I leaned forward as he started speaking again, not wanting to miss one word.
“One of the gods was obsessed with fairness. He argued that there must always be balance in this newly-created world … that nothing should be too good or too evil. In the end, the gods agreed and the mecca crystals were fashioned. They would give extra powers to the rulers so that justice could be served when needed.” Baladar put up a finger. “Then the God who was a little obsessed with fairness decided that the mecca crystals weren’t neutral in power. He argued that they felt a little too light in energy, which meant there would be an imbalance. The other gods disagreed with him, and as an act of control, or revenge, the God of fairness decided to create a dark mecca crystal. He split it in two, wrote an accompanying book, and hid each crystal book pair in each world, believing it would balance out the purple stones.”
I shuddered again. I had almost touched that black crystal on the book. What would have happened if Baladar didn’t neutralize it?
Violet stood and crossed her arms. “That’s not balance. That’s manipulative and psychotic.” I was glad to see some of her desire for darkness waning from her face. She now looked queasy.
Baladar shrugged. “Hence why I always thought it was more metaphorical. ‘Keep the balance.’ But gods aren’t known for being rational. They do as they see fit and they move on.”
“So that thing on top of the book is the dark crystal created by that god?” I wanted to confirm that this was the only one we needed to worry about.
Kade stood. “Let’s destroy it.”
Baladar stepped forward, both hands held in front of him. “That is not the crystal. It is a tiny sliver of it. The original piece was broken in two, and they are out in the world, no doubt making someone very, very powerful and evil.”
I sucked in my breath. “The Dark Fae Lord.”
Baladar nodded. “It is rumored he has one piece and that the Earth-side one is missing.”
Violet growled. “How big are these pieces?”
Baladar lowered his arms, hands clenched tightly at his side. I’d never seen the powerful magic born so out of sorts. “I’ve told you all I know. The God of fairness left the dark crystals, and the accompanying books, and then disappeared.”
“I still think we should destroy the book.” Kade’s hand was on the hilt of the sword he always carried.
Violet put her hands out. “Easy there. If we can connect with the small shard on the book, we might be able to do a spell and find the stone.”
Nikoli nodded, finally jumping into the conversation. “It would take a few days but it could be done.”
Baladar watched the two young magic born, his posture and drawn features screaming out his weariness. “To do that, you would have to reawaken the book and the darkness inside.”
I shared my thoughts: “Assuming the Dark Fae Lord has one of these dark mecca stones, and we use this book to find the other one, is there something we can do with it? Can we interrupt the power the stone is feeding him? Disable his armies?”
I locked eyes with Baladar, struggling to read his expression. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Let’s see if we can even activate a spell to trace the stone. Then we can work out how to neutralize them.”
We sat there as a group, letting his words weigh into our minds. It was a risk, but it could turn this war in our favor. If we could dismantle the Fae Lord and his power, we had a chance.
Ultimately, the decision rested with Kade and me. We were the rulers. The thoughts of erchos, harpies, and other unthinkable creatures flooding into Manhattan had my decision made. Through our bond, my mate’s thoughts were tumultuous, torn about what to do. But he seemed happy to go along with whatever I decided.
“Do the spell. Find the stone,” I said with force.
Baladar nodded. “Just be aware that any or all of us could be corrupted by the dark mecca. It’s a huge risk.”
I already knew that, and I hated that my family was in this position, but…
“What choice do we have?”
Part of me was hoping someone would come up with another option, but no one spoke. It might not be the right decision, but we had to try. Especially, if it would help our people get the upper hand in this impending war.
If only I could just ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach that made me think we might be messing with something that could destroy us all, even more so than the fae.
We spent the rest of the night searching through the queen’s stuff, but after the dark mecca crystal discovery, everything else was mundane and boring. The Red Queen apparently had a secretlove of romance novels, and crocheting. Which definitely brought a smile to my face. But I would have preferred something more we could use in this fight.
By the time we all called it a night — technically it was early morning — we had gathered quite a bit of new information to study, which at least felt like a step in the right direction.
I watched as Baladar wrapped the dark book in a thick, spelled material he had worked on for most of the night. “I’ll keep this book with me,” he said. “I’ve placed securities on it which I have mimicked off the safe. Minus all of the darkness.”
“Are you sure you will be okay with it?” I had to ask. The last thing we needed was a crazy, evil, powerful magic born on the loose.
