Chuckling, I fell into the seat beside Jezebel and pulled the book I’d been leafing through earlier toward me, toying with the cover. “Now you’re fed and comfortable, so tell us everything.”
Tolek tossed me a towel to finish drying my hair, then joined us at the table as Santorina pulled out a chair beside me.
“The human training camps are going…wonderfully,” Rina said with a hint of what almost sounded like disbelief. “Ezalia took us to each of the key cities where Leo established contact. One is even nearing one hundred participants now.” The chancellor had introduced us to her brother back in Brontain when we were hunting for Gaveny’s emblem, and he’d been instrumental in Santorina’s progress so far.
“And we stopped in the largest human town in Mystique Territory,” Erista chimed in as Jezebel nodded with eager, wide eyes, cheeks stuffed. Half of the food was already gone.
“The soldiers Lyria sent are doing well, then?” Tolek asked as he poured glasses of wine.
“Phenomenally,” Erista said, taking one from him.
Jezebel swallowed her mouthful. “Three of her lieutenants have spread throughout the territory, but this one, south of Caprecion, was up to ninety-two humans training to fight as warriors.”
“Excellent.” Tolek grinned, and I thought there was a bit of pride for his sister’s soldiers’ aid.
Our weeks here had been a facade of peace, but with the fae coming to Gallantia, it was more imperative than ever that we were prepared—and that meant everyone.
Despite the fact that the queen’s court was to be contained to a plot of land off the coast, I didn’t trust them. We’d told city leaders throughout the territories to be on alert.
Because the fae were coming to Gallantia, and their bloody history preceded them.
“What’s happened here?” Santorina asked.
I summoned a bud of Angellight in response. It slipped around my hand, dancing up my arm. Then, I twirled it about the room, mingling with the lace curtains behind us and frolicking over the mystlight stove.
“You have better control!” Rina gushed between bites of fruit.
“Yes, and she terrorizes me with it,” Tolek mockingly complained with a shake of his head. In answer, I sent the Angellight to weave through his hair, swaying and lifting the brown locks.
“I’m only trying to understand what it does,” I said sweetly, calling the light back to my hand. Beside me, Jezebel watched it curiously, a crease between her brows.
“Didn’t you learn what it does when you two went to that other realm?” Erista asked. Wrapping her arm around my sister,the Soulguider gently dragged her fingertips over her shoulder and Jez melted against her.
“The Spirit Realm,” I corrected. We guessed that was where we’d been during the battle. “And we didn’t learn much,” I added glumly. Angellight slowed its dance around my wrist as if in thought. “But we were rather distracted.”
“Yes, swallowing an unclassified vial of magic, traveling to a new realm because of it, and using your miraculous Angel power to blast a threat on this realm to smithereensisrather distracting,” Tolek mocked.
“I’m glad you understand,” I said seriously, but I sent that lingering thread of Angellight to twine around his head and flick him in the ear.
As we picked at snacks, everyone discussed tomorrow’s plans. Santorina was venturing to nearby cliffs to assess the flora growing there. Apparently being in a different territory meant a whole host of new ingredients for her healing practice. She was already writing to our Bodymelder friends about it.
Jezebel and Erista had no agenda beyond lounging on one of the white sand beaches with a stack of books that could pertain to Jezzie’s spirit-speaking power. We hadn’t figured out why she was able to hear those on the verge of death or how she’d been able to control departing spirits in their final moments. But my sister had her cycle this week and swore she needed to rest to accommodate it, despite the tonic Rina gave us that made them less severe the few times a year we suffered them.
Beneath the table, Tolek ran a foot up my calf, silently calling my attention. He sat back in his chair, arms folded and a brow quirked as if to ask,What would you like to do?
With the way desire shot through his eyes—and my body—I had many ideas of what I’d like to do, but none fell under the order of remainingvisibleto any spying fae. Unless we truly gave them a show?—
“Morbid reading choice,” Jezebel interrupted the thought, nearly choking on her wine as she picked up the book beside me and flipped to the page I’d marked. At the title heading the excerpt in looping letters, any heat Tolek had ignited promptly dissipated.
“An Angel’s Fall to Magic?” Erista read, tilting her head with more innocent curiosity than the rest of the table who all appeared various levels of concerned.
The mood sobered, and I leaned back against the bench, picking up my routine with the Angellight. “We still have to find the Soulguider and Starsearcher emblems, and while we now have a better grasp onwherewe should be looking”—the three we’d found were in sites sacred to the Angels, though that left many possibilities—“we don’t know what they’re for. I can’t stop thinking about when Kakias died.”
A chill swept across the room, but Tolek said, “Because when Bant’s Spirit was released from Kakias’s body, it meant something.” He didn’t add any qualifiers to the sentence. Noyou thoughtorit might have. I’d told him I’d felt in my bones that Bant’s Spirit and the magic in the Angel emblems were connected, that the way the powers of Angels had warred in my blood had to indicatesomething, and he believed me.
“It…disappeared into the mountains.” Why? And what would it do now? I continued, “I can’t stop thinking about how much this connection to the Angellight seemed to change when Jezebel and I went to the Spirit Realm. Before then, I’d harnessed Angellight through bleeding on the emblems, but now…”
Light flared in the palm of my hand again.
