Page 20 of A Trial of Two Worlds
Fjorda appeared at my side. “You said the veil felt… different? That the magic at the crossing wasn’t as strong?”
“Yes,” I answered.
The others surrounding us nodded their heads as well.
“Gods above,” Fjorda cursed.
I gasped. “Oh no!”
“What does this mean, Captain?” a beautiful blonde female asked, striding to his side.
I recognized her as Fjorda’s first mate. The companion Castor had taken to his quarters on more than one occasion while we sailed to the Inner Kingdom.
“You want to tell them?” Fjorda inclined his head toward me, knowing I had reached the same awful conclusion he had.
“It means,” I began, refusing to allow my voice to waver, determined to be strong, because, well, there was no other option at this point. “It means the veil is losing its power. It’s weakening.”
“How?” someone shouted from the crowd. The winds began to shift, bringing theOpalcloser to the shoreline, revealing more evidence of the wilt’s destruction.
“The veil has stood for five hundred years! How is itnowfailing?” another shouted.
I looked at Fjorda, and he gave me a curt nod, his eyes churning wild like the turquoise seas. He understood exactly why the veil was failing, why it was beginning to fall. There was one change, one definite difference.
“It’s because of me,” I said.
The High Fae on the ship stilled, their gazes all turning in my direction. Some looked confused, and others looked shocked, but there were a handful who realized the truth.
I inhaled a long breath, my animal sending a surge of courage through me. “The further I progress in the trials, the weaker the veil’s magic becomes.”
Whispers erupted amongst the crew.
I looked out onto the sands, sorrow threatening to shatter my beating heart at the state of my homeland, wishing I could have spared my people this deathly curse.
“They’re linked. Gods be damned. Daxton was right,” I said to myself.
Oh, Mother and Father, there would be no living with him after he heard of this. I shook my head as the chatter around me continued to build.
“The Silver Meadows high prince believed they were connected?” the first mate asked, overhearing me.
Her long braid fell over her shoulder in a cascade of blonde, almost white, silken locks. The slender sword at her back was paired with the daggers strapped to her thighs, sharpening her appearance and countering her feminine beauty with that of a lethal fighter.
“He did,” I answered. “My mate had a theory that when I unlocked the Heart, the veil would fall, and our worlds would once again be open to one another.”
“Yourmate,” she repeated, a half-smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. “That explains the scent change.”
Others around her nodded in agreement.
“It makes sense,” Fjorda said, silencing the muttering of his crew. “The veil appeared when the Heart was locked away. It’s logical that they’re linked.”
“What do we do now?” a male sailor asked.
I glanced along the shoreline, recognizing my green sand beach before turning to Fjorda. “Do you have a rowboat you can spare?”
Chapter Nine
Daxton Aegaeon
“Gods a-fucking-bove!” I couldn’t restrain the curse escaping my splintered lips as I forced myself to turn on the cobblestone floor of the dungeon.
