They appeared momentarily terrified at the sight of me, but I merely sneered and slammed the door. I had no time to execute petty traitors, and their deaths wasn’t worth the effort taken to wipe the blood off my blade.
“Ethan, come on!” Emma was already halfway up the stairs. I hurried to race after her. When we got to the third floor, I waved my hand so the others would follow me. I led them to the armory door… which, of course, was bolted shut with a lock.
“It’s got a ward on it. This one’s stronger than the one surrounding the university. I can’t break it,” Emma said in a panicked tone as she attempted to break the ward, and failed.
The Crystals were on the other side of this door. We weren’t going to let a stone wall stand between us and saving the fae. The shoulders of the shifters rounded, like they were prepared to change and ram the door down with brute force.
“Over here!”
I turned. My heart leapt as I saw Helena and Nicoli racing up the stairway. My hopes dropped as I realized the professors weren’t with them.
They hunched over their knees to catch their breath as I asked, “Did Victor and Lunesta…”
My words died slowly as Helena shook her head.
“They didn’t make it,” Nicoli said sadly. “And are members of the army of the dead now, sadly. We were unable to hold our position once they fell, and had to flee. They’ll be on our tail at any moment.”
“Can you get us into the armory?” Emma asked.
“Yes. I’ve just come from Gabby’s office. I stole a key from there,” Nicoli told me. “It’ll open both the lock and the ward.”
“Move aside,” I told everyone, and our friends stepped out of the way to let Nicoli through. He withdrew a key from his pocket, which he used to open the lock. I felt the ward fall away, and Nicoli pushed open the door.
Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the room. The armory was a massive place. It was one of the largest rooms in the school, bigger even than the grand ballroom on the first floor, and able to hold hundreds of weapons. Axes, maces, and swords of all kinds lined the wall.
And there, mounted in cases at the end of the room, were the Crystals of Harmony, still in their respective weapons.
“We’ve found them!” Odette burst in joy.
“Not all of them,” Theo noted. “The Unseelie stone is missing.”
He was right. The dark necklace was gone.
Just at that moment, a hollow feeling overtook me, and my entire form felt weak as my breath was stolen from my chest. I couldn’t describe it… it was similar to the feeling of your heart being forcibly removed, and yet, you remained living. Something had been taken out of me that had always been there before, since birth, and now that it was gone I felt helpless and cold.
With a sense of deep loss, I realized I couldn’t feel my bond to Emma anymore. No matter how much I tried to reach out to her, all I felt was the walls of my own consciousness. She stared back at me as she realized that she couldn’t feel my half of our bond, either.
I knew then what the empty feeling was. My magic was gone.
I attempted casting an Unseelie battle orb, and nothing ignited in my palm. There was no rush of feeling, no movement of energy. Only the loud sound of blood coursing through my ears.
“I can’t use my magic,” Alexei said with fear.
“I can’t, either,” Kiara replied with horror. The rest of the room attempted to cast spells, becoming more and more panicked with each failure that arose.
I tried again, but everything I attempted was ineffective. I couldn’t shift, couldn’t create an illusion… couldn’t doanything.
Emma cast a spell, creating small feathers from nothing and sending them fluttering into the air.
“My magic’s fine,” Emma said. “Stronger than ever, really.”
Of course she still could. As the Worldweaver, she was the only one who still had a connection left to Edinmyre. The rest of us no longer did. An icy anguish filled each part of my spirit as I understood the truth.
The portal to Edinmyre had closed for good. We were too late to unite the Crystals.
Helena suddenly collapsed. Her form was shaking as she struggled to breathe, face whiter than snow. Where she’d been fine only a moment ago, now, she seemed on the verge of death.
“I… I feel funny, Nicoli,” Helena said faintly. Her voice was one of an old woman, and not a young girl.
