Page 70 of The Reaping Rose

“Everyone has been briefed, but I’ll let you share the details.” Wilder angles his chin to Perame, giving her the floor.

She leans forward, her purple eyes darting around the room. “The vision wasn’t clear. So, like I said last night, I’m not positive it was the void, but I can’t imagine what else it could have been.”

“What did it look like?”

“At first, it was a raven of sorts. It had a curved beak and sharp feathers. But then it was stone, and then metal. It changed shape so many times—so quickly. It was a leaf then a pebble then the bark on a tree. Every time I got close, it would take on a new form.”

“From what Idunn told me, that would make sense. She said the void can be many things.”

Perame nods. “I couldn’t get close enough to tell you exactly what it is in its current form. But I’m fairly certain of where it is.”

“The Mortal Realm,” Aurora says, her hands folded over each other on the table in front of her.

Darvel taps his thumb on the arm of his chair. “It makes sense. If the void truly does pacify magic, then it would likely be in a realm where we haven’t seen much. But it poses two problems. How do we get to it, and when we do, how do we bring it here without risking our own magic?”

The first problem, Callum has been working on in his research on Arches, but the second is far more troublesome. How do we bring an object that nullifies magic to a realm barely surviving with what we have left?

“We’ll figure it out,” Wilder says through the thread, squeezing my thigh.

Callum draws forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I haven’t been able to make any progress on creating a new Arch, so until that happens, we have no way of getting there. The last known Arch seed was used in the Ley Court, and the only other magic strong enough to create one was in Elorie’s mother’s sword. But that’s stuck in Alyssium.”

“Why do we need to create a new Arch?” I ask. “Ones to the Mortal Realm already exist. What if we can wake one of those?”

Darvel shakes his head. “They’re both dark. There’s not enough magic on either side to wake them anymore.”

“There has to be a way. Was there anything else in the vision?” I look to Perame, hoping she saw something.

She rakes her curls back, worry in her eyes. “I did see something else, but I have to warn you it was murky.”

“Murky?”

“The visions shift and change, depending on the turns of fate. When they’re clear, it’s more certain. It’s woven in the threads. But when it’s murky, it could just be a passing thought or someone’s intention. Like gazing in on a dream. It’s vibrant to the dreamer, but no more real than their imagination.”

“Tell us anyway. What did you see?” Wilder asks this time, his grip on my thigh tightening.

“Blood.” Perame’s cheeks pale as her gaze bounces between me and Wilder. “Blood flecked with starlight.”

All eyes in the room whip my way as Perame continues.

“There was a path to get to the void—a key. A binding of blood from two places opened the door to where we needed to go. I saw your blood, Elorie.”

“Like with the sword.” Callum gazes off, his thoughts elsewhere. “I tried for days to open a Gate at your mother’s sword while you were in the prison. It didn’t work until I noticed flecks of your blood on the blade. When the blood touched the vein, the magic stirred.”

“Blood of two places,” I whisper. “Human. Fae.”

“Fae realm. Mortal Realm,” Wilder agrees. “Your magic runs through both, and since magic is bound by our blood, it must be the key.”

“Do you think my blood could wake the Arch to the Mortal Realm then? Like it did with the sword?”

Wilder’s nose wrinkles. “Possibly, although I believe your mother’s sword played some part in that. We need to understand fully before we try or⁠—”

“We could go through and be stuck.” I finish his thought through the thread when he doesn’t dare say it out loud.

Wilder’s gaze locks on mine, refusing to confirm that fear as if it could make it real.

“We still haven’t decided who will be going,” he says.

“If the Arch to the Mortal Realm opens, I’m going through. My mother trusted me with this information. I have to see this to the end.”