“Your people are not associated with a House?” Sabrina asked.
I was trying to protect Sabrina by not telling her too much, but Zey was right about one thing—not that I’d admit it out loud. It wasn’t right to ask her to help without giving her some info.
“There’s a new portal,” I said, keeping my voice low. The walls in this place tended to have ears sometimes, as I’d learned on my last visit.
“Shit.” She deflated and flopped back against her chair, eyeing Zey with more curiosity and caution.
“One night. And we can pretend we were never here. Please.” I swallowed around the lump of tension in my throat.Pleaseandsorrywere not words I found easy to say,ever, and I’d said both in one conversation. Zey had better hold up his end of the deal.
“You’re lucky Kieran is visiting his uncle and isn’t here.” She rubbed her forehead then agreed to let us stay.
Sabrina hiked back to the castle and came back with a basket of food, although Zey didn’t have any and sipped on water constantly, so I ate most of it. She left us alone then—just me and Zey and one bed that took up half the space, and strict instructions to not leave the cabin.
I locked myself in the bathroom and spent a long time in the shower, letting the hot water work out some of the tension in my body as I turned everything over and over in my head. It was still hard to believe that I was in this situation at all.
For once, Zey left me alone and didn’t pester me to find his precious things while I ate and showered and summoned some sweats to change into. It was only eleven in the morning, but with the time difference and the fact I’d been through hell, I was exhausted. But as much as I needed rest, my mind was still racing.
So I figured it was a good time to get more info about what we were searching for.
I opened the door to the bathroom, and Zey was right there on the other side, like he’d been waiting for me.
“You alright there?” I shuffled past him.
“You were in there a long time,” he griped.
“Yeah, and now I’m out here. What’s your point?” I crossed my arms.
He just stared at me as I moved to the bed. I climbed onto it and leaned back against the headboard.
“I need to know about these things you’re trying to find. What are they? What do they look like? What do they do?”
“I do not know what they look like,” he stated ... and didn’t elaborate.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What? Then how do you know what you’re looking for? How do you even know they’re here on Earth? Didn’t the portal between our worlds only open the other day?”
“It did, yes.” He nodded. “These items don’t have a physical embodiment usually, and they’re not so much items as they are ... something else. I know they are here because I can feel it.”
Frustration was rising again, and I was way too tired to keep it from exploding into a toddler tantrum for much longer. “Zey, I need more than that. I’ve told you how my ability works and what the limitations are. You need to give me something to work with here. And for the love of the gods, sit down.”
He was making me feel unsettled just standing in the middle of the room. Thankfully he didn’t argue, coming to sit at the foot of the bed.
“How much do you need to know to find them?” he asked.
“Without having seen or touched them myself, as much as possible.” Even then, I wasn’t entirely sure I could do this. The more he revealed about these things, the more I doubted my ability could do anything at all to find them. I wasn’t about to tell him that though. Not when my life depended on it. And I sure as hell wasn’t about to give up without trying.
“They are called Onuei, and they are at the core of what makes my people what we are. You mentioned patriarchy earlier; well, we used to have similar systems. They were not based on gender but discriminatory and divisive nonetheless. This was a very long time ago. We have peace and harmony now. Our world is not perfect, but it is far better and more advanced than anything you’ve ever had here on this Earth.”
“Rude,” I muttered, but honestly human history was a shit show, so I wasn’t going to argue.
“Through many generations, we developed a system where all are equal, and our leader is chosen not through a flawed system that can be easily manipulated, but through an ancient magic that seeks out the worthiest individual—the one who best fulfills the people’s will and the good of the realm. It’s similar to what you might call royalty, but birth does not decide succession. The Onuei determine that.”
“How?” I crossed my legs and grabbed a pillow to cuddle in front of me. I was actually kind of riveted by what Zey was telling me. The way his face softened when he spoke about his people, the way his eyes lit up as he explained the system he clearly believed in with his whole being—well it didn’t hurt seeing all that either.
“When the True Leader dies, the three Onuei leave his body and go to the worthiest person. That is how we know who the next True Leader is. There is no way to falsify the glow that comes from within an individual for the first week of their ascension to power and responsibility. It is a great, sacred honor, respected by all ... most.” He frowned and his jaw tensed. I leaned forward slightly, totally invested in the story.
“OK, three of them. We can handle that. What do they look like?” I asked before yawning so hard that my jaw ached. Zey started to say something as I settled back against the pillows, but I must’ve been more tired than I realized. I involuntarily fell into a heavy sleep.
Sometime later, I woke myself up with my own snoring. I jolted into consciousness with a snort and rubbed my eyes. When I opened them, I jolted again, sitting up and summoning my fighting knife.