Fallon shook his head. ‘Being a Prince allows one such a liberty, Kaspar, you know that. And, as you say, at a time like this we should be united, don’t you think?’
‘And how,’ Kaspar scoffed, ‘Are we supposed to be united when your Kingdom won’t tell us who this Heroine girl is or how you plan to find the second? Besides, closing Athenea’s borders more promotes division, don’t you think, Fallon?’
Fallon chuckled dryly for a few seconds, before his mouth became a set line. ‘Ask and you will be answered, my friend.’
Autumn’s eyes flicked between the two of them, grimacing slightly. Suddenly, her eyes moved to me and her face became unreadable again.
‘So who is the Heroine? Is she of noble blood or not?’
‘I don’t know.’
Kaspar swore fiercely under his breath, turning and punching a nearby innocent tree. The bark splintered, falling as shards to the mossy ground.
‘You don’t know? Not even a name?’ Cain interjected, glancing at his brother.
‘No. My father has not told me. All I know is she is far from under the control of the court. She’s beyond our influence. The court closed the borders in an attempt to keep her from leaving the dimension; force her to pay them a little visit.’
‘But you opened them again?’ I asked.
Fallon drew a long breath, glancing at Autumn as he did. ‘No.’
Comprehension, swiftly followed by shock, seemed to spread around the clearing. Autumn’s eyes had become averted again, her gaze firmly locked on the ground. But every few seconds, perhaps when she thought no one was looking, her eyes would sweep around, still cautious until they came to a rest on me. I frowned, hoping to catch her eye but she didn’t look up again, as though she knew I was watching.
‘You mean?’ Cain began.
Fallon nodded, his face solemn.
Lyla laughed nervously, stepping forward into the moonlight. ‘But … that’s not possible. It’s just not possible.’
I glanced from one to the other, not following the broken conversation. ‘What’s not possible?’
Kaspar, leaned against the tree he had taken his anger out on, opened his eyes for the first time in a full minute, stirring once more.
Fallon sighed, turning his attention to me again. ‘The girl – the Heroine, opened the borders. By herself.’
I shook my head. ‘So?’
He continued. ‘The borders are what divide the dimensions. Dark beings are able to move freely through them, provided they are open. But they are not physical divides. They are made from energy, so opening and closing them takes immense power: hundreds of dark beings, at least. An entire court.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Yet this girl, even if she had help, must be powerful; so powerful that she could wield enough energy to be able to open the borders.’
I frowned. ‘But what do you mean wield? Wield what?’
Autumn raised her eyes.
‘Oh,’ Fallon cooed. ‘You really do know nothing.’
I folded my arms across my chest. ‘Then tell me.’
He held out the hand that was scarred. ‘I’d do better to show you.’ Kaspar hissed all of a sudden but Fallon cut him off with a wave of his hand. ‘You already know what it is, Miss Lee. It’s what keeps the blood gushing through a vampire’s veins, despite a deadened heart. It’s what allows every dark being to use their minds to communicate. It’s what caused the Death’s Touch to flower. It’s all around us; you feel it now.’
The burning, tingling sensation returned, skipping from fingertip to fingertip. The trees swayed once more and the beams of moonlight streaming between the canopy disappeared, like the light of a candle blown out by the rising breeze.
Fallon smiled. ‘All dark beings are born with it,’ he said, gesturing around the group, to which a few nodded. Kaspar stared at the ground, arms crossed, defeated. ‘And the Sage have the power to manipulate it.’
He paused, then held his hand out and smiled.
‘Incendia,’ he breathed. His lips barely moved but from the very air he had just exhaled sprung minute, dancing sparks, champagne coloured and effervescent, cascading with so little effort that they looked to be lighter than air. They spun and spun in his hand, a tiny whirlwind until suddenly they disappeared; in their place was a flickering ball of fire, perfectly shaped into a flame and floating a few inches above his skin.
‘Energy in its very rawest form; or what you, Miss Lee, may know as magic.’
My eyes widened. He waved his hand and it followed, becoming a flaming tongue, interweaving between his fingers as they clenched and his fist became a ball. When his fingertips met his palm, it was gone.
Magic. I believed it all, utterly and entirely, my reasoning simple: if vampires could exist, then what he had just produced from thin air could too.
Fallon stared at his hand for a moment, his eyes glazed and unfocused before he seemed to remember himself. His eyes drifted upwards and he continued.
‘The borders are comprised of complex, dangerous magic. It is not something a normal young Sage could master. Yet she has. We’re dealing with something new. Something powerful and perilous contained within one girl. She opened the borders and only heaven knows where she is or what she plans to do.’
Kaspar stirred. The brooding expression on his face, the downturned eyes, the folded arms – they were parts of his character that I recognized and was so familiar with now that I knew something was bothering him.
‘Find the second Heroine, perhaps?’
Fallon shrugged his shoulders. ‘Maybe. But that doesn’t narrow it down. The second girl could be any woman, anywhere. She could be in any part of your dimension. Besides, what is there to say this girl accepts her fate? She is young, after all. She may ignore her duty.’
Alex dropped his guitar case to the ground, unzipping the top part. His fingers twiddled with the strings and I shifted, wishing he would stop.
‘No. I can’t believe that. Wherever the second Heroine goes, so does the first. No sane person would want to be stuck alone with a fate like that for long.’
Kaspar glanced at him, obviously thinking the same thing that I was. Alex picked up the hint, mumbling an apology. I glanced at Fallon’s hand. A few sparks were still clinging to his fingertips, red this time.
‘Then why are you here? An odd time to visit, surely?’ Kaspar asked. The distrust and curiosity were evident in his voice.
‘We wish to visit Eaglen and with your permission, would travel and camp with you tonight,’ Fallon began, with a little more tact than before.