Chapter 37
Sovereigns, Legends and Dragons
ANNA
As the biting chill of winter left the air, I began to become antsy that Blake had not yet returned.
I kept myself busy. I trained, I meditated, I studied, and nothing was keeping my mind from the man who’d breathed life back into me.
Theater rehearsals continued but it was like torture being there without Blake. With Reece’s disappearance and no evidence of what happened to Isaac, I doubted the play would happen.
There was apprehension in the air. Even the Initiates were noticing it. The Aurkai were always busy, skipping private lessons. Malakai hadn’t been seen for weeks, and I’d never seen such a guard presence at Nightfall before. With them came a curfew.
To me, it was more of a suggestion.
It was in the early morning that I found myself slipping out right after curfew ended with one clear destination in mind—the portal.
“Anna.”
I paused.
I knew that voice.
I didn’t want to turn around.
“Anna, we know why you want to do this, but if you go to the Realm on your own, you will be banned by the Alliance and never be selected,” Caelan said.
My heart sank, but he was right. All the tension left my body as defeat set into my muscles.
“Why isn’t he back?” I asked, still staring into the swirling depths.
I saw Saryna at my side.
“Blake may not be coming back, Anna,” Saryna said. “In which case, you may only ever see him again if you are selected.”
I didn’t move. “You knew, didn’t you, Saryna?”
The pressure thickened in the room. It was Saryna’s everi flaring along with her shock, and guilt. I was right. She had known all along.
“Knew what?” she asked quietly.
“That Malakai was trying to become a blood mage,” I said. “You were trying to warn me.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It was my mission to get close to him and Caelan’s to get close to you.”
Hues of red burst across my vision as I sat in quiet fury. What did she say?
I turned, staring at him.
“What are you talking about? Who gave you a mission?”
They glanced at each other, and Caelan’s expression hardened. “There is something we have been keeping from you, Anna.”
Saryna’s expression twisted, guilt and pain warping her everi.
“We answer to a powerful mage. In our ranks, he goes by the name Veydanir—but you know him as Derrick.”
I paced back and forth across Caelan’s room.
My entire body was ticking like a bomb, my mind sifting through memories, trying to process everything they said.
Derrick. Mage. Mission. Clandestine organization. Powerful.
“He came to us after we graduated from the Arynthian battle mage program,” Caelan said. “Recruited us into a special program. Derrick has strong ties to the city and has for some time.”
My pacing increased.
“Okay, so what? What does this have to do with me?”
Saryna grabbed my hand, her everi rushing through me, and a slight calm came over me.
“He did not tell us much, Anna,” she said. “Just that he wanted us to protect you. Keep an eye on you here. He cares about you, Anna. Unfortunately, Caelan took his orders as permission to assist in your awakening by pushing you every step of the way, which was grossly negligent.”
Caelan glared. “She is fine, is she not?”
“It was selfish,” Saryna fired back.
“I want to see him,” I snapped, tired of their bickering.
My head hurt as I began to process my entire life in a matter of seconds. Since I was a child, this man—no—mage—had been training me in lethal Raicanya without telling me why or what it was. He was the reason I was at Nightfall. He was the one my mom had confided in from this world—the only one.
“I am afraid we cannot do that,” Caelan says. “He only contacts us.”
I shook my head, everything spinning. “Why? Why do his bidding? What makes you follow his orders?”
They shared a look that told me all I needed to know. It was silent communication—do we trust her? And whatever the reason, it was valid.
Saryna nodded, and Caelan paused.
“My family is from a long line of border keepers that guard the Realm from the Bloodmist Void,” Caelan said. “Our clan’s mission was directed right after the Fall of the Great City over a thousand years ago—by Derrick.”
Seeing Derrick in the Realm when the wraith attacked had been a blur. Everything Caelan was saying wasn’t sticking, but one image kept clashing through my mind that I was only now recalling—Derrick’s red eyes, so very different from the blue I knew them to be.
The blood drained from my face. Sometimes the things the Aurkai said elicited some emotional response from me, but whatever Caelan just said did quite the opposite.
“Anna?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I smiled. “Yeah, of course.”
Saryna watched me with a worried expression.
“I do not think she is taking it well,” she muttered.
“No,” Caelan said, snapping a few times in front of my face.
“How? A thousand years old. Mages can be that old?” I finally managed to get out.
“No,” Saryna said. “Not that we know of anyway. But blood mages can.”
The warmth left me.
A blood mage?
“Anna, are you okay?” Caelan asked, worry lining his brows.
“It’s fine,” I said, holding up my hand. “Just keep going. I’m going to ignore what you said and keep breathing.”
Caelan nodded slowly, unsure if I was being serious or not.
I was.
I was dead serious.
A thousand-year-old blood mage Raicanya instructor wasn’t something I could handle at the moment.
“Okay,” he muttered. “My people are loyal to him and I was chosen to go to Aynthia to train. That is how I met Saryna. I think Derrick is our only hope of finding a way to save the Realm from oblivion and from this world, too.”
“What?” I asked. “How is Earth a threat to the Realm?”
Saryna glanced at him nervously. “This is a lot to spring on her.”
I glared at her, and she recoiled.
“Have you learned about how mages have crossed into this world, some perhaps, having crossed centuries or millennia ago?” he asked.
I nodded. “Why?”
“It appears,” he said, “that one of them has been recruiting and turning mages into blood mages here, on Earth.”
A chill ran down my spine. “Here?”
Caelan nodded. “And it is not pretty. Humans are not designed to handle it like mages are. Many become monstrous beings that are controlled by their thirst. We are not sure who controls them, but someone is, or they would surely be causing far more chaos in this world than they are. Derrick has been sending mages on covert missions for some time, trying to learn more about their ranks. Right now, we are not sure if there is any connection to The Falls, but if there is not, it could be devastating if they were allowed to enter the Realm. Both worlds would come to an end.”
I dreamed of the night I spent with a prince in another world, under a sky of stars I did not know the patterns of.
Except for one.
But where was he to guide me through this darkness? Or had it all been a dream, far too good to be real?
I lay in bed, dreading yet another day that would drag on, where I would pretend everything was fine.
“Where are you?” I whispered to the darkness.
Malakai had not been found yet and I would’ve much preferred Blake being here with me rather than looking for him. Something about Malakai unsettled me and it wasn’t his careless attitude about harming others.
It was the words that haunted me in my sleep.
“I’ll be back for you.”
When I felt the calmest, I would recall those words, reminding myself I could never let my guard down. Malakai was always there, like the shadows, a reminder that I was never safe.
I spent the next day in the Meridian Hall as students came and went.
The activity made me feel safe and allowed me moments to zone out and think of something other than my nightmares.
I was recalling every single interaction I’d ever had with Derrick.
The signs had all been there. I always thought he was extraordinary, so now that there was less whiplash about mages in general, I could accept that.
But that other thing.
That, I couldn’t accept.
It was too big, with far too many things to consider along with it. I remembered what I’d read. How easily I accepted it when I discussed it with Roslyn and Isabella. But now that it was real?
I mean, how could it be possible? How could Derrick be a blood mage? He was the most patient, gentle person I knew, wasn’t he? And a thousand years. That was a lot of lifetimes. Did he ever care about me at all?
I was only in his life for a few years out of a thousand.
Tired of dwelling on the enigma that was Derrick, I decided to spend my day training.
According to Corinya, I should be close to awakening my first elemental affinity.
Isabella had done it weeks ago with steady progress since.
She was already using her everi to speed the growth of a seedling into a flower. It was amazing.
And frustrating.
I was no closer to awakening an elemental affinity than the new Adepts were. Riya and Eli had both been awakened recently and joined our classes. I swore Riya was probably going to awaken an affinity before me and I was dreading the look Commander Everson would give me when that moment came.
Between training and theater rehearsals, I was exhausted. I climbed into bed early that evening, looking forward to the extra sleep when Roslyn and Isabella marched into my room and insisted that I get dressed.
“There’s somewhere I want to take you!” Roslyn said. “Come with us.”
I shook my head, to which she pursed her lips and crossed her arms.
“You are not staying in here forever. Now let’s go. Someone I’m very close to has arrived at Nightfall. His name is Ash and I’ve been betrothed to him since birth,” she said. “He’s waiting for us.”
My irritation melted in an instant, and my jaw dropped.
“Since birth? Can they do that?” I asked.
I glanced between Isabella and Roslyn, waiting for an explanation, but Isabella cringed and Roslyn shrugged.
“Of course,” she said. “But that is not the point. I want you to meet him. Let’s go.”