Seth nodded.

Sorcha continued to resist. She shoved ineffectually against Devlin’s chest and hissed, “Release me.”

“Sister, you will come gracefully, or we will discuss everything in front of them.”

The High Queen pursed her lips, but she stopped resisting.

Then he dragged his sister-mother-queen across the room and shoved open the door to her garden.

She stepped in front of him, and for the first time in the millennia they’d stood alone together in her private garden, he saw ire shimmering in her eyes. The silver veins in her skin glittered like moonlight storming beneath the surface.

“How was Seth made faery?”

“I don’t see that—”

“How?”

“You know the answer or you wouldn’t be acting like this. I gave him of my own essence to remake him. I did not expect the consequences or emotion, but I don’t regret it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I wanted a child of my own. I wanted a son, and he needed a m—”

“You had a son, if you weren’t too cruel to admit it….” He pulled his gaze away from her.

“No, I have a brother. You are my brother, made by order and violence. I wanted someone who was just mine.” She grew agitated, not orderly, not in control of her emotions as the High Queen should be. After an eternity of balance with her twin, she was unsettled—because she had made herself so. The High Queen, the Unchanging Queen, had changed.

“It was the right choice,” she insisted. “I needed him. He needed me.”

“Could we sit?” Shakily, Devlin gestured to the space between them.

Sorcha made a table and two chairs appear. He sat and stared at her. After more millennia than either of them likely could recall, Sorcha had changed everything. Devlin wasn’t sure what that would mean for Faerie or the mortal world, but the consequences thus far—Sorcha’s mourning and Faerie’s almost ending—weren’t particularly encouraging.

Carefully, Devlin touched her hand. “What have you done, Sister?”

“Freed myself from her. We’re different from one another now. I have taken a mortal’s taint into myself, given him part of me. Don’t you see? Bananach and I are no longer perfectly opposite.” Sorcha smiled, and the moon glowed brighter overhead. The air tasted purer as her happiness grew. “It was not my intention, but it has… oh, it has given me so much more than I realized I could have. I have a son, a child of my own, emotions I did not understand, and I can see my twin-no-more without feeling unwell. I may even be able to kill—”

“You cannot.” Devlin gripped his sister-queen’s hands. “Think. If you’re wrong, if you’re still bound like that… would you kill us all?”

“If she hurts Seth, I would.” Sorcha yanked free of his grasp. “Maybe it’s time that she’s not the only one to go back and forth to the mortal world. Maybe things need to change.”

“You’re the Unchanging Queen.” Devlin forced his voice to even, despite the growing panic he felt. “You cannot go over there for more than a few moments. Reality will—”

“Adjust. Yes, but is that so awful?” She had the look of a zealot. “Faerie bends to my will, and look how good it is here.”

Devlin felt alarmed by the sensation of a sudden unraveling around him. He closed his eyes, and he saw them, threads tangling and weaving together, lives altered and possibilities ended, deaths they couldn’t overcome. As long as the veil between worlds was open to the twins, but their balance was missing, Sorcha was in danger—and all of Faerie was in danger.

He went to his knees in the garden. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

“I wanted you to be my son,” she whispered, “but I couldn’t have her child as my child. You’re still my brother. Family.”

“I know.” He kept his worries hidden from her. If she learned that Bananach was trying to find a way to kill her son, if she learned that her twin-no-more had asked Ani to kill Seth, the queen of Faerie would be enraged, and an omnipotent angry queen pursuing War in the mortal world was not in the best interests of either realm.

Separating from Bananach meant that Sorcha was feeling emotions she’d never known. It meant that the one faery who held perfect clarity had lost her balance. Until balance was returned, there was little chance of stability.

So how do I rebalance her? He was the only other strong faery in Faerie, and he didn’t have an answer. The answers he needed weren’t going to be found by waiting in Faerie either. He needed to return to the world of mortals.

Chapter 34

Devlin stood in his rooms with Ani and Rae. After he explained what he’d learned, he added, “I don’t plan to be gone long, but I need to talk to Niall.”

“No.” Ani gestured with the blade of the knife she’d been cleaning. “Did you forget the fight we left over there? It’s not safe for you, and… you aren’t going anywhere without me, Devlin. Just no.”

“Bananach came here when the queen slept, Devlin. Here is not safe either.” Rae sat stiffly in one of the uncomfortable chairs as if she had physical form. She didn’t shudder, but there was horror in her expression. “War was awful. The bodies… She will come here.”

“We shouldn’t be apart,” Ani snarled. She continued cleaning her already spotless knives. According to Rae, in his absence Ani had begun cleaning every weapon in the chamber. Her own knives were laid out on a table with several of his. The sight made him smile. Ani’s scowl, however, did not. She furiously polished one of the short blades he’d had on a low table alongside the settee. “I can’t believe you think I’m going to sit here while you go face Bananach.”