EMMA I explained what power trafficking was, and they listened intently without interrupting. They understood how hard this was on me, and I appreciated them letting me get it out while I could. Power trafficking was somewhat similar to the Ancestral Slave Trade. Instead of using people for ancestral blood, power traffickers used them for their essence. Every creature contained an essence within their bodies. Every essence held a certain level of power. The stronger the essence then the stronger the power. Alphas, for example, held very strong essences because of the power that coursed through them. In Fae terms, the Clave was the equivalent to the Alpha. Sirens held some of the strongest essences among any species because they held an ancient and pure magic within each and every one of them. Those with gifts held even stronger essences than anyone else. Then there were the humans. Human essences replenished even though no other species did. Humans could also be blessed with gifts.

EMMA The crowd regarded me with varying levels of expressions. Many were expressionless. Some were mortified at what Madelina did to me. Some were even sneering at me. I could already tell how this was going to go. Before the title could officially be given to me, people were allowed to challenge me. It was a death challenge since it was a title challenge. I already explained this to my mates because we could not appear weak if a challenge was issued. We were all three Alphas, and this was no different than a challenge for the Alpha title. They were reluctant but agreed. “Caliphine herself visited an Oracle boy last night to explain that the Gaisreen current way of life is not how it should be. The first ones of our kind fought alongside each other because of the bond of brotherhood and sisterhood. There was love between parents and children. Caliphine is not pleased with our apathy and brutality. She chose her worthiest vessel to fix this. The same vessel that that Caliphine chose

EMMA I felt like a fool for blowing up on Barachiel like that. He did not blame me, but I still hated that I pushed him away when he was just trying to be helpful. He did not know that Caliphine took her rebirths away. Ethan had originally been upset with Nae for doing that, but he got over it when she asked him to imagine him being reborn after she and Brian died. To live life after life without the two people who meant everything to him. He then took her and disappeared for a few hours, so everyone knew what that meant. We had a bet going that Nae was the dominant one in the relationship. Nobody expected it to be him. Then it was time to officially split my magic. My mates were excited, and nearly everyone decided to become spectators. I could not fault them because I would do the exact same thing if it was someone else splitting theirs. “How are we going to split the magic?” I asked Macario. I knew how we split my aura, but that just redistributed it. This one had to be specifi

EMMA Barachiel came over to me when he showed up. The Commanders still had not arrived, but everyone was relaxing and eating some food. Nae was showing Ethan and Brian all the cool things that our place had. He leaned into my ear and whispered, “I need to speak to you and your mates in private right now.” The urgency in his voice chilled me. I turned around and linked our mates to follow us. There was one place I knew for certain that it would be completely safe to talk freely, so I led them into my office. “This office is completely soundproofed. What’s going on?” I asked him. Barachiel looked very distressed which was something I had yet to see from him over the centuries we fought alongside one another. He was always the epitome of calm and controlled. “Madelina was not alone in dealing with the Nokaura. She did not have all the names, but she did mention that one of them had to be higher up in rank. Those she did name were actually the ones who became her guards like Richard.

EMMA When I was a pup, I believed in fairytales because there was something incredible about the impossible becoming possible. There were no rules because even the most outrageous outcome could become reality. None of my lives had ever been easy. There was a lot of pain, heartache, and helplessness woven into the threads of each one. With every victory as a Gaisreen, there were many failures that I also had to face. It was not just Pelsent that I felt helpless to the Nokaura. They kept me and tortured me each time. I did not care about what they did to me because it did not matter. What mattered was the torture I had to witness with their other prisoners. Nokaura were the worst evil this world had ever seen. It felt like an impossible task to destroy them, but we could never give up the fight. It was our duty to ensure that everyone is protected from them. This was why it was my duty to defeat Asry. I would one way or another. He could never be allowed to survive. We decided on lea