Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

“I don’t understand… what battle?”

“Your arrival has set into motion a chain of events that can’t be stopped. Soon, the moon children will rally to attack the castle once more. Without you, they will most certainly fail.”

“But…” I looked up at my father, then back at my mother. “Why me? Why am I so special?”

“You are the white wolf, Dahlia. I know you can feel it.” She pressed a hand against my heart. “You are the only one who can bring light to the darkness, and save the moon children from obliterating themselves.”

“Are you telling me I have to attack Windhelm?”

They gave each other hard looks. “I told you she would have trouble with this,” my father said.

“Now is not the time for an I told you so, Michael,” she said, then she looked down at me again. “I cannot tell you what is going to happen in the coming weeks, I only know what the emissary told me. It told me you were the white wolf, and that the tribe would kill you if I left you with them. You had to leave, and then come back and prove yourself before they would accept you. Only then would you be able to help them.”

“That isn’t exactly the way Toross explained it to me.”

“I didn’t tell him everything. I couldn’t. There was a chance he would’ve gone against my wishes if I had told him who you would grow up to become. If he had chosen to bring you back to the others, they would’ve killed you.”

I shook my head. “But if fate has already decided what’s going to happen, then he was never going to bring me back to them, right?”

“Fate is a scribe that is always writing. It cannot compel a person to act a certain way. In the end, the choices they make are always theirs, and then destiny is written anew. Without you the moon children will end, and darkness will reign. But you have the power to change that.”

“Even if that’s true, I can’t stay with them… I have to help the Prince.”

A soft, blue light bloomed into existence near the tree where I had seen it the first time. My mother looked over at it, and frowned. “I don’t have much time, Dahlia. I know you are being asked to do many things, but they are all connected. The moon children, the Prince, the Veridian, and the King. Everything is linked, their fates are in your hands, but only you can make the choices.”

“If you leave them now,” my father said, “Ashera will believe she was right in calling you a false prophet. It will enrage her and she will take the children to the castle and attack out of anger. That has already been written.”

“But if you stay,” my mother said, “If you prove to them that you are the white wolf, the one who will lead them out of the dark, she will listen to you. They all will.”

“What about the Prince?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled. “You know he is at the core of this. He is the one that will bring the darkness to the world.”

I paused, watching her carefully. “What happens to him?”

My mother shook her head. “I cannot answer that.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

“Dahlia…”

“Please, mother… I need to know.”

My father nodded. “Tell her,” he pushed.

She shut her eyes. “He carries within him the heart of darkness itself. You have to kill him to save them.”

“Kill him?!” I shrieked, and that seemed to anger the ball of light because it blossomed and grew rapidly, and then it got angry. Instead of hovering quietly, it became a wild, whirling storm that roared and screamed and tugged at my hair.

My father held onto us both, and my mother dug her heels into the snow to keep it from pulling them toward it—it didn’t seem to have an effect on me. “Dahlia, the choices are yours,” she said, raising her voice over the roar of the vortex. “If you don’t help them, the moon children—our people—are doomed to die.”

“I can’t kill the Prince!” I yelled.

“You have to choose. Them, or him!”

I tried to keep hold of my parents, but they were slipping away. “Mum!” I yelled, “Dad!”

“We love you,” my father yelled, “Whatever you do, remember that. We love you, and we’re proud of you.”

The portal had grabbed them both, now. They were being sucked into it, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t hold onto them. “I love you too,” I yelled, “Don’t leave me again!”

My mother smiled at me, then let go of my hand and embraced my father. Together, they were sucked through the portal, which exploded as soon as they were through. Once I gathered my senses, I sat upright and yelled, “Mum!”

But I wasn’t in the same place anymore. It was day, and I was lying in a bed of flowers with a dagger in one hand and a box in the other. I wasn’t crying, but I was dizzy, and woozy, as if I’d just woken up from a deep sleep that had turned into a nightmare.

Toross kneeled at the edge of the flowers and looked over at me. “You saw her?” he asked.

“I… I did…”

“What did she say?”

I shook my head. “Nothing good.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Toross escorted me back to my tent, but I asked him to take me instead to Mira and Melina. He was a little reluctant at first, considering I still hadn’t answered his question about how I’d even come to be in Arcadia. Strangely, he didn’t put up too much resistance when I pressed the issue, and soon enough, he brought me to find the others.

Both of the women sitting in the tent perked up when I pulled the flap aside and stepped through. Mira’s eyes widened, and I noticed her gaze lock with Toross’ for an instant. After lingering for a moment too long, Toross finally moved away from the opening to the tent