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Leonid opened his mouth to berate either the Principal Elder or all of them in the room, but Michael raised his hand to stop him.
“Forgive me,” Michael said calmly. “I still do not know what is happening. Tegan’s theory, whatever in shade’s name Garrick and Lucas seem to have discovered, and”—he stopped with a heavy sigh as he rubbed his hands over his face in frustration—“any of this really. Are we failing?”
“No,” Cord said abruptly. He crossed the room to stand beside Tegan, his hand reaching out to be placed lightly on her shoulder. “It all fits.” His fingers tightened on her shoulder, and she looked up at him with concern. “It’s you.”
“What is?” Tegan asked him.
“It wants you, it’s told us from the very beginning. We all focused on the female, but then our focus was shifted to the Darkness, but the more I listen, the more we consider, the Darkness and the Drakhyn from the hall, they are not the same,” Cord said as he looked to Lucas, who nodded, and a moment later so did Marcus. “They are not the same, they are more than one,” Cord added.
“As we are more than one,” Tegan said again.
Cord nodded quickly and then looked to Michael. “I am the Mark and the Mark is me,” he began and ignored Michael’s eye roll. “But I am also Cord Lebedev, a Castor of the Crimson Cast.” He inclined his head to Garrick, the Prime of his Cast. “And I was the Heir of House Ivanov before I chose my father’s House. I am also”—Cord smirked at Tegan—“one of the most fully accomplished fighting Sentinels, and had I not been a Castor, I would be Elite.”
“Why are you telling us your resume?” Michael asked with barely concealed frustration.
“Because even if I did not bear this Mark, I would still be in the Prophecy,” Cord told him. “Every Akrhyn in this room is exceptional.” His eyes danced with mockery as he watched Michael frown. “Even you, you are a joint Heir, you and the little tiger were both born exactly at the same time, we have lost sight of that.”
Michael looked to Salem and saw that his father had also forgotten. “So...I still don’t see?”
“Not all of us are here to serve Cord, or I should say, the Mark,” Tegan explained. “My role could be as bonded to Cord, or it could be as one of the Ravens of a Prophecy, or it could be as Heir to a House.” Tegan pointed to Marcus. “A Second to the Principal Elder of the Northern Territory, or a packless alpha or Alpha toall.” She turned her attention to Lucas. “A Dark Prime Castor, an open believer and upholder of the teachings of the Ancients, or a teacher himself, to his Cast and toanyCastor.” Her focus turned to Leonid. “A Vampyre, Prince of the Made, or a teacher of Akrhyn,anyAkrhyn, a father to me only, or a father to his brethren? The Made are still under the mountain, and I can guarantee you that they are waiting for their Prince to rescue them.” Finally she looked at Salem. “A father to two Heirs, or a Principal Elder held in high regard by his peers, or the arch enemy of a traitor because he broke his sister’s heart?” Tegan smiled sadly at Salem as she saw him dip his head at her words. “We are all many,manyroles, and this is exactly why we are not one thing, a Mentor, an Alpha, a Father, a Forger, a Storm or a Raven. This Prophecy is more than us, andweare more than it.”
“And our enemy is not one thing,” Cord carried on. “It is the Darkness and it is the Drakhyn, and whoever stands with them.”
“The battle is on all fronts and none,” Garrick concluded as he looked at Michael. “This war is not the illusion they presented at the foot of the mountain, they are not one unit marching towards us, and this battle will not be bloody retribution fought on a field somewhere. It is a battle we are facing all around us, every day. The fact that some of our enemy is gathering in one place is not coincidence.”
Michael looked at the three of them and then at the others in the room. “You got all that from we are not one Prophecy?” he said with a wry smile. Tegan started to laugh, and soon the others were joining in. Michael let out a long sigh. “Okay, so we need to go back to basics, look at it all again,” he said thoughtfully. “Where do we start?
“The Made,” Leonid said.
“The packs,” Marcus said at the same time.
“So it’s to be split,” Cord commented. “Leonid will go with Lucas to the mountain and free his Court. Marcus returns to the north to find and deal with the rebellious free Lycans.” Cord looked at Salem. “You and I will join the Great Council in the interrogation of my stepfather.” Salem nodded in agreement.
“And us?” Michael asked as he gestured to his sister.
“You train,” Leonid said before he turned his attention to Commander Bryce and Garrick. “You will watch them and train them, and you will let no danger come to either. They are Heirs to one of the most powerful Headquarters of all Akrhyn. Tegan has been targeted more than once by this Drakhyn. Her safety, both their safeties, is as important as freeing the Made, curbing a rebellion or interrogating a traitor.”
“You have my word,” Garrick said solemnly.
“I need to get back,” Marcus said quietly. “This was needed. Well done, Tegan.”
Tegan flushed at his praise and gave him a shy smile. “Be strong, be swift, be safe.”
“Always,” Marcus murmured as he held his arm out to Cord. Cord looked at her for a moment, and then with a small smirk, he portalled both Marcus and himself out of the room.
As the others stood and talked amongst themselves, Michael leaned into his sister. “An epiphany, you said,” he whispered with an incredulous look.
“It was.” She nudged his shoulder. “It’s right, isn’t it?”
“I think you just blew my mind,” he answered tiredly. “It’s all so...so...”
“Big,” Tegan finished for him.
“Big,” Michael agreed as he slumped further in his seat.
“Which is why there are two of us,” Tegan said as she rested her head on his shoulder. “A blade and a stone, one is not effective without the other.”
“A blade and a stone,” Michael mumbled beside her as he rested his head on hers. “That’s us.”
