I nodded, tears spilling down my cheeks as the truth settled into my bones. This was why my ancestors had created the Realm Breaker. Not to sever pathways, but to restore the balance between light and dark that had been broken when too much magic flooded the realms.
“I understand now. I exist because it exists. When my power grew, it grew too.”
The waiting darkness around us started to retreat, and soon we could see the sun. The guys helped me to my feet and we looked around for our clothes. Fortunately I was a little faster than Gabriel and Crispin, who were missing a shirt, and pants. All I was missing were my shoes when the darkness finally parted, revealing Varian, several more fairies, Charla, Lucas, Penelope, and two gargoyles, all holding vortices much smaller than the one I had absorbed. Their bright green light turned murky as the last wisps of darkness were absorbed.
All I could do was shake my head when I noticed that Isadora had managed to come along for the ride. She stood next to Penelope, covetous eyes on the devil’s vortex—which we would most certainly be taking away from her.
Harry sat on the ground surrounded by werewolves in both human and wolf form. His head was buried in his palms. He was probably still dealing with whatever the darkness had shown him, but he seemed otherwise unharmed.
Braxton started toward us, but he hesitated as Charla and Varian came forward instead.
“Well done,” Charla beamed, holding her vortex at arm’s length, her impressive white wings shading her from the noonday sun. Her eyes snagged on Crispin’s lack of pants, but she quickly regained her composure. “We would have never been able to contain it all if you hadn’t broken it apart.”
I looked from her to Varian, uneasy with so many vortices around. “You’ve been hiding all of these this whole time?”
He smirked. “Did you doubt I would re-double my efforts after my first failure? Just count your blessings that you proved more useful with your magic intact.”
I was pretty sure my forced smile was just a baring of teeth. His vortices had saved Harry, so I wouldn’t complain for now,but I couldn’t wait to boot Varian back to the fairy realm in hopes that he would stay there. Since that had been his aim all along, hopefully he would.
Charla held up her vortex. “Now the question is, what to do with these now that they’re filled with darkness. It has to gosomewhere.”
I looked back at the guys, my eyes ultimately settling on Mistral, who nodded.
I turned back to Charla. “I think I have an idea.”
Varian scowled, but didn’t argue. The scowl lifted my spirits. I had learned a little more than I had bargained for, but at least I got to piss off Varian one more time in the process, because he would not be keepinganyof the vortices if I had my way.
25
Mistral granted passage to Charla, Lucas, Varian, Elizabeta, King Francis, and Harry just after nightfall. We had gotten rid of Penelope with a promise that tomorrow morning she would for sure get her pathway. For now, we had some darkness to balance out.
I could accept that the darkness was here because of me, and vice versa. And we had both grown together. But I was still just one little half-celestial. I couldn’t keep an eye on it all the time. What I could do, though, was share my bond with a magic much larger.
The Bogs had always liked me because my magic was so similar to its own. Wild, untamed, and bright. And it was always in need of balancing because there was just too much of it. It crawled across its boundaries, eating up more and more land, and had been expanding since its creation. Now that it had access to the goblin realm, it was trying to pull even more through. It was creating more of the very imbalance my great grandfather feared. It could eventually happen with the other pathways too.
“Now explain to me again how this is supposed to help,” Charla still had her vortex, as did Varian and Lucas. The others had been dropped off by their keepers at the gates.
I looked at Crispin, who was much better at explaining these things than the rest of us.
He smiled, always glad to prattle on. “The darkness didn’t come from nothing. It wasn’t just lurking out in the cosmos waiting to come through the pathways. It came into existencebecauseof the pathways, to balance the light created by the celestials. Even when I created a much smaller pathway, darkness came into being to balance it out.” He stopped himself, looking embarrassed. “At least that is our theory, based on what we now know.”
“Which is?” Charla asked, twitching her wings impatiently.
“Our dear Eva was the only celestial born into this realm after the pathways were severed. Because the darkness was already here, hiding, the natural order created her as a conduit, something bright enough to offer balance. For darkness to exist, there must also be light.”
“Then why did it get so out of control?” Lucas grumbled.
Once again, Crispin looked a little embarrassed. “Because Eva bonded with four magical beings. Then she tied herself directly to the Bogs. Then she absorbed an entire vortex. The brighter she burned, the more the darkness… darkened. And the more it took on her abilities, such as being able to absorb magic.”
“Then what about the rest of it?” Varian asked. “What about this threat all of us have been led to fear? Something that can destroy entire realms.”
Crispin glanced at me before speaking. “When the celestials retreated to the cosmos, presumably fearing they had caused destruction, the darkness that was a balance to their magic shrank. Then when the pathways were destroyed, it shrank even more, leaving only wisps here and there.”
Every visitor’s jaw hung open, even King Francis. Well, Harry’s didn’t really. He just looked baffled by it all.
The elf king straightened to his full height, his eyes stormy. “So once the pathways were gone, there was no danger? It was all just a result of the celestials’ light?” He glared at me.
“It’s only a theory,” Crispin was quick to say. “The pathways themselves are sustained magic and light entirely out of place. So even what I created brought about a measure of darkness. I imagine any great magic could, and we believe the new pathways may have already brought about more of it.”
