Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
"No matter what, they don't fall," he says.
"Ja, brother. No matter what."
Chapter Twelve
Marion
Screams erupt outside the Hall, sending a chill through me. My heart leaps into my throat, fear pounding through me.
"We need to do this quickly," Rissa says, urgency in her voice as she yanks the chest Damrion brought into the center of the room.
The portal into the house Malachi shares with his brothers winks closed. Holding it open is no longer a priority. The only thing that matters is opening the portal to Valhalla and saving as many lives as we can.
The sounds of fighting—of dying—intensify, growing closer. The doors to the Hall rattle.
"Hold them!" Adriel roars to the other Fae.
I drop to my knees beside Rissa, flinging open the clasps on the chest. Together, we haul the lid back.
I gape at the shattered pieces of…I'm not sure what. Magic? Glass? Something else? I don't know. I've never seen anything like them before. Even shattered into pieces small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, the chalky gray surface of the Bifröst seems to flicker and dance, the surface shifting endlessly.
"It's beautiful," Abigail whispers.
"What is it?" Kara asks.
"The burning bridge," Rissa answers, reaching inside the chest to carefully pluck out a piece. As soon as her hand closes over it, it flares, the surface turning from sickly gray to a rainbow of color. It fades quickly, as if it's too broken to maintain that state. "The Gods created it to move between realms. If anyone knew how they did it, that knowledge was lost long ago."
"How are we supposed to fix it? Bleed on it?"
We all look at Abigail.
Her brows furrow. "I'm not entirely sure," she admits. "But in my visions, when we restored the portal, the pieces were laid out. I think we just pour our Light into them?" She shrugs helplessly. "I don't know!"
"We heal it," Tori says softly, drawing all eyes to her. She glances at each of us, an intensity in her gaze I've never seen. "Whatever the Forsaken did to it poisoned it. We have to heal it."
Rissa stirs, looking uncertain.
"I feel it, Rissa," Tori says, grasping her arm in a gentle vise. "It's like it's…whispering to me." She glances at each of us. "You don't hear it?"
I close my eyes, trying to hear what she does, but all I hear are the screams of the dying outside. I shiver, my eyes flying open.
"I don't hear it," I say quickly.
"Me either," Abigail says, pale around the lips.
Rissa and Kara shake their heads, agreeing that they don't hear it either. But Tori is convinced, and I believe her. We all have our strengths. If this is hers, who are we to say she's wrong?
"What do we do?" Rissa asks, deferring to her.
"Lay the pieces out," she says.
We quickly reach into the chest, pulling them out piece by piece and setting them on the floor at her feet. Some are so tiny, they're little more than dust. Others are larger. But none are bigger than the palm of my hand. And there are no more than two dozen. How can so few possibly make a portal to another realm?
I don't know, but the rules of this world, the rules of magic, are still new to me. They still don't make sense. I'm not sure they ever will. So much of what was known was lost so long ago not even the Fae remember. How are we ever supposed to figure it out?
Once the pieces are laid out in a mosaic, we rise to stand beside Tori.
"Now what?"
"I think maybe I need to—" She cuts off, her eyes widening as a portal yawns open a few feet away.
"Malachi!" I scream, already reaching for my Light. Beside me, my sisters do the same. Within seconds of my dagger flying toward the portal, four blasts of Light follow in its wake. The black hole explodes into nothing before it can even fully open.
"Whatever you're doing, do it quickly!" Damrion orders, the Fae surrounding us in a ring of protection.
Tori jerks her head in a hasty nod, reaching for our hands. I grab hers and then Kara's, clinging. Praying.
Gods, please let us finish this.
"Pour your Light into the pieces," Tori orders. "Search out the poison and smother it with Light. Quickly!"
We leap to obey, another portal yawning open where the first just exploded. I split my Light, sending a ball of it spinning wildly toward the portal as a Forsaken reaches through. I don't have time to tell if I hit it or not, though. Our combined Light pours over the pieces of the Bifröst, and every single one of them turns from gray to a prism of color.
I gasp as it flickers and flares…something brushing against my subconscious. For the first time, I hear what Tori did. A faint sound whispers from the portal, like a feeble wind, welcoming me.