Page 16 of The Legacy of Ophelia
“I need Ophelia,” Jezebel whispered. “She’s the other half. The balance to it. It feels out of sorts without her.”
And there was such a fear in Jezebel’s voice, I stuffed aside my own wrenching worry. “She’s okay,” I assured her. “Rina wouldn’t lie to us about that.”
Angels, I hoped it was true.
Jezebel looked like she was about to say something, but quick, light footsteps fluttered around the corner, halting just inside the door to the stables.
“I’m sorry for interrupting,” Erista blurted, glancing between her partner—who notably did not look back—and me. “I heard what happened. I wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I’m fine.” Jezebel flopped back in the sand, but Zanox removed his wing from where it cocooned her, letting light slip across her face and giving Erista access. Squinting in the sudden sun, Jezebel grumbled, “Meddler.”
Zanox huffed, walking across the stable to where three stalls had been converted into one and tucking in his wings to sleep. Jez didn’t seem to have enough fight in her to walk away.
Erista nodded gratefully at the khrysaor, her eyes brimming with tears. “How are you, J?”
“Fine,” Baby Alabath said again.
Hesitantly, giving Jezebel room to tell her to leave, Erista sat in the sand on the opposite side of the doorway. “I’m sorry about Ophelia and Malakai.” She looked at me, too, and I nodded my appreciation.
“Everyone seems to be sorry,” Jezebel said.
“Perhaps it’s the right—” Jezebel silenced Erista with a glare, and the Soulguider corrected herself, “We’re going to get them back.”
“What if it’s a trick? What if it’s not actually them talking to Rina?” Jezebel asked.
I froze, not having considered that. At my sharp inhale, Sapphire’s wing draped across my shoulder, damn reassuring in the absence of her rider.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time researching the gods these past few days,” Erista said. There was an urgency in her voice, like she was desperate to help. “Though there’s nothing on Echnid since he was wiped from history by Aoiflyn, there’s plenty on Artale. I’ve been looking into the intricacies of her magic that extends to all gods—things like creation properties and how its woven into the realms. How it ties to beings on Ambrisk like Storytellers.”
I only vaguely listened as Erista explained to Jezebel how she was visiting the Hall of Wandering Souls in Xenovia’s Gates of Angeldust—a place where Soulguiders could sometimes communicate with lingering spirits—and asking the departed if there was any passing wisdom they could share.
As Jezebel lobbied curt responses back, I stroked Sapphire’s downy feathers. She continued to prod me with her wing.
At her insistence, I whispered, “What is it?”
Gently, Sapphire beat her wings, and as the breeze she created brushed across my face, I grinned up at this beautiful Angelsdamned pegasus.
“Jezzie?” I asked, and the girls fell silent. I held Sapphire’s piercing blue stare that saidfinally. “How about we get answers for ourselves?”
“You wentwhere?”Cypherion asked during our strategy meeting the next day.
The war room in Meridat’s estate—though not being used for war currently—was much like the dining room, with tiled floorsand tan walls carved with intricate designs, but here the arches were sealed with heavy wooden doors.
We’d been here for an hour discussing hypothetical scenarios of how Echnid could dismiss the gods thanks to Ophelia’s hints to Santorina and Erista’s extensive research with fellow Soulguider advisors and apprentices. But Baby Alabath and I had waited until the very end of this meeting to spill our news.
“We flew to Damenal,” I repeated. Meridat gaped at us. Vale sat on the edge of her seat. Rina dropped her head into her hands, sensing the coming storm.
Only Mila sat quietly and attentively at the table, stare locked on me. With bags under her eyes and a messy braid, she looked as disheveled as I felt.
“Why in the Angel’s cursed name would you do that?” Cypherion roared. “We agreed not to!”
“We had to see for ourselves,” I told him. “Had to see the city—see what’s happened.”
“And did you?” he snapped.
Jezebel asserted, “We did. We saw that nothing has physically changed aside from the gates to the palace being closed, though the streets were empty. And that”—her gaze shuttered—“there seemed to be some sort of invisible barrier keeping us from getting within the city limits.”
“God magic,” Erista breathed. “It has the power to create—as they did the realms. Echnid must have put up a blockade to keep warriors out.”
