alerted her somehow. I stepped inside the warm library and Elle came up beside me, bowing low out of respect. I’d forgotten all formalities, and clumsily bowed as well.
Indra waved her hand. “You don’t need to greet me in such a way. We are all equals in the cause to save Faerie.”
Whoa.
Elle and I shared a look. The other three elders turned the corner then and my eyes fell on the elder of Winter Court.
“I got the crystal,” I told them, and they all sighed in relief, clutching their chests. I noticed then that the floor of their home had a giant crack down the middle. Was that there when I’d come after the earthquake?
Indra noticed my gaze. “There have been more tremors.”
I pulled out the crystal and held it out to Indra. This should help.”
She stepped back a pace. “Oh, dearest, it is your birthright to place the crystal. I cannot touch it without catastrophic harm.”
Oh shit, that was right. I pulled my hand back and nodded. I needed to tell them so many things, but unlike with Mara, I couldn’t talk to the elders so freely.
My gaze flicked to the Winter elder. “Did you know the Winter King still lives?”
Indra had said he was running the Sons of Darkness, but I hadn’t really expected to run into him like that.
He sighed. “I assumed as much. Your mother clashed with him a handful of times over the years. There are many factions of the Sons of Darkness. He only runs one of them.”
Anger flared inside of me. “Did you know he killed her?”
Indra frowned. “Mara told us. Why all of this talk of the Winter King?”
I took a deep breath, looking over at Elle, who nodded in encouragement.
“The Winter King has some sick breeding program. We walked into some sex party with hundreds of Sons of Darkness and their human … concubines. They’re … mating.” This was awkward as fuck, but I felt it my duty to warn them.
They collectively gasped, and Indra immediately started to pace the library. “This is worse than I feared.”
Elle stepped forward, “The king was talking about weird things. Like wanting to create a world on Earth where they could … I don’t know. It sounded like he wanted all the crystals to take over Earth for himself.”
Indra stopped pacing and I shot Elle a warning look. The king’s speech had been confusing, and I’d wanted to find out more from Liam before just dropping that bomb on them.
Indra’s face took on a menacing look. “Of course. That’s been his plan all along I’ll bet.”
Her eyes fell to my hand, which was red and burned from grabbing the dark crystal. “Is there something else you need to tell us, dear?”
Fuck.
Well, they dropped a ton of stuff on me over the past few days, so now it was time to return the favor. This was something I hadn’t even told Elle yet.
“The king had two crystals. One that looked like this.” I held up the beautiful bluish-purple shard. “And one that was … blackish green. A dark crystal. It burned me when I tried to grab it.”
The elder of Spring looked like she was ready to fall over, but Indra remained surprisingly calm. She simply looked at the Winter elder and they both nodded. “Your mother had some intel, weeks before she died, that the Sons had in their possession a powerful warlock who was changing the properties of our crystals so that we could no longer retrieve them, and you would no longer be able to touch them. Only the Sons of Darkness can.”
Oh gods.
What did that mean for Faerie?
“So, it’s just gone?” I shouted. “We can’t use it? Even if I get them all, we will only have eleven!”
Indra gave a deep sigh, her wings wilting behind her. “Let’s take it one step at a time. This crystal should stop the tremors.” She pointed to the one in my hand. “I’ll go and have a chat with an old friend and see what we can do about the dark crystal.”
I just nodded, and with that, her and Aubin walked past me, each giving me a bow of their head. They reached the blue door to Mara’s prison and knocked. She opened it and ushered them inside before closing it behind them. It hadn’t occurred to me that they couldn’t just walk inside like I could. Only Mara could let them enter.
Interesting.
“Come, child.” The elder of Fall coaxed me forward. Maple was sweet and