Page 129 of A Song of Air
“Fine.”
“Fine?” Cassimir’s brows kicked up to his shoddy hairline.
“Must I repeat myself? Have you lost your hearing in your ancient age?”
“Sarcasm does not suit you, little brother.” Cass turned to walk away. “Early morning,” he reminded Weylyn. “Kiss your little mate goodbye and ready your spears. Our brothers are so looking forward to having you back for The Hunt.”
Portals and Prayers
“This isyourfucking fault,” Malika spat in the human’s direction.
The human, who still wept and had been doing so for the past hour, did and said nothing in response to that.
Uric fought not to roll his eyes and instead looked at his prince.
“Open a portal,” Prince Valerio insisted.
Uric bit his tongue. He had been asking for several minutes now, and Uric had not been able to bring himself to respond. He could not open a portal, yet his prince demanded it.
The rebel leader, Arlo Blackwood, thought his man would have the answers to their problem, but they were back to where they started.
“I cannot,” Uric whispered. He had wanted to say these words in private, so no one else could hear, but they suddenly brought attention in their direction. He grinded his teeth against the stares and his jaw cracked.
“Uric,” Prince Valerio sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I have tried,” Uric said quickly. “The moment they fell through, I tried. I cannot open portals to the Unseelie realm.”
“Why?”
“Unseelie follows different rules of time and space. It is unlike the Seelie or humanlands, therefore my magic cannot access it.” Uric hated that bit of weakness. Hated disappointing his prince, but there was nothing he could do when it came to this.
“So are we supposed to stand around and do nothing to help them?” Malika shouted. “We can’t just abandon them to Unseelie! We have to do something!”
Uric met Valerio’s gaze. They stared at one another for the longest time and in that moment, silence spoke so much more than any words ever could. Uric knew his friend too well, well enough to see the burden of guilt weighing heavily against his shoulders.
He blamed himself for this, when no one was at fault but that pathetic, sniveling human.
