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Elder Vali nodded, looking a bit more relaxed. Claire realized that if the Elves and Fae were allies before the Great War, they likely had friends and maybe even family in the other’s territory. She didn’t even think to ask Toan that. Maybe she could ask Elder Vali?
Before she could though, Kallan stepped forward, his body posture rigid. Holly frowned at his back which set off Claire’s internal alarm bell. Holly was sensing something she didn’t like or understand.
“It’s time,” he projected his voice above the crowd’s whispers. “Her intentions are pure. She’s passed every test you’ve asked of her including the Traditio. She deserves to know.”
Claire’s eyes widened. Know what? What was it that had her cousins so tense? She knew there were things that they couldn’t tell her until she passed the Traditio but this seemed on another level.
Elder Milam frowned slightly but nodded his head. An almost melancholy expression passed Elder Vali’s face before it disappeared. Claire felt her stomach sink. Puck flew to her and she caught him in her arms. He must be picking up something as well, whether it be her mood or the tension in the air. When Claire opened her mouth to demand they spit it out already, Kallan turned to her, cutting off her words.
“Follow me,” his voice was steady but a thread of sadness seemed to weave through it.
Claire exchanged a look with her Triad who looked as confused and concerned as she felt. Desmond snagged her hand as Everett and Malcolm flanked her. They exited the stone arena, passing through a silent crowd with her friends behind her.
As they walked, the mood seemed to worsen and worse till it felt like Claire was walking through sludge. They walked past the manor houses towards the mountain side of the Fae territory. The rest of the group eyed the training area with some interest but Claire focused on her cousins’ backs. They hadn’t turned around once since they started walking and the uneasy feeling in Claire’s gut was only getting worse. Holly’s face didn’t look much better, twisted in worry, and Claire couldn’t imagine the type of emotions Holly was picking up now as an empath.
Before long, the smaller outer mountains of the Dragon Mountain range that spilled into the Fae lands were rising in front of them. Desmond and Claire felt the first ward at the same time and stopped quickly. Kallan and Kieran laid their hands on the ward line and drew a quick rune each. Grabbing onto the ward, they each pulled it back, like a curtain, and gestured the group to go through. That was a neat rune. After they got through whatever this was, Claire was going to need them to teach her it for the next time she needed to break a barrier.
They passed through the second and third wards this way until they came to a pair of fearsome Fae warriors guarding the entrance to a cave. Both warriors snapped to attention when they saw Kallan and Kieran and then stepped aside, letting the group continue through.
Where were they going? What were her cousins going to show her? Whatever it was, the Fae guarded it fiercely. Maybe it was the Metallicum or another ingredient in the ultimate weapon? But why didn’t they just tell her that at the arena? Nerves fluttered in her stomach as her chest tightened. Whatever it was, the twins’ solemn expressions gave nothing away.
The tunnel was short and soon it opened to a larger cavern. Pillars of Metallicum surrounded a low stone platform that had what seemed to be a large pile of blankets on it. Claire drew back at the sight of the Fae Metal, pulling Desmond’s arm so he didn’t go further into the room.
Kallan and Kieran stopped and correctly identified her worry. “It’s okay,” Kieran said softly, his voice still echoing in his low tone around the cavern. “Remember Metallicum can suck Energy as well as act as a conduit. This metal acts as a conduit, providing Energy to…” He trailed off as Claire let go of Desmond’s arm and stepped further into the room.
Her magic had woken up inside her center but rather than dancing out of control like she was accustomed to it doing over the last few weeks, it just tugged her closer. Recognizing another magic in the room.
As she approached the low platform, the pile of blankets grew clearer until the shape of a person lay beneath them.
“Who is that?” Cody asked but Claire instinctively already knew the answer. Her magic whispered its recognition before Kallan or Kieran could reply.
The world seemed to fade away around her as she cautiously crept closer to the low stone platform. There, looking very much like he had just fallen asleep, was her father, Prince Erick.
42
“That’s Prince Erick, Claire’s father.” Kieran’s words seemed to echo in the cavern or maybe that was just Claire’s ears. The world blurred around her as her knees gave out. Forest and spice caught her. Everett.
He led her away from the platform where her father lay, to the side of the cavern where a bench was built into the wall. Claire couldn’t move her eyes from her father’s still figure though. “Is he alive?” she whispered hoarsely. He had to be alive right? They wouldn’t keep him in this cavern if he was dead, right?
Kallan’s words cut through her brain fog and brought her attention back to him. “He’s alive,” he said grimly, “but barely. He’s in stasis. These pillars,” he gestured towards the Metallicum around the stone platform. “are the only things keeping him in this world. The only thing other than you.”
“Than me?” Claire whispered, eyes wide as she tried to process everything he had just said. Her father was alive? But in stasis? Because of her?
Seeing her confusion and maybe her spiraling a bit, Kieran was quick to explain. “During a particularly vicious battle towards the end of the Great War, what we now realized was a distraction tactic to keep your father occupied while someone went after… your mother and you, we weren’t winning and Erick had been using a lot of magic and Energy to minimize casualties. In the middle of the fighting it was like someone had struck him in the heart with an invisible weapon. He let out a war cry and his magic exploded out of him, leveling the enemy. Some of it gathered like it was trying to portal but Erick had already collapsed. We knew then that something had happened to Winona.”
“But not to Claire?” Claire was grateful for Desmond’s sharp mind asking questions right now as she was still trying to process what Kieran had just said.
“Bonded mates usually fall within seconds of each other,” Kieran explained sadly. “The only exception is if they have a child. That’s how we knew Claire was alive when Erick fell but didn’t die. Thanks to his explosion of magic, we were able to finish the battle quickly and get Erick back here, where we stabilized him with the Fae Metal. But when we went to go to the Elves’ aid, we realized Winona must have put in a failsafe into the barrier around the Fae lands and we assumed the Elves. When she died, she triggered a failsafe that kept us all inside the barrier and every Fae outside of it was portaled in immediately. That’s part of the explosion of Erick’s magic, we think. He helped her with her one final act.”
Claire heard Kieran’s words but couldn’t seem to string a response together. Her father was alive… her father was alive. The words seemed to repeat in her head like a broken verse in a song. Her father was alive.
The shock and disbelief of passing the Traditio was nothing compared to the magnitude of each emotion she felt now. She stared at her father, lying there on the platform, like he would disappear if she blinked. Had he just been locked in stasis this whole time? Would he ever wake up? Could he wake up?
She must have voiced those last questions out loud as Kallan knelt gingerly in front of her, as if not sure what her response would be to his proximity. “We don’t know,” he repeated gently, as if afraid his words would break her. “The majority of the Fae visit him at least once every few months, feeding these pillars with the Energy needed to keep him alive. Our best healers have looked over him but honestly we relied a lot on the Elves for healing help so they aren’t sure. The best they could describe is he overused his magic trying to get to you and your mother and it fried his pathways. Magic comes at a cost and he knew that, but in that moment he didn’t care.”
Claire bit her lip against the sudden lump in her throat. He was like this because of her?
“I knew Uncle Erick,” Kallan said softly. “He wouldn’t have made any other choice in that situation.”
