I smile up at him and sign, “Impressive.”
That grin of his unfurls, and his dimple cuts into his cheek. “I’m glad you think so. Because we get to do it again.”
He kisses me, and gods, I can taste his happiness, and it is a drug.
“How do we get through that?” I sign, pointing at the barrier after I can think clearly again. Beyond, an enormous set of golden and jewel encrusted gates await us, reflecting the sunlight in an array of colors across the sands.
“We knock with magick and hope we’re able to do it loudly enough that she lets us in.”
I narrow my eyes and purse my lips, studying the veil. “I wonder if I can get us in.”
He arches a brow. “No. We aren’t even trying that. If it were possible, I’m certain someone would’ve done it by now. I’m not letting the woman I love throw herself into Fia Drumera’s magick.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to argue or respond. In the next second, he’s wrapping his arm around my waist again, and his power echoes across the desert, sending up a golden shower of grains as he shoots us into the sky.
I cling to him as we soar. And smile.
Traveling across the abyss gets easier and easier to do.
My landing is as smooth as Alexus’s, delivering everyone to the citadel’s outskirts in a matter of seconds. We set to work, even though the sun is rising high, and the day is beginning to scorch, bringing sweat to our brows and backs already.
Callan works their rune magick, carving runes in the sand along the edge of the barrier. Runes for awareness—that Fia might sense us. For peace—that she might understand we mean no harm. For pleading—that she might realize we need her aid. And dozens more, all sending a message Callan means to make certain Fia hears.
Nephele attempts to break through Fia’s construct since she understands vast magick. She looks so tired, and as though her mind is weighed by as much worry as there are grains of sand in this desert. I want to help her, but vast magick isn’t my gift. Unfortunately, there’s no singing magick to be done, and even if there were, there’s too few of us here who can actually do it.
Alexus might be the key. He can work with vast magick. But instead of helping my sister, he walks back and forth before the veil for a while, thinking and watching her and Callan, until he finally steps to the shimmering barrier and reaches out his hands.
After a few moments, power moves like a storm across the desert. I can feel it coming, rumbling over the dunes, a tremor along the ground, as though Alexus has summoned an unearthly demon. Everyone turns to look, but there’s nothing to see save for shifting sands and blue sky and swirling dust.
But gods, can we feel it. A zephyr blows, and I can even smell it, sweet like Alexus’s honeyed magick and earthy like heated sand.
Suddenly, the rumble races under our feet and travels past us. Alexus yells for Callan and Nephele to stand back.
On the edge of the next heartbeat, arcs of blue light explode from the earth around him, like lightning bolts shooting from the sands into the sky. That power latches on to the veil and crawls across it, each bolt spreading and fracturing further, creeping along the barrier like a magickal vine looming over the desert.
We all stand and watch, necks craned, amazed, the immensity of both powers vibrating the air, making the hair on my arms stand on end. If Fia Drumera cannot feel this, we have no chance of ever getting inside.
But Alexus isn’t finished.
The bolts of power begin to move in a strange way. I stand back and look left to right, studying the veil for as far as my eyes can see in both directions. And I am in awe of Alexus Thibault. His power has come so very far.
None of this is random. He’s writing a runic message on Fia’s veil. More than that, he’s also writing it a second time in ancient Elikesh. Backwards, so her entire city can read it.
“Callan!” he shouts. “You know what to do!”
They must, because they hurry to the sands near the veil where their previous rune work has been destroyed from Alexus’s magick bursting from the ground. They begin re-writing the runes, studying Alexus’s message, and copying the markings to…
To create the outer line. Callan is acting as Alexus’s ritual guardian, just like they did in the wood when Alexus summoned Thamaos. I don’t understand the rules, but they clearly do, because Callan works fast, dragging a line through the sand and drawing a rune, then repeating that—over and over and over.
Is he summoning Fia? Can that be done?
Hel stands beside me, cupping her mouth with her hands, watching nervously as though something is about to happen. Keth and Jaega sit on the sands, arm in arm, their gazes glued to the veil. Zahira and Nephele stand together clasping hands, and even Joran stands watching, though his eyes might be a bit more curious than awed. Still, we all feel the importance of this event, but we’re also moved by such a display of power.
As Callan works, the light of Alexus’s magick only brightens, until sand begins to rise from the earth and meld into each rune and letter. The markings begin to change color, from lightning blue to fire orange.
Callan finally finishes, and as though the sun shot a flaming arrow at the veil, Alexus’s messages flare with fire across the sky.
He pulls away, steady as an oak even after such a release of magick and examines his work. Callan goes to stand beside him.
