Page 13 of Blaze

She shrugs. “Father bought Beacon books in hopes he’d develop more than a meager magical talent. It fizzled out before he turned thirteen. He never invested inmygifts at all. Too unseemly for a merchant’s daughter, even before the purge of witches. Everything I learned I had to steal from my brother’s shelves. After we were separated, I didn’t even have that much.”

Then her father was a fool. The ideas these humans have about gender roles is absurd. A female hellhound is as fierce as the male, and won’t accept anything less than a strong mate. And once mated, they’re only mated to that male for the rest of their lives. Ransom’s ability is the only exception, and the gentleness is only afforded to the females of royal lines he was arranged to have children with. Anyone who tried to douse Blaze’s light was either stupid or completely mad.

I nod. “That’s one way to measure a conjunction, but it isn’t theonlyway. As a matter of fact, Fantasia cycles through eight major conjunctions every twenty-four hours when your sun and moon move across the sky. Dawn, mid-morning, noon, midafternoon, sundown, the rising moon, zenith, and then the moments just before sunrise. They mark shifts in energy, and if I’m at a suitable geographic location when they occur, I can use them to tear a fabric of this world to the other side.”

“Tear a fabric?”

I nod. “Say, an entrance or an exit.”

I stroke the stone of the cave exit fondly. This cave is nearest Grimm, so while I can’t see the sun sinking toward the horizon through the layers of stone, I canfeelit. The last rays of the sun pulse like the frantic beating of a trapped animal’s heart, ceasing for a single crystalline moment before night falls. That’s when the barrier is thinnest, and we’ll make our egress.

Blaze looks thoughtful. “So, it’s symbolic magic, like using a doll to make someone else suffer from afar.”

“Close enough,” I say. We don’t have time for a more in-depth conversation though. Sundown is almost upon us, so this will have to do for now.

“And... what’s on the other side?” she asks tentatively.

“It depends on where you’re going. The world tree is a fickle thing, and it reveals different parts of itself to travelers every time. We won’t be there long. Going from one portion of your lands to the other is simpler than trying to find another world entirely. That could take months or years if you don’t know where you’re going. This should take... an hour or two at most. Ascor is nearby, relatively speaking.”

Blaze turns to face me fully then, eyes wide, lips slightly parted. They’re nicely shaped, and I wonder for a moment what it might be like to taste those lips. Her scent is so reminiscent of home that I know she must be exquisite. I’m actually envious of Ransom for rutting her, though the circumstances behind it were dubious at best. Her delicious scent is slightly ruined by her rising fear.

“You mean to say... Gods, you mean that hellhounds can travel anywhere in Fantasia, and be there inhours,not days?”

“Not hellhounds in general, just me and a handful of others. We’re called ‘travelers’. But yes, that’s what I’m saying. We could bring an army through and ambush you while unawares. Axion has kept that information from Lycaon and the others, and has promised a slow death to anyone who reveals the secret.”

“So, why are you telling me?”

“Because I want you to believe us when we say that we don’t want to conquer your people. We want to be left alone, and we can only accomplish that by freeing our goddess. And we only have a small window of time to accomplish that goal before Lycaon realizes that we’re missing and attempts to call us back.”

“Okay.”

I look to the sky before I return my attention to her eyes. “Sundown is almost here, Blaze. Are you with us or against us?”

“I already said I’d help.”

“But you did so begrudgingly.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Your willingness.”

I extend a hand to her, imploring. We can’t do this without her and, whether she knows it or not, she can’t move forward without us. She considers my hand for a long moment before sliding her slim one into mine. It’s warm and smooth. I want to kiss it, to taste her skin, but hold myself back. Another time, perhaps, when she doesn’t detest us so much.

“There isn’t really much of a choice now, is there?”

“Not really,” I say. “Not for any of us.”

The final beat of the sun’s rays hits the earth, and for a moment everything is still. I shift down to my true form, ripping at the barrier with my teeth. It’s thin and gauzy and tears easily. A rift opens, starlight pouring through, blinding after so long in the cave. I trot forward, with the Chosen One and my brothers in arms following close behind.

CHAPTER EIGHT

BLAZE

The world beyond the borders of Fantasia is breathtaking, putting any place I’ve seen thus far to shame.

I thought I’d seen true power when Belle Tenebris cast her strength against Kronos and emerged victorious. I believed I’d seen nature herself at work when I saw Princess Arianwen turn the very tides against our enemies, summoning a storm of such magnitude that it dashed their ships to pieces. They found the battered bodies of sailors on the rocks or floating face down in coves for months afterward. I’ve seen Goldy, our guild thief, steal the vitality of over a hundred men in one go. Bowie is more frightening still, able to rip the life from an army with a wave of her Shepherd’s crook.

The ground beneath our feet, if it can even be called that, seems less like the bark of an enormous, universe-expanding tree and more like crystal, striated with veins of some darker material I don’t have a name for. It catches the light of the stars and magnifies it, casting a prism of colors through the air. Far-off planets seem to hang from the branches like a bounty of multicolored celestial fruit. I swear I can see beings of lightmovingthrough the dark reaches between stars. And if I look closely enough, I can see the reflections of thousands of lives in the crystal. I bend to pick up a bit that has flaked off, holding it up to my eyeline, and almost immediately see Delerood.

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