Chapter 19

I stood beside the thrones, trying to be unseen. The room was full of people, many more than other meetings I’d seen. Beth and Crissy sat on the stand the thrones were on; they were just as quiet.

Quinton came over and perched on the window ledge beside us. He watched servants bring in more chairs and set them at the other end of the room. 

Bethany leaned around Crissy and looked at him. “Are more coming?” She looked around the room. “Good thing we picked this room for meetings.”

He shook his head. “No, but we only planned for thirty seats around the tables.” 

Crissy said, “There’s forty-five here or will be when Victor gets here.”

I watched Quinton for a moment. He’d avoided eye contact with me since our discussion. “All of the Elders are here. Is that good?” I asked.

Quinton shrugged. “Saves us having a second meeting to tell them the same thing.”

Bethany nodded. “Is that another royal family member with Prince Bastian?” She glanced at me. “Trying to learn who is who if I’m to pull off this princess thing.”

“That’s his guard, Tor.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “The other realms are on full alert too.”

“How many reported back with issues?” Bethany looked worried.

“Two so far. The others are keeping an eye on things.” He watched Michael go over and speak to Bastian. Bastian nodded and turned to look at me. Quinton turned to look at me.

“I don’t see things for other realms,” Crissy said quietly.

“That’s good.” Quinton gave her an amused look. “I don’t think you have enough headspace for more visions and more realms.”

With her eyes wide, Crissy gave him a quick nod. “I don’t know if it’s this realm or the one I was stuck in I see.” She paused. “I think it’s more the people that are important in them than the place.”

Quinton looked at me after she said that but didn’t comment.

“Who is the woman with the gorgeous hair?” Beth asked him quietly.

I didn’t have to look around to know who she was talking about. There was only one woman here I didn’t know, and she had long, pale strawberry blonde hair. But that wasn’t what made her stand out to me. Her skin almost glowed with flawless perfection.

“Princess Aireese of FaTerra,” Quinton answered without looking.

Bethany looked back at him, but he didn’t add any more.

Crissy leaned closer to Bethany. “She’s a fae.”

Beth’s mouth dropped open. “Like a real fairy?”

Crissy nodded. “I read about them in the Alterealm library.” She grinned. “It’s fascinating.”

I looked at the woman and the large man standing behind her. He was pretty for a man.

“Is that her guard?” Beth asked.

Quinton nodded. “Yeah. His name is Firo or something like that.”

“Wow,” Beth whispered. “A fairy princess.” She turned and grinned at me.

“How many realms are there?” I looked at Quinton.

“Six,” he stated without any inflection whatsoever, like it was a totally normal thing.

I knew of three but didn’t ever stop to think that there might be more. I looked at him. “And you know all of them?”

He nodded. “I’ve only been to Solrelm and FaTerra.” He shrugged. “The others are of no interest to me.”

I shrugged and then gave Bethany a blank look.

She smirked. “I’m still trying to get used to here—I don’t know if I’d want to go to yet another realm.” She put her hand on her stomach. “Especially if my body hates it as much as porting around here.”

He tilted his head and looked at her. “It’s worse.”

“Uh, yeah, no thanks.” She grimaced.

The sound of chairs scraping had us all turn. Victor was walking through the room, speaking to the important guests. 

“Let’s hope they have ideas how to end this.” Bethany got up and went toward Leone.

Crissy waited until Victor looked at her, then went toward him.

I got up and turned to Quinton. “Any protocol I need to know? Just so I don’t commit any horrible offenses.”

He looked at me for a moment, then leaned forward and pulled on the chain that had his pendant on it. “You’re in Alterealm, so as long as you’re entitled to wear this—” he released it and stood up, “it’s them that should worry about offending you.” Then, inclining his head to me, he motioned to the table. “We’re to sit in rank order for this.”

I nodded and went with him, having no idea about rank. Aside from kings and queens, I didn’t know the order, so I stood until the rest of the brothers and their mates sat down.

Emil gave me an understanding look as I sat down beside him.

“As most of you know,” Troy began, “this was originally the time we’d allotted for a different meeting.” He glanced at Bastian. “We’ve discovered some things that needed to be shared with the rest of you.” Inclining his head to Princess Aireese, he glanced at Victor.

Victor didn’t waste time with formal protocol. “Princess, have your guards been able to locate those working with Willis Hubert?”

The Princess shook her head. “They haven’t.” She glanced to her guard sitting behind her for a moment before turning back to look at the twin kings. “However, we’ve confirmed the location where they intended to breach.”

The Elder with the curly white hair sat forward. “Was it scientifically detected, or was it more magic being used?”

The Princess smirked. “I’m told it was a mix.” She clasped her hands in front of her neatly. “I’m sure our experts would be glad for the collaboration, Elder Arian.”

The Elder looked pleased with this and nodded her head quickly and sat back again.

It occurred to me then that I needed to start committing names to memory. Beyond the royal family here in Alterealm, names were lost on me. I wondered if it was because I was solo for so many years and never had to remember people.

“And what of your realm, Prince Bastian?”

I snapped out of my internal dialogue.

Bastian leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m told they haven’t found a location, but we’re still getting information from the traitors that were helping that lunatic.” He glanced at Elder Arian. “Perhaps we could combine skill sets to see if we can locate the barrier site they were targeting.” The Elder nodded.

“I’ll set it up it up with your people to have mine come over and see what can be done,” the Princess said with a quiet tone. “What else have you discovered?” She turned back to look at Troy.

Troy stood up and glanced around at his brothers briefly. “As you know, Willis Hubert has been working with Arwan.”

I watched the expressions in the room change to everything from fear to disgust.

“With the help of Reagan,” he continued, “we’ve been able to find portals he’s been using here and in the human realm.”

Every eye in the room was now on me as he spoke. I had to fight to keep from sliding under the table to hide.

“I’m just waiting on the head of our magic factions to arrive to confirm our other suspicions.” Victor looked at his phone and nodded at Troy, then got up and went over to a large board on the other side of the room. “Today, we intercepted transportation of a tremendous amount of explosives.”

There were several audible gasps in the room.

“Are they thinking they can blow up the barriers?” Elder Arian sounded amused.

Troy opened his hands. “I don’t think they’re that naive.” His expression was grim. “We’re still working on discovering their plans.”

“I think we can all agree they’re not that naive,” the Elder with the long white braid stated. “Which leaves the question: what were they planning to demolish?”

“I agree, Elder Varus.” Troy nodded slowly. “I’ve advised all realms to increase security. We’ve canceled all crossings outside the teams working on this.”

Bastian nodded. “We have done the same.”

“As have we,” Princess Aireese added.

The door opened, and Romulus and Clairee came in. They inclined their head to Troy, then went over to Victor and spoke quietly.

Victor nodded and then looked at the map in front of him. His shoulders stiffened, then he turned back to the rest of the room. “It has been confirmed.” He held up a marker. “A century ago, our wastelands were considerably smaller.” He turned to the map and put a circle in the center of the orange area. “Each year, it has grown. However, growth has increased greatly for the past few decades.” He circled the entire orange area, put the marker down, and turned to look at everyone. “Arwan has been drawing his energy and power from our lands.”

“For centuries?” Elder Nodin looked concerned.

The mage, Romulus, nodded. “Yes. Before that, he could have used a simpler power source, but,” he looked right at me, “until Princess Reagan was here and able to see the traces of his magic, we had no way of knowing.”

Again, all eyes were on me. Princess? I almost blurted that part out loud.

“The strength of his magic isn’t his own.” The fairy princess looked pleased with this.

“It doesn’t make it any easier to find him,” Bethany said.

The Princess nodded slowly. “That’s true, but if the source is cut off, he’s weakened.”

“I—” Clairee looked at Romulus. “We don’t know how to do that.” She glanced at the Princess, then looked to Troy. “We can on a smaller scale, but if he’s drawing it from the land of this realm,” her eyes widened, “that’s a big source to try and contain.”

Troy considered what she said for a moment, then turned to the Princess. “Perhaps your experts could collaborate with our magic factions and try to come up with a plan.”

The Princess nodded. “I’ll set it up.” She gave Clairee a sympathetic look. “I have no doubt it’s going to be quite the task.”

“If he can be tracked down, Kara can hear the spells as mages cast them,” Rafael said, looking at Kara, who looked like she wanted to crawl under the table.

“So, if you find him, you think you can stop Arwan?” the Princess asked.

“Oh, we’ll stop him.” Paisley nodded. “One way or another.”

“If you can cut off his connection with the land, will his magic be weaker?” Daxx looked at the Princess, then at Romulus.

“Considerably,” Princess Aireese said with conviction.

Daxx nodded, then stood up. “I say that takes priority.” She nodded, then pointed to Bastian. “As well as finding where they’re trying to—” She glanced at Troy.

“Take the barriers down,” he finished.

Most in the room nodded. I just continued to sit there, trying to grasp what all of it meant. Why would you want to break the barriers that kept one realm separate from another?

“We also have a location in the human realm that’s been used for more than a century to port people over—” Chase didn’t bother to stand up. “Many of our citizens were trapped in a mental asylum all this time.” He glanced at Bastian. “We already brought out more than twenty of our own, but I’m wondering if you could look at the rest residing there and see if any from your realms are confined there.”

Bastian nodded. “I can do that.”

“Are you able to close that portal down?” The Princess looked at Romulus.

He nodded slowly. “We should be able to disrupt it.”

“We have to get to it first,” Leone said. “So far,” he glanced at Michael, “we can’t find an access point from the outside to the basement.”

Elder Varus looked right at me. “You’ll be able to see any active portals?”

I nodded. “Yes. I’ve seen the magic trace in Alterealm and all over the city before I was brought here.”

The Elder with the scariest demeanor stood up. He turned to address Victor. “Have patrols been set up with Princess Reagan to seek out all access points over here?”

Victor looked at Quinton for a moment before answering him. “We’ve only just confirmed that was what she was seeing, Elder Segos.” He turned to look at Michael. “I am certain it is in the planning stages now.”

Michael raised his eyebrows to his brother, then nodded and looked back to the Elder. “Rafael and I will start selecting a team for this.”

The Elder looked pleased with this and sat down again.

“How soon do you need me to check the asylum?” Bastian looked from Troy to Chase.

The twins exchanged a glare before Chase sat forward in his seat again. “A few days’ time.” He motioned to the Princess. “Let’s get the barrier locations found first so that we can get watches in place.”

“Please let us know when you find out what they were planning to use the explosives for.” The Princess was looking at Victor as she spoke.

“Immediately,” Victor told her.

“If that’s everything, I should get back and arrange the team to work with Elder Arian.” The Princess stood up. “I’m also going to send more seekers out in my realm to ferret out any with the heart dark enough to be part of this.” A sad look crossed her face. “There have been more rainbows lately. We knew something was happening.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Elder Varus said in a soft tone.

Rainbows were sad? I glanced down the table at Crissy; she looked like she was going to cry. Later, I would have to ask why rainbows were sad.

“Keep us apprised of your discoveries, Princess.” Victor inclined his head to her for a moment.

“I will.” She turned and looked from one brother to the next until she reached Emil. “Congratulations,” she looked at the rest of us, “to all of you for your recent discovery of your life mates.” She smiled at me, then looked at Alona. “The extra abilities many have in this room are electrifying. My wings have been vibrating with it.” She inclined her head to Bastian. “Prince.” With a nod to her guard, she went to the door.

Ira stood up and then left with them.

“Well,” Bastian said after the door closed, “at least she didn’t turn anyone into a tree this time.” He smirked at the shocked looks from the Elders.

Elder Varus stood up. “If that is all,” she motioned to a few of the other Elders, “we have much to do.”

Troy nodded. “That’s all for now.” He turned to Chase before looking back to her. “And thank you for the lists of new job assignment suggestions.” He waved his hand around. “That will be the top of the tasks once we shut down Willis Hubert.”

An Elder with spiked white hair stood up. “Can we drop him in a bottomless pit this time?” she asked.

Arius got up. “It won’t be a catch and release—I guarantee it.”