My hands stretched out towards the box and then snatched themselves back again. How long had it been sitting here? Did my parents know I was going to be coming here? Were they watching us?

With a deep breath to steady my nerves, I reached out for the paper and unfolded it slowly. Inside was a note written in the same careful handwriting.

Dear Sabre,

If you are reading this, then you know the truth and we are more than likely gone from this world. We are so sorry it had to be this way, that we couldn't tell you ourselves, but what rightfully belongs to you is in this box.

After the years we spent with you and then sending you away for your protection, we realised we should have been more open and honest with you. If we did, we might have been able to at least act as a functional family.

Please give Trik our regards for taking care of you up until now. He was the right person to entrust our secret to, we're sure of it. Icrodeia will pay for what they did to their people whether or not we can be a part of it.

Use the Idaphite shard to bring back peace to the kingdoms. It is the duty we should have trained you for.

All the best,

Carmin and Jasper.

I couldn't feel my body. My hands had gone numb and my legs felt like they were going to give out from underneath me. They were gone. My parents were gone. After building myself up to finally see them again and ask them all the questions that had been plaguing my mind for nearly all of my life, all of my hopes came crashing down to shatter around me.

The note I held clutched to my chest had to be one of the last things they wrote, otherwise, why would they mention they weren't alive anymore? I fought the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. Perhaps there was a possibility that they were still alive. Maybe they just moved away to a far, distant kingdom so Mace wouldn't catch them. But then why had they left the Idaphite shard for me?

My eyes traced over each word again, savouring them as if they'd disappear when I looked away. Though, the more I read, the more questions filled my mind. What did they mean by the truth? Had my parents known about Trik? Had the man who had taken care of me since I was sold known the truth this whole time? He lied to me.

Placing the note down carefully, I unsheathed my dagger and cut the rope securing the box. I had no slither of a clue what they meant by 'bring peace back to the kingdoms', but that wasn't my concern right now.

All I wanted to do was scream and cry for the parents I couldn't properly remember. The parents who might not have actually sold me. If they sent me away for my protection, did that still count as heartlessly selling me to some slaver? Did they know how much pain and suffering that man had caused me?

When I finally got through the ropes, I felt too sick to be able to open the box. The food that I had eaten this morning churned in my stomach. My parents had left this for me and I was about to hand it over to Mace, to the one person that they didn't want it to reach. Icrodeia will pay for what they did to their people was what the note mentioned, but what had they done?

As soon as I hovered my hand over the lid of the box, I felt a gentle thrum of power echoing through it. It felt tender yet destructive at the same time, something that could be harnessed for good or for evil. This was what Mace wanted.

Lifting the lid, my eyes fell upon a small crystal about the size of my palm. It emitted a faint golden glow, rich with energy that could be used for endless possibilities. Parts of it were clear like stained glass while others had pieces of darker gold mixed inside. It was beautiful.

How could I hand this over to someone we didn't know the intentions of? All Mace had done was attempt to kill the High Fae Queen, cause chaos at our ball, and threaten to send the Icrodeia army into our lands. Did he even deserve this? What could he do without it?

Taking the Idaphite shard into my hand was all I needed to know. I couldn't hand the shard over to him. The note said it supposedly belonged to me, that I needed to use it to bring back peace to the kingdoms, and handing it over to Mace didn't seem like a step in that direction.

However, if I didn't give him what he wanted, Icrodeian soldiers would be sent over the border to terrorise Racaea. The memory of Mace opening part of a wall like a door when he had visited me after the ball resurfaced in my mind. He had even stirred the contents of his glass in The Lost and Found with nothing but a snap of his fingers. The power held in this shard was unimaginable.

What if I could control it?

With the utmost care, I slid the Idaphite shard into my pocket and closed the box it had been presented in. There was nobody here to confide with to know if this was the right decision, but we had no idea what Mace would do with it if he got his hands on it. The stronger the gold in an Icrodeian's eyes meant the more potential they had to wield the Idaphite, I could do it if I focused my whole attention on it.

People would likely die when soldiers invaded our land, so I needed to act as quickly as possible. I could protect Racaea from harm.

Picking up the box and the note, I mustered a solemn expression and emerged from the cottage. As soon as I did, all eyes landed on me.

"I knew it was here!" Mace beamed from ear to ear. "Hand it over, quickly," he demanded.

I shook my head, tears spilling down my cheeks. All I could hope was that I wasn't making the wrong decision. "It's gone."

The temperature dropped around us as the miscreant's expression fell. "Gone? What do you mean it's gone? I can feel its power. It's been holding up this sun barrier."

"My parents left it for me," I opened up the box to show him the shard-shaped hole that was left inside, "but it's gone."

He paced up to the barrier, visibly shaking from head to toe. If he could punch a hole through the barrier, I knew he would have. "Show me that." Mace's breaths were ragged and irregular. "This isn't looking good for Racaea, you know."

Meeting the panicked eyes of Kayne, Auron, and Lorella, I stepped forward and held out the box to Mace, staying behind the barrier so it would protect me. As soon as I stepped outside of it with the Idaphite in my pocket, I had a feeling the barrier would fall.

Mace snatched it from my hold and opened it up. He ran his fingers along the dip where the shard had laid. "It was here and recently too given the power I can feel. Are you sure it's not still in that cottage somewhere?"

I shook my head. "I looked everywhere and found nothing. There aren't even many places to hide things."

"Give me that," he snapped, pointing towards the note that was scrunched in my hand. As soon as I held it out to him, he pulled it from my grasp, almost ripping it in two. Mace's eyes scanned over each word, his features contorting with fury as he reached further and further down the page.

When he reached the bottom, he scrunched it up and threw it with all his might at the barrier. It bounced off the invisible wall and landed at the horses' feet.

"Nash!" He called into the surrounding forest. After a mere moment, a dark cloaked figure appeared — one of the same figures that had been at the ball. "Get Sabre and tie her up, we'll bring her with us. Use Ridley to help you if you must."

With a quick nod of their head, the figure began to move towards me, ready to capture me. I couldn't get caught. Not only would I not be able to learn how to use the shard, but if Mace found it on me after I had lied straight to his face, I didn't want to imagine the consequences.

Before the figure got any closer, I bolted for Cirrus. We needed to make a quick escape and get out of here. Mace still had more to say, I could tell that much, but we didn't need to listen any longer to know Icrodeia's forces would be on the move.

As I neared my steed, another figure burst out of the trees behind me and tackled me to the ground. Kayne yelled my name as both he and Auron clambered off their horses and raced over to my side.

"Not so fast." Mace held out his hand and halted my friends in place — even Lorella who was looking for a weapon in her satchel. The shard in my pocket warmed, as if reacting to the power he was using.

I thrashed against the cloaked figure pinning me down, but she was too strong. It was an inhumane strength I had never felt before. She pulled out a rope from somewhere in her cloak and began to tie my limbs together with it.

"Let her go!" Kayne yelled. Veins pulsed in his jaw as attempted to break free from his constraints. "It's me you want, right? You want to wipe out the fae? Take me instead."

"I'll get you too, eventually. You won't miss out on the excitement, don't worry." He shook his head as he walked over to me. "That note your parents left is now the only lead I have." Mace lifted my chin with two of his fingers, his touch colder than fresh snow. "I can't wait to find out why you were supposed to have the shard. This will be fun."