Chapter 12

The night was thick and heady, draped over the Nexus Pack like a blanket, only pierced by the silver sheen of the moon high above. Electricity crackled between our group as we moved outside of the house to have more space for the portal to materialize.

We had decided to cross over near the Briar Stronghold, a place where we could easily stock up on weapons and supplies for what we were about to do. We would access the city via the tunnel system Finn had created.

The pagu would fly us to the entrance, and from there, we would proceed on foot. The pagu would wait outside the tunnels for us, ready to pick us up once we got there. We would also be picking up an earth fae whose specialty would help us break into the prison from underneath. So far, the plan seemed solid.

Oliver nodded to me as we stood gathered in the open air, and I took my stance, spreading out my hands as he had shown me. He stayed close, his voice steady as he instructed me on creating a portal. Turns out, I was much better at portalling than I had been at commanding lightning.

"Remember your concentration, Rowan. Picture your destination in your mind, remember how it felt to be there. As you focus, you should feel the energy. Channel it to your hands."

My magic responded as if it heard him, a tingling sensation starting in the palms of my hands as a lightness entered my head, like the first-morning breath on a snow-blanketed morning. I guided it, picturing the Stronghold clearly in my mind, a small smile escaping me as my palms heated further. My eyes opened to see a portal taking shape before me, slower than Oliver"s but still opening.

Nia paced back and forth near me, her blue hair whipping over her shoulder as she quickly pivoted in each direction, her energy purposeful. Finn watched her, a serious set to his jaw as he waited for his transport back home. Finally, the portal stabilized, a clear vision into the mountainous terrain of the Briar Stronghold. It wasn"t nearly as dark on the other side, everything bathed in the ethereal azure glow from the faerie moonlight.

"Excellent, Rowan. Now just hold it open." He ushered the group through the portal one by one, sweat starting to bead on my brow with the effort of holding the passageway open. Finally, he jumped through, and I followed quickly, knowing from experience that I only had a few seconds before the portal would close without my active interference.

With a soft thump, I stepped into the faerie realm with my friends.

The stark contrast of the strange place enveloped me immediately, a sense of familiarity worming its way into my heart. Two imposing figures descended from the sky, their powerful wings stirring up the earth as the pagu landed in front of us, or a cheagle, as I"d once lovingly called them. Their feathers shimmered under the moonlight, crimson eyes glinting.

‘Hello, little ones,'Aura touched into our minds, Callan snorting at the word choice. My eyes landed on Nia, who had locked eyes with Aura with a seriousness that told me she was having a private conversation with her bonded pagu.

‘Took you long enough,'Varus told me as he fell in next to me, the group trailing behind Nia and Aura as they led us through their home. ‘We detected a power surge not too long ago. Far. We almost thought it was you guys.' The confirmation hardened my resolve. We were in the right place, which meant we were one step closer to getting Lily back.

"We must hurry," Nia said flatly. "We don"t know what they could be doing with Lily right now."

"We"ll get her back," I told her confidently, feeling the rightness of the words in my soul. "They won"t kill her, not until Tantaii has the ring. She"s not that stupid." Finn snorted from where he stood nearby but said nothing. We"d have all the time in the world to debate her intelligence after this was all over.

"How far is the prison from here? Can"t we just portal there?"

"We can"t," Oliver said, arms crossed over his chest, one hand twirling the end of his shaggy silver beard. "She"s more than certain to be tracking energies. She"ll already know we"ve arrived here. The only advantage we have right now is that she doesn"t know which way we"ll attack from."

"It won"t take nearly as long as it took us last time. The flight to the best tunnel access point is about a week, but we can make it in two if we don"t stop flying," Finn said grimly, suddenly much more in his element than most of us. "It"s important we go into the right tunnel sector, or else we"ll have to spend much more time making a new pathway."

No one knew the royal fae city quite as well as Finn did. A pang went through me at the thought. I wished beyond belief I had the memories of my other life right now. Five hundred years of memories, all gone in the blink of an instant when Olette had made that choice. The strangest thing to say, but I harbored a resentment I couldn"t shake.

A resentment for myself.

"We will do it," Aura agreed, her voice booming in our heads. "If Nia can help us with her magic, then we can keep flying."

"You can do that?" I questioned Nia, my jaw dropping. Forty-eight hours of constant flying was impossible. They"d be ready to collapse after ten.

"Not forever, but I can keep them going for a few days." Her voice rang in the open air, confident and assuring. "But I will need to rest when we get there. Doing this will drain me greatly, and I need to be strong when we get Lily."

"My earth royal should be here any second," Finn said, his eagle-eyed gaze scanning the horizon as if he could conjure him with his words. "Let"s get prepped in the meantime."

We wasted no time, filling one travel pack each with necessary supplies, doing our best to keep them as light as possible to make Nia"s job easier. I painstakingly selected a new dagger, missing the one Callan had made for me greatly.

"How are you holding up?" I asked Varus, once I had everything ready to go and stood next to the pagu who was just lounging, waiting for the journey to get started. I had no doubt Varus was lonely, having lost his mate the last time we'd journeyed together through the faerie realm. He'd spent some time with me at the Clover pack, but it never felt like home to him and he'd gone back to faerie soon after.

‘Same shit, different realm,'he said into my mind, and I laughed loudly, the rest of the group looking at me like I was a crazy person. ‘Finn taught me that word. Said he learned it from Wolfe.'

"You shouldn't take vocabulary lessons from those two," I admonished. Varus nudged my side affectionately, a feat considering how big he was.

It wasn"t long before Finn"s friend arrived, a lanky Earth Royal with wavy brown hair that stretched past his shoulders, the only sign of his age being the scruffy goatee that decorated his face.

"Pleasure to meet you," he greeted me sagely, his voice soft and melodious. "Eldrin Fensrith, at your service. It is my absolute delight to help you get your friend back." I searched his face for sarcasm but was met with only firm determination, a fire steadily burning behind his hazel eyes.

What surprised me even more was that he arrived on a pagu, a beautifully sleek bird with gleaming red eyes.

"Verdan,"a musically lilting voice spoke, bowing her head delicately in greeting. Pagus more or less looked the same to me, besides varying size differences, but even I could tell Verdan was stunning.

"Another pagu rider?" I asked.

Nia gave Eldrin a pat on his shoulder as she moved past him, busily making sure the saddles were ready to go.

"I spend most of my time away from Briar," Eldrin told me as he handed his pack to Finn, who was working on adding a saddle to Verdan"s back. Eldrin had been riding her bare. "But I will jump at any excuse to mess with Tantaii. Even in her absence, her tyranny has reigned."

"Hopefully we don"t even have to see her. We"ll just break in, get Lily, and get out," Oliver"s low voice intruded as he and Callan moved near us. Callan assessed Eldrin, taking in every detail of the man as he came to my side protectively. I rolled my eyes at him, making sure he could feel it through the bond. I stepped forward a half-step, just enough to be slightly in front of Callan and out of his alpha-hole orbit.

"If she shows, I"ll have to kill her," I told him, the weight of the ring pressing against my chest. "You"re not ready for that," Oliver said, his voice patient. "We aren"t ready for that. She will have an army of guards and royals around her. We won"t be able to even get close to her without a lot of backup, and that takes time."

"We"ve already sent feelers to all the riders I can spare," Nia said as she moved to sit in the saddle on Aura"s back.

"And I"ve sent out to all the royals and particularly inclined Fae I could find, and they will be ready for us when we need them. But they need time to gather. If this mission goes sideways . . ." Finn trailed off, the warning clear in his voice.

"I don"t care," Nia and I gritted out at the same time, our eyes meeting in tense understanding. We were both clouded by our love for Lily, and we didn"t care about the risks we were taking. My mind trailed back to my time imprisoned by Roxy and Lexi, and I shivered slightly. They could be torturing Lily right now, cutting her again and again, and cackling while they did it. Lexi is dead, I reminded myself.

But that didn"t mean they weren"t still hurting Lily.