on end. The power emanating from the high fae was palpable. She’d felt a similar thing around Peri, but Alston’s felt different, twisted and malicious.
“Why do you need my magic?” Sally was stalling but also hoping he would give away some information that might somehow help the pack when she and the other prisoners got away, because they would get away. There was no way in Hades they were going to be held captive by Alston and his army of crazies indefinitely.
“I suppose there is no harm in telling you.” He made a motion with his hand. Suddenly, two chairs appeared, resting on the far side away from the exit, behind the creepy one in the center of the room. The lights had also brightened so that Sally could finally see her surroundings clearly. The room was bigger than she’d first thought. The walls were black. Super original. The carpet was a pattern of grey and black. She noticed a door on the opposite side of the one she’d entered. Two possible escape routes. Okay, now she really sounded like Jen. Reel it in, Sally. She felt Costin in her mind, but he seemed to be staying in the shadows, allowing her to keep her complete focus on Alston.
She sat down in the chair he indicated as he took the chair next to hers. The three fae stayed on the other side of the room, guarding the door that Sally couldn’t possibly get to even if there’d been only one fae. Total overkill on the security.
“You know about much of the supernatural world I imagine,” Alston began. Sally nodded. “But you do not know everything.” He paused as if awaiting a response, but she stayed quiet, so, he continued. “There are more realms of races than those you’ve heard about in stories. Most of them have not entered the human realm in centuries.”
“And they suddenly want to?” Sally asked.
Alston held up his finger. “Patience. I’m getting there.”
She fought the urge to roll her eyes. He was a man who liked the sound of his own voice. But if it delayed whatever they were going to do to steal her magic, then she’d let him drone on until the cows came home.
“It’s not necessarily that they want to come to the human realm. They might not have a choice. When you first learned of the supernatural world, you had to have heard about how the magic between the veils is weakening.”
Sally did remember hearing about the magic waning in some of the magical realms, but she couldn’t remember why.
“If the magic that protects their veils fail, then humans will be able to pass through the veils at will,” Alston continued.
“Isn’t that a reason not to reveal yourself?” Sally asked. “If humans don’t know you exist, then they don’t know about the veils and cannot learn how to go through them.”
“They can’t get through them now. But what about when the magic has weakened enough that a human wandering through the forest stumbles through one? What happens if he comes back and tells everyone he knows of his experience? And when they don’t believe him, he brings them to the spot where the veil is located and leads them straight through it. What then? What do you think will happen to the supernaturals that live in those realms? They grow weaker along with the magic.”
“How does coming to the human realm make them stronger?” Sally’s brow furrowed. It didn’t make sense for a magical being to come into a non-magical realm and get stronger.
“You ask this because you believe the human realm is non-magical.” His grin made it apparent that he thought this very humorous.
“I’ve lived here my whole life. If there was magic floating around, I think I would have noticed. Humans don’t have magic.”
“Yet you knew nothing of the Canis lupus and the other supernatural beings living all around you. You didn’t even know you were a magical creature,” he pointed out. “The five healers Peri has been hoarding suggest the human realm is very magical indeed. You all are very powerful. And the Canis lupus have never lived in any other realm. The vampires live in the human realm, and though they feed on blood, they live very long lives. That isn’t just a random anomaly. It is magic.”
Holy wolf balls. Sally had never thought of it like that. Alston was right. The human realm was full of magic. How many Canis lupus lived all over the world? And