I shook my head. “She’s not aware yet. At least not that I know of.”
“And you?” Rylan asked.
“From first sight.”
They muttered sympathetically, and we resumed the climb.
“Is the bond not agitated?” Vassago rubbed at his own chest with the question. “My ribs burned terribly.”
“It’s quite angry most of the time, but there’s nothing to be done about that.”
“I tried just about every remedy,” Rylan commiserated. “Nothing worked. I’m afraid you’re right.”
“It’s not that bad.” The words even tasted like a lie, so I knew they didn’t believe me, but they allowed me to pretend.
“Well, the best to the both of you. Hopefully things work out.” Magnus clapped me on the shoulder.
“Thank you.”
After what seemed like an endless number of stairs, we finally arrived at the observatory tower. The roof was closed due to the cold weather, but the round marble dome was still a wonder. A huge telescope was the focus of the room, but Rylan had added piles of cushions and several tables for keeping his massive star charts on. He walked straight to one as we followed.
“We’re due an eclipse,” he said without preamble, sorting through his stack and setting out several charts, one next to the other. “Just a few short weeks from now.”
“Those happen rather frequently, do they not?” Magnus asked, poking at the massive charts.
“They do, but there’s a pattern to this one.”
“I’m not sure I understand.” Magnus crossed his arms and scanned the charts, clearly confused as to why that might be significant.
“Celestial alignments can act as doorways,” I supplied. “Or amplify existing ones.”
“Yes,” Rylan nodded, pointing to a section that matched up on every chart he’d set out. “There is an eclipse right around the birth of each of our mates. And”—he flipped pages, revealing another set of charts with the same eclipse denotation—“around the disappearance of every missing person we’re searching for.” He glanced at me. “Shall I assume Phin’s parents should be included in this?”
I nodded. “Likely. They never returned after leaving her at the church in Vincara for her safety. I can ask Phin for specificity so it can be added to your charting. As well as for her birth.” I touched the parchment, fascinated as always by my brother’s talent. “But there are no portals linked specifically to eclipses,” I said. “None that I know of would just spontaneously awaken because of an event like that. They’d likely have to be manually opened back up.”
“But?” Vassago prompted as I looked closer at the charts, hearing the hesitation in my voice.
“But there’ve been some odd things happening lately that I need to investigate further. Decommissioned gates with activity. Coltor mentioned some odd surges in the ruins as well. We’re monitoring as well as we can, but there’s not much there to look into. Magnus, can you spare some soldiers? There are many to be evaluated, possibly watched from the other side for a while.”
His brow furrowed. “I’ll pull as many as I can. Might take a little time to organize, though.”
I nodded. “They can go through Coltor, the doors in the glade. That may keep it a bit more covert if they’re somehow watching the main gates specifically.”
Magnus nodded. “I’ll talk to him once I know how many and when.” He scratched the stubble on his chin, the rasp loud in the highly acoustic space. “Brookes was the one responsible for arranging several of the disappearances, we know that for certain. He admitted as much. We suspect he had at least oneunknown collaborator, someone who helped him to perform such an impossible task. Hugo and Auggie have already been dealt with. We’ve interrogated and searched what we can, but he was clever and covered his tracks very well. They all created and exploited weaknesses within the council itself.”
Magnus’s sister Rowan, Greta’s mother, was one of the missing. Calla’s parents, who were a powerful witch and a stone kin, were counted among them. Hailon’s too, a demoness and a warlock. Phin’s likely as well. We knew for certain that Calla’s parents had been strictly forbidden from marrying by the witch and stone kin councils. One could assume that Rowan had been similarly dissuaded from falling in love with Ris, who was now King of the Everwood in the fae realm. Hailon’s parents had left her with her mother’s best friend and gone on the run, much like Phin had been left at the church. A love affair between a high-ranking angel and an earth-bound demon seemed likely to have caused some trouble. The pattern was too strong to ignore.
“Ramsey has been following a trio of angels for years. They appeared in Vincara around when Seir and I visited, looking for Phin. She warned me that they are as skilled at using portals as hellhounds.”
“If that’s all true, we might be in for a bigger fight than we thought.” Rylan sighed. “And here I was just going to ask if it would be possible to find a suitable place for a poison garden in one of your unused gates. I didn’t think I’d have to be considering battle plans for angelic adversaries.”
“We can do both,” I suggested.
“Both it is.” Rylan grinned, his dark hair swaying forward as he moved to restack his charts.
“I’ll speak with Imogen,” Magnus said. “She’s been working on refining the Dark blades. If we’re dealing with angels, we’ll need more.”
Vassago and Rylan nodded their agreement, and I knew if Seir were there with us, he’d be first in line to take up his blades. I inhaled, finding I was at ease, even with such a threat looming.
