Page 161 of The Reaping Rose

She frowns. “I can’t hear him. It’s like I’m in a bubble, so his mouth will move, but I can’t hear what he’s saying. Sometimes it’s like he sees me. His eyes will move my way. But then he’s gone. Like he left the room. It has to be connected to this, doesn’t it?”

Letia stretches her arms out, gold swimming brightly.

“I’m not sure how.” Greer steps forward. “But I can’t imagine another explanation. Is there anything else you remember from when you were in the water?”

“No.” Letia’s eyebrows scrunch. “Could something have stung me, maybe?”

“Nothing I’ve ever heard of.”

Letia’s eyes drift down at Greer’s answer. Letia is human; she shouldn’t be able to survive on land saturated with magic. But, then again, the aeraliss shouldn’t have reacted this way. None of it makes sense.

“I suppose we’ll worry about that later.” Letia pulls her arms in, rubbing them. “Did you get what you were after in the Mortal Realm?”

“Yes.” I think.

Esen isn’t exactly what we were looking for, but she’s here. Thankfully, she’s been able to restrain the void so as not to drain any magic from our realm. Although, from the way the mark on her face stirs, I wonder if that’s difficult.

She spends most of her time at Perame’s side. It might be guilt or curiosity, but she’s often found in a chair beside Atlas’s, silently waiting for Perame to heal.

“I heard Perame woke this morning,” Letia says.

I open my mouth, but Greer responds faster. “For a few minutes.”

“That’s good. Perame is on the mend, and you have what you need. There’s hope.” Letia’s eyes light.

“There is.” I try to grasp the optimism she so easily clings to. “We need to leave again soon, but hopefully things will be better by the time we return.”

If I survive.

Letia reaches for my hand, squeezing. We don’t need to voice our fears when each time I go, the risks are higher.

“You’re going to Lyrichia?” Letia asks, and when I nod, she glances at Greer. “How was it over there?”

Greer frowns, pulling up a chair and sitting. “The same, but also… not. Solace and Echme are mostly unaffected, but there was something in the wind. Things are changing.”

“The Well is spreading,” I whisper.

Greer nods. “Echme forests should be unpassable. We shouldn’t have made it out the other side. The creatures in those trees are rumored to be unlike anything in the Ley Court.”

“Worse than the whispers?”

“Far worse,” Greer confirms.

“But you survived.”

“Exactly. We passed through with little trouble, aside from that of the king’s guards. We crossed only one creature, and we killed it with a single blade.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Letia’s eyebrows pinch.

“When the thing you fear runs from something worse, no.”

Letia’s cheeks pale.

“We might not have found Malachi in physical form, but he was there,” Greer says. “He was everywhere. Hearing everything. Our travels, our thoughts. Whatever he’s done since we’ve been gone seeps deep into the fabric of the realm.”

“That explains why things were so terrible on Alyssium.” I sigh.

“How was traveling with Atlas?” Letia asks, and Greer’s back stiffens. “He’s always been so nice. He came to see me earlier when he went to check on Perame.”