They returned to their places and erected the shield.
I took Elariya’s hand and numbed it. “Just you this time, Ziyka. Best not to do anything to slow the spell down.”
Her eyes widened a fraction for a heartbeat, then she nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. It might work faster, too.” I tapped her hand, giving her added reassurance.
When her nerves loosened, I sliced her palm. The blood pooled again and I dropped it onto the parchment. The others noticed I wasn’t doing mine.
Resuming my focus, I chanted the incantation again, giving it the same energy as before.
Within our sphere of hope, Elariya’s blood took shape fast, darting impossibly fast through the air. It skipped past the slow map formations and seemed to leap through the realms and planes of existence. It reached the place it had before and that pulse came again.
And holy Gods above, I felt it.
Ifeltthe ring.
This time it screamed at me, like a poor soul in distress, desperate to be saved. The sound cut deep to my core, drilling down deep to my bones.
“You feel it too,” Elariya blurted, her words tumbling out.
“Yes.”
“Can you hear it calling?”
“Yes.”
She invoked her threads again, they ripped out of her fingers reaching toward the ring.
But they never reached. The door closed again.
Shutting us out.
Sealing us away from the one thing that could change everything for us.
The shield dropped and no one said anything. Everyone saw what happened.
The spell worked. Until it didn’t.
We’d come further than ever.
But there was something more we had to do.
None of us knew what that was.
The map faded and Elariya’s blood returned to her. I set the athame back down and looked around at everyone’s sad faces. And pity.
Pity for us.
I looked at Elariya and my heart cracked when I saw the disappointment in her eyes. The last time was bad enough, but this time—when my hopes were practically nonexistent—something inside me died.
I couldn’t keep doing this to her. Or myself.
It wasn’t fair.
And I was tired. In a few months we’d be approaching the sixth-year mark to when this all began.
Everything down that path was designed to break up more and more until we found the ring.
