Page 97 of Memory of Ashes

She hadn’t really considered it.

Everything she’d known—her home, her work, her friends—was gone. There was nothing keeping her here, but could she commit to a life in their world? If she went, it was unlikely that she’d be able to return if opening the rift caused this much trouble.

“I don’t know,” she said.

They stood together and watched from the city walls as a small portion of their army escorted the humans to safety.

Those people had lost everything, but at least they were alive. So many were now dead.

“We need to close the rift. Do you think I could just close it?” she asked.

“No, you don’t have the power to close a rift. The only reason you could open it was because of your ability to void magic. The veil must have been weak at the point where you entered our world. I wonder if anything else came through.”

The thought jolted her. She hadn’t considered that. Could someone else have stumbled into their world before her?

“I have no idea who would be powerful enough to do such a thing, but to close the rift, it would take someone with great magic.”

Casyl called for another meeting.

They gathered in the palace’s boardroom around the table at which Amelia had sat so many times before. She almost missed the boredom of the palace meetings.

“What if we block the rift with something?” Elthar suggested. “We could build a barrier in front of it.”

“It could work temporarily, but it would have to be a pretty strong wall to keep the beasts out, plus those humans could come with their explosives and bomb it,” Ruven said. “Then they could invade our world!”

Amelia smiled at the thought. Once the humans saw the creatures that lived in the fae world, they’d quickly turn around.

“Where’s Salkin?” Tharos asked.

They looked around the room and saw that he was missing.

“I’ll look for him,” Ruven offered.

She wandered out of the room into the palace gardens. Casyl’s gaze followed her as she left.

Ruven came running towards her.

“Did you find him?” she called.

“No, worse,” he said. “I think he left with the army escorting the humans. You tell Casyl and I’ll send a scout to follow him. They can’t have gone very far yet.”

Amelia ran back into the palace and found Casyl where she’d left him, strategising with the generals.

He looked up as she entered, frowning at her distress.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Ruven couldn’t find him. He thinks that Salkin may have left with the army escorting the humans. He’s sending a scout to find out.”

Casyl and Tharos looked at each other.

“Do you think he’s going to harm them?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think that would be his main reason to leave with them,” Casyl said.

“What would be his reason for leaving with them?” she asked, confused. If he would not kill them, perhaps he wanted to follow them and take the next city as his own?

“If I were him and I wanted to continue with my father’s plan, I’d escort the humans as an excuse to leave and then detour towards the mine.”