“I guess I did,” Cyrene said.
“And created a portal,” Quidera breathed.
She still couldn’t believe that she’d been capable of it. But there it was.
Sarielle touched the bond. Malysa never stood a chance at getting through. I’ve never…ever felt anything like that.
Haeven took a step forward. “Can you…can you do that again?”
Cyrene shook her head. “I think only in times of great need.”
“It was incredible. I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Neither did I,” Cyrene said softly, dazed.
Dean rose to his feet. “You did an amazing thing. I have only seen the likes of it once before.”
She turned to him in surprise. “You have?”
“It felt the same when I received this.” Electricity brimmed in his palm. “My gift.”
“It was an awakening?”
“Nothing so magnanimous. Mine came with strings attached. Yours did not. But, in a sense, yes. It felt like a god bestowing a gift.”
Cyrene shook her head in disbelief. She had done something only a god was capable of.
They all continued to look at the portal. Waiting for it to do something. For someone to follow her summons and appear at its center. But it just continued to shimmer and otherwise do nothing.
Perhaps she had gifted magic to everyone with a potential bloodline, and none of those people cared about the safety of the world.
“We need to station troops at the gate in case anyone actually does come through it,” Cyrene said. “The rest of us need to eat something and get some rest if we can. That was incredibly draining, and I am certain it did not go unnoticed by Malysa. We need to replenish our magic before it comes time to face her.”
Cyrene thanked them over and over as each of them filed out of the circle. She watched them disappear until it was just her and Dean. Even Avoca stumbled back to her tent to recover. Sarielle had immediately taken to the skies, heading for the mountains.
“You’re going to stand here all night in hopes that someone shows up, aren’t you?” Dean asked.
She frowned. “Maybe.”
“I’ll get you some dinner,” he said, kissing her forehead and then disappearing.
She stared at the portal and willed someone to walk through it. She had done all the hard work. She just hoped that someone…anyone believed her enough to follow her.
Cyrene crossed her arms and vowed to wait it out. People needed time to get to a portal. They needed time to make a decision.
She couldn’t think about what it would mean if no one showed up.
She was ready to curse the newly erected portal when it began to change. Cyrene jumped back a step in shock. The iridescent swirled around and around on itself. And, instead of showing the other side of the portal like the normal ones, this just plopped a person straight out of the shimmer and onto the ground.
Cyrene gasped as the figure stumbled forward and tried to get her feet under her. The woman was holding a child in her arms. Then she raised her head, and Cyrene gasped.
“Elea?”
“Cyrene.”
“You…you’re glowing,” Cyrene said. Of course she was glowing. Cyrene knew that Elea had magic now. She knew every Doma whom she had awakened. “You have magic. Oh, Elea, this is wonderful. I’m so glad that you’re here.”
“Kael sent me, Cyrene.”
She took a step backward and dropped her smile. “He sent you? Here?” She glanced behind Elea, wondering how this was possibly a trap. If she hadn’t changed the portals correctly. If perhaps Kael could walk out of that portal and destroy them in some way.
“Well, no,” Elea said. “No, he just sent me away. Malysa came to him and told him to kill me and Alessia and Kaliana. He refused to do it and sent me away with Alessia. Kaliana is still in the castle. I don’t know what is going to happen to her.”
Cyrene looked away. She knew exactly what was going to happen. “Why send you away?”
“Because he’s not all evil,” she told her. “He hasn’t succumbed fully to Malysa’s madness. The blood magic has its hooks in him, but I know that he has the capacity for good still.”
“If he does, then he wouldn’t have killed literally thousands of people, Elea.”
Elea nodded, tears streaking down her face. “I know what he is. But he’s that because of her. He didn’t choose it.”
“And you came here, why?”
“Because…you are my sister.”
“I cannot spare him,” she told her truthfully.
Elea bit her lip and hoisted the child higher on her hip. “I know.”
“But I can make it quick because he spared you and Alessia.”
“Thank you,” Elea said, her lip quivering.
Cyrene stepped forward and brushed the tuft of hair off of Alessia’s forehead. “Poor thing. Having to survive in this world.”
“What are we going to do with her?” Elea asked.
Cyrene had a strong sense of déjà vu as she stared down at Kael and Kaliana’s child. She remembered her first Bbound ceremony in the rose garden on the castle grounds. The visions that she’d had. One where Kaliana took her baby. The last living successor to the Dremylon throne. It was flipped entirely on its head here, but it was still the true. Its own truth.
“Protect her,” Cyrene said simply. “There is nothing else we can do.”
Elea’s eyes widened, and Cyrene whirled around. She smiled when she saw Dean heading toward them with a meal.
He arched an eyebrow. “It looks like someone came through?”
Cyrene nodded. “Dean, this is my sister Elea and Alessia Dremylon.”
“I believe that’s Queen Elea,” Dean offered with a short bow.
Elea flushed but held her chin aloft. “I suppose I am.”
Cyrene looked at Elea’s sumptuous gown for the first time. The sapphires in her ears and the intricate hair design. She was a queen. Had somehow become one in her own right while Cyrene was off, adventuring. Elea was not a young girl anymore. She had seen more than her fair share without leaving the palace.
“And the heir to the throne of Byern,” Dean added.
Cyrene gestured to Dean. “And this is Prince Dean Ellison of Eleysia.” She swallowed and added, “My betrothed.”
Elea’s mouth dropped open. “Oh.” She glanced between them. “Congratulations! I didn’t know.”
“It’s recent,” Dean said with a small smile for Cyrene.
“I believe we should get Alessia to Rita,” Cyrene said. “Lady Cauthorn is in the healing tents, figuring out the supplies.”
“Let me,” Dean said, taking Alessia from Elea. “You two might need more time to catch up.”
Elea frowned. “I should probably go with her actually. I would hate for her to wake up and know nobody.”
“We should call Aubron, Reeve, and Cal back,” Cyrene said. “It would be good for her to see familiar faces.”
Dean nodded. “I can do that. Reeve would also like to see his sister, I assume.”
The sisters watched Dean walk away with the sleeping baby in his arms.
“How long have you two been together?”