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I doubted our court was behaving as civilly as the Faeries of the Fen had for the seven thousand years they’d been left unattended.
Step after step, I wondered how many thousands of years it had been since anyone had traversed the ground we walked over.
But there were no obstructions. And two days later, we emerged on the other side of the mountains. The human counterparts of the Spine were every bit as daunting. Just as barren of civilization.
If fae could hardly survive among those icy peaks, the humans had no chance.
In Annwyn, Eilean Gayl waited just beyond the Spine. But instead of craggy green hills, here the land had filled in with lakes. Lakes everywhere. If we’d been able to stand atop the mountains, the land might have looked more like a river winding between the waterways.
Where did Avalon hide, among the labyrinth of water?
Maybe the priestesses of the sacred isle had summoned these lakes, to help hide them.
But when we crested the hill that looked down over that sacred island, shrouded in mist, there was no mistaking the power that hummed from its center.
We had found Avalon.
* * *
It took a few hours to wind our way through the other lakes and waterways to the shore of the sacred isle. But then we were there—so sudden. We’d spent nearly two months—and it felt… anticlimactic.
Not that I would ever say that to Veyka, who was staring at that lake like her entire future awaited there. It very well might.
“I’ve been here before,” she said quietly.
The others were fanning out, scouting the area for defenses or signs of magic. Even in the dull human realm, Avalon was clearly a place of magic. The ground we stood on thrummed with it.
“In the priestess’s vision,” I said, coming to stand beside her. I could see the gooseflesh rising on the small slashes of skin she’d left exposed. But instinct held me back from reaching for her.
“Before that,” she said, her eyes fixed on the wall of mist at the center of the lake. “When I fell through the rifts, I came here. I didn’t realize what it was.”
Her power… the implication hit me squarely in the chest.
She’d traveled through realm after realm, but this wasn’t just falling through the void. She’d moved through the void and covered a distance that had taken us nearly weeks and weeks to traverse. We’d encountered plenty of diversions, but if she could move between realms… over long distances in a matter of seconds or minutes…
She could go to Baylaur. Or Wolf Bay.
If this conflict with the succubus escalated, she could coordinate movements of armies on a massive scale—an unheard-of advantage. Not to mention, the power of moving herself—a capable warrior. And if she could bring others along with her…
But Veyka wasn’t thinking about any of that. Her eyes were fixed on the mists.
“The area is clear,” Lyrena reported.
“I circled wide,” Cyara confirmed as she dropped to the ground, tucking her delicate white wings in behind her.
I nodded sharply—once for each of them. Isolde stood a little further back, watching the proceedings, not intervening or offering comment. I half expected her to melt into the trees and disappear back to the underground city now that she’d fulfilled her task. Still, I wasn’t going to complain about having a skilled healer at our backs.
But all of that was for later. Now, there was one concern—crossing that lake and getting the answers my mate needed. That Annwyn needed. “Percival, how do we—”
“Cyara, what are you doing?” Veyka yelped, jumping backward. “Get her off of me!”
Shock held the others in place. Instinct propelled me forward.
Cyara clutched Veyka’s throat, her small but strong hands digging into the flesh. Veyka didn’t reach for her weapon—wouldn’t. She’d die before she harmed her friend.
But it wasn’t Cyara looking out of those turquoise eyes as Veyka got a hand around her arm and ripped her off before I could even intervene.
The smaller female fell backward into the grass, but her feet never touched the ground. Her wings flapped wildly and she rose into the air.
