8. Eight

Eight

Em waited for me outside my room as Cyrus, Ari and I returned. She jumped into my arms, and I hugged her tightly. As much as it pained me to admit, Cyrus was right. Teleporting was dangerous with the Aether depleted of mana, and I couldn’t risk losing Em.

Cyrus and Ari went ahead, slipping inside my room, and leaving Em and I alone in the hallway.

“The guys told me you were leaving,” Em said, her voice muffled as I squeezed the life out of her. “I hate being apart.”

“I’ll do everything I can to restore the Aether as quickly as possible. We’ll be back before you know it.” I raised an eyebrow as we broke apart. “What are you wearing?”

Em smoothed the gray robe that hung from her small frame. “I’m headed to Izik while you’re gone.” A blush crept into her cheeks. “Ivar invited me a couple of months ago, but I refused until now.”

“Be careful, okay?” I ruffled her hair. “Those mages are crazy.”

Em batted my hands away. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a tower of nerds.”

“Yeah, well, the last time I was there those nerds fought sea monsters and hordes of juiced up undead.”

“I’ll be more worried about you. I’m not the one teleporting to Earth to battle corrupt hunters.” Em held out her hand. “Let’s make a pact. When I’ve completed my studies and you’re done saving the world, I’ll beat you at a game of pool at the Dungeon.”

I shook her hand and pulled her in for another brief hug.

“No summoning demons while I’m away!” I called after her as she walked away.

Her gray robe dragged on the ground. Someone would have to hem that death trap for her, or she’d be in danger of tripping down those endless tower stairs before she even got a chance to summon a demon.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. My men were gathered in my room. Even Shael was dressed and had a packed bag slung over his shoulder.

Cyrus pulled a pen from his peacoat pocket and began drafting a rune. He’d flung the sheet off when we’d reached the safety of the palace gardens, leaving a particularly spooky topiary by the gate.

Quillon stood by the bed, a bag at his feet, and no mask on his face. I walked over to him and crossed my arms. “What are you doing here?”

He arched a perfect eyebrow. “This is my palace.”

“’Why are you here—” I gestured to the gathered men waiting for Cyrus to finish the teleportation rune “—with a packed bag and no mask on?”

“Oh,” Quillon said. “Wearing a mask is apparently seen as strange on Earth. I want to at least try and blend in with the locals.”

I looked him up and down, taking in his sharp, embroidered Daevasi suit, pocket watch, and devilish good looks. “Yeah, I don’t think you’d really blend in anywhere.” I leaned in and whisper-yelled, “You’re coming to Earth with us? Why didn’t you tell me last night?”

Quillon ducked his head beside mine. “Now what would be the fun in that, love?” His lips brushed my sensitive ear. “I couldn’t say no to a little farewell sex. I daresay it’s better than make-up sex.”

“You’re diabolical.”

Quillon grinned. “You love it.”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t deny it. “What about Qaanir?”

He shrugged. “My clerics will do just fine without me for a while.”

The kingdom had pretty much been running itself since we’d gotten things back on track. Ivar’s mages had been handling some of the rougher parts of the transition from slaves to free people, and Evelda and Rorick had been surprisingly cooperative despite the growing pains.

“I don’t need to be here.” Quillon captured my hands and pulled me into his chest. “I need to be by your side.”

Cyrus clicked his pen and looked up at me. “The rune’s ready.”

“Right.” I nodded and slipped out of Quillon’s arms. “I’ll head to the Aether and keep the wells open as long as I can.”

Cyrus gave me one last look before I pressed my fingers to my teleportation rune and pushed magic into the lines.

I emerged in the courtyard of the Aether at the center of the four wells. Dust still hung in the air, like the tower had just fallen. The Aether ripped at my mana, draining it from the tiniest cracks in my barriers.

We wouldn’t have much time.

I took a deep breath and lifted my palms, one pointed at the Draqaar, the other at Earth. Mana burst from my hands like lightning, and the wells flared to life, flooding the gloomy courtyard with brilliant white light.

A small, shimmering orb emerged from the Draqaar well. It shot across the courtyard until it reached the Earth well. It whirled around, as though it were caught in a tornado as it descended into the bright depths and disappeared.

Huh. Is that what happened when we teleported? That would explain why it always made me feel sick.

Three more orbs followed, whizzing by my face and catching my hair. But my power was waning. My palms burned, alight with searing power. My veins were turning a dull gray.

Just a little longer.

Finally, the fifth orb flitted through the air.

He sure was taking his time. I bet it was Skye. Somehow, he could control the speed of his teleport just to mess with me.

I closed my hand into a fist, cutting off the flow to the Draqaar well. My feet dragged over the stone as I stumbled to the Earth well. It flickered, but I pushed one last drop of power into it as the last orb disappeared into its dimming light.

I vaulted over the wall as it went dark.

We emerged in Haven where the Silver District and Driftwood District met. I stepped from the Aether, catching my balance as Shael’s arms slipped around me. Cyrus crashed into the concrete. I winced as he climbed to his feet and brushed dirt and oil off his usually pristine clothing.

I’d never seen him fall out of the Aether like that. It must have been a rough ride through the well.

“Thanks,” I muttered. After teleporting so much lately, I’d gotten better at not falling on my face or losing my lunch, but my knees wobbled. Powering the wells had taken more than I’d expected.

“I’ll always catch you, Enchantress.”

Cyrus reeled on me. “I almost didn’t make it through the Aether.” He ran a hand through his light blond hair, smudging it with dirt and messing up his perfect styling. “We aren’t teleporting again until the wells are restored.”

I shrugged. “We all made it.”

Cyrus’s broad chest heaved. “I could have died.”

“Don’t be dramatic.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re bennu. You wouldn’t have died, you just would have been stuck in a never-ending void for all eternity.”

I smiled and took in my surroundings as Cyrus quietly seethed. There was a clear line between the Driftwood and Silver Districts as the buildings turned from wood to brick and iron, and the greenery abruptly disappeared. The elementals and druids loved their nature. After all, nature was their magic.

A few elementals in the nearby park had taken notice of our arrival and the awareness was spreading through the people walking the cool morning streets.

“What are they looking at?” Shael’s arms tightened around me.

A muscle popped in Cyrus’s jaw as he watched people stop mid-stride and speed in the other direction. “The Enchanter.”

My skin itched under their stares. The Enchanter was a hunter, and she had an Aegis entourage. It wasn’t hard to put it together.

“Em and Donald warned me about this,” I said. “Apparently my identity was met with a ... mixed response in Haven.”

“Who are they?” Quillon nodded to a pair of druids standing across the street. Apparently, their parents hadn’t told them that staring was rude. They had marks that looked like a tilted half-moon surrounded by winding lines on the sides of their necks.

“I recognize that mark ...” Shael said, his voice low, almost a growl. He glanced at his brother.

Skye’s hands were balled into fists at his side. “The inverted mark of the Wolf Ancient. The mark of the Heretic.”

“Sabrina mentioned the Heretic’s followers were desecrating shrines here.” My gaze snapped to Skye. “Why have I heard that name before?”

“He led the massacre at the Northern Temple on Porada.”

“I’ve never seen his mark on Earth before.” Felix scratched his head. “What do you think it means?”

“If his influence has spread to Earth, he’s more powerful than ever.” Cyrus grabbed me by the arm, dragging me in the other direction, into the Silver District. “Now, take me to the hunter.”

I let Cyrus pull me down the sidewalk. He needed a win. And I had no hope of pulling out of his firm grip. “Fine. But this kid’s been through a lot. Promise to be nice.”

Cyrus wrinkled his nose. “I am nice.”

I raised an eyebrow, pointedly staring at his hand wrapped tightly around my arm.

He shrugged. “You haven’t seen my bad side. Yet.”

I almost tripped over my own feet. I’d seen Cyrus get super scary. I’d even seen him glowing with light while he hacked off three heads in one swing. If that was his good side, I didn’t want to see his bad side.

I did trip over my own feet when I caught my name, in big, blocky letters, on a piece of paper taped to a lamppost. I yanked on Cyrus and my arm in the process.

“Donald was right,” I whispered as dark mana swelled in my blood. I hugged myself, willing away the corruption’s chill. Shael caught up and wrapped his arms around me, but even his supernatural heat wasn’t enough to warm the bone-deep cold.

“‘The Enchanter will fail you like your Ancients,” Felix read. He whistled. “The Heretic has never been known for his subtlety.”

The posters were everywhere. Pasted to windows, stapled to benches and littering the sidewalk. Either I somehow hadn’t noticed them when I’d brought Zach through the Silver District, or the Heretic’s followers were stepping up their game.

The Ancients have abandoned us.

The Aegis has failed us.

We must save ourselves.

The reckoning is coming.

Join us.

There was a picture of me in my black enchanter gear. Traitor. Liar.

Skye ripped the paper off the lamppost and crumpled it in his hands. “He’s gathering followers here. Have elementals and druids already forgotten what the Heretic did to our people?”

A storm swirled in Skye’s teal eyes.

The ground trembled beneath my boots as a real storm gathered above us. Thick, dark clouds blocked the sun.

“Guys?” I looked over my shoulder at Shael for help, but his eyes were burning embers. The twins’ elemental mana gathered around us, twisting into a multicolored tornado.

“Cut it out or I’ll have the Enchanter drain your mana,” Cyrus commanded. His deep voice cut through the static in my ears. But their mana still saturated the air. “We will deal with this later. I promise. But the safety of the Aether takes priority.”

My ears popped as the pressure dropped, and the twins’ mana slowly retreated.

“Well, love,” Quillon strolled down the sidewalk, gazing at the posters, “you certainly have a talent for making powerful enemies.”

I started walking again, pushing my weak legs to go faster. I just wanted to get to the Dungeon. My skin itched. People were staring. “Why couldn’t I have a talent that made my life simpler ?”

“Can you imagine Arsyn being an amazing cellist?” Felix laughed as they caught up with me. I was fast, but they were all way too tall.

Shael bumped my shoulder with his. “I bet she could find a way to do some damage with that bow.”

I snorted as we reached the Dungeon. It was early in the day, so there was no line and no bouncer, but the Dungeon rarely closed. I doubted Sabrina ever slept.

We filed through the heavy front door and made our way to the back and Sabrina’s secret door. A heavy glamour obscured it, making it appear as a wall to anyone that couldn’t see through it. Quillon smiled smugly as he opened it for me.

The door to Sabrina’s office was open, and Sabrina stood behind her desk. A map of Earth was stretched over the polished surface of the dark wood.

“There you are.” Sabrina tapped a painted red fingernail on the map. Circles covered the land. Hunter compounds. Many of them had a red X through them.

Cyrus herded me into the small room as the others packed in behind him. Cyrus frowned at the map. “You’ve been busy.”

“I don’t think I’ve taken a full breath since you dropped off that letter for Arsyn a year ago.” Sabrina sighed. “My spies are spread thin, but they bring troubling news.”

“What are the X’s for?” I asked. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like the answer.

Sabrina pressed her lips into a fine line. “Empty compounds.”

“So many,” I whispered. Goosebumps covered my skin as chills racked my body. The compound I’d visited in Italy when I was eight for my cousin’s wedding was gone. Zach’s compound. My mother’s family’s compound. Every compound in Canada. Gone.

My chest tightened as I glanced at the Morgan compound. It was still a circle. They were still okay. My shoulders sagged.

“What’s that for?” I pointed to the black pin stuck in the Luna compound in Arizona.

Sabrina sat in her high-back chair and crossed her legs. “A young male hunter was seen entering and leaving the compound when my spy was there yesterday morning.”

“Sebastian?”

She tapped her manicured nails on the map. “His arrival seemed to cause quite the stir.”

My muscles filled with blood and mana. We needed to go. If Sebastian was there yesterday morning ...

He might have already returned.

“That’s what happened to Zach’s compound.” I waved my hands through the air with every word. Why weren’t the guys moving? They just stared at me with pity on their faces. “We have to go now.”

Cyrus laid a hand on my shoulder. “You said his dark hunters came that night after visiting Zach’s compound. They likely already came last night.”

They’d already given up.

“It’s not over yet.” I shook off his hand. “Sebastian could still be there. There could be survivors.”

“All right.” Cyrus held up his palms like I was about to explode. “We have a cache of weapons in our old apartment. We can’t teleport, but we can drive.”

I gripped the blades on my hips to stop my hands’ trembling. “It’s a ten-hour drive. We won’t make it.”

I had to get there now—I had to teleport—I had to …

The shadows shifted beside me, and Ari’s cloaked form emerged in Sabrina’s already cramped office. She glared at him from behind her desk. She didn’t like it when someone could bypass her wards, and that was the Wraith’s whole thing.

Ari’s burning lilac eyes found me. “It’s too late.”

“No.” The air rushed out of my lungs like I’d been hit in the stomach.

Sabrina clicked her pen and crossed out the Luna compound.

“Did you look for survivors?” My voice sounded strange to my ears. Cold. Distant. Like I was drowning in the sea.

Ari shook his head.

My knuckles whitened on my dagger hilts. “I’m going.”

Cyrus grasped my wrist, covering my teleportation rune as I began channeling mana into it.

“I have to see if anyone survived.” I’d meant to sound strong, but instead it came out as a plea.

“I’m not stopping you, Enchanter. I understand. But I’m not letting you go alone.” He nodded to Ari, and Cyrus’s warm, golden magic enveloped me. It flooded my veins and filled my rune.

I dropped into the courtyard and wasted no time in empowering and jumping back into the Earth well. But this time, I resisted the pull to Haven to return to my guys and instead focused on the memory of the dusty compound in the desert as I fell through the twisting mana.

I hadn’t been there since I was a child. Since my father visited the Luna Patriarch and made him kneel to the Morgans.

I stumbled as my boots landed on packed sand, but I caught myself before I got a face-full of a prickly bush. Ari stood at my side, watching me.

The desert was quiet. A cold wind battered me, but my dark mana still boiled my blood. I wiped the sweat from my brow with my sleeve.

I’d always thought the Lunas compound looked like a castle, but now it was in ruins. I approached a hole in the sandstone wall and climbed over the rubble. Silver mana hung low in the air like an iridescent fog. They hadn’t been gone long.

I wandered closer to a small adobe house. The door hung open, off its hinges. The splintered remains of a dining table were embedded in the walls and ceiling. I knelt next to the discarded table leg and ran my finger over the pointed tip. It came away covered in thick, black liquid.

The Lunas had certainly put up a fight.

Silver blood painted the courtyard and soaked into the coarse sand, but no souls bobbed in the clouds of mana.

Sebastian and his dark hunters had been here, but as far as I could tell, they hadn’t killed the Lunas.

They’d taken them.