“Now.” Maxim’s gaze met Lizzy’s. “Now, we worry,” Maxim said coolly as he rose to his feet.
“So, they’re… they’re dead?” Everything inside Lizzy sunk. Her stomach bottomed out, the blood rushed from her head, and she felt like she might pass out. Finn stood up and wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her upright.
“No, no.” Cindy shook her head frantically. “Not dead. Dead feels like something else. It looks like something else. This is… well, it’s like they’ve fallen off my radar. And all the seer sprites’ radars. No matter how hard we search for their futures, there’s just nothing.”
“Then how can they still be alive?” Alice stepped closer to the group.
“Because I would know if my daughter was dead. She’s got sprite blood,” Cindy explained. “I would know.”
“Has she ever died before?” Lizzy asked without really thinking. “Because if she’s never died before, how the hell could you possibly know that you would know?”
“Lizzy,” Finn said, his arm tightening around her.
“I’m not trying to be rude, but this is Kara. Kara went with them, and this woman is telling me she can’t see Kara’s future. That Kara doesn’t have a future. How can that mean she’s still alive?” Her voice rose as the fear inside her surged.
“Since I’ve come back to the supernatural world, there’s a connection with my daughter that I didn’t have while I lived in the human world with my powers leashed. Just as you would know if Finn died, I would know if Sally was gone from thisworld forever,” Cindy explained. Her husband, Chris, took one of her fidgeting hands in his, and she seemed to settle a bit. “In fact, you should be feeling something from the alpha bond that Fane has with every wolf under his power. Do you feel anything strange?”
Lizzy paused her Kara freak-out and focused inward. She searched for the wolf that lived within her and what the beast was feeling. She sucked in a breath. There was something there. Something missing, but like Cindy said, it didn’t feel gone—just not right. “I feel it,” she admitted.
Maxim nodded. “Same.”
“The alpha bond feels strained, as if it could snap. It doesn’t feel strong and reassuring,” Finn explained, much better than Lizzy could have.
Cindy’s mouth pinched. “If he were dead, the bond would be gone.” She rubbed her hands together as she continued speaking and shifted every few seconds from one foot to the other. “The heads of each sprite group are going to meet and discuss what this might mean,” Cindy continued. “Our queen was with that group as well. If she were dead, we’d all know it.”
“What’s your theory?” Lizzy asked, narrowing her eyes at the woman. “You’re a supernatural, and you see the future. Surely, you have some sort of theory.”
Cindy thought for a moment. “I think they’re alive, but not in the human realm. Wherever they’ve gone, it’s beyond the sprites’ ability to see. That could mean other realms.”
“Well, that’s at least hopeful, right?” Lizzy asked. “Not dead means there’s hope to bring them back.”
Cindy nodded. “We just have to figure out where we need to bring them back from.”
“How many realms are there?” Finn asked.
“That’s a little hard to answer.” Cindy’s mouth pinched. “The realms that have remained open for centuries are Fae, Elves, Pixies, Djinn, and Draheim.”
“Okay, so what realms haven’t remained open, and why?” Lizzy narrowed her eyes.
“Trolls, the Dark Forest—which has sort of been opened, closed, and opened again. It’s a little tricky. And then there’s another, but it’s been closed for as long as anyone, even the oldest of our kind, can remember.”
“What’s that one?” Alice asked.
“It’s called the Realm of the Dead,” Cindy answered, her voice dropping a bit.
Lizzy’s brow furrowed. “You mean hell?”
Cindy shook her head. “No. Not exactly. Hell is where people go to be punished. The Realm of the Dead is different. Sort of.”
“You’re starting to speak gibberish, and it’s frustrating me.” Lizzy was unable to keep the bite out of her tone. Kara was gone, possibly in one of these realms, and now there was a chance she was in a realm called the Realm of the Dead that wasn’t hell but sort of was.
“How do we find out if this is what actually happened to them?” Maxim asked.
“There are three ways: we go to those veils and actually enter the realms, we consult the Djinn holder of all history, or we go to the one person who would know—Celise.”
“The crazy sprite who wants Peri dead?” Lizzy laughed. “Because she’s just going to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with us, no doubt.”
“Sounds like we start with the Djinn,” Alice offered. “That would be quicker than searching a bunch of realms, right?”
