“Nonsense,” Lionel purred. “She would be the perfect fit for you. I’ll set it up.”
Tiberius and Antonia exchanged a loaded look at that suggestion, but Azriel made no further complaint.
“Stand back,” my father commanded and everyone else retreated from the circle as he held his hand out and Azriel Orion summoned a staff from the fabric of the air at his side, a stunning stone set in the top of it which hummed with so much power that I could practically feel every Fae in attendance salivating over it. The Imperial Star glowed brighter as the king grasped the staff and I sucked in a breath along with everyone else as he drove the base of the golden staff into the ground and spoke a word which echoed around my skull and out of existence.
“Suturi!”
His voice boomed across the plain in every direction, flattening the stalks of grass with the power of that one command and with a flash of blue light, the Imperial Star took hold of the rift to the Shadow Realm and closed it for good.
“Let’s head back to the palace,” Hail commanded as he finished his work, handing the sceptre back to Azriel who promptly returned it to wherever the hell he’d found it in the first place and it winked out of sight.
The Councillors and Azriel all vanished in a flash of stardust, but Merissa stepped forward, reaching out to cup the king’s jaw in her hand.
“How many of these have you found now?” she asked and he sighed heavily, looking into her eyes as she tried to get a reading from him and allowing her to see all the rifts he’d discovered and closed so far.
I was gifted a view of what she saw too, flashes of different landscapes and locations flickering before me, some with altars like the rift we’d just destroyed, others located in remote locations that seemed utterly inaccessible, each of them allowing a little of the shadows to slip through the gap and into our realm.
“No doubt there are countless more I am yet to discover too,” he murmured, his gaze filling with concern. “I fear what they will mean for Solaria if we don’t manage to seal them all again. There is a great power in the Shadow Realm which is trying to push through to our side and with these rifts open, it has a way to slip through.”
“Then we will find them all and you can seal them up again,” she vowed and he nodded.
“That is what I intend to do.”
Hail tossed the stardust and the vision faded as they were drawn away, the light shifting around me as I found myself back in reality, standing in a ring of stones which held no evidence of a rift ever having been here at all.
But his words hung heavily in my ears and I couldn’t help but look up to the stars and wonder if he had managed to do that or not. Because if one rift had been missed in his hunt then I had the sinking suspicion that there would be more that had gone unaccounted for, each of them feeding power through from the Shadow Realm for Lavinia to make use of. So now the only question left was, how the hell were we supposed to find them?
I flexed my wings, looking around and trying to get my bearings as I cast the homing spell Orion had taught us to help us find The Burrows if we ever ended up in a situation like this. I cast healing and energising magic into my limbs to soothe the ache of the long flight I’d already taken part in then launched myself into the sky once more.
The rifts may have been a problem, but at least now I knew more about them. So we were just going to have to figure out how to track them down and close them too because I had the feeling that if we managed that, we’d soon find ourselves on a level playing field with the so-called Shadow Princess. And once that was the case, all bets were going to be well and truly off.
I woke to the sound of banging which seemed to rattle all around the inside of my skull. On instinct, I reached for my magic to protect me and was endlessly relieved when it came to me from the darkness, though my Phoenix was slower to respond.
I forced my eyes open as I pieced together everything that had happened and panic descended on me fast, realising I was now in mine and Orion’s room.
“Tory,” I gasped, shoving out of the soft bed and finding Darius in the room with me, throwing his flame covered fists at the door over and over again. But the door shimmered with the might of magic that echoed all the way around the room, clearly stopping him from breaking through.
I was dressed in a soft pair of blue pyjamas with frilly bows on the cuffs and collar, making me instantly certain they were Geraldine’s and I had to assume she had changed me out of my armour while I was sleeping.
“What’s going on?” I hurried toward Darius, but as I made it to him, weakness pressed down on me and my knees hit the floor.