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“Just because I want to doesn’t mean I’m going to,” I said with an exasperated huff.
“You’ve got a track record saying otherwise,” Thane said. Touché. “Once we bring the mages up to speed, we’ll open portals to Mirdrakona and Mirfeniksa. Pietr and Imos will ensure their armies are ready to go, then bring them over.”
I shivered, remembering the portals I took to the Otherworld and then Mirognya. The cold void between worlds was not a place I wanted to visit via portal ever again.
Twice was more than enough, and thankfully, my mate was a realm walker.
We ended the call, and I sighed at the device’s background image—a picture of Thane and me at the beach. Back before our peaceful lives had gotten complicated again, as in before the dragons.
I still needed to track down Jackson Reed and kill that motherfucker once and for all—even more after leaving me stranded in another realm—but that task would have to wait. Colin was the mastermind behind my parents leaving Mirognya and Jackson killing Maddox.
At the moment, the traitorous fae man was my first and only priority.
Kit muttered beside me, pulling my attention back to the present.
I tucked my phone away. “What’s up?”
“The last dagger may be in the Otherworld.” Her eyes focused on a particular screen.
Fear clenched at my chest, and I leaned in closer. “Colin has it?”
She frowned. “I don’t think so, but he may be looking for it. Maybe that’s why he closed the portals. He knows we have the other two, and he wouldn’t want us getting the third.”
“Where is it then?” I asked, my pulse racing. This was the closest lead we’d gotten so far.
“I’m not sure,” Kit mumbled as she read through an online forum. “There’s chatter about it showing up there just after you and William went to Mirognya. Some of the stronger or older fae can feel potent magical objects, especially when those objects leave or enter the realm.”
“But no one saw who brought it in? Or where it went?”
“A rumor’s circulating that a legend no one has seen or heard from in centuries has it. A guardian of the fae woods, but it’s just gossip at this point. I’m trying to confirm with a reputable source.”
Holy shit. I’d met a stag who fit that description. “You mean the Keeper of the Forest?”
Almost in slow motion, Kit turned her stunned gaze on me and blinked. “How the hell do you know that?”
I licked my lips, excitement building. “I saw him in the Otherworld on our way to the Summer Court. He was the one who told me I belonged in Mirognya.”
Kit blinked again. “You actually saw and spoke to the Keeper of the forest?”
“Shocking, I know.” I grinned, relishing that I knew something my genius best friend didn’t.
I might have told her about the encounter earlier if I hadn’t followed William through that portal. Instead, I’d kind of forgotten about him.
As if my revelation pained her, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “People have pursued him for centuries, and you just waltz in and find him on your first visit.”
“To be fair to everyone else, he found me,” I said. “I’m sure it was a onetime experience.”
She muttered something under her breath and returned her gaze to the computer screen, resuming her too-fast-to-follow clicking.
I sat back and gnawed on my lip. What if it wasn’t a one-time visit?
He had clearly sensed my presence in the Otherworld. Maybe he would again and want to say hi, catch up, and ask if I ever made it to Mirognya. Or maybe I could get his attention somehow, set the forest on fire or something.
It might be wishful thinking, but trying couldn’t hurt…
Right?
I looked at Ivan, who’d finished his game and relaxed on the couch with a bowl of pretzels. “Hey, do you think you could realm walk to the Otherworld?”
