These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(96)

Finn looks at me and then back to Pretha. “The High Priestess denied us. She refused to open a portal. And then . . . something else took over her body to deliver a message—to tell us where to find a portal and tell us that Abriella and I will be able to open it.”

“How?” Pretha asks.

Finn looks at me for a long moment, and his throat bobs as he swallows. “By using her blood mixed with my own. My suspicions were right. I am her tethered match.”

Pretha and Kane exchange a look. “How?” Pretha breathes.

“Because my magic responds to the power in her blood. Abriella is a descendant of Mab. She is —”

“Our rightful queen,” Kane murmurs.

“I don’t understand.” My head is spinning. They’re throwing out these words— tethered and portal and queen—and my mind is still back in that sanctuary watching a dead priestess speak to me.

“That . . . thing called me a child of Mab, but I’ve never met her. It doesn’t even make sense. My mother was human. My sister is human. I was human until I took that potion.”

“We didn’t understand,” Finn says. He’s still watching me with that stunned, awe-filled expression. “There was always a reason Oberon was able to pass her the crown.”

Kane slowly lowers himself to one knee and bows his head. “My queen,” he murmurs. “It is an honor.”

Pretha follows his lead, kneeling and bowing her head. “We will serve you.”

I half expect Finn to burst out laughing, but there is nothing but reverence in his eyes as he lowers onto one knee, still holding my hand. “Our queen.”

I can’t make sense of my friends kneeling before me, so the crunch of gravel under boots is a welcome distraction, and I turn toward the sound to see Juliana running toward us, breathless.

“We didn’t know,” she says. Tears streak down her blood-smudged face. “I swear to you, we didn’t know. We just wanted Finn on the throne. We thought Mab’s line was gone.” She gasps for air, then blinks at the others, kneeling in the gravel. “My qu-queen,” she blurts, and drops to one knee.

“Allow me the honor of serving you.”

“No.” I shake my head. “Get up. This is a mistake. I can’t be . . .”

Finn’s gaze lifts to mine, and I see the conviction in his silver eyes as his hand squeezes mine.

That’s when I feel it—power weaving up my legs and down my arms, coming from the earth, from this sacred land of Mab’s.

My breath leaves me in a rush. There’s no room for air when my entire body is buzzing. My entire being lights with energy and potential.

I close my eyes and feel my feet lift off the ground, and over the hush in the clearing, the trees seem to whisper Queen.





Chapter Twenty-Three

The sun stretches low across the horizon, casting oranges and reds across the sky. Boots crunch on the gravel behind me, but I don’t budge from the rock I’m perched on or turn to see who’s checking on me. I know who stands behind me, and now I have an explanation for why his presence has always been so clear to me.

Tethered. The word echoes through me like a hawk’s cry in a canyon.

This is supposed to be a quick stop to stretch and take care of our needs, but I’m in no rush to get back on my horse. We’ve been riding for hours, trying to get back to the Midnight Palace before nightfall, and I’ve had plenty of time to think. Too much time.

Finn’s boots scuff on the rocks as he approaches my side and lowers himself to sit beside me.

“How are you holding up?”

My eyes burn. Every time I think I have my footing, my entire world changes, but I have no right to the tinge of self-pity I’m feeling now. “How do you not hate me?”

He gently takes my chin in one big hand and turns me to face him. “Why on earth would I hate you?”

I swallow hard. “Finn, you were raised to lead your kingdom. You’ve spent your whole life preparing to take the throne, and suddenly you’re told I’m supposed to take it instead. How are you so accepting of this?”

His expression softening, he strokes my cheek, his eyes and his touch full of tenderness. “I was raised to serve my kingdom. To do whatever I needed to protect my people and provide for them. I once thought I could do that best from the throne, but then everything happened and . . .” He shrugs, his gaze dropping to my mouth. “You need to remember that I’d already come to terms with Sebastian’s taking the throne. Suddenly that’s not the plan anymore because we have you, and you are exactly what this court needs. I knew it when I knelt before you on that mountain and signaled to the people of Staraelia that you would be their queen. I know it with every breath I take.”

“Because I’m supposedly some lost descendant of Mab?”

“That’s merely the technicality that will allow you to take the seat. But this court doesn’t need you because of what’s in your blood.” His hand drops from my face and rests on my chest. “It needs you because of what’s in your heart.”

“Finn . . .” I bite my bottom lip, not wanting to say too much. Some ancient magic has tied our lives and power together, but I don’t understand what role this tethering plays in what I feel for him.

For now I need to keep these feelings to myself. “I’m scared. I don’t know anything about being queen.”