“Step out of the wheel,” Ignatius said, standing behind me with the Elven mages. “We’ll uncover the entire casting.”
We all stepped outside the circle, and the elves quickly removed the dirt. As I surmised, the glyph filled the entire medicine wheel. “This isn’t something he could’ve drawn in a day, or a week, or maybe not even in a year.”
“The symbols match the one at Utrecht that nearly killed Bart,” Jan said. “Only this one is much larger.”
“The glyph itself is no more powerful than the one on campus,” Darius added. “The size of the wheel, however, makes this one infinitely stronger.”
“Blackstone clearly hopes to capture a demon prince,” Eldwin said. “If the medicine wheel were fully powered, even the mightiest prince wouldn’t be able to escape.”
“These stones contain no energy,” an elven mage said. “The runes are strong, but without more, they won’t be strong enough to hold a prince of hell.”
The work that went into creating one of these was mind-blowing, but Blackstone or one of his ancestors built multiple medicine wheels on tribal lands. Finding the right one before it’s too late might be impossible.
“He’s mad,” Jan said, still studying the exposed glyph. “He thinks he can capture and control a demon prince to kill Ailpein.”
I shook my head, tired of trying to outguess Blackstone. “That isn’t right. He doesn’t need a demon prince just to kill Ailpein.”
“And these runes won’t help kill the demon,” Darius said. “He means to keep it alive.”
“Why?” Jan asked. “It’s not like he can make it do stuff outside the circle.”
“That’s not his game.” Avie touched a symbol before standing. “If he’s able to kill Ailpein, Blackstone will bring down the ward. He’ll likely also generate a great deal of excess energy.”
“Energy he can use to power a medicine wheel,” Ignatius said. “With the Ward down, demons would pour into our world. Control the prince, control the underlings.”
Blackstone would be unstoppable if he controlled a demon prince. “Exactly.” I stood, brushing dirt from my hands. “He’ll be the most powerful mage left and also control the demons who remain after the fight.”
“We need to report this and get back to the mage council,” Avie said.
I let Avie give the report and continued to study the ground. Blackstone might have more of these circles, but that didn’t mean we had to leave him this one. “We need to erase this,” I said, pointing to the runes. “Given the amount of work that went into making this glyph, removing key sections should make this wheel useless to him.”
“We can handle that part.” Eldwin pointed to Ignatius, Darius, and the Elven mages. “As you said, removing several sections is as good as erasing it entirely. He won’t have time to repair this one before it’s time to act.”
Nothing seemed impossible to Blackstone, but there were other wheels still intact. It wouldn’t be safe for him to expose himself to redraw the symbols. And with six mages working on the project, it wouldn’t take long to disable the wheel. “Thank you.”
At the edge of the clearing, Elspeth and Lysandor stood watch over Owen. Cinaed’s sister reminded me of how long it had been since I spoke to my mate. The familiar ache in my chest I got when I thought of him intensified.
I’d been able to feel enough of his emotions to know he wasn’t hurt, but I needed more. My fingers closed around my stone and I reached for our connection. Before I called him, I released my walls. I didn’t want him to panic when I made contact.
“Cinaed?”
He’d followed my example and lowered his walls before answering. Concern flooded through our link, mixed with anger and weariness.“Rod!”he said, relief in his voice.“I didn’t want to disturb you.”
We’d shut each other out, but that wasn’t how mates should act toward each other.“I know. I did the same thing.”
“Let’s never do that again,”he said, and I could feel his smile.
The hollow space in my chest felt less empty with his presence there.“Agreed. I have so much to tell you.”
“Same,”he replied.
We tried to speak at once, and our thoughts collided.“You first,”I said. “You’re older.”
“That’s not a precedent you want to set.”We laughed and it felt good.“But since you insist, I’ll go first.”
Chapter Fourteen
Cinaed:
