She winced, drawing back from me. “I’m sorry, but … I can’t. I’m not powerful enough to open the High Mage Island portals, only this one leading to the human world. I’m half-human.” She gestured to the portal in front of us as if that would make any sense to me. What did being half-human have to do with anything? But maybe it mattered in the world of magic.
Fur rippled down my arms as I cursed and punched the steering wheel. From the corner of my eye, I noticed she took another step backward.
‘Rein it in, Rage,’ Justice snapped. ‘You’re scaring her.’
“I’m sorry.” I forced a deep breath. Justice was right. I needed Sariah right now, and she’d been nothing but nice. I didn’t want to scare her. Even if she couldn’t open a portal to Nai, the mage in front of me could still help. “Do you know why Nai would go with your father to High Mage Island?”
She grimaced. “I do … but I can’t tell you.”
Grinding my teeth together, I looked at Justice, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to shift.
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked, my voice sharp enough to cut glass.
“Can’t,” she insisted, relaxing enough to offer me a small smile. “Just as you’re spelled not to talk about Alpha Academy, I’m spelled about what happens at High Mage Academy. I’m truly sorry.”
Wait. She said High Mage Academy, not High Mage Island. Why would Sariah say that? Was it a clue? I tried to read her gaze, but it was just patient and kind. “Is Nai … entering High Mage Academy?”
Sariah shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Narrowing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath. “You—”
“I’ve told you all I can,” she said, her expression twisting with regret. “I’m sorry.”
My heart turned to stone and then sank into my stomach. “Can you…?” I cleared my throat. “Do you know if she’s safe?”
I stared at her, watching her reaction, trying to convey how much I needed this answer.
The rest of the tension fled her body, and her smile returned. “If she’s with my father, she’s the safest she can be in the High Mage Realm. He loves her very much, and he’d never let anything happen to her.” Her smile faltered, and then she added, “Not if he can help it … while he’s still alive.”
Okay…
I processed what she said, zeroing in on her last comments because both were wholly not reassuring. New questions raced through my mind. Was Sariah implying Grampa Geoff was … dying? And if so, was that enough reason for Nai to leave in the middle of my freaking coronation? Did they go for some healing serum? And what did that have to do with High Mage Academy? I had more questions than answers—
‘Rage!’ Noble’s voice cut through my racing thoughts. ‘Get back here pronto, dude. We’ve got a problem.’
Dammit!
Why did crap always happen in threes? Hadn’t we already had enough?
My attention jumped back to Sariah. “If I give you a note, can you get it to Nai? Please?”
She nodded. “Of course. I’ll take it to her as soon as I’m able.”
‘Rage!’ Noble yelled again as I leaned over Justice to rummage through the glovebox.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ I shot back, my frustration mounting as I pulled out gum wrappers and empty mint tins.
Justice pushed me back with one hand and held a pen out to me with the other.
‘This is important,’ Noble snapped, his tone sharp with fear. ‘A bunch of lower mages are here—’
Lower mages weren’t my problem.
‘This is more important!’ I growled, grinding my teeth together when I considered my abysmal options for a note to my mate: crumpled gum wrapper or Nai’s aunt’s hand.
“If you want me to just pass along a message…” Sariah said, resting her fingers on my arm. “I’ll remember it word for word, I promise.”
I nodded and nudged the car back into drive.
“Will you please tell her…” I thought of all the things I wanted to say, but really, all my thoughts boiled down to two sentences. “Tell her I love her, and … please, please, come home to me.”
“I’ll make sure she gets the message,” Sariah said.
As soon as I’d murmured my appreciation, I glanced at Justice and jerked my head back toward the island. “Noble’s in a panic,” I muttered to Justice. “Something with a group of lower mages.”
After bidding Sariah goodbye, I spun the car around and raced back through the deepening night to the boat docks at top speed.
A cacophony of revelry still thundered from the coronation party in the auditorium, but Justice and I avoided the melee and headed straight to the conference room where Noble told me he’d be. We walked down the stone hallway, approaching the heavy oak door. Two guards stood outside in the passageway, each with a mace and broadsword, their presence a foreboding omen for what lay within.
I’d been present for a few meetings over the last couple of years with Declan, but never in charge. It was time for me to step up to the plate. When Justice slowed his pace as if he weren’t going to attend, I placed a hand on his shoulder, ‘Come inside. I may need your help.’
I surveyed the two guards. Both were at least two decades my senior, old enough to be my father. Noises came from behind the thick wood and stone barriers, voices raised in consternation, but the words were muffled and indistinct.
“What’s going on?” I asked, as much to feel the guards out as the situation. On our way back to the castle, I’d reached out to Noble, but he’d been so occupied, dealing with whatever was happening behind these doors, our conversation had been clipped short.
The man on the right, Tad, shook his head. “Your brother, Noble—”
“Prince Noble,” Justice growled, correcting the slight.
The guard’s lip twitched and then curled in a sneer. “Yes, Prince Noble is inside with a bunch of mages from Dark Row.”
I frowned. From Dark Row? What the heck were they doing on Alpha Island? Why would mages be here asking for help? Unless…
After a nod to Tad, he opened the door, and I strode in, Justice on my heels.
Nearly a dozen lower-level mages, identified by the mage marks on their foreheads, stood around the table, their robes stained with soot and ash. The stench of sweat, blood, and char hung in the air so thick I could taste it at the back of my tongue. The crowd bickered, tones sharp and heated.
“We clearly can’t trust the high mages anymore. They don’t care about us!” a young, brunette, female mage snapped at a bald mage near her.
We can agree on that, I thought as I zeroed in on the speaker and paused, waiting to hear more.
The bald man glared at the young woman as he shouted, “So you’ve said, Beryl, but we don’t have enough power without them—”
“The High Mage Council promised us protection!” another male mage bellowed.
“It isn’t safe there anymore!” a female screamed.
And the first one, the brunette female mage, raised her voice and screeched over them all. “The high mages are all selfish liars!”