The Turquoise Tower (Revenant Wyrd Book 6) Read Online Free Page B

Fire.
    Still others she didn’t know. She imagined the white-haired child was Pyang Tsang, since he was the only child in attendance, and sat to the west, the blue flag of the Realm of Water hanging on the wall behind him.
    Aladestra walked around the room, her hand gracing the top of a new chair with a shadowy black flag hanging on the wall behind it.
    “I had hoped we could meet the new Guardian of the Shadow Realm,” Aladestra said. Was there a hint of disdain in her voice? Grace bristled with the thought that Aladestra could hate Joya simply because she was the Guardian of Aladestra’s rival realm.
    “She ventures to the west,” Sara said. She took one of the seats to the north, the green flag on the wall behind her. Annbell sat down in the chair beside her. Mag and Grace followed them and sank into two of the other unoccupied chairs.
    “Ah, the west,” Azra said, and Grace could barely understand her because of her deep accent. “To what grows there?”
    Sara nodded.
    “One would have thought the council of Guardians would have decided that,” said a thick-boned blonde who sat in the east. Grace thought it was Rowan Lok, the Guardian of the Realm of Air. She sat alone. Grace remembered Sara saying there had been a lot of destruction in the Realm of Air; likely Rowan couldn’t afford to bring a group with her, and instead left them behind to deal with the destruction.
    “Some might think the time was for action, not politics,” Annbell fired back. “If what we have been told by Azra and the dreams of the LaFaye children is true, there wasn’t time to discuss, only to act.”
    “There is a darkness growing in the west,” Azra reminded Rowan.
    Rowan Lok rolled her shoulders and sniffed.
    “The darkness has already risen,” Grace said, drawing most eyes to herself.
    “You know this how?” Rowan Lok asked.
    “Angelica and Jovian LaFaye are anakim, they are gifted with farsight. They’ve seen what’s coming in the west.”
    “And that is?” Aladestra asked.
    “Come on,” Annbell erupted. “You’ve seen the warning signs, you can’t tell me you don’t know?”
    “Enlighten us,” Rowan said.
    “All of these attacks aren’t just caustics,” Sara said, cutting her hot-headed twin short. “We’ve been attacked by fallen, we’ve warded off an alarist. There have been similar reports pouring in from all around the realms. The Ivory City has lost all of its verax-acis, and Aladestra herself has fought a fallen, with wings .”
    Silence fell around the table. Rowan sat back in her seat, studying Sara as if gauging the truth of her words. But to question what Sara said was to question what others had also seen, and in that Rowan was outnumbered.
    “The Turquoise Tower,” Azra said, finally breaking the silence. “It’s been found?”
    “And is calling out to all beings with angelic blood,” Grace nodded. “That’s why Joya LaFaye, the Guardian of the Shadow Realm, wasn’t able to be here. The pull was too strong, and her responsibilities to her family and her stolen sister too great to ignore. She ventures west with a small group, mostly others of angelic blood.”
    “So what is this darkness?” Rowan asked.
    “Arael,” Sara said simply.
    No one spoke. It was evident to all of them that Arael had been seeking the Turquoise Tower before, and if it had been found and breeched, it was either by Arael or an alarist, and since only an angel could activate it and give wings to those with angelic blood, it made sense. They hadn’t seen any white-winged angels yet, only black-winged, which meant the alarists had been ready and waiting, most likely with scores of half-breeds ready for the change.
    “Where’s the proof?” Rowan asked, though Grace thought the fight had gone out of her voice.
    “We don’t have any hard proof,” Sara said. “We can tell you first-hand accounts of things we’ve seen, but other than this piece of parchment, we don’t have anything to show you.”
    Annbell