ELRETH

The authority in her father's voice was unexpected. As was the prickling anger that bloomed in her chest when she heard it. Her instinct was to stifle it, to give her father his due as her father, ignoring their roles in the people.

But then Elreth remembered why they were there and what she had to do.

She turned slowly, taking her father's eyes as he stepped forward from the others and opened his mouth, like he was going to warn her again.

"Stand down,

" she said with quiet conviction, the cave echoing with her Alpha power. Her father stopped in his tracks, but his face went hard. Elreth shook her head.

"I love you, Dad, but you are not King anymore. I am. And I'm here to learn, and to protect my people. You're here because I invited you, because I want you to learn too. But you do not give me orders.

"

Her father blinked. He didn't step forward, and he didn't speak.

He also didn't back down.

Elreth didn't drop his eyes, but she did as she would have done if the resistance came from an Elder, or Tarkyn. She shifted her attention to let them know the subject was closed.

"Gar, the portal is here. I can smell it and sense the air shifting. But I can't see anything except that when I look around the wall, something about it seems to move with my eyes. So tell me how this works.

"

Gar's voice was strong, but quiet. Elreth wondered what his face looked like, watching her tell their father to stand down. She could scent both pleasure and uneasiness in her brother.

That was ironic.

"Don't step forward, El,

" Gar replied.

"Let Apryl show you, she can do it safely.

"

Elreth waited, still locked on her father. But her mother stepped up to his arm and touched him, and even though she didn't say anything, he finally broke the gaze and looked down at her.

She stared up at him, tears making silver lines just above her lower lashes. They looked at each other for a long moment, but her father didn't say anything.

Elreth didn't regret that she'd set him down, but her stomach fluttered because she loved her dad and she didn't want to make him feel bad—or have any uneasiness between them. She prayed they'd be able to move on without ill feeling.

But then Apryl, either oblivious to the family and political dynamics playing out around her, or willing to ignore them completely, stepped past her parents to come stand in front of El, in front of the portal, with a smile.

"When we bring a disformed here, the first thing we do is have them identify the portal—just as you did,

" Apryl said to Elreth.

"Just to make sure they have that sense of it. Every Anima can scent the smell if they're paying attention. But not everyone can feel the opening. It's good that you can.

"

Apryl glanced at Gar and Aaryn who stood side-by-side a few feet down the tunnel. Elreth's parents had moved to stand behind Gar, out of the way. Elreth was grateful. She didn't have the mental energy to learn—or fight—on more than one level right then.

"The disformed's power in the traverse is twofold,

" Apryl said as she unsheathed a blade at her waist.

"Our first concern is for their strength of character. The traverse tests even the most steadfast hearts and minds. If they don't have the strength to stand alone, to pursue what they believe is right, even when it's hard, their other strengths will mean nothing here.

"

"Other strengths?

" Elreth asked carefully, her eyes widening when Apryl laid the blade to her inner arm, then used it to nick the skin just inside her wrist.

Apryl held up her hand so Elreth could see the blood beginning to bead.

"Our blood,

" she said simply.

"It's a… shield, for lack of a better word. I can't show you today, so I'm not cutting properly—you need a wound that will continue bleeding for several minutes—but I just wanted to show you the way the portal responds to our blood.

"

Then she turned and, with her hand flat and high, reached for the portal.

The air over it seemed to shimmer, then glow with a bright blue light, twisting and curling on itself as her hand first made contact with whatever that surface was, then passed through, sucking with it into the traverse itself.

To Elreth's eyes, Apryl's hand disappeared inside the portal, surrounded by air that shimmered and sucked in, like she was pressing into one of the large spider webs they would find in the forest.

Elreth's heart raced, but Apryl didn't step forward, just pulled her hand back out, then turned to face her.

"The portal is the gateway—the guard of the traverse. If anyone breaches it without one of us, they are unprotected from the voices. It is extremely dangerous. If, however, I were to bleed, then take your hand and lead you through, the voices would not touch you. They would only approach me—and my blood holds them at a distance unless I'm weakened.

"

Elreth swallowed. Her father had warned her and Gar about the dangers of the voices, how they would attempt to tempt—or threaten. That they knew things it was impossible to know—the future, past secrets, your thoughts at times. That they would do anything they could to get an Anima, or a human, to follow them.

No one knew if an Anima crossed without giving in. It left no mark on them. And no one who had given in had ever explained it to others.

"What are they?

" she asked.

Apryl shrugged.

"I mean, I have my theories, and the histories that the Guardians hold now give some clues. But probably the easiest way to explain is to say that they are spirits. Evil spirits. Not spirits of the dead who were once alive. Spirits of those who were always dead. What they want is to latch onto us. They want to walk into our world and be freed from this place of death. But if that happens, they bring death with them.

"

"Bring death? Like an illness?

"

"More like an illness of the mind,

" her father said quietly. They all turned to look at his grim face.

"We believe many of the wolves who revolted twenty years ago were under the influence of the voices—or by whatever power it is that they have. The wolf Alpha had given in and his… evil spread to those who were close to him.

"

Elreth recoiled.

"These spirits can multiply?

"

"We don't really know how it works, because we worked hard to rid our world of any Anima who had given in to them. And were only ever a few, because so few people crossed. That's why I always warned you and Gar so strongly not to go here. And why I was so angry when he did,

" her father's voice was quiet, but it thundered in the cave.

Gar's jaw went hard as their father turned to him.

"I never wanted to see my children sucked into their webs, dying with a tormented mind because they'd been too prideful or too headstrong see the danger.

"

Gar's eyes flashed and he shifted his weight like he was preparing for a blow—preparing to meet and return it. Elreth was about to jump in, to try to stop any conflict, but then her father added,

"Instead, I was proven wrong. Because my children are made of even stronger stuff than I am,

" he said humbly, looking back and forth between them. Then his gaze rested on Gar..

"I'm sorry I didn't see that sooner.

"