Fadey scoffed. “You truly know nothing about yourself. Why the very existence of you ended in bloodshed between kingdoms, all to find you?”

I curled my hands into fists. “I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

“In Tales of the Wanderer, who was it who taught the first craft king how to meld?”

My teeth ground together. I did not wish to speak a word, but Ingir dug a small knife into the side of my ribs, piercing the skin. I glared at Fadey. “The god-queen. From desperation to stop the greed of her own husband!”

Fadey laughed with bitterness. “Right you are, Lyra. The god-queen had the talent for the crafts through her high-born blood. There would not be a soul with her strength, her power, for centuries. Old sagas and poems from scholars translated prophecies and vows of the gods, and most believed the god-queen’s power would be reborn in another.” Fadey leaned onto his palms over the table. “You are the first female melder in centuries, Lyra Bien. What do you think everyone was to believe?”

Breath caught in my chest. No. This was madness. “I am not the god-queen.”

“Of course you’re not,” Fadey sneered. “It is not a reincarnated soul, it is her strength the kingdoms desired. I thought it all shit before, then I saw you meld. What a find you are. One touch and you connected to a soul bone deep enough you fell into the melder’s trance. That is when more bones are sensed and found. It took me five winters of melding before the trance overtook me, and it was never as strong as yours.”

Fadey rubbed at his own eyes. Blue tears spilled onto his cheeks, and beneath a thin sheen of color was a bolt of silver that distorted the black center.

I lifted my chin. “Why stage your death if you wanted me here anyway?”

Fadey ignored the question and asked his own. “What do you know about blood craft, Melder Bien?”

I cast a quick glance at the queen. “It heals, summons, wards.”

“That is some, yes.” Fadey paced along the edge of the table. “Most consider blood craft to be the weakest, but did you know it can create a blood tether between two people?”

My pulse quickened. I said nothing.

“Blood crafters often tethered each other during marital vows to show devotion.” Fadey tugged a wooden talisman in the shape of two coiled serpents from beneath his tunic. “It isn’t to be taken lightly, for a blood tether allows one to step inside the thoughts and mind of another, even borrow strength through the bond for a time.”

I went still. “What are you saying?”

“Once you were found, it truly was not so difficult to get some of your blood.” Fadey shared a wicked sort of grin with the queen. “You should not have been so reckless with that blade against your own throat in Skalfirth.”