Kade sat up straighter. “So Arianna can temporarily see the mecca with Violet’s help? But that doesn’t tell us how we get the energy back into the fae lands.”
Baladar shifted his gaze to Kade. “The truly fascinating thing here, King Kade, is that Queen Arianna just needs a little more vision, some more control over the energy, and she’ll be able to call forth the mecca. And then you, with your affinity, can help her contain it, direct it even. It’s almost as if your powers were always meant to be used together.”
My cheeks burned as his suggestion settled over us. He was right. Kade had this rare affinity for the mecca and I was more linked to it than any queen before me. Neither of us really knew why, but facts were facts.
The bear king narrowed his gaze on Baladar. “How do you know I have an affinity for the mecca?”
The eccentric male just waved his hands. “Oh, people talk. That’s my gift, King Kade, ferreting secrets from others.”
Kade looked slightly uncomfortable. “My people don’t talk,” he stated with confidence. Then his expression grew a little uneasy. “Do they?”
Baladar bestowed the king with a broad smile. “Every Wednesday night I host a bear shifter night. Your people definitely talk.”
My jaw dropped open. “Bears come to Manhattan?” I said loudly, letting my surprise and annoyance leak out.
Darkness crossed over Kade’s features, and I knew his people were going to hear from their king about this very soon.
Baladar waved his hands in the air. “Let’s focus on what is truly important here. You need to open a portal to the Otherworld. Get Violet to lend Queen Arianna her gift of mecca sight, then the special affinity inside of the queen will allow her to grab hold of the mecca. Then, with King Kade’s help, you’ll be able to funnel a large portion of the energy back to the stones within the fae lands. Assuming there is no foul magic at play here.”
“And what if there is foul magic at play?” I asked. Knowing my luck, I could guarantee something foul was afoot.
He shrugged. “Then it gets more complicated.”
Kade stood and I followed suit. We had our information, there was no time to linger. “Thank you, sir, for your wise council,” I said. “We’ll get Violet and do this at once.”
Baladar put up a finger. “Not so fast … Violet can only lend her power during a full moon.”
Of course it couldn’t be that easy.
“The next full moon is the summer festival,” Kade said.
We would all be on the Island partying the night away.
Baladar nodded. “After the festival, before the sun has risen, you must open the portal and give it a try.”
Okay. The festival was two weeks away. I just hoped the Summer Court could wait that long, but this was our best chance as far as I could tell. I nodded to Baladar.
“We must go now. Thank you for everything.”
He frowned, his expressive features turning somber. “That’s a shame, I have so many stories to tell you.”
I froze, my hand falling back to my chair as I tilted my head toward him. No queen was going to turn down an opportunity to learn more, and I sort of knew he wouldn’t have stopped me if he didn’t have important information to share.
I sat back down. “What kind of stories?”
He smiled. “How about I tell you one important story every time you visit?”
Okay, now I felt like a child being coerced into visiting a beloved grandparent.
“Alright.” I was agreeing to his terms.
Kade said nothing, but he did sit beside me again. I wondered how much Kade actually knew about Baladar. He seemed reasonably surprised by everything he’d seen here today, but I knew him, and he wasn’t ever really taken by surprise. He could probably sense that Baladar was one of the oldest wolves alive, and that he was our people’s history keeper. If he hadn’t known before today, he’d probably figured it out now.
“How about an origin story?” Baladar offered. “I’ll keep it short.”
Kade nodded and I did as well; I was all about origin stories lately. A butterfly landed on my shoulder and I smiled. Their beauty brought a little joy and lightness into the world. Baladar’s entire posture changed when he morphed into storytelling mode; his expression took on a whimsical quality, and I almost thought I saw some rosy red in his pale cheeks.
“In the beginning, there were three races connected to the mecca: the humans, the Tuatha de Danann, and the witches.”
I leaned forward, feeling my brow wrinkling. The origin story was not new, but … this was different. Where were the shifters?
“The oldest of the races were the Tuatha, strong and powerful. Born of magic and energy, they controlled the mecca. Witches were humans that had a genetic affinity for the mecca, and were next in the power structure. Humans were last. They had very little connection or control to the magical energy which governs this area. For many years these three races existed together, but also very apart – they lived in separate but amicable worlds.
“The drama started with a forbidden romance, as most true dramas do. A high priestess of a powerful witch clan, Priscilla Cottington, fell hard and fast for a fae that lived nearby. They made love on the full moon, and nine months later had a beautiful pale, magical child.”
Kade and I shared a look, the first magic born. I knew that magic born were descended from witches, but I’d believed it to be witches and shifters. So Baladar’s story was a little different. I was most interested to hear where his account of the shifters was going to come in. As far as I was told, there were four races: human, fae, witch, and shifter. Shifters were evolved from humans, some sort of magical genetic anomaly which happened during the final days of fae on Earth.
“Then, one of the most powerful fae of all time, a dual animal-affinity male, named Wayland Lightmoon, who held the souls of both a wolf and bear inside, fell in love with a human. His human lover fell pregnant with twins. The children carried each a pure soul of their father’s animals. One was a bear and the other a wolf. It was soon discovered that unlike their fae father, they not only had the animal affinity, but were able to actually shift into the form of their beast, and this was how the shifter race was born.”
My face was pinched as I tried to sort this story out in my head. “Wait, so there weren’t three magical races? We aren’t evolved from humans?”