“As the Chosen, the One of Every Blood, only you havethe power to close the stones. To stop them vibrating and emanating magic,” Cress explained patiently. “If you close them, their magic will condense and retreat to the center of the stone. The realm’s magic will protect itself and hibernate beneath an impenetrable crystal crust.”
“And what’s the point of that?”
“If they are closed, they are worthless to the Devourer. Their magic cannot be absorbed. If he tries, the stone will pass right through without consequence.”
I held back a snigger. My hallucinations wanted me to work some magic and get my imaginary villain to poop out a whole rock.
“If they are devoured while they are active,” Cress went on. “The magic is drained from the stone and absorbed by the Devourer. He will take some of their unique power. And in time,allmagic will fade from that realm. Forever.”
“Right. That sounds serious. And Connor has done this before?”
“Yes.” Cress nodded. “It started a long time ago, in our own Upper World. Connor entered another fae realm adjacent to ours—the Kingdom of the Creatives—with the view to court one of the princesses. In a bid to impress him, the princess showed him their spark stone. Connor was entranced, and for some reason, he was compelled to devour it.”
“He saw something pretty, and he thought he should… eat it?” That was something a toddler would do.
“The stones vibrate with power.” Donovan’s low, rumbling voice echoed through the room. Damn, his voice really was something. “My brother has always craved power. He would have held the stone, and his instincts would have screamed at him to consume?—”
“Right.” I cut him off. “Tell me, Nate.” I pointed at himwith my marker. “What happened to Connor when he devoured the Creative’s spark stone?”
“He absorbed a core element of their magic.”
“The magic of expression?”
“It is a great and powerful magic,” Donovan’s voice rumbled through the room again. “Do not underestimate?—”
“I don’t,” I said icily, cutting him off again. “I know how powerful the magic of expression is. I know what a great power it is to make someone cry with a painting or a sculpture. To be able to imbue art with so much meaning so it provokes great emotion is truly magical.” This was my hallucination, goddamnit. I knew what I was talking about. I didn’t need someone to mansplain it to me, even if he was an imaginary man.
Donovan stared at me. I held his gaze, then tapped the fridge again, and wrotecreative stone = the power of expression.“I’m guessing the magic made him better at manipulating people.”
Nobody answered me. I turned around and raised an eyebrow. It was my “come on, people, please don’t disappoint me” face.
“Uh, yes, my lady,” Eryk said hastily. “That is exactly what it did.”
“Great. What else has he devoured?”
“A handful of others. Most were from magically weak realms, because he found them easier to infiltrate and rob, but all the stones still gifted him with some magical power. The banshee stone, which gave him the power of knowing when someone will die, and the eovine stone, which helps him sense where someone’s loyalties lie, and theeeek eeek peonnakstone, which?—”
I held up my hand. I was obviously getting tired; my hallucinations were getting sloppy. “Okay. So, if I close aspark stone, that realm’s magic will be protected, and the little brother won’t be able to absorb the magic. Are there any other side effects from closing the stones?” I knew all about side effects. My medication had some fun side-effects where they made me forget what I’d opened my closet for, and they caused me to put on a ton of weight. Luckily, I was too poor to eat these days, so I was almost back to my usual figure. And there was barely anything left in my closet, anyway, so my options were already limited.
Eryk cleared his throat. “If the spark stones are closed by the Chosen One, then the realm will go on as normal. They will keep their powers, but the creatures of that realm will find their evolution paused. They will retain their magic and their world, but they will not grow any further.”
“Hmm. Bummer.” I clicked the cap on and off my marker. “So, that brings us to you guys. You’ve obviously been doing okay so far, stopping your brother from getting his hands on each stone. Why did you show up here now?”
“So far,” Cress said. “Connor has mostly targeted spark stones from the realms in the Upper World. Of course, these stones are the most magically powerful, so he has focused on those.”
“Of course,” I murmured. “Because knowing when someone is going to die is a fabulous power to have.”
Cress ignored me. “We have now ensured that all of the stones from the Upper World realms are safe and well-guarded. But recently, the Elonn Fae guardian of the scribe stone has gone rogue. This Elonn elder has come here, into the Middle World, with his realm’s spark stone. We are afraid the weak magic of the Middle World will not be able to sustain his protections on the stone.” She paused, grimacing. “And now we also know that Connor has entered the Middle World. He is here, somewhere in the human realm. So far, we have decided not to bring you, theChosen, the One of Every Blood, into this mess, because it was a problem for the Upper World. Now, it might be everyone’s problem.”
I shot a glance at Donovan. His expression told me everything I needed to know about how much worth I’d bring.
Maybe this episode—this hallucination—was my subconscious way of rebuilding my confidence. I’d find the stones, defeat the bad guy, and prove to this huge, brooding sexy asshole that I was worth something.
“Cress. This is futile.”
She flinched.
“We do not need her,” Donovan growled. “We must find the scribe stone ourselves and make sure it is guarded properly.”
