Bryce’s mouth dried out. A real path to ending the Asteri, at last.
“So where is it?” Bryce asked. “Where’s the last part of Theia’s power?”
“I don’t know,” Aidas said sadly. “Helena told no one, not even me.”
Bryce let out a long, frustrated breath, but Hunt kept pushing the princes. “So to unite the sword and knife, Bryce needs to find the starlight Helena took from the Starsword—the last third of Theia’s power—which is stashed somewhere on Avallen?”
“Yes,” Aidas said simply.
“But how do I make them open that portal to nowhere—and what the Hel does that mean, anyway?” Bryce griped.
Thanatos said roughly, “We’ve been wondering that for eons.”
Aidas dragged a hand through his golden hair. “Ultimate destruction was the best any of us could guess.”
“Fantastic,” Bryce grumbled.
Yet Hunt asked, “If Avallen is one of the stronger thin places, why did the Asteri even allow the Fae to live here?”
“The black salt, in such high quantity, keeps them away. They never realized that its presence drew us as much as it repelled them,” Apollion said with satisfaction. “It has the same properties that made us immune to the thrall of their black crowns.”
Bryce tensed at that, glancing at Hunt, but her mate asked, setting aside his own questions for now, “Did Helena know the Asteri were repelled from this place?”
Aidas nodded. “Once she figured it out, it confirmed her decision to hide Theia’s power here.”
Bryce angled her head. “But why did the mists open for Helena to get through in the first place?”
“The black salt only repels the Asteri; the mists repel everyone else. But certain people, with certain gifts, can access the power of thin places—on any world. World-walkers.” Aidas gestured gracefully to Bryce. “You are one of them. So were Helena and Theia. Their natural abilities lent themselves to moving through the mists.”
Bryce brushed invisible dirt off her shoulders,
“Add it to Bryce’s list of Magical Starborn Princess crap,” Hunt said, chuckling. But then he frowned deeply. “If the sword and knife could open a portal to nowhere all along, why didn’t Theia use them herself in the First Wars?”
“Because she was scared,” Aidas said, his voice suddenly tense. “For everyone.”
“Right,” Bryce said. “Ultimate destruction.”
“Yes,” Aidas said. Thanatos gave a disdainful snort, but Apollion looked at Aidas with something like compassion. “Theia,” Aidas explained, “had theorized about what uniting the blades would do, but never put it into practice. She was afraid that if she opened a portal to nowhere, all of Midgard might get drawn in. She might succeed in trapping the Asteri in another world only to damn this world to follow them right in. So she opted for caution. And by the time she should have damned caution to the wind … it was too late for her. For us. It was safer, wiser, for her to separate the blades, and her power.”
“But Helena felt differently,” Bryce said.
“Helena believed the risk worthwhile,” Aidas said. “She suffered greatly in the years following the First Wars—and saw the suffering of others, too. I came to agree with her. She wouldn’t tell me where she moved Theia’s power, but I know she left it accessible for the future scion who might emerge, bearing Helena’s own third of Theia’s light. The person who could somehow, against all odds, unite the pieces of Theia’s power—and then the two blades.”
“What blinds an Oracle?” Bryce whispered.
“Theia’s star,” Aidas said softly. “I told you: The Oracle did not see that day … but I did. I saw you, so young and bright and brave, and the starlight Helena had told me to wait for. That third of Theia’s power, passed down through Helena’s line.”
Hunt demanded, “But what is Bryce supposed to do? Find that last piece of Theia’s power, use it on the blades, and open this portal to nowhere while praying we don’t all get locked in with the Asteri, too?”
“That’s about the sum of it,” Aidas said, his eyes fixed on Bryce. “But there was one thing Theia and Helena did not anticipate: that you would bear the Horn, reborn, in your body. Another way to open doors between worlds.”
“And what’s she supposed to do with that?” Hunt snarled.
Aidas smiled slightly. “Fully open the Northern Rift, of course.”