I drew in a long breath and shook my head. “Genocide, Artton. In his mind, it’s the only solution.”
“Solution to what?” he barked, clearly caught off guard, body now on high alert.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I sighed. “To keep the human realm safe, for good.”
He crossed his arms across his wide chest. “I see.”
Artton’s eyes glazed over in thought, and I took advantage of his internal distraction to catalogue where we were. My mouth dropped open at the view.
With the backside of the palace behind us, we were high up on the ledge of a cliff at least double the height of the tallest one back home, giving us an unparalleled—and unobstructed—view of the Summer Court hitting the horizon in every direction. Its lush, unending beauty stole my breath. As I looked toward where the sun began its descent, I noticed what could only be described as ashimmering, albeit clear, bridge, its colors reminiscent of a bubble catching the sunlight. On the other side of its flat surface was what looked like a sandpit floating in the middle of nowhere.
Wondering if I’d gone mad, I swiveled to face Artton and pointed to the pit. “What is that?”
“That is where you’re going to learn how to harness the spark.”
Chapter 20
Sixth Sense
Iwasn’t afraid of heights, but this was a new level of insanity that my human side refused to get behind, and I couldn’t blame it for not wanting to walk on air—literally.
Artton stood—no, floated—a few paces in front on me on the see-through bridge that appeared to be nothing more than a magical sheen that shimmered below each of his steps like a lily pad of light I could only see when it caught setting sun at a certain angle.
Nope. That was a hard no.
“Are you coming?” the summer fae asked.
My brows shot up to my hairline. “Are you insane?”
“Haven’t you used a bridge before?”
I looked at him like he was, in fact, crazy. “Yeah,” I half-laughed, half-stuttered, “I’ve used a bridge before. You know, wood, brick, things of substance—not whatever the fuck this is.”
“Scared?” he goaded, mouth quirked.
“Yes, Artton. Where I come from, you’d have to be crazy to believe you can walk on air. But no one would know that you’re crazy, because you’d be dead at the bottom of the godsdamned canyon.”
He stifled a laugh, and I took a step back from the ledge, hand on hip.
Laughter still in his voice, he said, “It’s built from magic, you can trust it.” He bobbed up and down as if proving to me it could hold his weight.
“Well, let’s agree to disagree on that one, because my track record with magic is sub-par at best.”
His head tilted in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Gods, do you guys ever talk to each other?” Seriously, how hadn’t he known that Thaddeus tried to pull from me or that the spark failed to protect me?
“We do, but when someone sends us away, we’re not exactly getting information in real time, now are we?”
Damn, he had me there.
I let out a sigh. “When we were attacked in the woods, I tried to use my powers, but nothing happened.”
Anger flickered over his face before a wave of stifling heat hit me as if I were sitting too close to a bonfire. For each stern step he took toward me, I took another step back. Now on solid ground, he stopped a couple of paces from me, hateful eyes bearing down into my soul. I would have cowered at the menace if I wasn’t frozen by fear.
“You have no control over your powers?” he barked.
I flinched, giving the truth away.
