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Mara had even gone exploring to sate Alana’s curiosity, though she knew it wasn’t something Mara loved. They had an unspoken rule that they would do whatever the other wanted and seemed to take turns choosing their next exploit. That came to an end after the camp. When Alana had put her nose where it didn’t belong. How she wished she could take that one stupid exploration back. When she told her mother what she had done, and her mother had administered that life-altering test.
Mara tapped the table. “Alana, are you still with us?”
Her brow furrowed. “Sorry.”
“Can you tell us what is going on? Why are we sick?”
“I don’t think Adara can maintain the connection right now. This seemed sudden, so I am unsure what caused it this time. Usually, it’s a slow drain, so the druids don’t notice the constricted flow of magic.”
Kell touched her arm, but she pulled it from his grasp without turning to look at him. She knew better than to trust anyone. In the end, she hadn’t even believed in her own mother. “Alana, we all need to work on this together. You know that your survival is imperative to me. To all the dragons.”
She turned, and the pain in his eyes squeezed her heart. She had hurt him, but that’s what she did to everyone. He was better off without her. “I am aware the dragons can’t survive without us. It may be hard for you to believe, but I have been trying to ensure the druids survive. In doing so, I have ensured the dragons do as well, though I didn’t realize that’s what you were until Legion.”
Kell held her gaze, and she leaned toward him, before she forcibly stopped her body from connecting with him. “I believe in you, Alana. I do not know the reasons for your actions, but I believe you had your sister’s best interest at heart.”
Mara lowered her voice. “Please, Alana. Tell us what is going on with Adara.”
She sighed. “The realm created for the temple is failing. She knew this would happen, and she planned for it, but there have been some incidents that utilized more energy than she could expend.”
Legion glanced between the sisters. “What could cause the realm to fail? It was maintained for almost two thousand years without any noticeable decline. I spoke with Adara often. She was not diminished.”
Alana shrugged. “I honestly don’t know what happened or what powered her before she called to me to help her. I do know the realm had a limited shelf life, but not the power source she used prior to me. Maybe it was Mara’s upcoming emergence? She mentioned her magic had passed when we first met, but her realm was always doomed to fail, eventually.”
Kell frowned. “Prior to you? Do you assist in powering Adara?”
Alana wet her lips and tried not to notice how Kell watched her tongue slip over them. “That’s why she called me... earlier than most. I didn’t have magic, but my skills are inherent. I search for relics that will boost her power until Tempest is ready to return her to our world.”
Mara moved an errant strand of hair from her face. “Tempest? Do you know how she will return the temple to our world?”
“I can’t enact the spell, but it is in the book our family hid for the last two thousand years. I can tell you that all the circles have to be in the temple and all of us have to be at full power.”
“What about the babies? Are the pregnant druids safe to perform a spell of this magnitude?”
“I have no idea. All I can confirm is that Tempest is the only one who can open the gateway between worlds. She is a natural portal, but it will take all our power to boost hers enough for the temple to pass. What you see is only a portion of her power. At least that’s what she tells me. I haven’t actually been there,” Alana said.
Mara’s green eyes flickered with blue fire. The surge was small compared to her natural power, but it revealed her magic was very much in place. “You knew this would happen? That Adara would eventually be compromised?”
“Yes,” Alana said.
“I am willing to overlook the time when you didn’t realize I was the seer, but how could you keep this from me once you knew? What is wrong with you?”
She had years to perfect her stony exterior and she rarely let it slip. When she was in danger of allowing her emotions to get the best of her, she lowered her eyes. Her first instinct was to pull her hand away when Kell wrapped his around hers, but he didn’t intrude on her mind, and she could sense his anguish at her pain. In the end, her sister’s anger was justified, so there was nothing she could say. “I have collected all but a few artifacts that will boost Adara’s power.” She pulled the white bone whistle from her pocket and laid it on the table before pulling out her onyx circle. “These will help her for now, but the circle isn’t like the other artifacts. It has to be taken to the temple. While the temple can absorb the energy from artifacts of other cultures, she can’t transfer the circle to her. It must be placed.”
Mara’s jaw dropped when she saw the circle. “Where did you find this?”
“It was in the caves north of the mountain. That’s where I was when Kell found me.”
Mara picked up the bone whistle. “What does this do?”
Alana pointed to the artifact. “That is the Horn of Cannon. He was a mage who once worked with the druids. Anything infused with magic is absorbed by the temple. She uses it to power her realm until she can be restored here.”
Legion frowned. “I have never heard of a spell that works like this.”
Alana thought about his remark. “It isn’t a spell exactly. Think of the artifacts as magic batteries, only they are not rechargeable. I have been collecting them and passing them to Adara since I was fifteen.”
Mara sucked in a breath. “Fifteen? What happened to the temple to cause this drain of power?”
Alana shook her head. “She didn’t say. All I know is she started to... flounder and needed something to keep her realm powered.”
