I paused, turning to face the group. "We make the barrier sticky. Like flypaper. Any being without a physical form will get caught, trapped. They won't be able to pass through."
Tanni's eyes widened, her delicate features etched with worry. "Is that even possible? It would have to surround the entire world."
I nodded. "It is. But it will require a massive amount of power. More than I currently have access to."
Cathy tilted her head. "What do you mean? How much power are we talking about here?"
Bran, who was a talented mage and knew exactly how much power it would take, was staring at me unblinking. I could all but hear him putting the clues together in his head. Then he glanced at Rey, whose face was probably going to split if that grin didn’t stop getting wider.
Yes, Bran, I have the power of a goddess. Please don’t share with everyone in the room.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for their reactions. "I hid a diamond that contains the majority of a deity’s powers, hidden away when the daemons overthrew them."
Trying to keep deniability with careful phrasing was harder than it looked. The room fell silent, the weight of my words hanging in the air.
Edward leaned forward, his dark eyes narrowed. "Where is this diamond now?"
Nice try, daemon.
I laughed. "That’s none of your damn business."
Bran stood up, his tall frame towering over the others. "Then that's what we do. We retrieve the diamond, craft a spell, and use both to seal the barrier. Once and for all."
I nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. "Exactly. Might be some on the fly adjustments to the plan though."
I was going to slide through this with Bran and Rey’s help. I owed them.
Rey grinned, his teeth flashing in the light. "When has that ever stopped us before? It’s practically mandated!"
The tension in the room easing slightly when I laughed. "True enough. But this time, the stakes are a bit higher."
Hugh leaned forward, a thoughtful expression on his quiet face. "It's a good plan. After we seal the barrier, what do we do about the formless ones already in this world? They could still cause plenty of chaos."
I nodded. He was right, of course. Sealing the barrier would preventmoreformless ones from entering, but it wouldn't solve the immediate problem. I was pretty sure a solution could be layered into the spell, but it had been a very long time since Icrafted something this large. And given my audience, I wasn’t entirely sure how much I wanted to share.
"I know. But it's a start. Once the barrier is sealed, we can focus on finding and dealing with the ones already here." I leaned against my chair.
"How do you propose we do that?" Edward asked, his tone skeptical. "They could be anywhere, hiding in plain sight."
I met his gaze, my own unwavering. "I have a few ideas. But first, I need to retrieve the diamond. While I do that, I'll need a distraction."
Cathy leaned forward, her red hair falling over her shoulder. "What kind of distraction?"
I hesitated, not wanting to put anyone in unnecessary danger. But I knew I couldn't do this alone. "Something interesting. Something that will keep the formless ones occupied while I fetch it and then perform the spell to seal the barrier."
Hugh regarded me, a frown building on his face. "The spell? You’ll cast the spell? I didn’t know you had that level of experience. Wouldn’t channeling that amount of power burn you out or kill you?"
Blast. The vampire king knew more about magic than I’d thought.
As if on cue, Martellus' image on the video screen leaned forward, his violet-blue eyes narrowed in a combination of suspicion and…was that amusement? "Yeah, I'd like to know that too. We’ve been acquainted for many years, and I believe you’ve mentioned emphatically a number of times that you don’t do magic, that those who do were weak."
And there came old words to bite me in the butt. And the wily troll king was enjoying the moment.
I squirmed in my seat, feeling all their gazes on me. Then Shay spoke up. "How odd. I’ve never seen you in a vision either, even when it was about Cathy and Rey. That's...interesting."
I sighed, running a hand through my short black hair. "Fine. I'm not precisely a shifter.”
Every eye was trained on me, and the room was silent. Oh, hell. I took a deep breath, ready for the plunge. Best to get it over with.
