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I found myself on my hands and knees once more, gasping for air. When I looked up, we were in the Ortega's backyard, with the stars bright above us. It was empty and silent. It felt like we had only been gone for a few hours, but I understood now that time in the fae realm was completely different from our own. For all I know we could have been gone months or even years.
My stomach dropped at the thought of being gone from Eli for years. My thoughts ran wild with possibilities of what could have happened in my absence and I thought for a moment that I was going to throw up.
Then, the back door was thrown open and Celia was running down the steps with Eli behind her and Stephen right behind him. Dante and Artie and Billie were next and then everyone else followed.
Celia pulled me to my feet and gathered me up in a hug that was so tight I thought she would crush my rib cage.
"You can't ever do that to me again. Do you hear me? You can't ever do that, not ever again," she said in my ear.
Eli was next and he peppered my face with kisses and for a moment I thought I was going to drown in them. Then Dante had his big arms around me and I feared by the time they were all done lavishing affection on me, I would have several broken bones.
Then everyone went suspiciously still and quiet.
I was in Priscilla's arms and I had to turn to look over my shoulder to see what they were all staring at. Priscilla put me down and I saw that Celia was staring at Gerri and Savannah.
This was the first time I had seen Savannah in any court kind of normal light. She looked healthy, of course, but she was also beautiful. Beautiful in a way that was distinctly nonhuman. Beside her, Gerri was even more breathtaking and I wanted to laugh when I saw that she was wearing skinny jeans and a loose T-shirt emblazoned with a Guns N Roses emblem.
"I must apologize for my sister's behavior. I assure you, she has been taken from your lands and she is being appropriately punished," Gerri began, formally.
"You looked like you punished her pretty appropriately back in the woods," Eli said.
Gerri smirked. "That was only the beginning of what our kind can do. And it is only the beginning of what one has coming to them when they dare approach Alpha Ortega's pack. Especially her second-in-command," Gerri said.
"You know me?" Celia asked.
Gerri turned her violet eyes on Celia. "Of course we do. We whisper of things that are happening here. We watch your turmoil and your trials. We revere and respect only the most powerful. Your name is whispered the most where I come from."
Celia turned to look at Eli, who had his arms wrapped around me once more. He shrugged.
"Have you come to say goodbye?" Dante asked Savannah in an unsteady voice. I put a hand on his back.
"No. I’m here to stay. If Celia will have me," Savannah said.
"This is your home, this is where you belong. You can come home whenever you want," Celia said. I was surprised to hear her voice was as unsteady as Dante’s.
Savannah burst into tears and even that was elegantly beautiful.
Dante rushed over to her and hugged her just as hard as he had hugged me. She returned the gesture and I could see from his face that she was stronger than he expected.
Gerri watched them for a moment, amused. Then she turned back to Celia. "Alpha Ortega, if I might have a moment."
"Of course," Celia said. They walked a few steps away and just as all the shifters present began to listen in, Gerri turned and winked at them. She pulled out a bag from the pocket of her jeans and dropped it on the ground. When it hit the ground, it made a circle around them and she began to speak. As she did, all the werewolves groaned in disappointment.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Damn fairies. They always have a trick up their sleeves. We can't hear them," Clint muttered.
I watched Celia and Gerri speak for a moment and then I turned to Eli. "How long?"
Eli buried his nose in my hair before he said in my ear. "You've been gone for two days."
I jerked back. My eyes were wide. "Wait. But that means –"
I looked over at Dante who was talking with Savannah quietly.
"We were only waiting until the moon was at its highest point. Then his trial begins," Eli said.
Which meant my own began the next night. "I think I need to sit down."
Celia returned to our group and gave me a grim smile. "Do we have time?" She asked and turned to Artie and Billie.
Artie looked to Billie and she checked her watch. “It has to be quick if we want to start on time.”
"Time for what?" I asked.
"We have to catch you up," Eli said quietly.
***
"BILLIE WAS THE ONE to find it out."
Artie looked over at her and Billie grinned back.
We were all gathered in the living room once again. If I had thought that mine and Dante's presence would make the room feels smaller, it was almost claustrophobic with all the other packs. We managed, but the room seemed to be overflowing with people and magic and shifters. Out of the corner of my eye, I even saw Marcus close by Celia's side.
"We were looking for a way to get into the fairy court –" Billie began.
From heart her corner, Gerri snorted. When we looked at her, she waved a hand. "I'm sorry. Even with all of your magic here, which is not an insignificant amount, you would still need help from the fairy to get into our court. Really, it's one of the safest places you could put someone."
It was such an odd thing to say, and when I looked over at Savannah, she raised an eyebrow and we both looked over at Gerri. She glanced between us but made no other indication that what she said was odd.
Maybe that's just the way that fairies are.
"Anyway, we were looking for a way into the court. As Her Highness just said, it's really hard. Almost impossible for magic users and incomprehensible to humans. There's no way in or out without the help of the fae. But we kept looking. And that's when Billie found it," Artie said and looked over at her.
We all turned to her and I saw Stephen grin. He was also obviously very proud of his sister. "Really, it was just luck. If Stephen and I hadn't been out on the road and I wasn't such a reader, then we might not have figured it out," Billie said.
"Own your powers, girl. You are more important than you know," Gerri muttered.
Now I was worried. The things that Gerri was saying were raising alarm bells in my head. I looked over and Eli, but he was studying Gerri closely.
Gerri was looking out the window, like she was waiting for someone to arrive.
"The Oracles. I figured out what they are," Billie said softly.
That pulled my attention away from Gerri.
"The Oracles are what the Ascendancy uses to trap and kill people like us. We are worried that they might use them on us when the time comes," Celia explained to Gerri.
Gerri kept her eyes on the window and nodded. "I am familiar with them."
Everything was settling into place, but it was not a good place. I got goosebumps and rubbed my arms.
"When Stephen and I were in Louisiana, we were at an old bookshop. I found a book on fairy tales. They told about a fairy who bargained with a powerful human. The fairy showed the human how to trap people in a single place. It was an awful spell and it caused more death and ruin than any other spell that humans knew. And it wasn't just the townspeople that died, it was the magic users as well. So, it could be used like any other magic, I guess," Billie said and glanced Artie.
Artie nodded but did not take over.
"Artie said that magic can be used for good or evil, it's just up to the person. Well, this person worked for the Ascendancy. They were taught that if they combined two magics in one nonhuman than that one person could hold a lot of magic for a short period of time. But at the end of it, that magic ate that person."
I stared at Artie and he stared back.
I remembered all the things he had taught me before, about forcing magic to go into a place that it did not belong, about how it could eat itself alive and take the user with it.
Intent and desire.
They work together, like the sun and the ocean. One guided and the other pulled. And together they shaped the lands of the world.
My mouth was dry. I had to swallow a few times and I heard a click in the back of my throat. "So you're telling me that whoever wields this magic, will only do it once, and then they die?" I said.
Billie nodded.
"That's –" I shook my head. Everything that I had learned so far seemed to be rebelling against this very idea. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. When I looked up, everyone was looking at me. "That's obscene."
Artie nodded. "Believe it or not, it gets worse."
"I'm not even surprised anymore," I said.
Billie began to speak again. "It took a while, and it took a few phone calls from Celia and Clint threatening some lives, but we figured out what it was."
This time Artie did pick up because Billie paled when I continued to stare at her. "The Oracles are witches. Born and bred. They live under the Ascendancy's rule and they know nothing else. And they are only born for one purpose."
"Those witches become Oracles when they are called," Billie whispered.
"How?" Azolata asked.
"That took some more research. The Queen, do you know who she is?" Artie asked.
Azolata nodded. "I do."
Artie fell silent and Azolata did not seem inclined to explain further.
"Anyone want to share with the rest of the class?" I said.
Neither Artie or Billie said anything and finally, Azolata sighed. "The Queen is my sister. The one who imprisons me. She was the first of the shifters and has continued to rule over them since the very beginning of time. She is where the magic of the shifters flows from, the mother of every single shifter that has ever been born or bitten."
That seemed news to everyone in the room.
"We thought that she was just another witch, immortal and powerful, but a witch," Artie muttered and turned away. He scrubbed his face and threw his hands up in the air. "That kind of makes sense though, everything considered."
Azolata didn't seem to have anything to add.
"The story goes that the Queen hasn't spoken in thousands of years. From what we can put together, the Ascendancy uses her as a figurehead of power and dictates to the rest of us what the laws of our world are," Artie said.
"But what does she have to do with the Oracles?" I asked.
Artie turned around. "The Queen. She's powerful, more powerful than we can find words for. She's terrifying and can command every single shifter the world with barely a thought. When the Oracles are called up, they are given something to drink. We read that it was called a curse, living death, damnation and every other horrifying word you can imagine. But, once again, Billie figured it out," Artie said.
"They call those witches up and they make them drink from the Queen. It gives them her power, for a short amount of time. We couldn't figure out how long. But, you take a couple of powerful witches, hop them up on the Queen's blood, after they've been brainwashed their entire lives, take them to a town, and circle the town with your Oracles, and poof. You have a way to entrap even the strongest magic users," Billie said.
"I think I need to sit down," I said.
"You are sitting down," Clint pointed out.
I nodded.
"She's getting weaker," Azolata said.
We all turned towards him.
“What?” Eli sputtered.
"She's getting weaker. I can feel it. Maybe they took too much this time, maybe they've taken too much over time. She's the one that holds the curse that's put upon me. If she knew that my brother visited me here, she would have punished him. But she didn't. A punishment of the gods rings so loud that even I would hear it. There was no punishment. The magic in her blood is weaker," Azolata concluded.
That didn't offer me any comfort. "But if she is the one that the magic flows from, if she is the immortal that gives all the shifters in the world their magic, and she's getting weaker, what does that mean for the shifters?"
Azolata looked down at his hands and didn't answer. He didn't have to.
No one else in the room did.
Then a thought struck me. "Did you do this?" I asked Gerri.
"If I did this, I could just as easily undo it. But it was not me." Gerri was still staring out the window, studying it like she was waiting for an opponent in battle.
"Who did it? Can we get them to undo it?" I asked.
"Unfortunately not. The one who gave the humans the spell is currently being tortured for at least the next ten thousand years," Gerri said quietly.
"I knew your sister for all of five minutes and I hate her," I said.
"Try growing up with the bitch," Gerri said and I flinched at the hatred and bitterness in her voice.
"Great. So now we know what we are up against. Now we can plan, right?" Dante asked.
There didn't seem to be an answer to his encouraging question.
"If we go against the Ascendancy and the Oracles, then what? Then the Queen? We can't kill her. If we kill her, then every single shifter in this room either loses what magic they have or they die. Or both," Priscilla said quietly from the corner of the room.
"And even if we could take the Ascendancy on, we would need Azolata's help. But for Azolata to help, the curse has to break which means the Queen has to die," I added.
"I don't see a scenario where the Queen doesn't die," Eli said.
There was silence.
"Gods are immortal. How can they die?" I asked.
"It has happened more often than you would think. They die, and if their powers are not passed on, then they are doomed with the God. But that isn't what we should be focusing on right now," Azolata said.
"What should we be focusing on?" Billie asked. I looked up at her. For some reason, she sounded angry with Azolata and it wasn't just me who heard it.
Azolata looked up at her. He must have heard the anger in her voice. "Right now, we should be focusing on the trials and surviving the Oracles. After that, we can figure out what to do with my sister. It may be that we don't have all the information yet. These stories, they are thousands of years old. A lot can happen in that time."
That seemed to settle everyone for a moment. We all begin to stand and Celia looked to Dante. "Are you ready?" She asked.
Dante took a deep breath and nodded. "As ready as I ever will be."
From the corner of my eye, I saw Gerri sit up and back away from the window. Time slowed to a crawl when I saw the expression on her face.
I felt it first on the back of my neck. It felt like someone placed a cold and clammy hand there. Where my magic was it strongest, centering in my chest, I felt it.
I wasn't the only one, Artie looked around and as he did, the house went completely still.
I looked around, realizing that the entire room had gone deadly silent. In a few quick steps, Azolata had both Stephen and Billie in his arms.
"Get out!" He bellowed and turned his back to the windows as they shattered.