Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

The day I made a Fallen pet a demon.

When the scent of sulfur hit my nose, I knew we were close.

This place wasn’t a huge secret, not like the Impossible Street, but I knew it was important. What I didn’t know was if it was the right thing to show him.

Maybe I should have asked him before hiking all the way out here. I had no idea what kind of information he needed, but I supposed now was as good a time as any to figure out what exactly he was looking for.

“You want information,” I finally said, careful of where I stepped. “But you never told me for what.”

The forest became a lot more mangled the further in I walked. More roots, the trees were larger, the ground far more uneven, and looking up at how tangled the branches were, I had to wonder how the dragons had managed to get in here. It felt less like a forest and more like a cave made of trees. The trees were so large and so close together now that there was hardly any earth to walk on, and with the world covered in frost, walking across the roots proved to be more difficult than usual.

Cole shrugged, easily managing the forest floor. “Anything.”

I looked over. “How do I know what I give you is worthwhile if you don’t tell me what you want? What ifI have the exact information you need, but I don’t give it to you because I don’t know that it’s what you need?”

We walked a few more moments in silence, his eyes trained ahead of us. “I can’t divulge what the mission is,” he finally said as I turned back to the invisible path ahead. “Anything you have on any species of Nightwalker will help.”

So he was investigating a species of Nightwalker. It had to be the witches. They had been engrained in this court longer than anyone would willingly admit. Otherwise, he would have gone to another continent on this ‘mission’, I was sure of it.

The witch thing had only been a theory, but now? All of my theories were confirmed in that one sentence. The witches truly were in Therian. I had been right. They had been involved in both wars, holding the reigns of the Human Court all these years. They wanted more power. It was always about achieving more power.

“I found this place while tracking one day,” I explained, wondering if he could sense how relieved I was at the information he had unwillingly divulged. “I’ve studied the ruins, but there’s so much overgrowth and everything has crumbled so much, all I can really tell is that it had once been some sort of building. Not very big, maybe for a couple of people.”

Cole looked over, confusion pulling his brows together, the shadows sharpening his jawline. “This far into the woods?”

I chewed at my lip, tasting the blood from where my skin had come away. “It wasn’t built by humans.”

The air seemed to thin. “Who built it?”

Thereit was, the voice of a General. A commander. A man who was here to gather information and nothing more. “My guess is the Nephilim,” I answered, wondering what it would have been like to be under his command. Was he a good leader or a merciless one? Did his warriors like him or hate him? He seemed good, deep down, but I had only known him a day, and I truly wasn’t the best at judging a man’s character. Anyone’s character for that matter.

“The dragons were here, so Nephilim is my best guess, but the demons? They seem drawn to the place for some reason.” In fact, I could already feel their presence. Cold, the forest quieter than usual. They were watching us. Stalking us. Wondering what we were doing so close to this magical place. The first time I had come here, I thought they would kill me for going near the ruins, but they only watched from a distance. Always watching.

“Dragons?” Cole asked, shocked. “This has been here for over 1,300 years?”

“At least. You’ve been around magic long enough, maybe you can tell me who built it.” Maybe give me some answers. I desperately wanted to know more about it. Maybe this would benefit both of us. “Here we are.”

It was completely shadowed by a canopy of trees, the temperature dropping as soon as we stepped into the small clearing.

In the center of it sat a half-standing stone structure covered in thick, dying vines and bright green moss, grass as tall as my knees struggling to stay alive. I could see where parts of the wall had crumbled into pieces, where some of it was still half-standing. It was beautifuland tragic, this place. I had attempted drawing it in the past but could never quite capture that feeling.

“Michael’s sword,” Cole breathed as I slowed to a stop. “You just happened upon this place?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, a long time ago. Years.” Ket had been there when I had first stumbled upon it. He was on the verge of death with the panic attacks he was having being this far away from civilization, surrounded by demons, but he had been intrigued about it too. He had even asked some questions that I had never considered. Why was it this far out? Why so secluded? Why weren’t there other places like this anywhere near here? Why just one?

I had spent years studying the place and I still had no answers to those questions. Whatever it was, there was only one of its kind here in Therian.

“There are two things here I wanted you to see,” I told him, heading for the right side of the structure, the side that was most intact, Cole on my heel. “This way.”

~~~

Trick

“Did your friend see it?”

“Yes,” she answered easily, not a single hitch in her voice.

I remained where I was, leaning up against one of the trees near the edge of the small clearing, watching her carefully. My scent, my presence, shielded from Cole as similarly as the shield I had put around her.