CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT（Untitled）Naomi

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Naomi

Beside me, Wranth growls, one huge hand splaying across my back in a move that’s equally possessive and protective. Anger vibrates in his voice. “You would put my bride in danger.”

“Not willingly, no,” Sheevora says. “But if Naomi’s the only one who can get to the other realms, then she’s the only one.”

“Sheevora’s right,” I say. “If we need more information on the other realms, I’m the one who can get it.”

“Oh, this is about far more than information, little witch,” Lukendevener says.

He’s not exactly mocking me, I don’t think, because his voice seems to operate on one setting, with the dial turned to “arrogant.” But I’m also not going to put up with his shit, either.

“I’m not little.” My hands go to my hips. “And I’ve got a power you can’t match.”

His huge head lowers toward me, a curl of smoke seeping from his mouth. Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t rile him. God, his teeth are as long as my forearm!

With a growl, Wranth takes a half step forward to place his body between us. His hands curl into fists, his muscles vibrating with barely suppressed anger.

Alarm flashes through me. Wranth’s itching for a fight. I think it’s been his main way to cope with everything in his life up until now, and with all the emotional turmoil of the past day, who can blame him for being on edge? But even though Wranth’s the most amazing warrior I’ve ever seen, what good are sword moves against fire?

“Enough,” Sheevora and Aldronn say in stereo.

“Lukendevener, these are our allies,” the dragon adds. “Treat them as such.”

Wranth stops growling and nods at Aldronn.

After several stretched seconds, the red dragon finally says, “Forgive me, witch.”

“Only if you tell me everything you know about my power and what I’m supposed to do to open the doors of Faerie.”

“Agreed.”

Excitement races along my nerves. Finally, I’m going to have answers!

Lukendevener reaches into the air in front of his chest and pulls out a fistful of scrolls.

I gasp, and Ashley says, “Oh, yeah. Dragons have invisible pockets that can hold anything.”

“Because we’re superior beings,” Drake says, bobbing his head.

Okay, so Lukendevener’s arrogance might be a dragon thing instead of a him thing.

And dude has scrolls. This is the closest I’ve gotten to a book since I’ve been here. I dart forward, scanning eagerly as he unrolls one on the ground. Only… I squint and twist my neck, but now matter what I do, it’s no good. They’re not only not in English, the symbols don’t resemble any letters I’ve ever seen.

“I can’t read them.” My shoulders slump. All this talk of huge dragon libraries, and I won’t be able to read any of it.

“Once the doors of Faerie open and magic flows freely once again, fae will be able to read each other’s languages. It might extend to humans, too. If it does not, there are translation spells,” Lukendevener says. “For now, I will read for you. Your power, typically referred to as ‘far travel,’ is rare and usually only found in a few of the elvish family lines.”

“My mother.” Wranth shifts beside me, a look of pride on his face that makes my heart pinch. I’m so glad he knows this about her, and how she used her power to save him. It clearly means the world to him.

I glance back to the dragon. “But I’m human.”

He turns one huge amber eye on me and takes a deep sniff. He’s so large it causes a breeze to flutter the sleeves of my shirt. “Yes. But maybe not only human.”

“What does that mean?”

Ashley comes over to my side. “Yeah! Explain.”

“The doors of Faerie used to open onto Earth, and many fae dallied there,” Lukendevener says, his tone pointed. “What do you think it means?”

The redhead’s eyes go wide. “You mean we’re part fae?”

“Is that why we have magic?” I ask.

“I will need to do more studies.” He sniffs Ashley. “A sample size of two is not definitive, but as for the two of you, yes.”

“Witches,” Ashley says, wonder filling her voice as she turns to me and grips my arms with excitement. “It explains the witches! We’re part fae!”

“Now, back to your magic,” the dragon says loudly, cutting over us. “It’s one of the most powerful, and therefore, one of the most draining. Most far travelers can only make one trip at a time.”

“The red crystals help with that,” I say. “With them I can keep going.”

“They ameliorate the side effects. They do not dispense with them completely.” He gives me a hard look. “You could strand yourself in a dangerous place if you push past the warning signs of burnout.”

Wranth growls, his body bristling beside me. “I will protect her from any dangers.”

“This must be why you two are tethered,” Aldronn says to Wranth. “So that you will go with her no matter where, a warrior to protect her.”

“It would be better if more of us could go as well,” Zephyr grumbles. “Wranth is a fierce fighter, but who knows how many foes await you? You could use my horn.”

“And my claws,” Shadow says.

“A dragon should definitely travel with you to Dularia,” Lukendevener adds.

“I’m not sure how many I can take,” I say. “I teleported Zephyr to Moon Blade Village, but wasn’t able to bring Wranth. The tether brought him.”

“And you did yourself harm taking someone as large as Zephyr.” Wranth frowns down at me.

“I’ve got the red crystals now. They’ll keep me from magical burnout.”

His scowl says he still wants to protest, but he doesn’t—he knows I’m right.

“If only we could tether more people to you. Hmm.” Sheevora curls her talons in a come hither gesture. “Come here, little witch. I want to explore this tether.”

Wranth stirs as if he wants to put himself between me and the dragon, but he doesn’t. I like that he remembers our conversation from the bathhouse. He’s respecting that I make my own decisions about what I want to do, even if he wants to protest.

I step forward, and Sheevora’s talons close around me like the bars of a cage. But for all her size, she doesn’t hurt me by squeezing too tightly.

“Hmm,” she hums. “It’s interesting. It’s not your mate bond. I can’t tell what caused it.”

“Can you break it?” I ask.

Wranth’s eyes bore into the side of my face, but I can’t make myself look at him. I know my question hurts him—hell, it hurts me —but we can’t live like this forever, even if by some miracle we can stay together.

“No,” she says, her talons opening so I can step away. “But I sense it will break on its own once you open the doors.”

“Well, I can take another person to the other realms with the red crystals’ help,” I say with confidence. It’s only a little bitty lie. I certainly hope I can teleport someone other than Wranth. “I’ll need to take another fae with me—one who comes from that realm. I think I need the connection, like I followed Wranth’s thread to Avalon.”

“I will help you get to Umbria,” Zephyr says.

“And I will go with you to Dularia,” Lukendevener adds. “But it’s not enough. Everything I’ve read says you’ll need to open the doors to at least five different realms for all the doors to open.”

“What about pixies?” I ask.

“They’re from Avalon.” Wranth shakes his head.

Shadow says, “I suppose you could use me to go to Ketalia.”

Everyone turns to gape at him, and the wolf says, “I thought the cat sith came from Avalon. You were all over the realm!”

“Cat sith go wherever we want, hound.” Shadow grins. “Avalon just happened to be the most interesting realm. All the politics and fighting and whatnot.”

“Even the dragons did not know of this Ketalia,” Sheevora says.

Shadow’s smile simply grows wider.

“This gives us the means to open doors to five realms,” Lukendevener says. “As long as we can open all five in less than two hours, that will be enough to loosen whatever holds all the doors closed so that the rest will open.”

“There’s still another problem.” My mouth twists. “I’ve opened two doors of Faerie so far, but they both closed soon after. I don’t know how to keep them open.”

“Ah, now this I may have an answer for.” The red dragon unrolls another piece of parchment, and it’s fascinating the way his massive talons handle the paper with such precision. “I found an ancient scroll telling one of the myths of the founding of Faerie. The information is buried under layers of metaphor, but I think if you leave something of Alarria in those other realms, it will keep the doors from closing.”

“What would that be?” Aldronn asks. “I don’t want to leave behind people. If this Dark God has corrupted the other realms, they won’t be safe.”

My fingers stroke over the crystals on my necklace before I fully realize what I’m doing. Then it comes to me. I snap my fingers. “Crystals! We leave behind crystals!”

“Yes!” Ashley says. “It’s all about crystals!”

“We can spell crystal pairs to resonate with each other,” Sheevora says. “We’ll keep one here and leave its match in the other realm.”

“We have a plan!” Excitement skitters along my nerves as I hug Ashley, then spin toward Wranth.

Warring emotions cross his face, pride, affection, and… sadness.

It throws a bucket of water over the flames of my joy. Solving this problem, opening the doors of Faerie—in my gut I know this will break the tether.

There’ll be nothing stopping me from returning to Ferndale Falls.

And nothing that’ll make Wranth come with me.