Chapter 27 Rhea #2
Phoebe freezes mid-pace, her notes slipping from her fingers to scatter across the floor. "What?!"
I stare at Phoebe's face, noticing the dark circles shadowing her eyes. She hasn't slept since she got here, based on the rumpled state of her clothes and tangled red hair. She probably doesn't even know about Vaylen's disappearance.
"Phoebe, Vaylen is missing. No one's seen him since the ball. He wasn't at the war council."
Her hand flies to her chest, eyes widening in horror.
"Missing? Oh, Goddess." She stumbles backward until her legs hit a chair, collapsing into it.
"It was Tahr. It had to be. He must have done something terrible to the High Prime.
" She shakes her head violently, denial written across her face.
"He would never abandon us, not now, not when everything's at stake.
He wouldn't just leave, no matter how heartbroken he was. "
It's not lost on me that Phoebe uses the word heartbroken. A dagger of guilt twists in my chest, but I push past it.
"Someone has to look for him," I say, pacing between the bookshelves.
"Maybe they already are, but no one will talk to me.
Not Dakar, not the Commander." I meet Phoebe's eyes.
"I need you to make sure they're searching.
I would go, but I have to keep an eye on Tahr.
Beside, Vaylen… he wants nothing to do with me. "
Phoebe nods numbly, her fingers trembling as she gathers her scattered notes. "Why would Fragor break their bond? Are you certain?" Her voice cracks on the question.
"Yes. Zephyros asked him." I swallow hard. "But something feels wrong about all of it. Fragor wouldn't just... leave him."
Phoebe's eyes cloud with tears. "This is madness. All of it."
"Please," I whisper. "Let me know if you hear anything, anything at all."
"I will."
"I have to go," I say, backing toward the door. I need to get back to my chamber, sift through my list, and untangle what's real from what Tahr might have planted in my head.
"Omneira," Phoebe says, the single word stopping me cold.
I turn slowly. "What about it?"
She points to the tomes spread across her table. "It's all here, Rhea." Her voice quivers with excitement and fear. "The prophecy, the powers, everything. I thought it might be a ruse, but..." She shuffles through parchments, hands trembling. "It's here. The Omneira is real."
My throat tightens. "Are you sure?"
Phoebe nods, then adds, "But… there's more."
"The ritual? Does it say how someone becomes Omneira?" I hold my breath, waiting for confirmation that Tahr has manipulated me once again.
Phoebe frowns, shaking her head. "There's nothing about a ritual." She shuffles through her notes, brow furrowed. "But Tahr wasn't lying about the Omneira being real. The prophecy exists in multiple sources."
I can't deny I'm shocked.
"But Rhea..." Phoebe's eyes meet mine, troubled. "You can't be the Omneira. Not alone, anyway."
My stomach drops. "What?"
"The Omneira isn't one person." She pushes forward a brittle scroll with faded illustrations. "It's a tetrad. Two dragons and their riders, bonded together."
I stare at the yellowed parchment, where four figures form a perfect square—two humans, two dragons, connected by lines of shimmering gold.
"A tetrad?" My voice sounds distant to my own ears as I trace the illustration with trembling fingers. "But Tahr said..." I trail off, realizing this is the lie.
"Perhaps he misunderstood," Phoebe says gently. "Or perhaps..."
She doesn't finish, but she doesn't have to. The alternative is too obvious. Tahr knew the truth and, in this instance, no manipulation was needed, only a run-of-the-mill deception.
My knees weaken as I grasp the edge of the table. "If what you're saying is true... if the Omneira is four beings, not one..." The pieces rearrange themselves, trying to fit but their edges are jagged, malformed.
Phoebe's eyes reflect my own confusion.
"Why would he lie about this?" I ask.
I stare at the faded illustration, the golden lines connecting rider to rider, dragon to dragon, rider to dragon.
A tetrad of power meant to end the war. This war?
Another war? Can I even trust any of it?
Am I part of the prophecy at all? The doubt gnaws at me, growing with every passing second.
Are Zephyros and I two pieces of this tetrad?
The connection between us is undeniable, but if we're only half of what's needed.
.. My throat tightens as the final question forms in my mind. Who are the other two?
The image of Tahr atop Heratrix sears through my mind. Regal and powerful. Are they the other half of this prophesied tetrad? Is that why he's been manipulating me, forcing connections between us through altered memories and mind control?
It makes a terrible kind of sense. Control the Omneira, and Tahr controls everything.
A shiver of apprehension runs down my back as I imagine being bound to him the way I'm bound to Zephyros. The thought makes my skin crawl. Not him. Never him.
But if not Tahr and Heratrix... then who?
A thought resurfaces. Fragor severed his bond with Vaylen, and my heart clenches painfully at the impossibility of that kind of bond forming between us now that Vaylen doesn't have a dragon.