“Was it me?” I asked.
He shook his head.
I extended an arm. “Was it anyone here?”
He shook his head again.
“Thank you,” I whispered, “and I’m sorry.”
I pressed my hand to the water’s glassy surface; the man in the center touched mine back. It felt cool and liquid, the opposite of molten lava. When I withdrew my hand, I glanced down at a sharp twinge on my forearm.
The Triskelion Sigil.The symbol gleamed white on my own forearm—a bright tattoo. Permanent. Mine. As the fishermen blinked out of our world into their next, there was peace in their eyes, as if they knew that their suffering had not been completely in vain. And indeed, hadn’t it guided the way for me to prove my identity as the next Triune Queen?
More hours passed as the rest of the souls streamed home. Near the end, as the crowd of spirits was but a handful, I noticed a flicker of movement along the shoreline. Liza appeared shortly after, crouched behind a swath of cattails.
“It’s my mom.” Liza’s voice sounded shaky, uncertain.
Her thin dress clung damply as she stepped into the water beside me. When I looked down, I saw a beautiful woman had drifted into the portal.
“She’s lovely,” I told Liza. “You look just like her.”
“May I?”
I nodded, and Liza stretched out her hand. Her mother’s smiling lips formed words we could not hear but could clearly make out.
“I’ll always be with you.”
Tears streaked Liza’s cheeks as her mother’s face blinked out of existence. I had no clue if this would change Liza’s ability to communicate with her mother, but regardless, it couldn’t beeasy to know her mother was passing on to a new realm without her.
I gathered the tiny girl against my chest. Squeezed her tight. I needed it as much as she did. And as I pulled her close to me, I hummed the lullaby that had been given to me years ago. We stood there, clinging to one another, the heartbreaking tune forever ours to share. It was no longer mine alone. Because I was no longer alone.
“She’ll always be with you,” I promised, as we eventually parted. “And so will I.”
Liza nodded into my shoulder, she sniffed, and when we pulled apart, I noted the ley lines had started to dim. The moon’s reflection slid toward the river’s edge as dawn warmed the opposite sky. The procession was complete. The restless spirits had been released.
Exhausted, I helped Liza ashore and collapsed into Silas’s arms. We all climbed back up to the castle and sat on the balcony in chairs, as Millie rushed toward us with towels and cups of tea.
“You did it,” Silas said—and I had.
The magic of my ancestors coursed within me. A new tier of power lay bare, unlocked. My arm burned with the Triskelion Sigil, announcing me for all to see as the next Triune Queen.
Sunrise bled across the horizon as Ranger X crossed the castle and faced Fenlon. “We tested Alessia’s dagger,” he could be heard saying. “It’s not a match. Are we done here? For good?”
Fenlon, already abandoned by his friends, stumbled away without looking back. He might not be done with me forever, but it was something of a truce for now. There had been enough evidence that I had Fae powers that we could lay that issue to rest.
But as I watched Fenlon go, unease prickled my skin. There was something else. Another danger lay in wait. But as I scanned the river—
There.
As I watched the waters coursing around the stones in the river, its natural current, I felt the moment it was disrupted. The silver spirits were long gone, but instead of emptiness, they’d been replaced by new shadows hovering in the water: faces that were warped and twisted, stallions with jaws that could tear flesh, angels and demons that didn’t exist in our world.
More spirits, but these were not innocently trapped here. These had been purposefully released into our realm with the worst of intentions. The Darkest Lord’s army. Dread coiled inside me.
“Silas,” I said in sudden understanding, “in freeing the spirits, I’ve weakened the veil between worlds. The Darkest Lordwantedme to open the portal tonight. He’s taking advantage of the fissure to send in his army.”
Silas spun around, noting the frightening creatures as they surged from the water. The floating ghosts turned into smoky, gray forms the instant they burst from the surface. They thundered toward shore, toward the Rangers who could only duck in terror—toward Fenlon who could be heard shrieking as he sprinted away.
The saving grace was that the spirit forms were not solid enough to do damage. They raced right through the people on the banks, fading into a thick, foggy mist and disappearing completely seconds later, as if the very lands of our island were protecting the people who lived on it.
