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She nodded and looked at me curiously. “Was there something else you needed?”
“Just here for an update if there is one.”
She shook her head. “That was James’ first dose. Based on the doses the woman in the partner trial consumed, I don’t anticipate seeing any change in James’ blood work for several days.”
Several days…that was too long.
“Molev mentioned something to me. Back in their caves, there were crystals they used to keep the hellhounds at bay. I’ve noticed the fey all wear a smaller version of them on their wrists. I know the other team was working on a way to stop the hellhounds, but since we might not be able to contact them, I was wondering if your team might want to look into the crystals.”
“A crystal kept them away?” she asked.
“The light from the crystals did. The ones on their wrist don’t shine anymore. They would need to be recharged in the caves.”
“Thatisinteresting. The hounds avoid the light up here as well, but the light from the crystals didn’t kill them, correct?”
“No. I know I’m grasping at straws, but anything to buy us some more time, right?”
She nodded, already glancing at her screen.
“Yes. Time is what we need the most.”
“Do you want me to see if Eitri would be willing to give you his crystal?”
“Please do. Is there anything else?”
Understanding that she wanted to get back to work, I shook my head and left.
Eitri was upstairs in the kitchen, making sandwiches.
“Would it be alright if the researchers took a look at your crystal?” I asked. “Molev said the ones in the caves kept the hounds at bay, so I’m hoping the doctor might discover something useful.”
He looked down at his wrist, and I could see the hesitation in his gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
“We never take them off,” he said. “Since the beginning, we have always known…we needed them. When Olem removed his crystal, he did not return.”
“Wait, are you saying that you’ll die without the crystal?”
He shook his head slightly and looked up at me.
“We do not resurrect on the surface like we do in the caves. Even if I am wearing the crystal and die here, I will not return. That was why we took Uan to the caves when he was close to death. When he died there, he was reborn in the pools so he could return to Nancy.”
Molev had explained that they died and were reborn from the resurrection pools. And he’d explained how the crystals played a key role in their lives. But he’d never explained the connection between their rebirths and the crystal.
Eitri took a knife and cut the leather cords holding the crystal to his wrist. It fell free into his hand, and he tossed the crystal to me. I caught it, looking at the opaque shard swirled with white and grey. It was almost identical to every other crystal I’d noted that the fey wore. Nothing about it screamed special rock, but if it was the key to bringing them back to life, it could also be the key to their deaths. And that was something I did not want.
Yet, I thought back to everything Molev had told me about their origin. Things Mya had learned after touching their source crystal. Magic. Their cursed lives. The evolution of the hounds in those caves. It all came back to these crystals.
No…it all came back to their source crystal. These crystals were only extensions of the source. A source that existed in a place where nothing truly died.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
I jogged down the stairs and found the doctor right where I’d left her.
“Can you check this for those vibrations?” I asked.
She looked up from her work and frowned at me, then at the crystal I was holding out.
