Page 3 of Shadow and Son

“Perhaps,” said Nox simply, not entirely sure why the human seemed so suddenly on edge. “But it is far more likely that, given that he is only one-quarter fae, he would stray to the human side of the aging spectrum. The Lord Victor will probably simply make for a very handsome human elder.”

Tenny leveled the nocterrian with a withering look. “The questions were rhetorical. I merely meant to point out the ridiculousness of it all. How there could be so much about my friend that he himself doesn’t know. That nobody seems to know.”

“Yes, well, it’s not the fae’s fault our understanding of the mixedborn is so limited, is it?” Kit said. “It wasn’t as though there were scores and scores of them running about, even before the Shattering. Whatever celestial blessing was unlocked by the birth of Cedric’s mother, well, Malakar certainly ensured it didn’t last very long.”

Tenny’s expression softened. “Celestial blessing?”

“Mixedborn children did not exist before Selenae,” said Kit, nodding solemnly. “But with her arrival, Queen Daephinia and King Juno heralded a whole new age—in all senses of the word. Arcanian-human pairings weren’t exactly plentiful, but they did exist, and after the mixedborn princess’s birth, they were rewarded with the occasional child too.”

“Another attempt of Aurelia’s at reinstating the balance she so desperately sought for the world?”

“Something like that,” said Nox, sucking on a fang.

Kit arched a silver brow. “At any rate, we aren’t the ones who made it our life’s mission to eradicate their existence.” Tenny’s mouth popped open, and Kit was quick to add, “Not that I’m lumping you in with them. Nor even most humans. But the fact remains that there’s a reason the Sanctuary in Elderglade exists in the first place. Malakar viewed mixedborn children as a perversion of nature. A celestial betrayal. He has clearly passed those views onto his followers and, well . . .”

“Such beliefs are not so easily corrected,” finished Nox.

Tenny didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and the room lapsed into a less-than-comfortable silence, punctured only by Sid’s irritated huffs as the shadowcat laid her head back down.

Eventually, Kit rose from her chair. She wandered toward Nox and Tenny at the window, the three of them looking to the horizon like it might hold some answers, keeping them just out of sight. “None of this matters anyway,” she said. “Nothing matters until we get her back. And I cannot believe we went through all this to just end up once more drifting around King’s Keep, waiting. We have to do something.”

Tenny took Kit’s hand and gave it a gentle pat. “We all want to do something. I know I feel damn useless. I can only imagine what this must be like for you.”

Kit opened her mouth, but whatever words she might have spoken were interrupted by the sound of shuffling footsteps echoing from the hall. The door creaked open a few moments later, and one by one, Jocelyn, Thraigg, Shep, Ollie, and Tristan filed into the room.

None of them exchanged words, only nods of acknowledgment—a silent greeting. There was little to say, aside from perhaps asking the question of what they were all doing here.

And, eventually, that was exactly what Kit did.

“What’s going on?” she asked, mismatched eyes flicking from person to person.

Tristan shrugged, rolling the sleeves of his tunic up to his elbows before raking his fingers through his wavy blond hair. “You got me. Ric said I needed to come find you”—he gestured at the three of them—“and he would tell us more soon.”

“Aye, he told me the same thing,” said Thraigg, barging over and flopping down in the chair Kit had recently vacated.

Ollie nodded. “We all ran into each other on the way up here, but⁠—”

“It seems as though some of us had already run into one another,” said Jocelyn, an uncharacteristic smirk gracing the fae’s face as she looked from Ollie to Tristan.

“But,” Ollie repeated, his eyes narrowed into a silencing glare, “we have no idea as to the reasoning for Sir⁠—”

Cedric strode through the door, chest heaving. “Good, you’re all here,” he said breathlessly. “The time has finally come. I have a lead on something that may help us, somewhere for us to go.”

Kit bolted forward. “What? Where?”

The tension that fell upon the room might as well have been a physical weight for how heavy it felt when Cedric stepped to the side, revealing a tense, stone-faced Zephyr lingering in the doorway behind him.

“What in all four hells is she doing here?” Kit spat.

“She brings news from Elderglade,” Cedric said, one hand casually resting on Ashrender’s hilt at his waist, the other playing with the locket hanging from his neck.

Not just any locket, of course.

Nox was still the slightest bit raw over the fact that they hadn’t picked up on the celestial power simmering under the surface when they first saw it. They’d been just as surprised as the rest of the group to find out that the locket was, in fact, the missing half of the Crown of Concord.

Granted, it was power well hidden. The sylvan elder who had transfigured it clearly had great skill, great magic of her own.

Still, Nox had thought themself more attuned to such things.