Still watching Kane, I sighed. “Boutrol?”
“Yes, Auriena?”
I wondered if he was just as surprised that I knew his name as I was that he knew mine. “The gods aren’t some mythological creatures that are unseen, unheard. Not beings you have to have faith that they exist without any real evidence, are they? They’re nothing more than powerful creatures that like to play power games, aren’t they?”
The dragon laughed heartily. “I do like you, Auriena Raulson. You are very gifted with many talents, observation being one of your keenest.” He strode over next to Kane. “If a portal is what you desire, my friend, a portal is what I will make you. But I, too, will destroy its access after whoever passes through it. So, choose wisely. Obviously not everyone on Earth is on the right side and blind to our existence here.”
Silence befell our conversation as I walked up between them, wrapping my arm around Kane’s bicep. “I don’t understand. Was I some random female they chose, hoping that I’d be able to bring their so-called prophecy to fruition?”
“No.” Kane’s response was filled with sadness.
“No?” A chill ran down my spine.
He turned to me and ran his hand over my cheek. “You are from two ancient and extremely powerful families. Should your lineages have grown to their full strength, their people would be rulers of your planet. Warring against each other more than they do now. But there was a time when one side, your mother’s side, was not equally measured to the Carter family. The Carters would have ruled as the most powerful.”
He paused, and I thought he wasn’t going to tell me more. That I would have to press him for what was still lurking behind his eyes, but he went on, “When I was on earth, I had taken one of the portal crystals with me, having removed it from Aejynys to keep it from a situation that I felt needed to be limited. I thought that I could give it to someone who could use the power without knowing what it was.”
His eyes filled with sadness and regret as he continued, “There was a woman. She and her family were traveling through the area, getting ready to board a boat to go back to their country. She was charismatic and spoke of her family’s woes and how they were just trying to make ends meet but were unable to with how society was treating them. She told me of a story of another family with magic and how they would seek to sabotage them, even more than the regular humans that knew nothing of magic. Her tale of the Bratu family’s misfortunes reminded me of my family before I was turned and my city decimated. But it was not her that convinced me of anything. She knew not of who or what I was. She simply felt that I held power. But it was her daughter that spoke to me as they were leaving. Her voice and soul were gentle, and she wished me a fair journey and good health. Unlike her relatives, she wanted nothing from me. She only wished me well.” He caressed me cheek. “You look just like her, Auri.”
The mention of both of my family’s names caused a lump to rise in my throat, threatening to cut off my air as I fought back tears. “You knew?”
Boutrol spoke, his words smooth, not sending bass through my body as it had since we arrived, “You left that crystal with the girl.”
“Yes.” Kane’s eyes did not leave mine. “I told her it contained powers that could help her family and that I trusted her to use it only for good.”
“But what about the crystal that was connected to that end of the portal? The one that the power from here connected to?” Boutrol continued his questioning before I could press on mine.
“Wait. I don’t get how this whole portal thing works. Do you need two beings on each end to activate it? Or what?” I was trying to make sense of it. Honestly, I wanted more to ask about Kane knowing all of this and never having told me. My list of things I wanted to talk about was growing uncomfortably long.
Kane explained, “No. If Boutrol were to set up a crystal here, he could send its energies to a place. Sometimes it hits right where it is aimed. Sometimes, less often, it hits elsewhere. But either way, the energies find a conductor… a crystal wherever it hits and draws the parallel, opening the portal.” He looks up at the dragon. “I had paid a small company of people to destroy the crystal once I was gone.”
“Ah. But did they?” Boutrol sounded like he was solving a Sunday afternoon puzzle in his inquiry.
“I do not know.” Kane swallowed hard, letting his arms drop. “The portal that brought Auriena here could have been connected to it or the crystal I gave her great great grandmother.”
“Should I have been able to bring that crystal through with me if the portal was using it as the anchor on earth?” I asked.
“No.” Boutrol tilted his head to look at me. “Why do you ask?”
“Because that crystal is in my bag in Everwinter. It was one of the few things I retained after my parents were killed. And only because my mother said her great grandmother was a powerful woman but she never used her energy for bad like so many others in our family. I recall a story my mother told me that was told to her about the immortal man who gave it to her. His gift coming only with the request that she do good. She claimed
