Violet growled. “How big are these pieces?”
Baladar lowered his arms, hands clenched tightly at his side. I’d never seen the powerful magic born so out of sorts. “I’ve told you all I know. The God of fairness left the dark crystals, and the accompanying books, and then disappeared.”
“I still think we should destroy the book.” Kade’s hand was on the hilt of the sword he always carried.
Violet put her hands out. “Easy there. If we can connect with the small shard on the book, we might be able to do a spell and find the stone.”
Nikoli nodded, finally jumping into the conversation. “It would take a few days but it could be done.”
Baladar watched the two young magic born, his posture and drawn features screaming out his weariness. “To do that, you would have to reawaken the book and the darkness inside.”
I shared my thoughts: “Assuming the Dark Fae Lord has one of these dark mecca stones, and we use this book to find the other one, is there something we can do with it? Can we interrupt the power the stone is feeding him? Disable his armies?”
I locked eyes with Baladar, struggling to read his expression. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Let’s see if we can even activate a spell to trace the stone. Then we can work out how to neutralize them.”
We sat there as a group, letting his words weigh into our minds. It was a risk, but it could turn this war in our favor. If we could dismantle the Fae Lord and his power, we had a chance.
Ultimately, the decision rested with Kade and me. We were the rulers. The thoughts of erchos, harpies, and other unthinkable creatures flooding into Manhattan had my decision made. Through our bond, my mate’s thoughts were tumultuous, torn about what to do. But he seemed happy to go along with whatever I decided.
“Do the spell. Find the stone,” I said with force.
Baladar nodded. “Just be aware that any or all of us could be corrupted by the dark mecca. It’s a huge risk.”
I already knew that, and I hated that my family was in this position, but…
“What choice do we have?”
Part of me was hoping someone would come up with another option, but no one spoke. It might not be the right decision, but we had to try. Especially, if it would help our people get the upper hand in this impending war.
If only I could just ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach that made me think we might be messing with something that could destroy us all, even more so than the fae.
We spent the rest of the night searching through the queen’s stuff, but after the dark mecca crystal discovery, everything else was mundane and boring. The Red Queen apparently had a secret love of romance novels, and crocheting. Which definitely brought a smile to my face. But I would have preferred something more we could use in this fight.
By the time we all called it a night — technically it was early morning — we had gathered quite a bit of new information to study, which at least felt like a step in the right direction.
I watched as Baladar wrapped the dark book in a thick, spelled material he had worked on for most of the night. “I’ll keep this book with me,” he said. “I’ve placed securities on it which I have mimicked off the safe. Minus all of the darkness.”
“Are you sure you will be okay with it?” I had to ask. The last thing we needed was a crazy, evil, powerful magic born on the loose.
He threw me a withering look. “I’ll be fine. My spell will keep it contained for a long time. Plus, even if it did awaken again, it would take years to fully corrupt me.”
That shouldn’t be a problem. I was pretty sure we only had days, or maybe a few weeks, until the fae attacked.
“How long will it take for you guys to set this spell up, to track the dark crystal?” This question I directed to the three-magic born in the room.
Violet and Nikoli exchanged a glance, both turning to Baladar, who let out a bark of laughter. “This wasn’t my idea, young ones.” As their faces fell, he let out a deep breath. “But I also won’t leave you to try and navigate this dark book alone. I will need a day to cleanse an area, set up special spells of protection, and to let light into my soul. We will all need to do this. Otherwise, the darkness could claim us.”
Violet blanched, her already white skin turning an almost sickly gray shade. I hurried to her side, grabbing her as she swayed. “What’s wrong?” I gripped her arm tighter, ignoring the swirls of energy zapping us both.
She recovered with a few rapid shakes of her head, her eyes focused on me as she gently pulled her arm free. “Letting light into my soul means I have to face the darkness in there. If I cannot be cleansed of it, I cannot be part of this spell.”
She might have pulled herself together, but I could see by the shimmer of emotions on her face that she was terrified.
“I don’t think I can face the darkness,” she whispered.
Oh, Violet. What happened in the Winter Court? What did you sacrifice so that you could keep my fae essence safe?
From the dreams she’d shared with me, I had a reasonable idea of what she had gone through. I saw some of the marks on her, felt the pain in her soul. But I had no doubt she hid much from me. Which I hated. I’d been waiting for her to come to me, to tell me everything, which would be cleansing for her, but so far she’d remained mute. I didn’t want to push her, but something had to change soon. It was slowly killing her.
Before I could think of how to console my best friend, Nikoli was there placing both hands on either side of her face, capturing her full attention. “You can face anything. You are far stronger than even you know. The Tuatha did not break you, Violet, they reformed you into something unbreakable, like steel tempered over fire.” His voice lowered, I could barely hear the last few words. “We will do it together.”
My friend’s entire energy changed then; she relaxed and almost fell into him. The anguish that had been sliding across her body like a second skin was dissipating. She leaned into Nikoli as if he was her only strength. This was much more than a fling. This was serious. I was torn between overwhelming joy for them both and that continued worry that I wasn’t doing enough— that this war was distracting me to the point where I neglected the ones I loved. Ultimately, I was trying to save them, but there were smaller battles each was waging, battles I could not be there for.
At least she wasn’t alone, she had Nikoli, and she would tell me everything when she was ready.
Kade slipped his hand into mine. “Let’s all get some sleep. We can deal with the rest in the morning.” His voice was gruff, and at the mere mention of sleep I felt like a hundred-pound weight had settled into my body. We had been weeks, months even, without decent rest. It was catching up to us, but we would soldier on.
“Take whatever guest rooms you like,” I told them, assuming no one wanted to travel all the way back to Staten Island tonight.