“So pretty,” I murmur, just as the ball shoots at the speed of light straight at me. It slams into my chest so hard that I jerk backward. There’s no pain, just a slight warmth permeating my entire body. Arwen doesn’t move, merely grips my hands harder.
I glance down to see my chest glowing brightly, but it doesn’t feel like anything at all. For several seconds, it just sits there, and I gasp loudly in shock when it punches loose of my body—again without any feeling really—and shoots back into Arwen.
She jerks, sucks in a lungful of air, and lets it out in a big whoosh. While she has no eyes, I can tell her focus is back in the hut with me. She gently releases my hands as the light in her chest dwindles and dies.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“That was… weird,” I admit. “And incredible. Did you learn anything?”
“Yes,” she says, reaching down to grab her pipe. When she puts it in her mouth, there’s smoke coming from it, although she made no move to light it and I’m sure it wasn’t lit when she had set it down. She takes a few deep puffs, then blows the smoke out to the side. It smells like pine needles and bonfires.
“Your story is far more complicated than I ever thought possible,” she begins, taking another puff on her pipe. “It started at your birth when you lost your sister.”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. “I lost my sister a few weeks ago when she changed into a Dark Fae.”
“No,” Arwen corrects me. “You lost her at birth. Your twin was taken. In her place, someone placed a changeling.”
“A what?” I exclaim, not prepared at all for this information.
“A changeling is a Dark Fae who is put in place of a stolen baby. It is supposed to be a catalyst for great magic.”
“But who would do that?” I ask, my mind reeling.
“I don’t know. I could not see that detail, but I do know there was an angel present at your birth.”
“An angel?” My voice is weak, and I feel like all my energy has been sapped. “You think an angel did this?”
“No, not at all,” Arwen says. “Something evil did this. That changeling was placed with your family to suit some awful purpose in the future. I just know there was an angel there at the same time.”
My stomach rolls with nausea as I must ask the most awful of questions. “Is my real sister… my twin… dead?”
“No,” Arwen replies softly. “In ordinary circumstances, they need to be kept alive to keep the changeling alive until it can turn into its intended form. After that, the human is really not needed.”
“But you did see that she’s still alive?” I ask, a bit of hysteria starting to settle in. Prophecy be damned, I need to know where my twin is.
“I’ve seen her,” Arwen whispers, her tone regretful. “She’s still very much alive in The Underworld.”
“Oh God,” I moan, crossing my arms over my stomach. I feel a sob wanting to break free, but I choke it down. Desperate for any information I can get, I lean forward. “You said a changeling is a catalyst for great magic. Could it have been used simply to bring this Dark Fae into the Earth realm?”
“It’s possible,” Arwen ponders with a frown. “But very unlikely. Placing a changeling that waits for twenty-eight years to emerge into a powerful Dark Fae tells me that it’s something bigger than just one fae trying to escape the Underworld. Just the magic it would take to place the changeling tells me whoever was behind this already had the means to get to the Earth realm. Because we know there’s a prophecy, I’m guessing there is significance in doing it that way, but it’s all supposition.”
“I need more than supposition,” I snap, then immediately hold my hands up in apology. “Sorry. I don’t mean to take this out on you. This is just a lot to process. What about the prophecy?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I do know without a doubt this Dark Fae who emerged is at the center of it. And you are the means to stop her.”
We had figured as much, but at least now we had confirmation.
“What is her purpose?” I muse, knowing Arwen doesn’t have the answer to that particular question as she’s as much as said so.
How do we find that information? Should we kidnap and torture it out of her? I know Carrick could do that. Or perhaps we just kill her, but what would be the unknown cost? If she’s in any way tethered to my real sister, I don’t think we can take that chance.
And fuck… I have a sister who was raised and lived twenty-eight years, literally in hell. What would she be like?