She rolled her eyes and pointed to one of the two facility blueprints on my desk. “He said if we can find a crystal or ritual strong enough to strip all magical and life energy like a blackhole, it would be destroyed. It needs the life force of the soul to be sucked out or it won’t break. Unfortunately, the crystal they’ve been manipulating won’t do that.”
The room went silent as all eyes wandered toward Thorn. “We had already planned on using a crystal in hopes to destroy the relic. I’ve spoken to my brother, and I've gained approval to get the crystal. We go Saturday. No more than five of us can go so as to not draw suspicion.”
“Wren, Thorn, Damien, Alister, and Kian will go,” Rowan stated, and Thorn nodded as they shared a look like they’d discussed this beforehand.
“Why do I get left out again?” Rhett crossed his arms with a huff.
“Counselor duties during war time.” Lachlan ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t know why I’m being left out, though.”
“Honestly, Damien with his shadows, Kian’s magic, Thorn being from the land and knowing where to go, Alister with his knowledge of crystals, and Wren with her power, that team makes the most sense.”
“Makes sense to me.” Trixie shrugged.
“I don't know if we can continue to trust you, Rebeka.” Drecken ran a hand down his face as Alister stepped forward.
“It's true that she hasn't been forthcoming, but she has also never lied.”
“Very well. Just be aware that the council will be keeping an eye on everything.”
“We have spies with the other humans planted there as well,” Faith spoke up. “We know their plan is to go after Blezen first. We have some technology imbued with magic, and I wanted to offer it to you to study.”
Norman stepped forward with a giddy look on his face and grabby hands as she pulled out a strange contraption from her bag.
“They made it to hold the tourmalyke crystal so they could point and use it to drain all at the magical energy at once.”
She handed it over to Norman, who was smiling like an arctic shifter in the dead of winter. “I wonder what could be done with the crystal Thorn is getting… Thorn, get two of them.”
“That’s not happening. I am only getting one.”
Norman pouted his lip and rolled his eyes as if he expected it. “I’ll catch up later. I’ll be in my lab. I’m going to go look at this.” He swooped over and grabbed Trixie who sent me a quick wave and mouthed anI love youbefore walking out the door with her crazed dragon boyfriend.
“We have one day until you collect the crystal, and we will be keeping an eye on everything with the war. We will be in touch.” Drecken snapped his fingers and disappeared.
My body relaxed as people started saying their goodbyes and leaving the room.
I’d estimated the war to be a century long, but by the rate we were going, it didn’t seem like it would last that long.
The scary part was, even with more people stepping up, I still didn’t know who had a better chance of winning.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Wren
“Howdoesitfeel,little bird?”
“Really amazing,” I murmured as the water from the Natatorium lapped over our toes.
“You deserve amazing.”
A feeling of dread landed in my gut as I stared up in horror as the carefully constructed wards flickered black before shattering.
“Kian didn’t have a vision, did he?” My heart twisted in my chest.
Damien’s horns emerged as his tail swished behind him. “No, and neither did Blair.”
Five dragons swooped in. A large red one, that I recognized as Roak, flew directly toward us.
My stomach dropped as Rowan and Blair rushed toward us. “Damien, get her the fuck out of here!”
