Did the spell work? Or didn’t it?
It didn’t feel like it had.
Only one way to find out.
“Ziyka, do you?—”
“I don’t remember. It didn’t work,” Elariya spoke quickly but she wasn’t looking at me. She was still staring at the space before us as if she were waiting for something to happen.
I looked too. We all did. And as the minutes ticked by we had to accept nothing was going to happen.
Arielle and the others dropped their shield. Only then did Elariya look back at me.
“Wolfe…”
“Let’s try again another time. It’s late and you had a long day?—”
“No.” She shook her head and balled her hand into a fist. “I felt it. I felt it calling to me.The ring. And I knew it was the ring.”
I looked back at Bastian, who had come up to us.
“I felt it too,” Arielle spoke up in a shaky voice. We all looked at her. “I felt it when Elariya summoned the thread of time. It was as though the ring was in the room with us.”
“So the spell worked then?” Garrick stepped forward. “If you two felt it then maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s all it was supposed to be.”
“No.” I shook my head. “The Seer said Elariya would get her memories back when she located the ring. She doesn’t have her memories back so that means she didn’t locate it. The spell didn’t work.”
“But the fact that our two mages felt the ring’s presence must mean something,” Alaric cut in.
“Maybe we did something wrong?” Garrick intoned.
“Why did it reject your blood?” Arielle asked in a still voice, zeroing on me.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Everyone started at me, their gazes probing and questioning. I hated the attention.
“It doesn’t need my blood. Remember Elariya has elements of my blood,” I said, an attempt to get their eyes off me. “The Seer said she alone could wield the ring, so my blood isn’t required to find it. That’s why the enemy tried to take her.”
They knew all of that. But it didn’t explainwhythe spell rejected my blood.
Truthfully…I had a sneaking suspicion I knew the answer. But I didn’t want to go down that road tonight. It wasn’t important.
“There must be something more we need to do,” I added, glancing at the parchment.
“Perhaps we should try again,” Elariya suggested, following my gaze. “We were close. I could feel it so strong. Maybe there was something more I needed to do and the window closed.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Not when she looked at me like that with those big, bright, hazel eyes.
So I nodded, agreeing,for her, even though I was tapped out and drained of hope.
The way I saw it— Elariya was as powerful as she could ever be for the little time we’d had to train her. Even from before her reset. If she needed more power, skill, or whatever the fuck the ring demanded for us to find it, it wouldn’t happen before the next reset. That wasn’t me being a pessimist.
I was just facing reality. One where it was likely that my mate,my wifewould forget who I was again.
Still, I gave her a hopeful smile. I could smile for her, and act like I had hope enough for the both of us, even when all seemed lost.
“Put up the shield again,” I said to the others.
