“They don’t. You becoming emperor does,” I retorted. “It will be the only way that we’ll be able to read the book; I hope it has the answers we need.”
Ash eyed the remains of the castle.
“The book is kept in Hellswan castle?” he asked despondently.
“We’ll just have to pray it survived.”
I hoped that the book was protected by the same magic that the Impartial Ministers seemed to have access to. I recalled the way, during the imperial trial, I had emerged from the hallucination with the bloodstained sword in my hand. Those ministers were obviously tapping into a greater power somehow. With any luck, the book had remained intact.
“Isn’t there another way? Do we have to have the blessing of the Impartial Ministers?” Ash asked.
“I have a theory,” I replied, telling Ash what I thought about the magic of the Impartial Ministers. “If the book is in any way linked to them, if we appoint you emperor without their blessing, then I doubt that the book will be able to be read. We will have a hard time proving the credibility of your claim with the other kingdoms as well.”
“Ruby once asked me if we had witches here. I laughed at her,” he replied in astonishment.
“I’m not talking about witchcraft,” I snapped. “Just power—old, ancient power that neither of us have a conception of.”
“All right,” he muttered stiffly. “I was just saying.”
“My apologies,” I replied curtly. “It irritates me that we were never told of this power—that it has been kept in the domain of the Impartial Ministers, those least worthy to wield it.”
Ash shrugged off my apology, shuffling his feet in the dust.
“Perhaps it’s a good thing that your father couldn’t access it,” he replied.
Touché.
“Perhaps.”
“It sounds like heading out to the summer palace is our best plan,” he continued. “Then we can search for the Impartial Ministers and get one of us crowned.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise at his assessment. “One of us?” I asked. “Ash, the emperor will be you, not I. You deserve it, and the people need you.” I frowned. There was only one potential problem with our plan. “What of Queen Trina? Tell me we were lucky enough to be rid of her.”
Ash grinned broadly. “Better than that, she’s our prisoner.”
I smiled.
That was good news—good news indeed.
Rose
After I’d received the radio call from Caleb, Mona and Corrine had transported us back to The Shade to meet with the rest of GASP. Caleb had told us Sherus’s fears the moment the witches had ceased working on the portal, and now we were being called to the Great Dome to meet with the king of the fire fae himself.
Usually I would be intrigued, but right in this moment I was just plain furious. I stormed through the redwoods toward the council chamber, an irrational rage flooding every nerve.
“You’re going to need to keep your cool in there, Rose,” Caleb muttered as we approached the building. “You know your father isn’t going to respond well if you fly off the handle—he’ll have enough to deal with. Claudia’s on the warpath too.”
At the mention of Claudia, I faltered. None of us reacted well when her temper flared, and if I went in guns blazing, then Dad would be much less likely to hear me out.
“You’re right, give me a minute.”
I paused, standing next to Caleb, rubbing my temples and trying to collect myself. I needed to breathe—this meeting needed to be handled in the right way. I couldn’t just dismiss the fears of the fae; I had to treat this like any other job. Of course, it was dangerous opening an unknown portal, especially considering the stone that had emerged from it, but…the kids. They were all that mattered to me. How could I think straight when their lives were riding on this?
“Did Dad seem like he was on Sherus’s side with all this?” I asked.
“Your father seemed conflicted,” Caleb replied evenly. “So did Ben—you know that both of them want the kids back as much as we do.”
I groaned.
“Caleb, how are you being so level-headed about this?” I asked despairingly.
“Because I have to be. Trust me, if you were the one being level-headed, I would be flying off the handle.”
His brown eyes betrayed a spark of something feral; my husband was doing his best to keep control, but I realized under the surface a storm was brewing. I knew he would be having a hard time trusting the fae king, and if he was managing to keep his cool, then so could I.
“Let’s go,” I replied, gripping his hand.
The Dome was packed; pretty much the whole of GASP’s core was present. Corrine shuffled over in her seat so that Caleb and I could sit at the front. We would be the ones arguing most heavily in favor of opening the portal, but I knew we wouldn’t be alone. Mom hurried in, coming to sit next to us. Her emerald-green eyes were flashing with determination.
“Rose, are you okay?” she asked, leaning forward on her seat.
“Pissed off, and getting pretty desperate,” I replied candidly. “Where’s Sherus?”
“I left him and your father arguing alone, ‘round the back of the building.”
I stood up, wanting to join them. If there was going to be a discussion, then I wanted in on it.
“Sit down, Rose. They’ll be through in a minute,” she added. “Let your father try to persuade the fae before he hears our case.”
“Sherus has no jurisdiction here!” I exploded. “This is a decision GASP should be making alone.”
She nodded, her expression troubled. “We might need him, we don’t know—better to have the fae on our side than not.”
I slumped down in my seat, knowing that my mom was right. Yuri and Claudia entered the Dome, both nodding in our direction. Claudia looked like she was ready for a fight—her large brown eyes seemed to crackle with electricity, a sure sign that her more passionate nature was bubbling to the surface. Ashley and Landis followed behind, both of their faces etched with disappointment.
The group hushed, and I sensed that my dad was on his way in. Sure enough, he and Sherus entered through the side door, both stormy-faced. Perhaps the conversation hadn’t gone very well. Following Sherus was a red-headed woman I presumed to be his sister — Ben had informed me that she had also come to stay in The Shade — and behind her followed two other fae I didn’t recognize.
“Thank you all for coming,” my father started as the fae took a seat, his deep voice reverberating around the ancient meeting chamber. “As you all know, we’re here to discuss the opening of the portal. We have good reason to believe that the children have been taken into an unknown dimension, and that the portal in question will lead us to them. However, Sherus and the rest of the fae believe that opening the portal is dangerous, perhaps fatally so—that the threat which has been foreseen will come from the very same portal.”
The chamber was entirely silent. I looked over at the fae king. His copper hair and relatively youthful features gave no indication of his true age, but his eyes betrayed an old, weary soul. He turned his head, his gaze meeting mine for the briefest moment. In that look I saw compassion, and perhaps pity, but also resolve. I didn’t think he would change his mind on this matter…I only hoped that he wouldn’t manage to sway any of the other GASP members.
Sherus stood up. I heard the creak and groan of wood as every single person in the council turned to get a good look at him.
“My concern is with the stones,” he announced. “The jinn locked deadly creatures into those prisons so they would not escape. We have no way of knowing what is contained within that portal, but if it is a land full of these creatures, then giving them a way to access Earth could be fatal.”
The GASP members started to mutter, and my mother leaned over and squeezed my hand. Whether it was in warning or reassurance, I wasn’t sure.
“We don’t even know what these creatures are,” Claudia retorted. “Plus, it’s our kids in
there! How can we not open it?”
“Are you so willing to risk sacrificing all to save a few?” Sherus asked. Removing my hand from my mom’s grasp, I clenched my fists. It was all very well for him to be so high-minded about it, and of course, if we were all thinking pure battle tactics with willing soldiers, I would have agreed with him. But we weren’t. We were talking about kids. Our kids.
“How DARE you!” Claudia raged. “We can’t treat it like that—”
“Enough, Claudia,” my father scolded her. “We need everyone’s point of view shared, whether or not they differ from yours.”
Sherus’s sister shot Claudia an evil scowl. I suspected that perhaps the female fae was just as fiery as the blonde vampire. It was going to be interesting watching that relationship unravel if we had to spend more time with their kind.
Standing up, I addressed both my father and Sherus.
“I understand the concerns of the fae, but I also believe that if we were to gain access to the portal, we could lock it behind us, preventing what we find within from getting out. Once we’ve neutralized the threat, then we can reopen the portal.”
Murmurs of agreement erupted from around the room.
“And what if you can’t neutralize this threat?” Sherus glowered at me. “What then?”
“Then what chance do we have anyway?” I shot back. I realized as the words came out of my mouth it was true. We had no alternative other than to open the portal. If the danger that Sherus had been warned about in his visions was on the other side of the portal, then it was going to emerge anyway—with or without our help.
“Rose is right.” My brother’s voice came from the back of the room. I hadn’t seen him sitting with River—he normally took center stage with Dad at these proceedings. “We can’t just leave it locked and wait for whatever’s in there to escape. If we enter the portal, we might have the upper hand. We don’t know who threw that stone out—it could be someone wanting our help, someone on our side…”
“Or it could be a trap!” Sherus countered.
“It could be a land where jinn reside,” I argued. “Maybe some settlement other than The Dunes. They created the stones in the first place, it might be a group that we don’t know about—but an enemy that could potentially be reasoned with, especially with the jinn we have on our side.”
“I very much doubt I would have had an omen about a land of jinn,” Sherus spluttered. “The threat that we’re talking about is going to be much greater than that.”
I sat down. I had said my part. Now it was up to my dad and Ben to decide what the right course of action was going to be.
“What’s happening with the portal now?” My father directed his question at Mona.
“We have left a few witches and jinn watching it. They will inform us if anything changes, but so far the portal has been left partway open. Nothing has emerged other than the stone,” she replied. “But the lock is now weakened. If we do decide that we’re not going to go and investigate, we need to shut it back up completely.”
“Can you do that?” my father asked.
“We can, but I don’t advise it. I agree with Rose—better to face the danger head on, rather than hoping it will go away if we keep it locked up.”
“And what of the rest of the stones, the ones collected from the In-Between? Where are they now?”
The witch glanced over at Queen Nuriya, who nodded quickly from the back of the room.
“We will take them back to the planet, if they are no longer needed.”
“All right,” my father said, then fell silent for a moment, his sharp blue eyes scanning everyone in the room—no doubt contemplating our arguments. Eventually he sighed, rubbing his temple. From the familiar gesture, I realized that he hadn’t come to a decision yet. My heart sank.
“I will take all points into account, and reach a decision this evening. In the meantime, I want everyone available to research the nature of these stones—I want to know exactly what the jinn locked in them.”
At his announcement, I looked over at Caleb. His expression was one of sheer frustration. I knew exactly how he felt – we’d gotten so close to opening the portal, and now we had to wait even longer for a final decision to be made. I could only hope that whatever we found out about the stones, Dad would still put his family first.
Hazel
Syphoning off the minister was strange. It felt weirdly intimate to me—I had never even had a conversation with the woman who offered up her energy, yet she had borne the pain of my unpracticed mind-suck without complaint. We sat side by side on the outskirts of the castle when I had finished, both looking out over the collapsed trees of the forest that faced the castle.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “That must have been…unpleasant.”
She turned to face me, her hair half-falling out of a bun and a large slash across her face that looked as if it had only recently stopped bleeding.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve had children, it was much the same with them when they were first born. You will learn, in time, how to control it.”
“Where are your children now?” I asked, hoping that they weren’t among the sentries still trapped inside the castle.
“They moved to the kingdoms of Memenion and Hadalix long ago,” she replied. “I hope they are safe now…I suppose I can only wait and see.”
It seemed quite a measured, rational response from a mother, but then sentries—and especially ministers—had always seemed cold to me. Their parenting practices were more hands off than was the norm where I came from.
“I’m sure they’re fine.” I smiled weakly.
“As am I.”
They felt like empty words to offer, but I didn’t know what else to say. I leaned back against the rock behind me, grateful for the energy that I could feel coursing through me, but also trying to calm some of it down—I felt like I’d just drunk about ten espressos at once, and it made me kind of jittery. I started drumming my fingers against my legs.
The minister smirked.
“You will also learn how much you need to take. I suspect your body has a surplus right now…it will fade, eventually.”
I grimaced at her, embarrassed that she’d noticed.
“Sorry again.”
“Don’t be.” She shrugged. “Really. I suppose we will all need to be of service to one another in the days ahead. Perhaps it is time that we ministers were of genuine use.” She lowered her head, staring at the ground.
“Excuse me,” she continued after a moment, “I need to speak with someone.”
The woman rose to her feet and smiled briefly at me. I watched her walk away in surprise. Perhaps the devastation of Nevertide was the one thing that might bring about its salvation. If all the ministers were like her, and had begun to realize the error of their ways, perhaps there was hope. Well, if the entity didn’t finish what it had started, anyway.
Tejus approached from the portcullis. All the ministers, guards and servants were gathered there. Some lay in the grass in front of the castle, wounded and unable to stand, but most who had managed to escape seemed okay: bloodied, covered in soot and dust, but okay.
Without saying a word, he came and sat down a few feet from me, his body sinking gratefully to the ground with feline grace. He was no longer wearing his robes, just the habitual black uniform of silk pants and shirt, which had escaped relatively intact. His expression was pensive. Looking out at the destroyed forest, he sighed, rubbing at his temples.
“Did any more manage to escape?” I asked hopefully.
“Some.”
Some wasn’t enough.
“I’m sorry,” I replied. He shrugged, stoic as ever.
“You survived. That’s what matters,” he muttered. “We’re going to move out in a couple of moments, to another palace that belongs to the Hellswan family. Are you ready to travel?”
“What palace?” I asked. I hadn’t been aware that he owned another home.
“One that belonged to my m
other, not far from here.”
“I’m ready.” I smiled. “I actually feel quite good. The minister really…helped.”
He nodded, smirking.
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t know if I will,” I grumbled. “It wasn’t a very fair exchange.”
“It will be, with me.”
He moved closer, and then, turning toward me, he reached out his hand and traced the line of my jaw with his thumb—slowly drawing my face closer to his.
“Are you feeling better?” I swallowed.
“A bit.” He smiled down at me hungrily and my breath caught in my throat. He studied my lips, either to drive me insane or to prolong his gratification—I didn’t know which, but when he finally brushed his mouth against mine, I breathed him in like oxygen. As the kiss deepened, I clung to his frame, elated that I didn’t feel the need to syphon off him, and overwhelmed by the feelings I did have rushing through me—acute lust and desire, more intense than I’d ever experienced them, even the night I’d spent in Tejus’s bed.
He broke the kiss first, breathing heavily as he pushed me away.
“I can’t continue this,” he panted. I stared back at him incredulously – how could he have pulled away? The physical tremors of Nevertide hadn’t managed to shake my world up as much as our kiss just had.
“What was that, Tejus?” I asked, referring to the intensity of what we’d just shared—had it been me alone? Or did he share the same feelings? I could see from the color in his cheeks he had certainly felt something.
He rose to his feet, offering me his hand. I took it, launching myself upward, irritated at his silence.
“Well?” I asked again.
He started to walk forward, in the direction of the portcullis, but I kept pace with him, trying to match his strides.
“I think it is perhaps another effect of your transformation,” he muttered eventually. “I can feel your energy when I kiss you—it’s different, more…intense.”
Is that a good thing?