Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Kerrigan frowned. “Why?”
“To bring her back,” Zina whispered.
“Mei?” Kerrigan asked. She glanced at Fordham. “Is that possible?”
Zina shrugged. “He was convinced it had enough magic. At the time, I thought he was losing his mind. It wasn’t until you told me that my mother used her magic to put the barrier up around the House of Shadows that I realized it. It was why I traveled home. I went to him and asked if he had found it, if he could use it to reverse the spell that ended her life.”
“Oh,” Kerrigan whispered.
“He never found it,” Zina said. “He gave up his search long before I confronted him.”
“Oh,” Kerrigan repeated.
“Why did he think it could bring her back?” Fordham asked.
Zina shrugged. “There was a lot of lore around it at the time as a powerful artifact of the gods. And god magic can do unpredictable things.”
That was damn true.
“But there wasn’t enough information about the Doma or how to use it. We don’t have those resources.”
Kerrigan gradually came to sitting. A groan escaped her as Fordham hurried to help her up. Zina was so lost in her thoughts of the past that she didn’t even scold her for it.
“We need someone who knows more about the crown,” Kerrigan said.
“Who would know more than Trulian?” Zina asked.
Kerrigan met Fordham’s eyes. “Who would know more about Doma?”
Fordham’s face lit up in recognition. “Cleora.”
Zina glanced between them. “Who is Cleora?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The Mentor
Zina took her hand as Kerrigan yanked them both onto the spirit plane. Zina glanced around at the cloud cover before it disappeared and they rematerialized onto a sandy beach overlooking an unfamiliar sea with unfamiliar mountains in the distance.
“You’ve gotten better at this,” Zina said.
“I had good teachers.”
Zina snorted as she changed her clothes from the bronze attire to a seaside blue, floral gown. A floppy hat landed on her head. She was barefoot in the sand and tilted her head up to the sun. “Sure could use a beach holiday.”
Kerrigan laughed. “You don’t seem like the beach type.”
“I could be,” Zina said. “Why didn’t your boy come too?”
“He’s not as strong in spirit,” Kerrigan said. “He’s a work in progress.”
“Bet he hates that.”
“Sure does.”
“And he has spirit magic because of your mating bond?” Zina asked. “Doesn’t make much sense to me.”
Kerrigan explained a Daijan bond and how it had been transferred from her mother to the mating bond. When it had all snapped back together, the bond allowed them to transfer powers. Now Kerrigan had some shadows and Fordham had some spirit, neither as strong as their own powers but handy in a pinch.
“If you say so,” Zina said. “Who are we waiting on? And are you sure you’re feeling up to this?”
Kerrigan had taken two days to rest her magic. She’d gotten the portal door closed. Dragons were choosing Herasi riders to add to their aerial arsenal. To try to not feel totally helpless, Kerrigan and Fordham had scoured the information Trulian had kept of his search for the crown. She’d learned a lot but still virtually nothing that would tell them where it was. If Trulian had spent several lifetimes looking and never succeeded, what hope did they have?
“I’m feeling well enough,” Kerrigan said, shaking off the impending doom of their last-ditch effort. “And I’ve actually never done this before. In the past, we’ve always had a set time to meet.”
“Great,” Zina said. A chair appeared in the sand, and she sank into it, resting backward as if she were going to fall asleep. “Let me know when it works.”
Kerrigan chuckled at her before turning her attention to the more pressing problem—how to get Cleora to the spirit plane. Kerrigan had used a magical signature to pull people onto the plane or into dreams before, but Cleora was literally in a different dimension. Domara might as well have been across the universe for all Kerrigan knew. How could she possibly find her signature here?
She blew out a breath and decided to just give it a try. After all, the spirit plane was the great equalizer. If Cleora could reach her on the plane and Kerrigan could reach Cyrene on the plane, then maybe she could reach anyone she really wanted to if she pushed.
It took a minute of controlled meditating before she felt centered enough to try something this drastic. She closed her eyes and reached with that thread of spirit magic. She knew Cleora—the fearless professor of an academy on the outskirts of the Domaran capital. She’d saved Kerrigan’s life by training her, and she’d risked everything to help her when Kerrigan had been in the tournament. If Vulsan ever found out what she’d done, Cleora would be cast out or killed. That forged a bond of its own sort, and Kerrigan just needed to follow it to Domara.