“I’m with you,” Lily said. “We need something more.”
“What’s happened with the wards since I’ve been gone?” I asked. “Something must be wrong with the wards to allow the spirits through in these numbers and so freely. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I rejoined the island and suddenly the veil is ripping open. Could I have broken something when I left for the underworld?”
“Honey,” Lily said gently, “when you went to the underworld, we all felt it. The wards were faltering. Like we said, we thought it would be helpful to use Dr. Lewis to implement new wards, or fortify what remained of the ones you left behind. But it sounds like…maybe he broke them?”
“You said you saw Lewis?” Ranger X asked. “In the underworld?”
“Yes. He visited my cell while I was being held captive there.”
Silas’s hands were still on me, and at the wordscellandcaptive, the grip of his fingers tightened so strongly I worried they’d leave marks. I gently rested my hand over his, and he flinched, relaxing his touch as if he hadn’t realized the strength behind it.
“Sorry,” Silas whispered. “I just…the thought of you there, captive, in the underworld…I tried to come to you, but I couldn’t—he blocked my passage to the underworld. Shut everything down once you were there.”
Byhe,I knew Silas meant the Darkest Lord. Of course the Darkest Lord would’ve known that Silas would try to enter the underworld at all costs to save my life, once he learned where I’d gone. And of course he would’ve enacted measure to prevent Silas from reaching me.
I squeezed one of his hands to mine, letting him know I understood the fear he’d felt. If our positions had been reversed, I would’ve felt like death. It wasn’t hard to put myself in his shoes; I’d felt a piece of it in the underworld myself. But for me, that feeling had been somewhat fleeting. I’d only thought I’d been gone for hours. I couldn’t imagine feeling that way for six long, human-length days. It would’ve been pure torture.
“How was he in the underworld?” Ranger X asked. “If he is also able to be in the realm of the living?”
“I think he’s the Darkest Lord’s right-hand man. Dr. Lewis was definitely involved in the flesh-weaving process,” I said. “So either the Darkest Lord granted him special access to the underworld, or Dr. Lewis found a way to give himself a physical form here on the island. I’m not sure which, but I’m leaning toward the former.”
“He must have been involved in the creation of the crimson lycanthropes and the kraken,” Silas said. “It all makes sense. The scientific background, the dedication to the Darkest Lord.”
“I should have known.” Ranger X shoved a hand through his hair. “When Lewis reached out to me to help, I should have researched deeper. I should have—”
Lily put a hand on his shoulder. “Nobody knew. Give yourself a break. We’re all doing the best we can.”
Ranger X shook his head, not convinced.
“Lily’s right,” Silas agreed. “It’s likely that it was impossible to tell anything suspicious about Lewis. The Harbinger for the Darkest Lord? He’d have been extremely well protected from scrutiny.”
“It’s not your fault,” I chimed in, meeting Ranger X’s eyes. “Absolutely not. He fooled me, too. I’m supposedly the Fae Queen. I trusted him to implement new wards. Ihelpedby giving insight to my magic. This is just as much my fault as anyone else’s.”
“What happened to him?” Silas asked. “In the underworld, after you saw him. Did he return, too?”
He only asked a few simple questions, but I heard a hundred unspoken ones behind them.How did you get back? Did he hurt you? Is he still there?I felt the weight of them all, and I couldn’t answer everything. Not now. Not when the world was crumbling around us.
“While I was in the underworld, I opened a portal.” I began from the top, or mostly the top, trying to summarize quickly. “The idea was to let out as many spirits as possible. Both so the spirits could find peace elsewhere, and also so that it would weaken the Darkest Lord’s army. The less spirits under his command, the less attacking us.”
“Did it work?” Liza asked. “The portal?”
“The portal itself worked. It just wasn’t enough.” I shrugged. “It didn’t last long enough, and I didn’t have enough access to the army. It didn’t make so much as a dent.”
“It was a good idea,” Silas said. “But the Darkest Lord would have been alerted to a portal opening in his underworld. He has eyes everywhere. You didn’t stand a chance.”
“Likely true,” I said. “After that, I was brought to a prison cell where I was visited by Dr. Lewis. It was there that I was…removedfrom my body. The connection between my spirit and my body was severed.”
Liza looked down at her hands, her face somber but not surprised. I wondered if she’d felt something, if she’d known. She’d been connected to me in some way as a guide, and I wondered if that bond hadn’t fully faded until that final nail in the coffin.
“That’s impossible,” Silas said. “It’s impossible to come back if the spirit is torn from the body.”
“Typically, that’s correct,” I admitted. “I’m sorry I put myself in such a vulnerable position. I was warned many times by many people, and I know it was stupid of me. I just didn’t know what else to do. It was reckless and dangerous, I’ll admit that much.”
“It wasn’t stupid,” Liza said firmly. “It was brave.”
I gave her a weak smile. “While I was in that spirit form, a portal opened into The Glade. My ancestors heard my call for help, and I was pulled to be with them. That’s where I saw my mother. The Triune Queen.”
I glanced at Liza as I spoke the last part. Her eyes shimmered with tears. She smiled and gave me a reassuring nod. I could tell, even without uttering the words, that she knew how much this moment had meant to me.
