A Battle of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 4)

It’s this whole prophecy thing.

Maddox reaches out, clamping a hand on my shoulder. “It could be Kymaris. But it could be anyone who decided they didn’t like you sticking your nose into fae business.”

“That’s actually a list that’s adding up,” I mutter as I think about it. There’s Stan, the Light Fae noble, and Deandra, the Light Fae princess from Faere. Come to think about it, just about any fae would hate me and want to kill me. Humans are looked down upon, so it’s entirely possible we stumbled upon this creature and it locked onto me as being non-fae.

“Are you going to sequester me to the condo the way Carrick would at the hint I’m in further danger?” I ask him.

Maddox snorts. “I’m nothing like my brother. And besides that, I’m not madly in love with you the way he is. He has better reasons than I do to keep you alive.”

I know he’s teasing, but the pain of those words hits deep. Carrick is in love with me—has been for centuries. We’ve loved each other over and over again through my every reincarnation.

Of course, I don’t remember any of this, but the pain on Carrick’s face made it clear he wasn’t exaggerating about how hard this has been on him. He even asked the gods to release him from existence because it was too awful finding me over and over again, only to lose me to some quick and unpredictable death.

“He’ll be back soon,” Maddox says softly, apparently reading my expression.

Shrugging his hand off, I mutter. “I don’t care when he comes back. We’re doing fine without him.”

“Keep telling yourself that, hot stuff,” Maddox retorts with a laugh. “You might actually start to believe it.”

Before I can come back with a pithy response, Maddox pivots and heads into the mausoleum. Zaid is going through a stone coffin and by the cement tops moved off the others, it looks like he’s already searched four and is on the last one.

“Anything?” Maddox asks.

Zaid glances up, the flashlight he’s holding causing a glow to hit him under the chin. It makes his gaunt face look almost as skeletal as the wraith’s, and he shakes his head in dismay.

“A wild goose chase?” I ponder aloud.

“If the wraith was here to attack you, then I’d say you were set up,” Maddox concludes, pinning his gaze on Zaid.

Zaid had gotten the tip from his father, and his face turns paler than normal. “Fucking Boral,” he snarls.

Zaid’s father is an evil, awful, hateful Dark Fae whose sole joy is murdering and pillaging. Lately, he’s been trying to get back in his son’s good graces, but Zaid hasn’t wanted anything to do with him for centuries upon centuries.

Boral is persistent, though. He has embedded himself in with some of the original fallen Dark Fae recruited by Kymaris and who will be a part of the confractus muros, which is the ritual that will bring down the veil between the Underworld and the Earth realm. Boral has been passing information to us from various Dark Fae contacts, including this relic that would supposedly help point us to the Blood Stone.

“I don’t think he set me up,” I rush to defend his dad. “Yes, he passed on the information, but I don’t think he knew a wraith would be sent after me. Maybe Kymaris knows he’s a double agent of sorts.”

Zaid looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “He’s evil, Finley. When are you going to get it through your head?”

“He has no reason to harm me.” I huff with frustration because Boral, despite his many faults, is our best source of information on Kymaris.

Our only source, really.

“Because it will hurt Carrick is reason enough,” Maddox points out. “Boral hates Carrick. If he can hurt Carrick, he’ll take the opportunity to do it.”

I shake my head. I don’t believe it. Over the past two weeks, I’ve had some conversations with Boral—disconcerting in the extreme—but I think he truly is trying to help us because he wants a relationship with his son again. And killing me would only ensure his son would never have anything to do with him again.

“I think it’s more likely that someone else wants me dead,” I say to my friends. And yes, they have become good friends, especially over the last couple weeks since Carrick disappeared. “Sending an assassin wraith is far too easy for Kymaris, and she would have done something like that already.”

“Maybe,” Maddox points out. “But it could just as easily be Boral. The relic wasn’t here, which is definitely a red flag. I don’t think we can trust him.”

“I never trusted him,” Zaid mutters.

“Then let’s test him,” I suggest.

Both men—well, dark daemon and demi-god—regard me with interest. “Let’s give him some false information to see if it reaches Kymaris. We can tell Boral we found the location of the Blood Stone, name a place, and then wait to see if she or her minions show up for it.”