Chapter 23

Ava looked at Espy. “Are you nervous?”

Espy flipped her hair back from her face and glanced to where King Troy was talking quietly to Carpi. “I’m not sure. I mean someone looking in my head—” She winced. “What if there are things in there I don’t want to be seen?”

Em pushed her glasses up. “I’m sure in all his years, he’s seen things that he understood were private.” She nodded, her curls bouncing against her forehead. Ava watched her study her for a moment. “Karma told me. I am sorry.”

Ava crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the cabinet. “Thanks. It’s not like I knew her, right?” She hadn’t told anyone else that she knew her mother was from FaTerra. Who would she ask about what her mixed DNA meant? Fairies were powerful—angels, well, she knew nothing about them except they had wings. So, how did she find out what all that meant? Did she have a special purpose, like with Jeri and—she looked at Espy. Did she?

Jeri came into the dining room, she looked so happy. Ava was glad for that. Too often, she’d observed her looking solemn and scared.

“Trendan will be here in a minute.” She turned to Em. “I asked him, and anyone that wants to know more about their DNA, he will take a look.”

Em’s eyes rounded. “Oh. Now I’m nervous.” She grinned.

“I want to know.” Espy went and sat in one of the many chairs around the large table. “Maybe I have a purpose other than seeing things that have already happened.” She rolled her eyes.

“You see some things that haven’t.” Karma pointed to Jeri. “You saw her in robes, and poof, a week later, she’s in them.”

Espy shrugged. “That was rare. What use is seeing things that already happened?”

“If you have, in fact, seen what happened in the circle of stones in the past, it may give us some answers we need to end everything that’s been happening.” King Troy stood inside the door now. He looked bigger in the low-ceiling room.

Trendan came in behind him, his gaze automatically went to Jeri before he did anything else. “Troy.” He inclined his head. “I am curious about what you’re going to find out.”

Troy nodded. “How are things in Solrelm now that you’ve shared the lies?”

Trendan blew out a breath. “Busy. Half the population is reporting things they think they’ve witnessed in the last two hundred years.” He glanced at Jeri again for a second. “Chasing all of that down is exhausting.”

“Let us know if you need a hand. We’ll come over and help.” He turned and looked at Espy. “Are you ready?”

She nodded but looked anything but ready. “It’s not going to hurt, right?”

He smiled reassuringly. “It won’t unless someone has spelled your memories.”

“I wouldn’t call these memories. I wasn’t alive when they happened.”

He moved toward her. “The fates have given them to you, so you are the record of what happened.”

“Lucky me.” She snorted.

Ava moved out of his way. She didn’t know if being close to him while he did this was going to set off something inside her, so she wasn’t taking any chances. She glanced over to see Jeri move to stand beside her man. He was looking at each one of them in the room. Their eyes connected for a moment, but other than a slight tilt of his head, he didn’t pause on her long.

“I’m going to sit beside you.” The king pulled out a chair and sat down, facing her. “Occasionally, I need to touch someone to see everything, but if I do, I will only rest my hand lightly on your shoulder.”

Espy nodded and blew out a breath. “Do you want me to look at you or…”

“If it’s awkward for you, you can just close your eyes and relax.”

She nodded “Yeah, that’s better for me.” She huffed out another breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Thank you for consenting to this. It may be the pieces we’re missing.”

She shrugged. “Sure. It’s not like I’m doing anything with the images.” She smiled, and Ava could see she was a little more relaxed now.

From where Ava stood, all it looked like was he was looking at the floor, and she was sitting there with her eyes closed. It was strange. He was seeing inside her head without doing anything. A few times, she saw his brow crease and then relax. What was he seeing? Was that good?

When Em sucked in a breath, Ava turned to look at her across from where she stood. She had an intense expression on her face. If it weren’t for the uncomfortable silence in the room, she would have asked if she was all right. That look usually meant she was picking up on some serious emotions. The problem with that was there were a lot of them in this room, so there was no guessing on her part whose emotions Em was absorbing.

King Troy lifted his head, but his eyes still looked far away. He rubbed his hand over his face. “You can open your eyes now.” He turned and looked at Capri before he looked back at Espy. “You have a lot of images that could be relevant to all of the realms and this plight we’re dealing with.” He nodded slowly. “I will need to write down all I saw today, but if you consent, I would like to do a few more sessions and see if I can grasp more that may help us.”

Espy’s eyes rounded. “It’s useful stuff?”

He nodded, and then his expression lightened for a moment. “Yes. Very.”

“Okay, then.” She shrugged. “Sure, if it helps.”

Trendan moved closer to the table. “Who did you see at the circle of stones? Are you able to discern which realm they’re affiliated to?”

“I just need a moment to sort through it.” The king stood up and moved out of the room.

“Way to go, Espy.” Karma smiled at her.

Espy looked shocked. “Who knew all that was useful.” She scoffed. “I wonder if my journal will be helpful.” She looked at Capri.

“It won’t hurt to share it with a few elders, they may be able to piece some things together.” Carpi nodded and then sobered and looked at Trendan. “Anyone who wants to know more about their internal makeup.” She motioned to him. “There’s the man to ask.”

Em moved slowly. “I think I do.” Her voice was quiet. “Maybe I have a purpose that’s needed in all of this chaos.” She straightened her spine and then turned and looked at Trendan. “If you could take a look.”

He inclined his head and moved around the table to stand closer to her. “I usually don’t need to be too close, but with the number of mixed DNA in here, I want to be certain.”

Em nodded, causing her curls to spring to life. “Okay.”

“Alterealm is quite strong.” He said quietly. “Human.” He smiled. “Aridon is almost as strong as Alterealm.”

Em opened her mouth and then closed for a second. “I’m going to need to research.” She started to turn and then looked back at him. “Thank you.”

Ava watched her walk out of the room. All of them really did need to know more about the other realms. She was willing to bet there was no angel instruction manual.

“I need to know.” Espy stood up quickly. “Please.” She looked more nervous about this than she did having someone look inside her head.

Trendan didn’t speak, he just moved over to where she stood and looked around her, not really at her. “Human, Alterealm and FaTerra.” He said softly.

Espy blew out a breath. “A lot of Alterealm in us all.” She grinned.

King Troy was standing at the door. “The fact that any of you exist is the fault of each realm.” He inhaled a deep breath. “—and yet, without many of you, we would not have what is needed to stop all of this.” He motioned to the chairs. “Please sit, I will try to convey what I have seen that pertains to the circle of stones.”

Ava continued to stand. She didn’t know what he wanted to say, but she preferred to take things head-on. Before he could speak, Princess Aireese, Firo, and Crissy walked in. Firo looked right at her, barely giving a glance to anyone else in the room. Ava felt a tingle move through her. What was with that? She’d felt it when they touched too. Was it a Fa Terra thing?

“What Espy saw of the circle of stones was very detailed. At first, I thought she was one of those present, but came to understand that this scene was not through the eyes of anyone there.”

“Someone put this in my head? They weren’t there?”

Troy tilted his head to the side. “It’s difficult to say. It was someone watching, but magic can’t be used in there.” He looked at Aireese. “At least none that we know of.”

Espy closed her eyes and shook her “Just-what did you see?”

“It was without sound, and yet I could feel the commotion. There were many there, from each realm. It seemed it was a full meeting of the council of the realms.” He glanced at Aireese. “However, there were more than required. The full council would be twenty-four. In this instance, there were twenty-six.” He rubbed his hand over his forehead, and Ava wondered if he felt discomfort when he looked inside someone’s head. “Each realm has four to represent. In her mind, there were five from FaTerra.” Aireese cocked her head to the side. “The twenty-sixth person I am not able to say which realm, if any, they were from.”

“Why would there be two not on the council there?” Capri asked.

Troy lifted his shoulders and let them relax again. “I cannot be certain. There was a very animated discussion taking place. Each looking toward the two that weren’t from the council.”

“We may be able to find out who the extra Fa Terra resident was.” Aireese glanced at Firo before looking back to Troy. “Can you describe the other one?”

Troy put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. “It’s strange, but they seemed blurred when every other one was very clear.”

Firo and Aireese both turned to look at Ava. She raised both eyebrows. “I don’t know who.”

“Of course not.” Aireese gave her a gentle look. “It may be possible that the other one was somehow related to the other side of your DNA.”

“You’re saying angels were involved?” Capri’s hair was moving. That was never good.

“At this point.” Troy opened his arms and held them like that. “I’m saying anything is possible.”

“Do you know when this memory or vision was from?”

Troy rubbed his hands together. “I will have to speak to some of my elders and ask about trends during the various era’s. I know it was at least three hundred years ago, but I can’t say how much further back it goes.”

Capri nodded. Her hair seemed to move less. “Please let us know when you do.”

“Something is happening with the water again.” Crissy blurted out. “Sorry.” She smiled at her brother-in-law. “I stayed quiet as long as I could.”

“Which water?” Troy asked her.

She looked at Jeri and then Trendan. “Their water.”

“The river? You’ve seen that river again?”

Crissy nodded. “And wings. more than one pair of wings.” She frowned. “I don’t know if they fly though.” She sighed. “I really want to see flying soon, I keep thinking about it.” She snorted. “Not a vision thinking, but my brain thinking.” She shrugged and then looked at the floor. “The circle is filled with light—” She turned toward the door. “—I need more pieces.”

Everyone looked at her. “Okay.” Troy glanced at Trendan. “Can you take us to that location?”

He gave Jeri a hesitant look. “Other than Victor porting us out, I only know the drive to get there.”

“Reagan was there too,” Jeri said.

“We’re going as well,” Aireese said and glanced from Firo to Ava.

“Wings.” Ava blew out a slow breath. “I guess that counts me in.”

Firo’s brows creased when she said that, but he didn’t object vocally to her volunteering.

Troy was on his phone. “I’ll get Reagan or Victor here to take us.”

“I don’t want to go,” Crissy said. “I don’t like water anymore. It keeps trying to kill people I like.”

“You don’t have to go, Criss.”

She sighed. “Okay. I need to see why the circle of stones is filled with light. I’m going to go to my roof.” She disappeared.

“I’m going with you.” Karma looked at Ava.

“Me too.” Flora shoved her sunglasses to rest on top of her head. “I can’t do water, that I know of, but if a vine or something is needed, I can do that.” She nodded.

Ava felt better that some of her sisters were going.

Troy hung up his phone. “Victor is occupied, but Reagan and Quinton will be here in a moment.”

Jeri looked at Trendan. “I don’t think I can go there again.” She sent Ava an apologetic look.

Trendan went over to her and leaned down, and kissed her forehead. “You don’t need to.”

“Neither of you do.” Troy straightened. “We can’t have anything happen to the next king and queen of Solrelm.”

“Or one of Alterealm’s kings.” Quinton and Reagan stepped into the room. He leveled his brother with a hard look. “Go home, Troy.”

Aireese glanced around the room. “That is fine. With Firo and I there, we can keep everyone safe.”

Troy heaved an audible sigh. He pointed at his brother. “You call me and fill me in.”

Quinton nodded. “Don’t worry. Rea will see any magic or portals. If it gets dicey, we’ll port out and go back with more bodies.”

Troy studied him for a moment. “Fine.” He glanced at Carpi and inclined his head.

Regan looked around. “Who’s going?” She held out her arm.

Flora and Karma walked around the table and put their hands on her arm.

Ava nodded and followed them quickly. Firo held her gaze as he placed a hand on Quinton’s shoulder when he touched his mate. She wondered if that was a respect thing. Not touching someone else’s mate of the opposite sex. Just one more question she needed to ask someone.

Aireese smiled and stepped in front of Reagan. “I am going to cloak us until we can look around.”

“I like that sound of that,” Quinton said. “Sneak attack.” He grinned.