“We don’t know,” Cora said. “All we know is that the dragons came from El’Ara, which confirms the veil has been torn. Before now, unicorns were the only creatures to have moved through the veil, and Valorre was the only one ever to return. If the veil is torn, it’s possible that more creatures could get out. But we might be more concerned with what wants to get in.”
Her words sent a ripple of confusion through me. “Wait, your unicorn returned to El’Ara? When?”
She wouldn’t meet my eye. “We both did.”
I looked from her to Teryn, who did not seem surprised by her confession. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” I said through clenched teeth.
Finally, she met my gaze. “I know. I’ll tell you everything. I’ll tell all of you everything I know. Just not today.”
“Then when?” I asked.
Bells sounded to mark the hour, and Teryn moved to the door. “I have to meet with the council. They may not know about this prophecy, but perhaps we can find a solution to keep these dragons at bay.”
“I doubt that,” Larylis said. “No one could possibly know what to do with a dragon.”
“You should come too, Lare,” Teryn said. “Lex, you are welcome as well. Just don’t mention anything you’ve heard in this room. As you can imagine, talk of magic doesn’t do well with the council.” Lex nodded, and he and Larylis stood to join Teryn at the door.
I rose to my feet and put my hands on my hips, standing at my full height as I let my voice fill the room with my urgency. “Is anyone going to listen to me? When are we meeting again?” The room went still as all eyes moved to me. Cora raised an eyebrow, and my cheeks began to burn. Had I just used my power? I let my arms drop to my sides and lowered my voice. “I would like to hear more of what Cora has to say.”
Cora came to my side. “Tomorrow. We’ll meet back here in the morning.” A rumble of agreement came from our companions, then they began to file out into the hall. I stayed where I was while Cora paused in the doorway. “You should consider training your gifts in the Arts. I can tell yours are strong, but you have no conscious control.”
I bristled. “Who are you to tell me whether I have control?”
She gave me a soft smile, ignoring the bite in my tone. “If you’re ever interested, I know some people who could help.”
I crossed my arms and popped my hip to the side. “And who would that be?”
“The Forest People. Or, as you once called them, the wolves who raised me.” She left with a smirk, leaving me alone with my storm of thoughts.
8
DREAMS
Cora
Smoke filled my lungs, heart racing with every breath I took. I whirled around but all I saw was black sky and flames rising high above my head. The sound of wings pounded the air, the force of them driving the flames dangerously close to my body. I spun again, seeking an exit through the fire as the smoke stung my eyes, and finally spotted a space between two pillars of flame. I ran forward, feeling the heat sear my skin. I was almost through when the shadow of a man blocked my path. He came forward, and I stepped back. The light of the fire illuminated his face, revealing the features of a man I would never forget.
Morkai smirked as he walked between the flames, showing no sign that they affected him in any way. I fled back to the center of the ring of fire and narrowed my eyes, lips pulled into a snarl. He reached out a hand, and I felt pain deep below my abdomen. I doubled over, screaming. When the pain ceased, I straightened, hands over my aching womb. Though he stood dangerously close now, I kept my chin high. “You were wrong, Morkai. You had it wrong the entire time.”
He threw his head back and laughed, and in the blink of an eye, Mareleau stood at his side, whimpering as his hand gripped the back of her neck. “You’re right. It was her, not you. Should I have done it to her instead?”
My eyes darted from Mareleau to Morkai, but I could form no words with my trembling lips.
“Should it have been her?” Still gripping Mareleau by the neck, he pushed her toward one of the pillars of flame while she clawed at his arm. She screamed as fire seared the ends of her golden hair. “Say it!” My eyes snapped back to Morkai, whose face had been replaced by someone I’d never seen before. As unfamiliar as this new face was, his features tugged at my memory. But every time I tried to focus on his features, they shifted beneath my gaze. “Should it have been her?”
Tears streamed down my cheeks, burning my skin as they trailed down to my neck. “Yes!”
He pushed Mareleau into the fire.
I bolted upright, gasping for breath as I looked around the dark room and pushed at the covers surrounding me, still feeling the heat of the inferno in the warmth of the blankets. Hands found mine, and I stilled my thrashing. Teryn’s soothing voice whispered in my ear, and I pressed my face into his chest. Tremors wracked my body as I sobbed, trying to shake the blinding colors of flame from my mind, the hiss of Morkai’s voice, and the terror in Mareleau’s eyes when I failed to save her.
Why would I dream of such a thing? I’m not like that. That’s not me.
Teryn held me in silence until my breathing began to calm. I forced the dream from my mind, pushing it deep into the shadows of my consciousness where it belonged.
“I still have them too,” Teryn said. “Almost every night. My dreams will never let me forget what it was like to see my body doing terrible things or the sensation of losing my sense of touch. I often dream that I reach out to hold you, but you can’t feel me no matter what I do.”
I looked up at him, barely able to make out his features in the dark. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “I’m not. I want to be here for you. Don’t ever be afraid to wake me.”
I pressed my head back to his chest, and we settled under the covers. The sound of his steady breathing set me further at ease, and after a few moments, I could tell he’d fallen back to sleep. I wish I could fall asleep that easily.
I tossed and turned, refusing to return to thoughts of my nightmare, but it was easier said than done. With a frustrated moan, I rose from the bed and moved to the window. A starry night sky welcomed me as I stared out toward the mountains. I watched the space above them, looking for signs of movement flickering over the stars. Even though archers were ordered to stand guard night and day, I didn’t feel at ease. What can an arrow do against a dragon?
I became aware of a shimmering light flickering at the corner of my eye and jumped away from the window to face it. Colors of white, blue, and gray undulated before me until they took on a familiar form.
“Emylia?” My mouth fell open at the sight of the wraith. “What are you doing here? I thought you moved on.”
She frowned, eyes turned down at the corners. “I tried.”
“What happened?” I kept my voice low and glanced beyond her shimmering form where Teryn still slept. With a wave of my hand, I motioned her to follow me to the far end of the room.
Emylia wrung her hands. “When I went to move to the otherlife, I was granted knowledge I hadn’t had neither while living nor while trapped in the crystal. I had a glimpse of great mysteries, secrets of the soil and stars, like I’d always craved. However, that wasn’t all I was granted. I saw deep into the timeline of my life, saw the repercussions of the actions I’d taken while living. Some were good, others were…not so much. I gained insight into how those repercussions were playing in the lives of others at that very moment.” She lowered her head. “And I saw you. Cora, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault Morkai did what he did to you.”
I wanted to reach out a hand to comfort her but knew she wouldn’t be able to feel it. Instead, I took a step closer. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know what he was capable of when he was Desmond.”
“But I did it just the same. Whether I knew the weight of my actions or not, I am responsible for them. I channeled the prophecy. I provided him the clues that led him to believe you were the Mother we’d learned about. I am the reason he ma
de you barren, and you weren’t even the woman he was seeking.”
Mareleau’s face from my nightmare flooded my mind, but I shook it away. No, it shouldn’t have been her. Of course not. I would never think that.
Emylia continued. “After learning what I know now, my ethera became too heavy with my ties to this world. I need to shed them to move to the otherlife.”
“How will you shed them?”
She lifted her head, her face resolute. “I am going to do what I can to make this right, to use the knowledge I have to end what I’ve begun.”
My heart quickened. “Do you know things that could help us?”
“At this point, I don’t know how much it will help, but I am going to try regardless.”
Inside my core, I felt the flame of hope begin to burn. “What do you know?”
* * *
The next morning, we gathered in the study. My eyes burned from lack of sleep, but my mind was clear. There was so much to say, and I was ready for it.
Teryn and I again stood before the desk while Mareleau, Larylis, Lex, and Lily took their previous seats. Every set of eyes that met mine looked as tired as I felt. I froze as I met Mareleau’s eyes, and the nightmare seized my mind, replacing her face with a face seared by fire while my angry outburst sealed her fate. I breathed the memory away and moved my gaze to Teryn. He nodded.
Teryn and I began to explain the prophecy, alternating details with what he’d learned from Emylia and what I’d learned in El’Ara. It was exhilarating and terrifying at once to relive my time there, recalling the stories Etrix and Garot had shared with me about Satsara, Darius, Ailan, and the veil, and comparing them to what we knew about the prophecy.
The faces of our friends were pale, filled with wonder and shock and horror—as they should be. There was no detail that wasn’t a mixture of all those things. My cheeks burned as I explained my escape from the tribunal. When I was done, I was met with silence and hesitated to see the expressions of my friends.
“So, you are a witch,” Lex said with a sly smile, breaking the tension in the room. “I knew it all along.”
I shot him a playful glare. “It’s called the Arts, you know that.”
“You can…travel? With your mind?” Larylis asked.
I looked at my feet. “I’m still not exactly sure what it is. The first couple times it happened, I thought I was having a vivid imagining, or—at most—a mental projection into a real time and space. However, in El’Ara I learned that my body followed me where I mentally went.”
“Do you think that’s how you went to El’Ara in the first place?” Mareleau asked.
“No, I still believe that was Valorre’s accidental doing. Before the veil was torn, I believe unicorns were the only creatures able to move through it one way or the other, perhaps because of their horns. Once Valorre came to our world, he became confused about home. I think that’s why none of the unicorns ever made it back.”
“Is this special kind of Traveling part of the Arts? Of being what you are? An empath?” Mareleau shifted anxiously in her seat at the word.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Being an empath allows me to feel what others are feeling and thinking. It allows me to tune into the energy of many things, and I’m even able to manipulate that energy at times. But Traveling was never something I was taught by the Forest People. Anyhow, I’m not sure this new power of mine will help us. But if it can, I will use it.”
“Does any of this help us with dragons?” Lex asked. He put his hand on Lily’s. “I can’t put my wife and unborn child in danger by traveling home while those creatures are on the loose.”
“You are welcome to stay as our guest as long as you need,” Teryn said. “We have scouts tracking the dragons’ movements, trying to see if any routes are safe. Until we know more, I suppose all we can do is consider the facts we have—”
“There’s more,” I said, “that even you don’t know.”
He frowned. “You haven’t told me something? I thought—”
“I found out last night and figured I’d tell everyone at once,” I said in a rush.
Teryn nodded and sat at the edge of the desk, facing me. My heart raced as all eyes were locked on me. It was one thing to retell a story, but quite another to share something unbelievable for the first time.
I took a deep breath. “Emylia came to me last night.”
Teryn’s eyes widened. “Emylia?”
“The wraith from the crystal?” Larylis asked.
Lex grimaced. “Morkai’s ex-lover?”
I nodded. “She is unable to move on and remains a wraith in our world. However, before she turned away from the otherlife, she was able to glean important information. She shared that information with me. We all know Morkai was the Blood of Darius. Emylia has learned that Darius was, in fact, Morkai’s father. And he’s still alive.”
A rumble of gasps filled the room. Teryn ran a hand over his face, eyes bulging as he rubbed his jaw. “Darius is still alive? The Darius who caused a war amongst the Ancient Ones in El’Ara?”
“Yes. Five-hundred years ago, in our time,” I said. “He’s been ruling as King of Syrus ever since.”
“Are you saying Morkai was…a prince?” Lex asked.
Mareleau raised an eyebrow. “And this Darius has been alive for five-hundred years? How is that possible?”
“Darius was half human, half Elvan,” I said. “The Elvan live indefinitely, until they choose to take what they call Last Breath. It’s possible Darius has the same immortal powers and can’t die from age the same way we do.”
“How has an immortal being from another realm not conquered half the world by now?” Teryn asked.
“He may be immortal, but he is old and weak, which likely has to do with the veil.” I closed my eyes, trying to recall everything Emylia had told me, wishing I’d written it down as she’d spoken. “When Emylia was alive, she’d known him only as the Ageless King of Syrus. Syrus is a small, isolated kingdom in the Northern Islands. Being from the Southern Islands, she never paid much heed to the stories of the withering, old king who refused to die.”
“So, Darius is still alive but is a decrepit, old man who lives on the other side of the ocean,” Larylis said. “Does that mean we don’t need to worry about him?”
“I wish I could say yes to that,” I said. “But the veil was meant to keep Darius out. Morkai had described his father’s condition as being under a curse that made him forget. Darius couldn’t even remember the name of the realm he was looking for. What if the tear in the veil breaks that curse and allows Darius to find El’Ara?”
“Should we care?” Mareleau lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “El’Ara has nothing to do with us. Why should we care if some old man wreaks havoc on an Ancient Realm?”
I gritted my teeth. “Lela is the missing heart of El’Ara. If Darius invades the realm and conquers it and the veil falls completely, then Lela returns to its rightful place, leaving us in the midst of whatever chaos he brings.”
Mareleau threw her hands in the air. “And my son is supposed to stop this madness? How?”
“I wish I knew,” I said. “All I know is that Darius was a powerful threat that only the strongest Elvan could stand up against. Even if he is five-hundred years old, I hate the thought of facing him, of what he could do to this land or El’Ara.”
“That still doesn’t help us with the dragons,” Larylis said. “Darius is probably the only one in our world that knows a thing about them, and I don’t suppose we can ask him for help. In fact, we don’t even know that he isn’t the one responsible for them, sending them here to destroy us.”
I brought my thumbnail between my teeth as I considered his words. He was right. For all we knew, Darius may have summoned them from El’Ara, knowing the veil had been torn. But what if there was still hope for finding out what to do about them? “What if he isn’t the only Elvan left in our world?”
“What do you mean?” Teryn asked.
I turned
to face him. “Darius and Ailan were both trapped here, along with anyone and anything else that remained when the veil was sealed. If Darius is still alive…”
Teryn’s face paled. “Ailan might be too. But how do we find her? We’ve already had one immortal carrying on without us even knowing he existed. How do we find a second?”
“What about that book?” Lex said. We turned to face him, and he blushed beneath our gaze.
“What book?” Teryn and I said in unison.
“The book about Lela that I read at Dermaine,” Lex said, as if it should be obvious. “Don’t you remember, Teryn? The Once and Former Magic of Ancient Lela, or something like that. It had that big map, remember? The map of some place called Le’Lana. You said I was reading the wrong book—”
My breath caught in my throat. “Did you say, Le’Lana?”
Lex nodded. “It was huge and looked nothing like Lela. I had no idea it was referring to some magical realm.”
Teryn and I exchanged a glance. My heart beat high in my chest. “Someone wrote about El’Ara, or at least the kingdom of Le’Lana,” I said under my breath. “If we can find the person who wrote it…”
Teryn’s eyes sparkled with realization. “We might be able to find information about Ailan, Darius…maybe even the dragons.”
I nodded. “I must find that book. Now.”
9
READY
Mareleau
I pushed open my bedroom door and found my mother standing at the window, bouncing Liam in her arms. She turned to me, creases between her brows as her lips lifted into a weak smile. “He barely fussed while you were gone, but I’m sure he’s hungry now.”
I felt my heart melt like butter as I took Liam in my arms. He let out a mewling cry, mouth eagerly turning toward my chest as I sat on the bed and pressed my back against the plush pillows. I undid the top of my gown and began to nurse him, eyes fixated on his fluttering eyelids and tiny lips.
Mother returned to the window.
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