Silas considered this for a long, long moment before he cursed under his breath. “Of course.”
“What?”
“Celebrating the full moon does stem from the days the Fae Queens ruled their courts, even though it’s turned into...” Silas gestured toward the group of drunken gnomes around the fires. “It’s said that Fae Queens are the most connected to the spirit worlds. There was always talk about sacrifices. I wonder if, maybe, instead of an actual sacrifice—”
“Like a human?”
“Like a human,” Silas repeated. “Maybe the sacrifice instead was that the Fae Queen gave out their magic on the night of a full moon.”
“Gave it out where?”
“To power boundaries between the spirit worlds and this world. Maybe the Fae Queens used wards to hold back the spirit world, just like they used wards to protect their courts.”
“If that’s true, and if I’m now the Fae Queen—”
“There is noif, Alessia. There never has been. But with you able to read ancient Fae texts, there is no way around it. Claim the title. It’s yours.”
“Fine. As the Fae Queen, my wards are protecting this island right now, yes?”
“Yes.”
“They’re shaky at best, as we’ve discussed. And also is evidenced by the mysterious beasts arriving on The Isle, slipping past the wards.”
“You’ll get there. We’ll hold them off until you can make necessary arrangements to the wards.”
“I appreciate that, but what about the spirit worlds? If I’m meant to be holding up the gates between the worlds, but I have no clue what I’m doing, couldn’t that be dangerous? What if I’m supposed to be powering the wards that keep the spirit worlds at bay? What will happen if I don’t complete it?”
At length, Silas said, “I suppose that’s a possibility.”
“Maybe I should try the spell.”
“Alessia.” Silas’s voice suddenly sounded urgent. “Didn’t you say that you already spoke the incantation aloud?”
“Not on purpose. I whispered it, more like, when I was reading it to myself.”
“I think,” Silas said, “that might have been enough.”
I followed his gaze as it swept across the world around us—the grove where the gnomes lived and beyond. My breath caught in my throat as I saw what had captured Silas’s attention.
Around us, The Isle was now broken into different sections, separated by thick, glowing ropes of bluish white light knotted into the earth itself. The tunnels of magic ran just beneath thesurface of the ground—the grass, the mud, the water. It looked like the very earth had veins, pulsing with magic.
“Holy smokes,” I muttered. “What’s all that?”
“Ley lines,” Silas said. “They haven’t been visible… ever. Since before the Courts fell.”
“Ley lines. The spell mentioned them, but I don’t know what it means.”
“Think of it as the places where magic is most powerful. Magic must spread throughout the island to keep it protected—the wards, et cetera. Magic courses through these big, powerful channels, then splits off into tinier fissures, until eventually it’s just getting absorbed into the earth. It’s how the wards constantly pump power through the whole land.”
“And you can’t normally see them?”
“See them, sense them, no. Never. If people were able to see or sense them, they might be able to tap into ley lines in a dangerous way that could hurt the island. It’s a safety measure that they’re invisible, untraceable, untouchable.”
“So why are they glowing now?”
Silas’s eyes looked like silver dollars as they landed on me.
“Right,” I said. “My fault.”
