Queen of the Fae (Dragon's Gift The Dark Fae #3) - Linsey Hall Page 0,41
clarified.
“Oh, we know,” the blonde goddess said. Her sweeping white dress and the laurel wreath around her head looked vaguely Greek. She must be Hestia.
“You almost stopped her,” said the redhead. “Almost.” She wore a brilliant green dress to match her eyes, and her hair looked like it’d be pretty curly even without the electric energy. A Celtic tattoo twined itself around her collarbones—beautiful, delicate knots that had to symbolize something important. She must be Brigid.
“She got the information she came for.”
Shit.
The woman who had spoken was a brunette with beautiful golden skin and midnight eyes. Her clothing was unfamiliar—blue silk that wrapped around her in sweeps of shimmering fabric. She had to be Arinitti, the Hittite goddess.
The last woman—one with pale brown hair and a distinctly Roman toga and nose—crossed her arms and frowned, a seriously peeved look on her face. Vesta, the Roman goddess.
Dread opened a hole in my chest as the reality of our situation struck me.
We’d failed. And the goddesses were pissed.
“Who are you?” demanded Vesta.
I stepped forward. “I am Mordaca, a Blood Sorceress and the daughter of the woman who just stole information from you.”
It was probably a bold move to admit it, but I didn’t want to hide it.
“Took it right out of our heads,” Brigid spat. “That crystal of hers was impossible to fight.”
“What does she want it for?” asked Hestia, the blonde goddess. Her gaze moved between me and Tarron. “It must be for something she plans to do to the two of you, if you’re so keen on stopping her.”
I nodded sharply. “She plans to destroy his realm with it.”
Brigid nearly growled. “If she releases that flame, it will kill hundreds. Thousands. It travels like the wind, destruction incarnate.”
“I told you we should have protected it better,” snapped Arinitti.
Vesta gestured around. “Look, Arinitti. Just look. How much better could we have done?”
I followed her gesture, inspecting the area around us. Dozens of stone statues of warriors lay broken around us. Maybe a hundred. They must have been the forces fighting the Unseelie. That’s why I hadn’t seen them. They’d blended in so well with all the white stone around them, and I’d been so busy trying to stay alive that I hadn’t noticed them at first—I’d had eyes only for the Unseelie attackers or my mother. Even now, she pulled at me.
Shaking, I reached for Tarron’s hand and gripped it tightly. More than anything, I needed to remain mentally present here. In this reality. Not in some crazy half world of compulsive magic that my mother had cast me into with her potion bomb. I’d like to go back and kill whatever Unseelie had hit me with it from behind.
It took everything I had to fight her pull on me. Considering that I had the power to transport to the entrance of the Unseelie Realm in a heartbeat, I almost didn’t trust myself.
“It’s nearly inconceivable that she made it here,” Vesta said. “She was insanely powerful. We had a guard of a hundred stone warriors—not to mention our own powers—and she still triumphed. It’s impossible to plan for that.”
I sort of disagreed, but I kept my mouth shut. We needed info right now, and we needed to be quick.
“Can we stop her?” I asked. “Track her to the Eternal Flame?”
“You can.” Hestia stepped forward, her footsteps faltering. “You must. We are too weak.”
Brigid scowled, as if she didn’t like that assessment, then she lifted her hand to her head, clearly in pain. “I hate to agree with her, but she is right. Whatever was in that harpy’s magic has weakened us. We will go after her as soon as we are able, but I’m afraid that may take time.”
“We don’t have time,” Tarron said.
“Indeed, you do not.” Arinitti frowned at us. “You made it safely through the trials protecting this place.”
“We did. Which is why you should tell us—immediately—how to get to the Eternal Flame so that we can stop my mother.”
Arinitti’s dark brows drew together over her forehead. “You will not use it for yourself?”
She was clearly the suspicious one in the group. Couldn’t blame her, after what my mother had done to her home.
“Only if it allows me to kill her.” I shrugged. “And yeah, running around with Eternal Fire and lighting stuff up isn’t really my style.”
“We went into the Vestals’ pool of truth to prove we aren’t after the flame itself,” Tarron said, apparently deciding to go with more tact than I’d used.