Mistral squeezed my arms. “Perhaps your intentdiddrive the result then. You wanted to end the attack, and you did.”
Gabriel hadn’t spoken since we’d landed, and I almost wished he’d stayed quiet when he said, “She started pulling at itsstars as soon as she lifted her hand. It’s what made the guardian attack in the first place. Its magic was attracted to the vortex.”
Mistral looked to Sebastian for confirmation, and he nodded. There was no third agreement from Ringo, who was still freaked out and hiding in Gabriel’s jacket.
“I thought the Bogs gave us the vortex to be helpful,” I said weakly.
Mistral pulled me into a hug. “Wild magic does not think like you or I. Just be careful from now on about lifting your hands.”
My laugh sounded a little too much like a sob. “Yeah. Great. I’ll do that.”
He pulled back enough to look at both Gabriel and Sebastian. “We’ve found the dead end of the pathway. With the maps and the blade, Eva should be able to bring us to my realm from here.”
I stepped back, almost lifting my hands but then immediately bringing them back to my sides. “So we’re just brushing off the fact that I killed the guardian?”
“It was a magical construct,” Mistral countered. “Not something to kill. Just something to unmake. A celestial made it, and youunmadeit in kind.”
I looked at Gabriel, who shrugged, then at Sebastian, who looked bored. Finally I looked at Crispin, who at least seemed apologetic. “He’s right. I’m sorry, Eva, but the vortex absorbs magic, and that’s all the guardian really was. It told you itself it was created to protect the waypoint.”
I shook my head. “She felt like more than that.” I wasn’t sure at what point I had started thinking of the guardian as a she rather than an it, but there it was. “She had emotions. She wanted us to come back.”
No one spoke, and I wondered if they all thought I was being ridiculous. I didn’t sense any of their emotions through our connection though.
Gabriel moved closer, and when I didn’t pull away, he put a protective arm around me. “You lost your sandwich.”
“I don’t care about my sandwich.”
“And thecoffee.”
I was quiet for a moment, but couldn’t help cracking a small smile. “Let’s just get out of here already.” The coffee would have been nice, but I really didn’t want to return to the estate again. My guilt would only intensify. At least Gabriel had retained the rest of his pack, and Mistral had the other.
Mistral stepped back further, gesturing for me to walk past him toward the tree. “If you’re sure you’re ready?”
He was being polite, but I could finally sense an emotion through our connection.
Excitement. Anticipation. He was so close to returning home. But once he did, would he want to stay there? Hadn’t my day already been sad enough?
Only one way to find out. I walked toward the spiraling tree, its patterns almost dizzying to behold, then awkwardly drew the sword. It wasn’t heavy, but I wasn’t used to drawing a blade from over my shoulder. It was going to take some practice to not slice off any of my hair. Or my flesh.
Once I had the sword out, I held the hilt in both hands, pointy end toward the sky.
The guys gathered around, everyone making room for Crispin to be right behind me. He reached around my waist, gripping my hands over the sword hilt. When he turned our joined hands just so, a glowing constellation formed in front of the sword.
I fought to keep from trembling as he turned it several more times, changing the constellations. “There. That matches one of the maps Marcie provided, and the old pathway is still hanging around somewhere. This should be enough to get us to the right place.”
“And if we end up in the middle of the sun?” I asked.
As the guys moved in even closer, Sebastian gripped one of my wrists. “Let’s try to avoid that, hmm?”
I closed my eyes. “Alright. Let’s all think happy thoughts.”
I tensed at first as the guys’ magic flowed into me, but then I remembered to breathe. The magic built uncomfortably, but I knew all I had to do was let it out. I wouldn’t make the mistake again of keeping it all in.
I relaxed, surrendering my will to the blade like I had done at the Circus. That had only been a partial pathway I’d cut through the ceiling, but in theory this would be the same thing, only a bitmore. Just enough for us to travel through and check things out. If we didn’t get killed by shadows, we would figure out how to heal the full pathway back.
It all sounded utterly insane to me, given that until recently the most my magic could do was carry me across boundaries, but when I focused on Mistral’s starry magic, on his scent, and on the feel of damp ozone on my skin, the blade pulled us into the void.
Wherever we ended up,it was nighttime. And the plants… the plants were glowing. We were on an overgrown path, weeds and brambles edging it so tightly there was barely room to walk. Not all of the plants glowed, but enough did that at least we wouldn’t step in any unseen holes. The trees overhead were dark save a few glowing insects flitting about.
