I heard her breath catch when I spoke of the winter queen, and she burrowed herself even tighter into me. “Thank the gods you’re okay.”
I pulled back and turned my concern toward Baladar. He had not moved even though there were now half a dozen or more shifters in his home. He remained in that meditative position. “What happened to him? Is this Selene’s doing?” I stepped closer, and flinched as I brushed against a wall of energy surrounding him.
Calista hurried back to her former lover’s side, seemingly unbothered by the energy. “It’s sort of to do with Selene. Her war, anyway. Baladar has been holding time.”
Say what now? Kian let out a surprised sound, but I couldn’t focus on him. I needed answers. “What does that mean, Cal?”
She had her creased brow and her huge eyes focused on Baladar again. “It means that normally weeks would have passed here during the days you were in the Otherworld. Which meant you would miss the war. So we decided to try and slow things down. This spell is very powerful, so only a few days have passed since you left for the Otherworld – almost equal time actually. Baladar has used all of his strength to hold time … or more accurately slow it down. It’s lucky you arrived back when you did. He is almost out of energy, and even with all our delaying, Selene will be launching her first strike tomorrow.”
It looked to me like he had almost killed himself in the process on trying to stop this war.
Violet stepped closer, her expression somber. “Time magic is not something any magic born should attempt.” Darkness flickered in the depths of her icy eyes, and I just knew my normally jovial friend had been broken in the land of the fae. I wondered if she would ever be the same again.
Baladar’s eyes flicked open then, and half the room took a step back. I just barely stopped myself. His irises were no longer pale blue with lightning through them, nope. Now his entire eye was pure white.
“I’m very old and wise,” he said to Violet, his voice no more than a croak. “I influenced only what I needed to, and any consequences of this time slip which may arise will hopefully be worth it if it saves the shifter races.”
Calista placed a hand on his arm and he smiled. “I would do anything to save my people,” he said with conviction.
He turned and looked directly at me. It was not an expression I’d seen from him before. It was like he was looking just beyond, or through me.
“Are you blind now?” I asked hesitantly. Please say no. Please say no. I would never ask for this sacrifice for him.
My heart cracked when he nodded. “It would seem so.”
“We don’t know if it’s temporary or permanent,” Calista broke in. “He will need a long time to recover his energy, and I pray his sight returns with it.”
She was trying to be positive, but it was clear she didn’t truly believe what she had said. I knew from the look on her face.
Baladar stood. “I still have the sight, and that’s the only thing I care to see. Arianna, you must go now and prepare for war. I’ve seen many outcomes, always changing, but the one that benefits you the most is when you act less like the cold Red Queen and more like a mother protecting her children. Good luck.”
A loud crack pierced the room, and two butterflies began to flit about Baladar’s head. “Time is back to moving at normal speed now. Go.”
Holy crap. No pressure. A mother protecting her children? That was nice and vague. Calista hurried forward to assist Baladar, settling him into a nearby chair, and with one last lingering look, left his side to approach me. “There’s a vortex back to Staten Island that is ready to go. We should get going so we can start planning our next move.”
She looked toward Baladar, her eyes creasing downwards as she blinked a few times. I shook my head, putting an arm on her shoulder. “Calista, you’re temporarily removed from duty.”
Her entire face crumbled as emotion overtook her. She stared up at me, unblinking. Finally she said, “What … why?”
I let my eyes rest on Baladar, looking like half the shifter he had been when we last saw him. “Take care of him for me. That’s an order,” I said with as much conviction as I could. “He has done more than anyone to help, and prevent this war. Now he needs you.”
She gave me a small smile. “Are you sure? There could still be a war … with Selene … who is probably one of the evilest shifters I have ever met. Baladar and I both understand the sacrifice. We made our peace with it.”
She was trying to convince me, but I knew her strong sense of duty would never let her heart choose what it wanted. I was going to make sure she got her choice for once.
I pulled her in for another hug. “Just follow your heart,” I whispered in her ear. “You both deserve a chance at happiness.” When I pulled back, she looked sad but also strong, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was ready to take on the world.
Kade stepped into my side. “You can email Gerald on our private server,” he said. “Any ideas you have will be brought to the war room.”
His reassurance that she would still be involved added a layer of acceptance and gratitude to her expression. She took one last look between the king and me, then gave us both a nod before she stepped back to put a hand on Baladar’s shoulder.
I turned to the group, all of them waiting in silence. “Let’s go get my crown back.”
My words were laced with energy, with conviction, and with slices of anger. Now that I was back on Earth, away from the immediate worry of Violet’s death, I let some of my anger toward Selene filter out. Today was her last day as queen of the wolf shifters.
Violet smiled, the first real one since we’d stepped back to Earth, and in that smile I saw death. I was right there with her. It had been Selene and Sabina’s magic blanket that had allowed the fae to slip through and attack that night of the mid-summer festival. The very night Violet was stolen away. We still didn’t know if they were working with the winter queen and this new mysterious dark power. If I had learned anything from my so-called father, it was that the fae had been trying to find a powerful ally on Earth for many years. Maybe they had finally found one.
Calista gave us directions to the tree that hid the bears’ vortex disc, and we made our way into Baladar’s garden. The mecca energy was strong in this section. I could feel the vortex.
Blaine stepped forward. “Your Majesties, let me go first in case it’s a trap.”
He unsheathed his fae sword, which had somehow survived the trip across. Mine had been stripped from me when I was taken captive, and I wished it was still here. Kade gave him a single nod, and I did the same, even though my insides were frozen. For the first time he had addressed us both as his rulers, and alongside that shock was hope that maybe the bears and wolves could rule side by side.
“Thank you,” I said. “And be safe.”