Chapter 29

TWENTY-NINE

COLLINS

I stood in a circle with my team just outside the portal to Third Realm. We were about to walk into a war-torn frozen realm with a strong chance we wouldn’t walk back out. I would’ve never made it this far without any of them and now each one of them was willing to risk their lives to help me. I wasn’t going to get emotional about it now, otherwise I might not have been able to go through with what I had to do. I looked up at Bash and his moonstone eyes shined back at me. He hiked the quiver full of staffs up on his shoulder. He was so calm on the outside it gave me more strength in the inside.

Across from me was Jada, she stood there silently with her eyes closed and hands folded in front of her like she was meditating. Stellan and Ellie were right beside her. They stood quietly holding hands.

Stellan smirked at her. “What do you say, love? One more go then?”

“Playing superhero was always a fantasy of mine.” She wagged her eyebrows. “You know I love the chance to be Captain Marvel for a minute. I’m ready.”

He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “As am I. It’ll be nice to see what my cousins have been up to.”

Ellie chuckled. “Yeah, I can’t wait to see what anarchy they’ve inspired.”

My mother stood with her back to us. She was facing Phil as they whispered in hushed tones. But the tension and fear in their auras was palpable. Mom fisted his shirt in her hand and tugged. “You make sure you get the boys back. And when you do, you tell them that I love them very much.”

Phillip’s eyes grew sad. “You’ll tell them yourself.”

She shook her head. “If we don’t come back, you make sure you tell them.”

“We will.” Victoria stepped in closer to them. “I swear we will tell them and make sure they’re okay.”

My mother nodded at the two of them, then gave Phillip a kiss. She placed her hand on the back of his neck and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his head. “I love you, always.”

“Me too.”

Victoria placed her hand on my mother’s back. “You will come home.”

“And when we do, we’ll go get Tallulah.” I drew Victoria’s attention to me. I lifted my chin. “And if we don’t, you’ll make sure she’s okay?”

She gave me a reassuring smile. “Of course.”

“Swear it.” If I wasn’t going to be around, I needed to know my best friend would be taken care of. Not that I didn’t know her own mother would go to the end of the world for her. I just panicked a little at the idea that I might not be able to play a part in that.

“I swear.” Vic smiled but her eyes glistened. “Just bring your ass back so I don’t have to?—”

“I know. We’re coming back.” I cleared my throat. “We are all coming back.”

My mother looked at them both one last time, then turned to face me with eyes as cold as steel.

Maren smiled at Savina and took her wife’s hand in both of hers. “We’ve been through worse than this.” Maren tried to go for lighthearted, but her eyes held all the worry in the world.

“Yes, we have.” Savina let out a deep breath and pulled her in for a hug, holding her there for a moment.

Maren pressed her face into Savina’s neck. “Just be careful. We’ve spent enough time apart. Don’t make me bury you again?—”

“I won’t. I’ll be back. Just have to kill one more wicked Royal. Been there, done that.” She let go of Maren and gave her a quick kiss. “Keep an eye on our people and I’ll return soon.”

I loved her confidence. She didn’t waver for one moment in our mission. In her mind, she’d be home and we would win. I wanted to have that feeling, but deep in the pit of my stomach I was terrified for us all. The idea that Second Realm could suffer if their beloved Queen died for us . . .

But I knew why the mages were so hell-bent on helping us. Tephine had inflicted her pain on anyone she could at one point or another. If we lost to her, she would spread her reign to the other realms. This needed to end now.

“Bash, we’re rea?—”

“Before you leave.” We all gasped and spun around to find Araqiel standing there. He held his hand out toward me. “I figured you’d want this back.”

In the middle of his palm Bart pranced around in a circle. My little shape-shifting moldavite friend was back and looking better than ever. The lights above reflected off his smooth green exterior. I held my hand out and he leapt from Araqiel to me in a moment. I ran the tip of my finger over his head. He always reminded me of a bull-moose mix.

“Hey buddy, you ready for this?” In answer he ran up my arm and perched himself on my shoulder. I turned my attention back to Araqiel. “Thank you for taking care of him.”

“Hard to resist petting a bull made of the no-no stone.” He winked at me, then glanced around at the rest of us. “You all ready?”

I nodded. “Just one more moment and we will be. Bash, give us some privacy please?”

He opened his hand and black smoke seeped from his palms and surrounded us. It was only us now. Phillip, Maren, and Victoria were outside our dome of privacy.

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. “Mom, you have that thing I gave you?”

“Right here.” She held up the decoy Chaos Stone I’d made, then slipped it back into her bra.

I pulled out my vial of the Freaky Friday potion and held it up. “Are we ready for this?”

Bash, Jada, and my mother held their vials up and we all downed them at the same time. My mother shifted into me and I into her. It was odd looking at myself looking back at me. Bash transformed into Jada next to me and she into him. When I turned to him, I was eye to eye with Jada. A giggle burst from my lips, and I pressed my hand over my mouth.

“Sorry, you’re just so petite.”

Jada-Bash smiled. “And you’re so your mom.”

“We’re ready,” my mother said in my own voice.

Araqiel looked at each of us with grave eyes. “Good luck to you all.”

I turned back to Araqiel. It wasn’t my place to order him around but this was too import “Once we go in there, lock it down. If we lose, let the realm destroy itself. If we lose, the civilians there will be dead anyway. Tephine must not get to the rest of the world.”

He nodded. “I give you my word. It will either open for you or not open at all.”

“Sever the dead limb,” Bash added.

“Ellie, gear us up.”

She nodded and opened her hands, letting her purple magic flow over us all. In seconds, we were all covered in legit winter clothes. We were all wearing the same thing now: military-style camouflage. But not the green or brown kind. We all were rocking the white and gray combination to blend into the snowy landscape.

I shoved my hands in the cargo pockets on my thighs and grinned. “Pockets!”

She smirked. “Yeah, don’t leave home without them.”

We also had white fur-lined turtlenecks on, which I was thankful for. Jada, who now looked like Bash, held her arms out and looked them up and down. She couldn’t yet speak but the look on her face was exasperation. She was the only one with an extra layer on, but Bash not having his signature fur coat on felt wrong somehow.

Ellie motioned to us. “Everything is thin so you should all be able to move easily. But I made sure they’re magically enforced to combat the cold temperatures.”

Bash shrugged. “I don’t think it’s as cold as you all make it out to be.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, it is.”

Everyone else groaned at him. Even Jada gave him the side-eye.

“Everyone ready?” My mother, who now looked like me, turned toward the portal. “We all know the plan? Everyone check your pockets and make sure you have the reversal potion.”

“Bart, you better get in my pocket. If Tephine sees you with me, it’ll be a dead giveaway I’m not my mom.” When I held my pocket open for him, he leapt off my shoulder and did a swan dive right inside. He poked his head out and looked up at me. I smiled. “Once we get inside, you have to hide until I say, okay?”

He ducked down out of sight, but I felt him snuggling in. Having him with me made me feel better, more confident. Especially since I no longer had wings.

They all checked their pockets and nodded. I reached into my own pocket and handed them each a single pouch of stones. “I made these for each of us. There are stones for strength, to help keep your powers going even when you’re tried. And of course some for protection of all kinds. Even psychological or psychic attacks. It’s a happy little crystal cocktail just to help us all. I gave it these cords so you can tie it around your body and keep it under your clothing so it can’t be ripped off.”

They each took one and we turned around giving each other a moment to get our pouches secure.

When all was in place and I double-checked the staffs were still strapped in the quiver on Bash’s back, I gave my mom a nod. I wasn’t ready, but I had to be. “Ready.”

She placed her hand on the portal and bright light shined as it opened before us. Snow flew through the doors and scattered across the floor. Wind blew the hair back from my face and I hunched over as I stepped through the portal into the snowy landscape. My mother was only slightly taller than me, so the snow didn’t come up quite as high as it did last time on my legs, but it was still deep and each step felt like a trudge.

The snow came down in steady sheets but there was only slightly more visibility. In the distance I could make out the castle with more smoke billowing from it. A bomb exploded and a pillar of orange fire lit up the sky.

Stellan whistled under his breath. “I see my cousins have remained hard at work.”

As we got closer, I realized the fae of the realm swarmed around the castle like killer bees attacking. Weston and Shylock had indeed kept the fight going in our absence. Suddenly a sparkling light came from the side of the castle and zoomed toward us. We all froze waiting for whatever was coming at us. Tephine stopped just close enough to see but far enough away that we’d have to hurry to get to her. She hovered in the sky, her wings holding her above us all. She narrowed her eyes at my mother, thinking it was me.

My mother raised her eyebrows at Tephine as she tossed Venus’s rose quartz stone up in the air and caught it. Granted, it wasn’t the real one, I had that, but Tephine was unaware of this. Mom met Tephine’s eye, and with all the attitude she could muster, she smirked at her. “And then there was one.”

Tephine threw her head back, letting out an ear-splitting screech. Power shot from both her hands out toward the sides of the castle. It flashed a bright white light and suddenly took the form of blue lightning bolts.

“What the devil is that?” Stellan hissed under his breath.

It looked like she was going to tear this world apart from the inside out. Two large holes in the sky opened up on either side of the castle. They looked like rips in the very world we stood in, pulsating with electricity and lightning. I glanced as Bash and all he could do was stare up at her with wide-eyed terror.

“Ba -abe, what the fuck is this?” I didn’t want to say his name in case she could hear us.

“I-I don’t know,” he said with Jada’s voice.

The lightning expanded into oval shapes and things started to jump out of them. Not things, some kind of humanoid species I’d never seen before. They were huge, towering over the fae of Third Realm. Their skin ranged from the palest to darkest blues. Their hair was eerily pale. When they leapt through the rift, I sucked in a sharp breath. They were all muscular and adorned with weapons of all shapes and sizes. It was like watching ants march over a picnic.

They were huge with axes, swords, bows, and arrows of all shapes and sizes. They didn’t look like they were made of normal metal. Instead, they were carved from thick rocks or chunks of ice. Slightly primitive but hugely dangerous. These things, whatever they were, were made for war and battle. For bloodshed. Their battle cries rose above the sound of the churning storm. They walked out into the blizzard as though the cold held no effect, even though they wore less clothing than most of the fae.

The fae around the castle fell back into the forest and away from whatever the hell this was.

I grabbed on to Bash’s arm and squeezed. We were so screwed. So, so screwed. “Fuck.”

Stellan’s jaw dropped. “Where the hell did she get a bloody army from?”