All eyes turned to Silas, as if looking for him to verify whether this was true or false.
“Silas,” I asked gently. “Do you know how to reach the underworld?”
“No,” Silas said curtly.
Atlas scoffed a laugh. He muttered something under his breath that sounded a whole lot like “Liar.”
“I don’t have a straightforward way.” Silas glared at his brother. “I have some people I can speak with, however, who might be able to help. No, I will not share details now, but I will do some research and let you know if I find a way.”
I squeezed Silas’s hand in gratitude. After our recent conversation about his painful past, I knew these details couldn’t be easy to share. I was certain he hated revisiting these elements that plagued his history.
“Okay, short of marching into the underworld,” I said, “maybe we need a plan for how to defend ourselves if the Darkest Lord breaches our realm. How do we defend against spirits? It seemed from our brief experience with them this morning that they can’t touch us, and we can’t touch them, which would render normal weapons useless. Do spells work?”
“Some, but only specialty ones. It’s rare,” Ranger X said. “Some magic is built to work against spirits, but think less explosions and swords and brute force, and more specialized, highly nuanced methods.”
“I’m working on some potions already.” Lily pointed to her head, like she was literally thinking about them now. “I havesome ideas, but like Ranger X said, it’s highly specialized stuff. That means it could be hard for me to find ingredients. There will be a limited supply. There is manual labor involved in creating them. It is definitely a limiting factor moving forward.”
“What about you?” Ranger X nodded in my direction. “Where are you in your training with Seer Goddard?”
“I’ve made significant progress from where I started,” I admitted. “But you must know I started at ground zero. It feels slow going, but it is going.”
Silas cleared his throat. “I don’t know as I’d say that. She already passed the three trials required to become the next Triune Queen. She visited The Glade as well.”
Silence greeted the room at Silas’s exposition. No one seemed to recognize the bit about the trials or The Glade.
“The Glade houses the spirits of my ancestors,” I explained. “I was able to communicate in a way with some of the ancient Fae Queens. While there, they told me I’d need to complete three tasks. Completing them would help me gain the ability to channel the power of my sisters.”
Atlas’s head snapped up, golden hair catching the chandelier light. “Allof the queens?”
I shrugged. “They’re not…individuals anymore. It’s kind of an entity.”
“I’m sure it helps that she’s the Triune Queen,” Atlas said, more to the table than to me. “That’ll mean she can control all the elements her ancestors could without issue. She’s not limited to just one.”
“And you’ve completed those tasks?” Ranger Z asked. “You’re all done?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I’ve come to understand that just because the channel is open, I still have work to do to figure out how to use it effectively. I haven’t suddenly become this all-powerful Fae Queen just because I survived the trials.”
“What does that mean for your training?” asked Lily. “I know you’ve been working diligently with Seer Goddard.”
“I’ll need to keep training, whether with him or alone. I thought once I completed the trials that it would be more of an instantaneous burst of power, but it’s not. I still struggle to read the language of the Fae Queens, for example. I can do bigger things with my powers—take the Procession of Spirits, for example. I couldn’t have done that on my own.”
“Of course,” Lily said. “That makes sense.”
“I’m starting to be able to access powers that are larger than me, but it will take time and experience in order to be able to tap into the full extent of my ancestors’ powers. Time that I don’t know if we have.”
“That makes me wonder how the Procession of Spirits was felt in the underworld. Fae Queens are so naturally attuned to the spirit world,” Lily said, “it’s very likely that the procession tonight loosened some barriers between the worlds. A lot of spirits passed through. That’s got to be felt across realms, especially a spirit realm like the underworld.”
“I agree, although the wards are still functioning at some level,” Silas countered. “If the veil between worlds were wide open, the Darkest Lord would’ve attacked already. He’s cocky, but also worried. Alessia has completed the trials and is learning to access her ancestral powers. It’s only a matter of time before she masters control of that channel, too, and then she really will be impossible for him to defeat. He will leap at the first opportunity to attack. He hasn’t yet only because he can’t. We need to keep things that way.”
“Do we know his endgame?” I asked. “I understand he’s bitter about being the king of the spirit realm, but what is his goal in attacking?”
“He feels cheated. He’s a creature of malice and vengeance,” Silas said. “The Darkest Lord canonlyexist in the underworld,among lost souls. He wants a throne here among the living. The underworld is a cold, dark place devoid of riches and luxury. He wants what any power-hungry man wants: riches, power, freedom.”
“How can he hope to achieve that?” I asked. “If he can’t exist here.”
“If he could find a way to embody himself and become an entity here on earth, taking over the castle, even,” Silas said, “he could set up a fortress here. The Darkest Lord isn’t Fae, so he can’t rule this court, but he can destroy it and move on to other places, bigger targets. He will simply destroy until he is the most powerful and runs his kingdom unopposed.”
“I’m tired of invaders,” Lily muttered. “We just want peace.”
