“For a Titan like you, a good, solid smack might work,” Lily said with an amiable grin. “And Iknowyou don’t know how touse a vacuum, so I won’t even address that comment. As for the rest of us, it will probably require a spell or a potion of some sort if you’re wanting to counterattack. But when I tested it last night, some of our basic weapons worked on the Smoke Stack when it was frozen.”
“What if you do nothing?” Silas asked. “If you were to just leave them without an attack, would they return to their spirit form?”
“Yes, exactly. They would become what they originally were,” Lily said. “This only pauses time for them for a moment. It freezes them, solidifies them just enough so they become susceptible to more mortal attacks. Now, I doubt all mortal attacks will workexactlythe same as they do on our kind, but it should be effective enough to destroy some of them, or weaken them significantly.”
A collective nod came from around the room. A few people tucked their vials into travel belts or carrying cases. I left mine on the table, transfixed by the swirling gold inside. It was fascinating to me to see how different magics manifested.
While Lily and Millie’s forms of magic had seemed similar to me in some ways last night, the outcomes were so completely different that it was startling. Millie ended with a loaf of bread. Lily, a potion that could freeze spirits. Millie fed people, warmed them, calmed them. Lily’s end result was tiny vials of potions that could heal or hurt, wound or kill.
Our meeting continued on for nearly an hour. We discussed Dr. Lewis and my work with the wards, the impending coronation ceremony as well as the security around it. The upcoming blood moon, and the research that the Rangers had been working on, while promising, hadn’t yielded much in the way of concrete, helpful information just yet.
As we were wrapping up, with Atlas informing us that Olympus was still keen to watch from the sidelines for now and not interfere, Ranger X turned to me.
“Dr. Lewis has made some progress on the next prototype,” he said. “He’d like to see you after this if you’re willing.”
“Of course,” I said. “Does he think he’s got something that’ll work?”
Ranger X tilted his head to the side. “I don’t know, Alessia. After yesterday, I’m not sure there’s a man or woman in the world who can create a crystal strong enough to hold your power. And like he mentioned multiple times, he doesn’t exactly have much to go on. There’s no blueprint he can follow. Unless you have other ideas?”
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about science. Well, the magical side of it.”
“No, but you are the Fae Queen, and it is your magic,” Ranger X said. “If you have any ideas, this is not the time to be shy. We’re willing to try anything at this point.”
“I don’t have any ideas, but I’ve been making progress with my manuscripts, and I’ll look again tonight for any information on the wards I might have missed. If I come up with something, I’ll let you know.”
“Anything,” Ranger X said. “Because you never know what could be useful.”
“Of course.” I glanced around the room. “Hypothetically, let’s say a few days pass. We’ve completed the coronation ceremony. I’m Queen of Isles, whatever that entails. But also, we haven’t managed to put up wards effective enough to stop the Darkest Lord, and he’s able to create an army of spirits. What does that situation look like?”
“You’re saying the worst-case scenario,” Lily said. “The Darkest Lord breaks between realms with a full spirit army.”
I hadn’t meant to silence the room, but that was the effect of my statement. Anyone who had been smiling or laughing fell quiet. Heads dipped toward plates piled high with food that suddenly nobody wanted to eat.
I waited several minutes. There was a lot of shuffling, the occasional sip of tea. When nobody chimed in with an obvious answer, I couldn’t help but expel a breath.
“It’s that bad, huh?” I murmured. “Do we even stand a chance at defending the island?”
“Olympus would likely get involved at that stage,” Atlas finally said, resigned. “Depending on the circumstances, I think that’s a reasonable assumption. Though whether it would be too late to stop the Darkest Lord’s plans”—he paused, shrugged—“I don’t know.”
“And if Olympus is getting involved,” Lily said, “you know it’s bad. They don’t usually care much about whether we live or die on our island over here.”
“So if the Darkest Lord gets a foothold on The Isle,” I wondered aloud, “that’s it?”
“There are ways we’re preparing to defend ourselves,” Ranger X said quickly. “We have task forces of Rangers, scientists, strategists, weapons masters, all of them working on ways to defend our island in the event of something catastrophic.”
“What else can we do to prepare?” I asked. “I just feel so helpless, like there has to be more that we can do.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Ranger X said. “Let’s give it another day or two. In that time, Lily may have made progress with her potions. Dr. Lewis and you may have found a solution for the wards. The Rangers could locate the Darkest Lord’s scientists here and interrupt the flesh-weaving before it happens. However, if none of that happens over the next night or two, we’ll sit down and talk about a more drastic solution as the blood moon approaches. Evacuation, closing portals, things of that nature.
“I think that’s fair,” I said. “Thank you.”
We all stood and dispersed then, everyone notably taking their golden vial with them, tucking it close to their bodies. We couldn’t hide from the ugly truth that we—everyone on this island—were in danger. And no one knew when that danger would strike hard and fast and deadly.
five
Dr.Lewismetmein a small clearing, just inside of The Forest—not so deep the sun was completely blocked out by the knotted, gnarly branches of the overhanging trees. Slivers of light pierced through the leaves, casting angelic swatches of glow on the grass beneath my bare feet. I’d ditched my shoes at the side of the clearing where Silas and Ranger X had left me with Dr. Lewis just moments before.
“I thought we could meet here today,” Dr. Lewis said. “I had Ranger X set up a safe practice space for us here in the clearing. Yesterday, you were adamant that a Fae Queen’s magic stems from nature, and I figured that will be important if we want the wards to work with your powers.”
