, then I have some very grave news.”
Chapter 46
Itookamentalpictureof the moment. Memorized the faces of my friends with my soulmate at my side, knowing this would likely be the last time we would find ourselves all together like this ever again.
Slowly, I spoke. “Faerie's lands are suffering just like ours and the blood wraiths are becoming bolder. They are attacking outside the deadlands. Their attack on our city will be inevitable, the wards must hold for the safety of our people.”
Tyr snarled. “Let them come. I am ready for them.”
I shook my head. “This is not a fight we are prepared for my friend. We must make sure that Finlandia is never exposed. It must remain hidden for the sake of the lives living here.”
“I will have the elementals strengthen the wards then and push our armies outside the city for their training.” Tyr respondedevenly.
“Why now?” Quinn said. “Since the first death of the lands, the blood wraiths had always stayed within them. What has changed?”
“Time.” I confessed. “It has been almost a hundred years since the gateway to the Sanguine had last opened. It will again, in less than a fortnight.”
Remnants head snapped to me.
Eshe frowned. “The Sanguine lands? You are insinuating that the death of our lands and the blood wraiths are of Sanguine power? How long have you known this?”
I challenged the fear swirling in my friend's eyes. “I suspected but did not know for sure. It is my responsibility, as your king, to keep you safe. With that comes the weight ofwhen and ifI need to share information. Today is that day.”
Remnant’s breathing increased. She was piecing it together…where Deirdre had been hiding all these years.
“But it was destroyed.” Eshe looked around the room to see any confirmation from the others.
I sighed. “I wish it were so. The blood fae were destroyed by the goddess…not the lands. Not the power.”
Eshe shook her head. “But who can use it? Only the blood fae could wield the Sanguine and as you said the goddess wiped them out. The water fae attempted it once with the blood crystals and it practically destroyed them.”
I turned to Remnant.
Her gaze searched mine worriedly then her chin tilted high and her shoulders squared. “I’m with you.”
Holding the courageous strength in those emerald eyes, I delivered the next blow. “There is one who can. Deirdre. The Queen of Faerie.”
The room exploded. Curses and conjectures filled the room.
Remnant’s eyes never left mine and amid the chaos, she reached her hand across to me. It was then that I noticed that they were trembling.
Her palm flattened against mine before she whispered just audibly for me. “Breathe Emon.”
I took a deep breath.
Penina’s feet dropped from the table and her hands slammed onto its surface startling everyone into silence. My assassin friend did not often explode with anger and when she did it was best to listen.
“Impossible. She's dead.Theyare dead.” She growled viciously towards me.
Remnant turned calmly towards her. “It is not impossible. Emon is right. Deirdre is the only one who would dare wield the Sanguine and I have seen it, felt it. It is her.”
My eyes widened realizing now that was what had held Remnant from coming to me in The Under.
