“Is there anything odd happening there? Or in the ruins?”
His face fell, hearing my serious tone. “Not that I know of, but I can check. Just a moment.” I heard the heavy sound of his wings deploying, the ground racing through the glass as he flew directly there. Coltor and what looked like dozens of stone kin were all milling about near the doorways in the ruins.
“Ramsey just jumped gates here,” I said plainly. “Do you have anything similar happening there?”
Coltor’s expression was intense. He looked tired. “Multiple portals lit up briefly. I’m about to send some teams in to investigate.” His eyes turned skyward. “The sky is an odd color, and everyone is extra nervy today. I’m thinking Rylan’s prediction was correct.” He held up a shiny new blade. “Imogen has delivered a whole batch of Dark blades, so we’re well equipped. D’Arcan got theirs as well.”
“I’ll bring yours,” Seir said, accepting sheathed blades from one of the soldiers.
“Good. Can you leave the mirror with Coltor, Seir? Show him how to use it? I have two here, so we’ll both still have one.”
“Yes, good idea.”
“Hurry.”
He nodded and disappeared from the glass in my hand, my blood surging anxiously the longer the portals were quiet. When nothing happened, I returned to the kitchen just as Phin came out of her room, fully dressed and very anxious.
“Did she come back?”
“Not yet. You should eat.” I couldn’t shake the sense that something big was coming, and that everything would be disrupted. Normally, eclipses brought some odd energy shifts, but nothing I couldn’t manage. Perhaps I just knew more going into it this time, but this felt very different.
The whine of the portal to the glade sounded, and I called out once I heard Seir’s footsteps. “We’re in the kitchen. There’s breakfast.”
Seir strode through a few moments later, Phin hastily dispatching her toast and eggs. I’d brewed the tea so long ago it was barely warm enough to drink, but I still poured us all a cup.
“How exciting, I never get invited into the kitchen.” His normal enthusiasm was missing. “Everything feels… strange. Do you think that’s just the eclipse?”
“You feel it too?” Phin asked and we both nodded. She sagged. “I’m so glad. I thought it was just me.”
“No, something’s coming.” Seir nodded, his three sets of canines already elongated. “I feel like my skin is too tight or something. I’m itchy, full of energy with nowhere to put it.” He shrugged, trying to rid himself of the sensation. “Anyway, here. Coltor said Imogen sends her apologies, she normally likes to deliver these herself, but she’s patrolling at the conclave today. Things are odd there too. Rylan’s even got the observatory open at d’Arcan despite the cold, and he and Vassago are takingturns watching the portal.” Seir handed Phin the smallest of the sheaths.
“What’s this?”
“Imogen told Coltor that this one is yours, specifically.” He watched, clearly interested as Phin opened the toggle and pulled out a dagger. There was a polished ball of amethyst embedded in the rounded pommel at the end of the handle. The blade itself looked almost marbled, dark and light metals blended to make a blade yet not fully merged.
“It’s beautiful. I’ll have to thank her for it. I’m afraid it’s wasted on me though, my weapons skills are very weak.”
“We can practice,” I assured her, already developing a training workshop in my mind where we could safely spar. Lots of cushions and mats, wooden training swords. Her handling me roughly and with determination on her face… I quickly shut down the lascivious ideas my mind readily supplied.
“He was very insistent I tell you to be very careful not to cut yourself with it.” He grew serious. “I’ve seen what one of these blades will do to a fae.” He swallowed as he stared at her hand. “Please be mindful.”
“I will, I promise.” She slid it back into the protective leather covering. “The belt is very short, where is it supposed to go?”
“That looks like a thigh holster, Feather.”
“Oh.” She experimented with how to fasten it over the top of her leggings while I examined the stout Dark blade Seir handed me. “That makes sense.”
“Angels, then?”
“That’s the suspicion,” he confirmed.
A gate activated with a painfully high-pitched whine just as Phin got the sheath comfortable on her thigh. Without a word, I left the kitchen, Phin and Seir following behind me.
I got to the hall just in time to see two men and one woman, all with violet eyes, step out of a decommissioned doorway. Theportal they were using led to a green place much like Florissar, a place nobody lived or ever visited, where even animal life was scarce. Somewhere nobody, them included, should be.
It was almost as though saying the wordangelhad summoned them.
I unsheathed my new sword, holding it out in front of me as a warning as I approached them at a fast walk.
