We needed to come together. But adding politics to everything that was already happening was just confusing everyone.
There would be time to appoint a true king or queen to oversee the Maison realm. But I wanted nothing to do with that.
I felt it within me, the Spirit that came with being the Priestess.
My job was not to rule, but rather to unite. Soon, we’d have to find answers as to who could rule…to aid in the advancement to the next stage of our new realm. For now, we followed each other’s paths, a coalition of rulers until we could form the new government.
At the moment, however, our group didn’t look very much like a ruling coalition.
No. Instead, it was just a large room with a bunch of loud personalities, each trying to decide what to do.
“We have to take care of the eastern flanks,” Luken said, pointing to the map in front of us on the large table. On it were clay, metal, and wooden pieces to represent our armies, the enemies we were aware of, and other factions we were trying to find. “We’ve been ignoring them for too long.”
“The only ones attacking the eastern flanks are the Creed of Wings, who are trying to get through to find Lyric,” the Lord of Fire snapped. “We are fortified.”
“Not enough,” Luken rebuffed.
“We don’t know where The Gray will attack next,” Teagan said, keeping his voice calm. Frankly, I was surprised. He usually shot off first, but since his father was the one doing it today, perhaps he figured he should be the calm one. I wasn’t exactly sure. What I did know was that I had a headache, and I wasn’t sure how this fighting was going to help anyone. But they all needed to get this agression out of their system so that I would let them.
“Of course, we don’t know what The Gray’s going to do. We never have.”
“So what do you suggest?” Wyn asked. “If you say that we’ve never known what he’s going to do, then what are we supposed to do now? Are we supposed to fortify what we have? Or are we supposed to go out and find him?”
“You won’t find him until he’s ready to be found,” I said, and everyone turned to me. I shrugged, not caring about the odd looks being leveled at me.
“Lyric—” Rhodes began, and I held up my hand to stop him.
“He is the ruler of his little Shadow realm and he governs that space and has more power than we give him credit for.”
“I don’t know, he was always the bogeyman of our childhoods. I assumed he had great power,” Teagan grumbled, and I nodded.
“Perhaps you’re correct, but not everyone here believed he was real until it was almost too late.” I met Easton’s gaze, and he gave me a sad look, but not one anyone else could see. And that was fine. It was just for me. No one else needed to know what we truly felt when it came to The Gray.
After I had returned from the Shadow realm with Rhodes and Alura, all of us riding on Braelynn’s back, I had hugged Easton tightly, trying to tell him without words that I was home. I was safe. That we’d find a way to heal. And I hadn’t been able to talk to him since.
I hadn’t even had time to rest. Instead, Ridley had done what he could for me, healing up the cuts on my body, the bruises, the aches and pains. But he couldn’t get all of them. That would take time; time we might not have.
After, we’d entered this room and had been closed off since, fighting with each other as we tried to plan our next steps for protecting our people.
“So The Gray is going to come to us. We know that much. He’s been behind this all along,” Rhodes said.
“Exactly. He’s had people on his side since the beginning when he was a Spirit Wielder and walked through our lands, even before the Fall.”
“I still can’t believe the kind of power he holds. And none of us knew,” Rosamond said. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and Emory leaned closer to her, rubbing her back.
“You might be a Seer, but you can’t know everything,” Emory said, and I wanted to reach out and hug them both.
“I know. But I should know more than I do. Maybe if I had seen what The Gray was up to, we wouldn’t have lost so many people.” She paused. “We wouldn’t have lost the crystals.”
Everybody did a terrible job of trying not to look at me as she said those words. But I glanced at my skin, at the iridescent sparkles that still shone in the firelight.
Underneath the onslaught of power, it had dug into my skin, protecting itself the only way it could: by coming to me. And I didn’t know how to fix it.
Had it been part of the prophecy? Were the crystals supposed to somehow help me defeat The Gray? Or was this just the beginning of the end?
I didn’t like that train of thought, so I pushed it from my mind and looked back at the others as they started to fight again over what to do about our enemy. The problem was we didn’t know where the next fight would originate. We could protect our people in only so many ways. For instance, we could worry about the borders, such as they were. Still, without true wards to safeguard the kingdom, anybody could get in—and anywhere.
On top of that, even though the Lady of Air was using her powers to figure out who was on our side and who was on the side of The Gray, we weren’t actually sure if she was getting it right every single time.
An error of such magnitude could be the end for all of us, but Easton and I refused to allow the innocent to be turned away. So, we were taking a chance, but we also needed to formulate a plan.
“We need representatives from every faction,” I said suddenly, and everyone turned to me.
“We are those representatives, my Priestess,” the Lord of Fire said. Teagan winced from where he stood behind his father.
My lips quirked at the lord’s patronizing tone. “You’re right, but not all of them. What we have now is a Lord of Fire and your son. You two represent that element. We have Rhodes and Rosamond to represent Water and Air, but Lanya represents Air, as well. Delphine, who is still in bed resting, could represent Water, but I’m not sure everybody would trust her—at least outside this room.”
“And I’m not sure we should trust her inside the room,” Teagan said.
“Agreed.” I held back a sigh when the others started to speak again. “That’s Air, Fire, and Water. But Earth?”
“I guess there isn’t going to be a representative from there,” Wyn said, looking down at her hands.
I didn’t blame her for her sadness, or even her anger. Her parents had been traitors, the worst kind. Her father was dead, and while her mother still lived, she was hurt. The fact that neither of them had suffered from each other’s wounds told us they hadn’t been true soulmates. They had lied about it the entire time.
That had to be difficult for everybody, Wyn, most of all. Because they had come into their power not only through familiar lines, but with a hope for the masses that true soulmates could exist. Not everyone was fortunate enough to find theirs. The idea could have been a beacon. Though now, we all knew it to be a lie.
“You can be the representative for Earth,” I said casually, and Wyn raised a brow.
“Even though I’m also a Water Wielder now?” she asked, Water in one hand, Earth shaking beneath her feet as she turned her other palm to face the floor.