“Welcome to the Otherworld,” the golden-winged woman said. “I’m the Empress’s advisor, Aeliana. We’ve been expecting you for quite some time.”
“But you were only told we were coming yesterday,” I said.
“True. However, I’ve known about your visit for longer than that.”
Future sight. It had to be.
Ethan remained focused on the Empress. “Mary said you’d take us to the portal,” he said.
“I will,” she said. “But as I’m sure Mary also told you, the portal is a one-way trip to the prison world.”
“We’re aware.”
“Very well. Then follow me.”
The Empress led us out of the courtyard and up to the roof of the palace. There were marble, Roman-styled buildings on top of it—like a town on top of the roof.
The palace was the tallest point in the city, looking out over the densely packed buildings around it. The buildings closest to the palace were large, sturdy, marble structures. The ones on the outskirts were wood, and they looked like they might topple over at any second.
A few people we passed had wings of a variety of colors and wore stitched clothing like Aeliana. Most had no wings, and they wore gray uniforms that nearly blended into the marble floors and buildings. Red tattoos circled their right biceps, and they kept their gazes down as we passed.
Half-blood servants. The tattoos bound their magic, leaving them at the mercy of the fae.
Selena—the Queen of Wands—was also a half-blood fae. After becoming the Queen of Wands, she’d made a deal with the Empress—an alliance with Avalon in exchange for allowing her to free the half-bloods from their magical chains.
But she’d gotten so caught up in trying to save her best friend Torrence from a goddess that was keeping her captive that she’d yet to return to the Otherworld to free the half-bloods.
According to the witches in Utopia, Selena blamed herself for Torrence getting captured. But Selena was the only person in the world who could use the Holy Wand to free the half-bloods. And as I looked around at the servants we passed—all of them with downturned eyes—I wondered why Selena couldn’t have put someone else in charge of rescuing Torrence so she could free the servants she supposedly cared so much about.
I didn’t want to dislike someone I’d never met—especially not one of the Holy Queens. But how could Selena leave the half-bloods so helpless when she had the power to free them?
Eventually, we made it to the opposite side of the palace’s roof, and the Empress stopped in front of a building that looked like a mausoleum. It was made of marble, and had columns leading to the door.
She reached into a pocket hidden in her skirts and pulled out a black key. She stuck the key into the lock, the key glowed red, like burning coal, and she opened the door.
Aeliana stayed back. “This is as far as I go,” she said. “But before you leave, I have something for you.” She reached into the satchel tied at her side and pulled out two gold coins.
“More portal tokens?” I said, confused. Because the three of us already had portal tokens. At least, we had the ones we’d borrowed from Mary.
“These are rare portal tokens,” Mary said. “They were given to me by the only fae with omniscient sight who’d ever lived—”
“Prince Devyn,” I said quickly.
She raised an eyebrow. “You know your history.”
“Part of our training after receiving our elemental magic was learning the history of the supernatural world,” I explained. “I learned as much as I could.”
“Gemma’s a great student,” Ethan added, and I looked at him quizzically.
Why was he so eager to compliment me?
Mira’s lips pinched with annoyance. She never liked when I received praise and she didn’t.
I refocused on Aeliana, not wanting to look at Ethan or my twin. “Prince Devyn could do more than see the most probable future,” I continued. “He could see all possible futures.”
“Correct.” Aeliana nodded. “Which meant he could prepare for more than one possible future. And when he gave these tokens to me, he told me they were the only two portal tokens in existence that connect Ember to the Otherworld. They can be used in any fountain in Ember to create a portal back here. Devyn told me to give them to you before you entered Ember.”
“But there are three of us.” I reached for the key around my neck, as if getting reassurance that it would work as promised.
Could Hecate have been wrong? And if she had, why were we only getting two tokens instead of three?
“He said the purpose of the tokens would eventually become clear,” she said, and she placed them in my hand. “That’s all I know, since I cannot see what will happen to you once you’re in Ember. But I wish you the best of luck.”
Her expression was grave, like she thought we were dead already.
Mira looked to me, worried, and I could practically read my twin’s thoughts.
I’ll back out of this if you will.
But we’d already come this far. So I shook my head, thanked Aeliana, and followed Sorcha through the door.
Ethan took Mira’s hand and guided her forward.
Of course he did. It seemed like she needed his help with everything.
Maybe he liked the fact that she was always scared. Maybe it gave him a higher sense of purpose.
Except when he and Mira had started dating—before we’d gotten our magic—Mira had never been scared of anything.
Realizing I was getting lost in spiraling thoughts, I tore my gaze away from them and refocused on the task at hand.
Inside the mausoleum, a boundary spell the color of Sorcha’s diamond wings surrounded a pit of tar. Red glowed out of it, providing the only dim light in the building.
“The portal to Ember,” the Empress said. “No one has ever walked through voluntarily.”
Ethan stepped forward, not looking scared in the slightest. “There’s a first for everything,” he said.
His fearlessness amazed me. But of course he wasn’t scared. Ember was his home.
I needed to trust that he’d keep us safe there.
I also needed to trust my own ability to keep us safe. Because I had magic, too.
And I wasn’t afraid to use it.
12
Gemma
I’d expected it to hurt when I jumped through the portal.
It didn’t.
Instead, it tingled, like the air was electrically charged.
It wasn’t long before I tumbled out and hit the ground, landing directly on my shoulder. Pain shot up it, and I sat up and held it to relieve some of the pressure.
We were in a mostly flat desert with an occasional brown boulder along the ground. It reminded me of the Outback.
Ethan and Mira had been dumped near me. Mira looked frazzled, and Ethan was on his hands and knees, staring at the ground in a daze, like he couldn’t stand up.
I didn’t have time to ask him if it had started, because two groups of four people each walked around two giant brown rocks. The group to my left wore long black cloaks with hoods draped over their heads. They were like grim reapers without scythes.
The people in the other group all had wings. Green, red, blue, and yellow. Three of them were men, one was a woman, and they wore gladiator-style warrior outfits with swords strapped to their sides.