not?” He directed the question toward Ana, but she avoided his gaze.
“Thank you old friend,” my father stepped forward, embracing forearms with Titan and bowing his head.
“All right, Claire, we’re listening. How do we get this stone to work?” my father asked, sounding hopeful for the first time. I shifted nervously realizing I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I’d never used the stone to actually open a portal before. I had only jumped through one… one that Ana had opened.
“I don’t know,” I answered, rubbing the stone with my finger. “But she does.”
Every face in the room directed their gaze to the agitated vampire who was grumbling in the corner of the room. I expected her to sneer at us, or even to begin laughing that evil cackle of hers, but she just stared, wide-eyed.
“Ana,” I said her name completely void of emotion. My feet carried me toward her, and the air in the room seemed to disappear as the rest of the group followed my lead and stepped closer.
“You’re going to open a portal for us,” I told her, making it very clear that it wasn’t a request.
“And if I don’t?” Her voice held the same emotionless void as mine.
“Then they’ll kill you,” I replied simply, almost casually. The King’s Snake Guard and the soldiers from Titan’s army stepped forward in unison, making even the stone floor shudder under them.
She hadn’t made a sound, but the sight of her gulping down the lump in her throat gave me my answer. Getting this portal open would be our only hope at getting to Naos in time to save everyone. Although hope was starting to rebuild in my heart, I still felt uneasy about resting our destiny in the hands of Ana.
“Ronon, gather the army and have them meet us at the arena,” Titan ordered. Ronon nodded his head and soared out of the room like a gust of wind. Titan’s three guards remained, towering over Ana.
“All right, we’ll meet you there in thirty minutes?” Titan nodded in response and turned his back to me to converse with his guards.
“Mikel and I shall coordinate the King’s Snake and head to the arena immediately. We will need to inform Titan and his army of all the secret passages in the Château, as well as the layout of the surrounding area.”
“I’ll coordinate a small team to seek out the remaining King’s Snake in Naos, and make our primary target Ione. We will get her to safety your majesty,” Arrick replied, sounding confident.
“Thank you,” my father said, signaling to Mikel before flying out of the room. All that were left was Ana, myself and Arrick.
“What are we going to do with her?” Arrick asked.
“We are going to have to take her with us. We can’t leave her here,” I said.
“No, I guess we can’t.” He looked disappointed and pulled his eyes toward me. “You should get yourself ready.”
I looked down at myself and groaned. There was no way I could fight Baal and his dark vampires wearing shorts and a peasant top with sandals.
“I’ll take Ana with me to the arena,” he said.
“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He nodded, a sad expression tugging at his features before he grabbed onto Ana and yanked her out of the room. I stared after them for a long moment before the eerie sensation of being alone was more than I could bear.
From the beginning I’d thought that the Titan region were a bunch of party crazed vampires and humans, but if I had arrived on a night like tonight I would have thought differently. There wasn’t even the memory of a smile on any face I passed by as I hurried to my room. Despite the grimness of the situation, I was comforted to see that Titan had ordered every citizen of the region to be made aware of our current circumstances. I stopped midstride and glanced out a window that looked down into the city. People were closing up their shops and boarding up windows. Others were collecting animal skin canteens filled with wine laced blood. Every able bodied man was arming themselves. The elderly, women and young children were being ushered into their homes and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing every precaution was being taken. There was no way to know how the night’s events would end, but at least Titan’s region would be prepared if the worst were to happen.
I didn’t even bother packing up my belongings. Instead,