you did. You saw for yourself—"
“What?” I shook my head and started to pace again. “What did I see? What was that exactly? Why did I see it? Did you send me there?”
He shook his head and knelt down to the ground with Olli. “Thorne and Sage control the tunnels, most of where you wound up was because of them – aside from me sending you to 1692. See, no one in Seelie can know that I am a traitor to my own kind. The King discovered my brother and killed him for it.”
My steps faltered. I spun back toward him. “But I saw him, in that war—"
“You saw the end of the One Hundred Years’ war with Lilith.” He carefully sat Olli on the ground, then ran his hands over his fur. “Malachi and I were working with Edward Proctor, your ancestor and son of angel Uriel, the Hierophant King Henry VI, and archangel Michael. My brother stole Lilith’s locket, a huge seat of her power and menace, and that is what got him killed. I swore to not let his death be in vain. I would give everything to my task, to save Earth. For I too love this realm more than the one I was born to.”
My heart was pounding like it wanted to bust out of my chest. I glanced down at Olli and found he was fast asleep – because Riah had cuddled him to sleep. I licked my lips and balled my hands into fists. “Where do I come into play?”
He took a step toward me. His voice was low but packed with power. “For three centuries I worked in the shadows, going between the tunnels and Earth. We have other allies you’ve yet to even know about, all aligned to defeat Lilith. And then…and then Prince Thorne gave me a new mission. He and Sage told me this mission would be my most important. That if I failed, we’d have no chance of defeating Lilith.”
“What was that mission?” I whispered.
Riah smirked and ran his thumb over his bottom lip. “December 5th 1691, Prince Thorne told me to go to Salem and find a young half-breed named Saraphina Proctor. My job, my only job, was to keep you safe.”
I gasped. “WHAT? ME? I was your mission?”
Riah shrugged. “I don’t know what Prince Thorne knows for why exactly you’re that important but I know better than to doubt him. My mother saw it too. There are only a few of us who knew the plan.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “Why me?”
“He told me to watch you, to guard you, to keep you alive and well until it was time. Until the war—"
“But you let me get cursed…Prince Thorne cursed me…”
“Prince Thorne did curse you, but not as a punishment for helping The Coven return home.”
I groaned and sagged against the cave wall and buried my hands in my hair. “I don’t understand.”
“Prince Thorne knew the next war with Lilith was hundreds of years away…but you had to be a part of it. The only way to keep you alive was to either curse you or bring you to Seelie.” He stopped right in front of me and pressed his finger to the underside of my chin, then forced my eyes up. He smiled softly. “And Seelie is not safe for you, for an arcana half-breed. Especially not one with angel blood in her veins.”
My eyes watered. “…so he cursed me.”
He sighed and nodded. “Keltie was in on it, by the way. She waited to be summoned by Tegan and then showed your uncle what he needed to see to sacrifice himself. And I worked with Elizabeth Bishop to leave clues for your mother so that she’d become a Crone – because I wanted her to be there on the other side of your curse.”
“But, but, but…”
“This has all been one carefully constructed game of chess and we’re winning. Everything is going to plan, Prince Thorne’s plan. Tegan and the others traveling through time was not a coincidence. It’s all tied together. I was the one who told the spell to Althea, the one Tegan used to bring you back to your regular size. I was the one who wrote the spell in Tegan’s Book of Shadows that broke your curse. And when that day came, that night in Hidden Kingdom when The Coven went to you…Prince Thorne sent me to Salem. Keltie oversaw the spell. I was to sit there and watch for you to