27. Adelaide

27

ADELAIDE

I stare at Malachar in shock, my mind reeling. "Queen? What are you talking about?"

Malachar straightens, a slight smirk on his face. "You don't know yet, do you? Crimson hasn't told you."

"Told me what?" I demand, glancing at Zephyr, who looks just as confused as I feel.

"She is Queen of the NetherRealm. Bound by a magick so old and so ancient, we were confident she would never rise. However…" He looks at me with those eyes that seem to suck up any light around us.

"However, what?" I whisper.

"You raised her."

"I did no such thing!" I snap, indignant. "I looked in the mirror of the bathroom where MistHallow roomed me. That is not my fault!"

"No, that would be your father's fault," he muses. "Randall Black always was a loose cannon. Slightly unhinged and not in the good way."

"There's a good unhinged?" I squeak.

Malachar chuckles darkly. "Of course there is, little one. The kind that keeps your enemies guessing, that gives you an edge. Your father's brand of unhinged is more reckless."

I feel Zephyr tense beside me. "Dad, what exactly are you saying?"

Malachar's gaze sweeps over our group, lingering on me in ways that I want to say creep me out, but it's not quite there. "I'm saying that your little friend here has unwittingly set in motion events that have been brewing for nigh on a millennium. Crimson's awakening is just the beginning."

"The beginning of what?" Corvus demands, stepping forward.

"Ah, Mr Sanguine. Nice to see you again."

Corvus clenches his jaw. "And you, Sir."

Malachar snickers. It seems wrong coming from such an immensely powerful being. "The merging of realms," Malachar states simply, going back to the matter at hand. "The NetherRealm seeks to reclaim what was once theirs."

I shake my head, trying to process this information. "But I don't understand. What has any of this got to do with me?"

"You are the nexus. The vessel. The conduit. Whatever you want to call it. Crimson may be the queen, but you are the key that unlocks her power in this realm."

"Fuck that," I spit out. "I didn't ask for any of this."

"Few of us ask for our destinies, child. We merely rise to meet them."

He says that without an or option. I'm not impressed.

Zaiah steps forward, his white eyes glowing brighter. "And what about me? Crimson said I was the one to create the bridge. What do you know about that?"

Malachar's gaze appraises Zaiah. "Ah yes, the djinn. You are indeed crucial to this process. You are not just creating a bridge, young one. You are the bridge itself."

Zaiah nods slowly. "That's what I saw, felt. But how?"

"Your unique abilities are no accident," Malachar explains. "You were born to be a conduit between realms. When the time comes, you will open the pathway for Crimson and her forces to cross over."

"And if I refuse?" Zaiah challenges.

Malachar's expression darkens. "Then the merging will happen violently, tearing both realms apart. The choice, as always, is yours."

I feel sick to my stomach. "This can't be happening. There has to be another way."

"There isn't," Malachar states firmly. "The wheels are already in motion. You can either guide the process or be crushed beneath it."

Zephyr steps forward, placing himself between me and his father. "Randall Black already crossed over. Why? How? How did he open that portal if Zaiah wasn't here?"

"But he was…" Malachar gives me a scrutinising stare that makes me feel a bit ill.

"The bond."

"Indeed. You are fated to these four creatures, which means your soul is entwined with theirs. It was not only Zaiah, but all of you who allowed Randall to open the portal."

"Whoa, hang on a fucking minute there," Corvus snaps. "With all due respect, Sir. We did not allow him to do anything."

"Whatever," Malachar says, waving his hand dismissively. "If none of you had come sniffing around our young nexus here, Randall would have failed."

"Great!" I snap. "So you're blaming us?"

"Who else is there to blame?" He shrugs.

Well, I'm fucking stumped.

"Look," I say, pressing my fingers to my eyes momentarily. "I'm new to all this. If I knew that any of this would happen, I wouldn't have come here."

"But you were forced in this direction," Malachar states. "Your father ensured it."

"What? No, he gave me a choice?—"

"Did he?" Malachar's words freeze my blood in my veins. Even as he says it, I see the whole thing replay in my head now.

"Wesley wasn't an accident," I whisper, clutching my stomach as the memory of him staking that vampire floods my mind. "Randall set it up. That's why Wesley drove by when I made it back to Randall. He funnelled me back to Randall, knowing I'd agree to come here."

The guys look at me, clueless as to these events, but Malachar looks resigned.

All the blood that I consumed while I was under Crimson's influence rushes back up my throat, and I turn quickly, spewing it out all over the ground in a disgusting mess that I'm mortified about but unable to prevent.

"Easy, there," Zephyr says, moving in quickly to hold my hair back.

Corvus rubs my lower back as I throw up the entire contents of my stomach in a matter of seconds.

"I think you need to leave her alone for a bit," Zephyr says.

"But there is so much more she needs to know."

"Not. Now," he grits out.

Malachar huffs as I wipe my mouth with the hanky that Zaiah has magicked up from somewhere. It smells of exotic spices and him.

"We're going back to MistHallow," Zephyr adds.

"It's dangerous. Those creatures are here to prevent Crimson from rising. That means Adelaide is in danger."

"She has her pets," Ignatius says, speaking up for the first time.

I turn around just in time to see him wish he hadn't when Malachar's gaze lands on him.

"You mean, Crimson's pets."

"Addy has control over them," Ignatius says, his Australian accent a little deeper with his distress of being pinned down by the Dark Fae King.

"Hmm. The shadows."

"Speaking of which, where is the one who was attached to you earlier?" Ignatius murmurs.

I glance down to see it has gone. "No idea."

I sent it back to MistHallow. It is needed there, not cowering at your feet.

I sigh. "Crimson sent it back to MistHallow. Malachar, I need to know one more thing."

"What is it, dear?"

"Will I die once Crimson is set free from me?"

His gaze fixes on mine, but I can't read his emotions at all. "That all depends on you, my dear." With that, he vanishes in a cloud of fog as Zephyr curses under his breath.

"Well, fantastic," I say and stare at the spot where Malachar vanished, my mind reeling from everything he revealed. The weight of it all - being the nexus, the key to unlocking Crimson's power, the fate of multiple realms hanging in the balance - it's almost too much to bear. "Fuck," I mutter, running a hand through my hair. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

Zephyr wraps an arm around my waist, steadying me. "We go back to MistHallow, like I said. Figure out our next move."

"Is that safe?" Corvus asks, his eyes scanning the darkening forest. "If those creatures are after Addy?—"

"We don't have much choice," Ignatius cuts in. "We need answers, and MistHallow is the best place to find them."

Zaiah nods in agreement. "Plus, I need to understand more about this bridge thing. If I really am the key to opening the pathway between realms, I need to know how to control it. I need to get back into that underground library."

I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing thoughts. "Okay. MistHallow it is. Also, I need more blood before Crimson goes wild again."

"You sure you're up for that?" Corvus asks gently.

"Synthetic. It's not as potent. I can handle it."

"Okay, let's swing by the dining hall, assuming there is anything left of it and then, we'll head back to the library to the statue of Morgana and head underground."

"No rest for the wicked," I murmur,

"Hmm?" He gives me a frown.

"Just a saying my mum used to say. I guess she knew what she was talking about."

"About that," Ignatius says. "How the hell did Blackthorn, a vampire mage, spawn a celestial being?"

"Oh, for the love of all things unholy," I grouse. "Please don't."

He snickers. "Sorry, it's just mind-boggling."

"This whole fucking thing is."

"What's bugging me," Zephyr states, "is that my father bowed to Crimson. Why? Can you ask her?"

Not answering that, so don't even try,

I shake my head. "She's not answering. My guess? She's a fucking powerful cuntface, more so than we thought."

Now she's getting it.

I gulp back the pang of fear. I'm tired of being afraid. It's time to grasp this shitstorm of a destiny that was forced on me and do something about it instead of whinging in a corner of inaction. Shaking out my hair and pushing my shoulder back, I lift my chin. "Let's move."