The Faceless Woman E-Book

Russell Nohelty

• Herausgeber: Wannabe Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Death would have been a mercy.

Nimue barely escaped the Fairy Realm with her life. That was the easy part. Now, she has no choice but to subjugate herself to the Faceless Woman, a being so powerful even the gods fear her. Nimue is not one to take orders, but the Faceless Woman won’t think twice about obliterating her if the wicked witch steps even a single toe out of line. 

Meanwhile, Red scours the universe looking for a trace of Nimue and won’t stop until the deposed ruler tastes the steel of her blade. Back on Earth, Rose navigates the aftermath of exposing magic to the whole world. Will she keep her cool with the eyes of every nation upon her?

Find out the answer and begin the third arc of The Obsidian Spindle Saga inside the pages of The Faceless Woman.

Leseprobe

The Faceless Woman

THE OBSIDIAN SPINDLE SAGA

BOOK NINE

RUSSELL NOHELTY

Contents

Special Thanks

1. Rose

2. Red

3. Chelle

4. Ariel

5. Nimue

6. Chelle

7. Red

8. Nimue

9. Ariel

10. Rose

11. Ariel

12. Chelle

13. Red

14. Rose

15. Nimue

16. Ariel

17. Rose

18. Red

19. Chelle

20. Nimue

21. Red

22. Ariel

23. Chelle

24. Red

25. Rose

26. Nimue

27. Ariel

28. Chelle

29. Red

30. Rose

31. Nimue

32. Rose

33. Chelle

34. Red

35. Ariel

36. Chelle

37. Nimue

38. Ariel

39. Rose

40. Red

41. Ariel

42. Rose

43. Nimue

44. Red

45. Chelle

46. Nimue

47. Red

48. Ariel

49. Rose

50. Chelle

51. Nimue

52. Rose

53. Red

54. Ariel

55. Chelle

56. Nimue

Author’s Note

The Drowned Princess Preview

Rose

Red

Ariel

Also By Russell Nohelty

About the Author

Special Thanks

Talinda Willard, HyliaKumatora, Chris Roeszler, Amy Teegan, Chip Orlikowski, RHR, Victoria Nohelty, Alexander Joyner, Pierino Gattei, Caspar Williams, Gerald P. McDaniel, Walter Weiss, Sunny Side Up, Kenny Endlich, Amber Reeves, Joshua Bowers, Elias Rosner, Noah Carruba, John "AcesofDeath7" Mullens, Jamie Minnich, Rowan Stone, Taiga Char, BAOCHAU TRAN, Jeff Lewis, Dave Baxter, Chad Bowden, David Irgang, James Kralik, Emerson Kasak, Matthew Johnson, Paul Rose Jr., Shannon, Dr. Charles Elbert Norton III, Edward Nycz Jr., Jessica Meuth, Caledonia, GMarkC, Chris Cheek, Bianca Tatjana Višić Ritorto, John Otway Jr, Brett Bennett, Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold, Scott Chisholm, Amanda Sarah, Alexandra Corrsin, Giles Fox, Rick Parker, H, Rob Steinberger, Alec Loases, David Stephenson, Anthony James Frandsen, JohnDoe, Joshua Easter, MadCatter (Cat Fleming), Kevin Potter, Bill Lisse, Michael Szewczyk, Robert Woods Tienken, Ronald L Weston, Karen Haughn, Shem Bingman, Susan Wilson, Brigitte Ziegler, Matt Soucy, Alyssa, Michelle Pelo, Richard A Shirley, PerryC, Elizabeth Kiefer, Tim, Nicolas Mandujano III, Karen Roads, Rhel ná DecVandé, Zeb Berryman, Al Gonzalez, S. D., Jörn Flath, Rick Radzville, Aaron Loren, Justise Briones(That/Them), Genevieve Slunka, Michael DeCarlo, Kitty Crab, Jeanne L. Warner, Vi Ta, Bridget D Laurent, Jaime Bialer, Wendy Martinez, Nicholas Harezga, Mira Hunter, Cara Reasner, Lori Case, Melevorn, Rebecca Hill, Jane R., Talia Denham, Jordan Harju, Jesse Coe, Greg Levick, and Andrew Messiah.

The Faceless Woman

Book 9 of the Obsidian Spindle Saga

By:

Russell Nohelty

Edited by:

Leah Lederman

Proofread by:

Katrina Roets

Cover by:

JV Arts

Formatting by:

Turbo Kitten Industries

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. The Faceless Woman. First edition. July 2021. Copyright © 2020 Russell Nohelty. Written by Russell Nohelty.

Chapter1

Rose

“And would you say these fairies are dangerous?”

“Of course not,” I replied. The lights of the TV studio beat down on me, flushing my already rosy cheeks. Sweat would have beaded on my face if I hadn’t been caked in three inches of powdered makeup. “Not any more dangerous than anything else in the world, that is.”

Three months earlier, the sky opened over a small mountain pass in Switzerland, and I led an army of fairies in a final battle against the wicked witch, Nimue, banishing her from Earth. We were victorious, but in my eagerness to defeat the evil queen, I had failed to think about the fact that every satellite across the world from the Russians to the United States to Google would get a front row seat to conclusive proof about the existence of magic, something faekind had worked hard to keep secret for thousands of years, even going so far as to burning the Library of Alexandria so they could fade into the myth and memory.

Trevor, the pompadoured news anchor, had been grilling me with questions for five minutes, as if I hadn’t answered every one of them a hundred times before. “But they have magic, and if the Battle of the Obsidian Spindle told us anything, it’s that magic can be quite destructive in the wrong hands.”

Camera crews from all over the world had raced to the scene, but the battle was over soon after it began. Only one crew from the tiny town of Crezvark that was tucked into the base of the mountain managed to get any footage, and they were savvy enough to sell it to every news organization in the world, causing frenzy and outrage across every country on Earth.

“But in the right hands, magic can be beautiful,” I said with as much positive energy as I could muster after my third interview in as many hours. “Nimue was—is a horrible person, but I’ve met so many wonderful magical beings over the last few years who used their powers for good. Their powers can heal the sick, rebuild cities, and extend life.”

“Or they can destroy it. Isn’t that just as true?”

I had made the rounds on every new station on four continents since I became the de facto spokesperson for the entirety of magical kind. I begged them to talk to somebody else, but I was a reasonably attractive, young, white woman, who fit their delicate sensibilities, which made me the perfect person to put on camera.

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing,” I huffed. “Everything has both an upside and a downside. Nuclear power can help end our dependence on fossil fuels that are killing the environment, but it is incredibly toxic and can be harnessed to cause great harm in the wrong hands. Cocaine helped alleviate pain in the sickest people among us, but it also destroyed families when it was abused.”

“And we stopped using it because of that fact,” Trevor replied. “Are you advocating for the legalization of cocaine?”

“No,” I stammered. I wasn’t a professional spokesperson, despite the government’s attempts to turn me into one. “I’m just saying that people like Sigmund Freud used it to prodigious effect to make some of the greatest breakthroughs in psychology that we’ve ever known. Heck, Sherlock Holmes used it to solve cases in his novels, but in the wrong hands, it destroyed people.”

“So…faekind like cocaine, then?” He leaned closer. I recognized the look in his eyes. He smelled blood and was going in for the kill. I was too tired to avoid walking into the trap.

“Absolutely not. I’m just saying that you’re focusing on the destructive nature of magic, but there is great restorative power to it as well. If you look at everything as a threat, then everything becomes a threat. But the fae have the power to be saviors as well.”

Trevor tapped his pen on a legal pad on his crossed knee. “And what about you, Rose?”

“What about me?”

“Are you a threat, or a savior?”

I sighed for a moment, trying to catch my breath and think. Despite all my practice, I wasn’t good on the spot. I thought back on all of Queen Aine’s teachings, to all the lessons where she trained me up to be a queen, and back to Persephone, who had the grace and elegance of a well-worn ruler. They would eat this stupid man for breakfast.

He tapped a notecard on his knee. “We’re waiting, Rose.”

I took another breath and felt the tenseness in my shoulders loosen. “I’m neither. I’m just a girl—a woman—from Sacramento. I just want to be left alone, as do the fae.” My eyes turned steely. “You are treating me and treating the fae as the enemy, but they saved the whole world, if you remember. They protected you, even though they didn’t have to, from a great threat.”

“Yes, you say that.” He kicked back, stretching out his legs. “But any evidence of this ‘great threat’ you speak of magically disappeared without a trace, and your army vanished into the sky before they could be questioned. Convenient, don’t you think?”

I laughed at the insinuation. “Absolutely not. I find it very inconvenient. I would like them to come forth and defend themselves. I would love to have Nimue’s body so that I could prove everything I’m saying—but you can trust me on this: If we wanted to attack humanity, then you would already be gone.”

“All right!” Chelle shouted from offstage. Her silhouette stomped towards us. “This interview is over, Trevor!”

He popped up. Trevor was much shorter than he looked onscreen. He was half hair, and a quarter head, with stubby little legs and arms sticking out from them, like a Funko Pop come to life.

“You promised us half an hour!” Trevor whined like a little baby. “It’s barely been twenty minutes.”

Chelle moved back her hat to reveal a hissing pile of snakes sprouting from her head. Albie, our favorite of the snakes, snapped at the douchey anchor with his single fang. “Are we going to have a problem?”

Trevor shrunk back, his eyes wide. “No, of course not.”

“It’s pathetic how much you fear us.” Chelle took my arm. “Come on, Rose. Let’s get that gunk off your face.”

“I can finish,” I replied. “Let me finish.”

She shook her head. “I could see it in your eyes. You were about to say something that would make us look like the violent monsters that we very much aren’t.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, ending her march. “I didn’t mean to. It’s just…people like him make me so angry.”

Chelle’s hard jaw softened into a small smile. “Now you know how I feel, but I can’t just go taking it out on everybody, now can I? Especially not on national television.”

“No, I guess not.”

All I wanted was five minutes alone with Chelle where we weren’t rushing from one place to another, or so tired that we could barely do more than collapse into each other’s arms. We had been living together since Nox brought her back to life for me, but it didn’t feel like we had a minute to ourselves since the news of my victory over Nimue went public and The Sacramento Beat tracked me down. Since then, I’d been pulled in a hundred different directions with everyone asking for a piece of me.

From the side of the stage a black-suited man in big sunglasses came over. “Ms. Briar, your car is waiting.”

I sighed. “How many more interviews do we have today, Agent Edwards?”

The man looked down at his phone. “Three more, all radio. We can record them from the studio back at base, but we need to get moving.”

The FBI promised to protect us—Chelle and I—if we cooperated with them, and with dozens of protesters outside my window every day, it was hard to turn them down, so we didn’t. I have regretted it ever since, as they, more than anyone else, made me a symbol for faekind, even though I didn’t have a drop of fae blood in my whole body.

I pecked Chelle on the cheek. “Go home and get some rest. I’ll be back soon, and maybe we can get five minutes to spend with each other.”

“I’ll order some food and have it ready. Maybe I’ll even draw you a bubble bath.” She squeezed my hand.

“You’re the best.” I kissed her full on the lips. It was just as wonderful the thousandth time as it was the first. “I love you.”

Chapter2

Red

It had been three months, best I could guess, and I felt no closer to finding the wicked witch Nimue than when I used Persephone’s Obsidian Spindle to cross half the galaxy in search of her. Granted, Nox told me that using the portal would do little but get me closer to the Dark Planet so that I could continue my search, but I didn’t think I would have to jump between a half dozen systems in the past few months.

Of course, I could be completely wrong with how long it had been since I left Earth. It wasn’t like every planet had the same number of days in their months, or the same number of months in their years. Some spun slower and others faster than Earth, and I hadn’t brought a watch, so I had to make do with my best guess.

I didn’t even know where in the universe I was anymore. I spent my time jumping from one planet’s Obsidian Spindle to another, and then finding the gods on that planet to point me in the right direction. Some were helpful, many were not, and none knew where to find the Dark Planet the Faceless Woman called home, though I had the distinct impression they were holding out on me.

My last jump was the most infuriating because I appeared on a planet I had been to before, one of the first planets I visited after I left the Underworld. I recognized the deeply industrialized world that cast out from the edge of the cliff where Rama had built the Obsidian Spindle of his planet.

Though to call it his planet was something of a misnomer. He didn’t build it any more than I could build a rock. He merely laid a claim on it, and nobody else challenged him.

Many planets had no god on them, and some had several, but most only had one. Most gods preferred to live in the Celestial Realm with their kind, but just like humans enjoyed owning beach houses and mountain cabins, the gods collected planets across the cosmos. The more powerful the god, the more planets they laid claim to, while the most powerful controlled their own realm, like Nox and Hypnos.

Rama wasn’t particularly powerful by the standard of gods, but I had jumped between three of his worlds on my travels already, and I was getting the distinct impression he was leading me in circles. I didn’t like playing games, and it was time he knew that about me.

I reached into my coin purse and sorted out a collection of paper money and coins that I acquired during my last trip to Servasi 9 before making my way down the mountain cliff towards the city. The entire world operated on a single grid, with trains so fast they could take you halfway across the planet in a matter of minutes. I didn’t need to go that far, or at least I hoped I didn’t. With any luck Rama would be in roost at the highest bar in the capital, above the central hub that supplied power for the whole city.

I hopped on a local bus and took it into the city.

“Where are you going?” the elderly bus driver asked me, his syllables foreign and guttural.

One of the advantages of being a construction of the gods, a soul made whole by Hypnos as a gift for helping him save the Dream Realm, was that I understood every language, even ones I had never heard before. “The Haitt district, please.”

He nodded. “When your stop comes up, just pull the lever on the edge of the door.”

His face flickered as he turned back to face the front. Nobody on Servasi 9 actually had to work, as most jobs had been automated away long ago. But people liked interacting with other humans, so they built holograms into all the electronic workers so people would feel more comfortable and wouldn’t question too deeply the dystopian nightmare they lived in.

The city of Chippara looked like an intricate microchip from above, but on the ground it was little more than blurs of whites, yellows, and reds. Living quarters spread across every inch of the city, mixed with little eateries and other services, which were the only places real humans actually worked anymore, and even then, only because they wanted to have a purpose in life aside from wasting away. Those who owned the little restaurants around town were appreciated. While robotic cuisine was fine, there was no variety to it. You could get the exact same hamburger anywhere in the world, which was convenient if you liked that kind of thing, but sometimes you wanted something different. That’s where humans found their niche, and could charge a premium for it, too.

The further we moved into the city, the denser and higher the buildings grew. The bus turned down a busy intersection full of self-driving cars and I saw my destination, an enormous building, summited with a neon blue roof that pointed into the black sky, spidering out electricity to hundreds of substations, which relayed commands to ancillary hubs around the city, which in turn relayed power to thousands of buildings in their districts.

Every city had a power hub, but the one in Chippara was the largest on the planet, and atop it the richest and most powerful beings dined and made merry, including Rama. Of all the planets he claimed for himself, this was the most decadent, and the one that he was the proudest to control.

I pulled the lever half a mile from the building and the bus screeched to a stop by the time I reached the sliding doors and hopped out. The bus sped up moments after I exited, its doors slamming closed and nearly took my red cape along with it.

I wasn’t often impressed, but the magnitude of the glowing building, with little circuits firing along the exterior of it all the way up, was enough to make even me marvel. It was surrounded by impressive structures, and still it stood out from them all.

A cadre of holographic guards milled around the shimmering white lobby when I entered. It was almost impossible to know them to be fakes unless you stared closely enough to notice their nearly imperceptible refresh rate of their bodies.

“How can I help you?” a dark-skinned woman made of hard angles asked.

“I need to see Rama. Is he upstairs?”

“Lord Rama is entertaining tonight. He is indisposed as of now. If you’d like to make an appointment, he has an opening in sixteen years from tonight.”

I smirked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that I wanted to see him. I have a dinner reservation, and I wanted to know if I would have the honor of basking in his presence.”

Servasi 9 wasn’t a planet where people had reason to lie often, so you could short-circuit a hologram by simply telling a big enough fib. They were smart, but they weren’t programmed to react with mistrust.

The angled woman’s neck twitched to the side, and she smiled. “Well, in that case I’m very happy to tell you that he is upstairs, in the rooftop lounge.”

The gods were various levels of discrete, depending on the situation, and there was barely a reason to hide in this place. People didn’t worship gods here. They worshipped technology. It was one thing Rama loved most about the place, and why none of the other gods came within two systems of it.

The counter in front of the guard opened, and two small slots appeared in the emptiness. “Please insert payment for your meal.”

Very few people could afford to dine in such a luxurious place as the rooftop bar. Most people were given just enough to survive, and a single meal in the rooftop lounge cost as much as a month’s stipend. Money was how you proved you belonged.

I pulled the coins out of my purse. “I think that should do it.”

I didn’t have much left after that, but I didn’t intend to spend much time on this stupid planet, and if I did, then something would have gone horribly wrong.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. “Go inside, and you’ll be taken right up. Enjoy your dinner.”

Chapter3

Chelle

I didn’t like leaving Rose for any reason. Not only did I distrust the FBI with every fiber of my being, but the protests around her appearances were getting worse. There had been over a hundred monsters and fae outside the CBS building this morning when we arrived. By the time I exited the front door, there were over five hundred. The more Rose spoke, the more ire grew between the magical community who both hated being lumped in with the fae and having a human woman speak for them.

Not to mention the counter-protests by humans disgusted by the idea that monsters and magical beings lived among them. They shouted hate-filled slogans and yelled obscenities, hoping to provoke my kind to violence. One day it will work, and I just hoped it wasn’t the powder keg that started a war.

There was already legislation running through Congress with competing ideas about how to deal with us, ranging from rounding magical folk up into internment camps to shipping us to Guam and treating it like a penal colony, to providing aid and assistance to integrate us with the rest of society.

That last one was the funniest one to me, because we were already integrated. We were their plumbers, electricians, jewelers, and cooks. Magic fueled some of Earth’s technology, and fae folk ran their most profitable companies. They could no easier extradite us to some island as they could ship all the Black people back to Africa.

At least some good came out of it, though. Those of us who felt comfortable enough no longer had to hide in the shadows, and I chose not to wear a wig anymore. Plenty of people turned their heads as I walked down the street, but it was no longer a shocking occasion to see a gorgon on the street, especially in New York City, which had always been a haven for the weird and strange.

The FBI relocated us here after the battle in Switzerland, when Rose agreed to be their mouthpiece in exchange for our protection, a devil’s bargain if I ever heard one. Still, I liked New York City more than I thought I would, and it was nice to be within walking distance of a half dozen comic book stores. There weren’t many in Sacramento.

I wasn’t in the mood for comics as I walked past Midtown Comics and turned up from Times Square towards 47th Street. I hated the middle of the city, but that’s where most of the media outlets were located, and so we were there a lot, enough that I knew the area by heart.

I spent too many bored hours walking the streets and gazing into the windows of the stores, but today I was there to buy a diamond ring I had custom made for Rose. I was sick of people calling her Miss, and I was determined to make an honest woman of her, as they say.

Zarfo Isbett owned one of the most prestigious stores in the Diamond District, and I thought of her often when people screamed about magical beings being leeches on society. She was a harpy disguised in a full burka and had lived in the Diamond District for a hundred years, taking on the persona of her own mother and grandmother before they “died.”

“Good morning, Ingrid,” I said to her, too wary of a browsing couple looking at rings to use her real name. “How’s business?”

She jutted her chin at the couple. “They’re cool, Chelle. A pair of gnolls looking for an engagement ring. Most of my business comes from monsters these days.” She beckoned me into the back of the store, where she reached down into a cabinet and pulled out a red felt jewelry case. “I hope you’re happy with my work.”

Inside the case was a two-carat diamond surrounded by five smaller diamonds. The band was rose gold in the shape of a thorny rose entwined with a snake. “It’s beautiful.”

She picked it up so I could see the inscription inside: I will love you to the end of the universe, no matter where our souls roam.

“It was quite a bit to inscribe, you know,” Zarfo grumbled. “Usually people put ‘I love you’ or something simple like that.”

“Yeah, well our love has never been simple.” I looked up from the ring, smiling. “This is perfect, thank you.”

I pulled out a credit card that I’d gotten specifically for this occasion and prayed it would swipe through without issue. The FBI had us both on their payroll, but even with their money I didn’t have nearly enough to cover the cost of the ring. This was easily the biggest purchase of my life, but Rose was worth going into debt for. Wasn’t it funny, though, that the first thing we do when starting our life with somebody is go into debt buying a nice ring?

The till rang and the receipt printed out. For a moment, my eyes went wide as I wondered what I had done, but that quickly faded as she handed me the box and the receipt. “I hope she says yes.”

I smiled at her. “She will.”

She had trekked into Hell to save me, and I dove into the Dream Realm to save her. There was nothing we wouldn’t do for each other. Our souls were already bound together. Now, it was just making it official.

I had always thought marriage was stupid, especially seeing how poorly matched my mother and father were until he finally cut tail and ran. They made each other miserable, and I never wanted that for myself. However, looking at Rose, even thinking about her, I couldn’t imagine not wanting to be with her for the rest of my life, and beyond.

I walked back onto the sidewalk with a big smile on my face and glanced at my watch. I had barely used up any time. Rose would still be hours at the station. Maybe I would head to Midtown Comics after all and pick up my pulls for the week. Yes, comics and proposing to the love of my life. It was going to be a very good day.

Chapter4

Ariel

No matter how long I spent at the bottom of the sea, I never got tired of exploring the ocean floor to find new trinkets. Sailors dropped interesting things from their boats, and I scooped up those that the mermaids didn’t claim.

Not that there were many sailors these days. They feared crossing the Forgotten Sea and didn’t understand that if they didn’t give the mermaids a reason to attack, they wouldn’t…most of the time. I couldn’t deny that there were a few times when our people got overzealous, but those incidents were few and far between.

I had lived under the sea for 300 years, and the mermaids had never been anything but pleasant to me even though I was an outsider. They never complained when I scavenged the boats on the bottom of the ocean, or laid claim to some thingamajig that might have rightfully been theirs.

It might have been that my adopted mother was the queen of the mermaids, of course, but I like to believe that I would have been allowed to live in peace even if she hadn’t taken me in.

“Lux,” I said as I swam through two rocky outcroppings where algae had grown thick. I was on the search for a boat that sank around the time I’d been brought to the sea, drowned in a battle between the queen’s forces and a group of usurpers desperate to keep her off the throne.

Darkness collapsed around me, so thick it nearly extinguished my small light. There were few places more oppressively black than Nox’s cave, but this was close.

“Splendens procedit,” I whispered, and my light flickered, fighting against the abyss until it latched onto a piece of rotten wood in the distance. The mast of a boat appeared as I approached. Etched in the back of the boat was carved a single word: Aveline.

This is it. A shipwreck long thought lost, but I knew that nothing was lost in the Forgotten Sea, only faded from memory.

I kicked my feet towards the hull, where a huge hole led into the wonders inside. Not having fins was the worst part of living under the sea. I fashioned some flippers, but it wasn’t the same. My brothers and sisters could propel themselves quickly with little effort. They were graceful and beautiful, twisting and turning like they were born for the water, which, of course, they were. I was born on land, but that’s not where I belonged. Here, under the sea, I could be free.

“There you are!” A shrill voice cut through the water. I turned to see my mother’s most trusted advisor, Cefus, darting towards me. “Didn’t your mother tell you never to go past the Golden Cove?”

I shrugged. “She’s told me not to go a lot of places, and that didn’t stop me. What do you want, Cefus?”

“Your mother has been looking for you all day. She has received a very distressing message from Queen Aine. You are to return to the castle at once.” His mouth opened wide, and a shriek went through the air. Within moments a chariot shot towards us, pulled by two dolphins. “There isn’t a moment to lose, Miss. She really was quite insistent.”

I looked back at the ship. Next time I slipped through the castle guards, I would come back again.

“Yes, Cefus,” I said, swimming towards the chariot. “Whatever my mother needs.”

I turned off the light in my hand and when I joined him on the seat, he shut the door. The dolphins didn’t need any instructions. Cefus always found me easily when I ventured too far from the castle. He could canvas a much larger area in a shorter time than I could with my stubby little legs.

Still, I did okay scavenging the bottom of the ocean. I found thingamajigs and whatsamathings aplenty, along with all sorts of spoons, forks, chests, and other objects which I knew from my years on the surface. I’d forgotten almost everything from those days, and the little trinkets I found connected me back to it and helped me remember, even if I’d never totally fit in there after my time under the sea.

It took less than half the time to return to the castle as it had for me to find the ship in the first place and watching the ocean speed past reminded me just how ill-equipped I was for living under the ocean. It wouldn’t have been possible at all, though, if we didn’t live in the Dream Realm, where souls could live just about anywhere until they were dusted and vanished into the ether.

When we arrived at the palace entrance, Cefus showed me out of the chariot and through the coral doors of my mother’s castle. It would never be mine, I knew that. She would never give her kingdom to an adopted daughter, even if I was the most loyal of all her children.

“Your Majesty,” Cefus bellowed upon our entrance into the throne room. He was always so smug when he brought me back, and he kept his swagger for days afterwards. “Your wayward daughter has returned.”

“Where did you find her?” my mother asked in an exasperated tone.

“In the abyss, out past the Golden Pond.”

She growled. “Yes, you would go there, wouldn’t you? I thought we agreed that you needed to temper your wanderlust.”

“I’m sorry, Mother. I will do better.”

“You will have your chance to prove that, but not just yet. Queen Aine has requested your presence in the Emerald City.”

“The Emerald City?” My body began to shake in fear. Though souls didn’t have hearts, I swore I still felt one beating in my body. “The surface? I can’t. You—please don’t make me do this. I have been safe under the sea for these long years. Please don’t send me back to the surface.”

Mother’s eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid this can’t wait. The goddess Nox has disappeared, and the queen believes you can help with a matter of great importance in her absence.”

“Why me?”