Page 49 of A Song of Air (Fae Elementals #4)

“T his is your fucking fault,” Malika spat in the human’s direction.

The human, who still wept and had been doing so for the past hour, did and said nothing in response to that.

Uric fought not to roll his eyes and instead looked at his prince.

“Open a portal,” Prince Valerio insisted.

Uric bit his tongue. He had been asking for several minutes now, and Uric had not been able to bring himself to respond. He could not open a portal, yet his prince demanded it.

The rebel leader, Arlo Blackwood, thought his man would have the answers to their problem, but they were back to where they started.

“I cannot,” Uric whispered. He had wanted to say these words in private, so no one else could hear, but they suddenly brought attention in their direction. He grinded his teeth against the stares and his jaw cracked.

“Uric,” Prince Valerio sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I have tried,” Uric said quickly. “The moment they fell through, I tried. I cannot open portals to the Unseelie realm.”

“Why?”

“Unseelie follows different rules of time and space. It is unlike the Seelie or humanlands, therefore my magic cannot access it.” Uric hated that bit of weakness. Hated disappointing his prince, but there was nothing he could do when it came to this.

“So are we supposed to stand around and do nothing to help them?” Malika shouted. “We can’t just abandon them to Unseelie! We have to do something!”

Uric met Valerio’s gaze. They stared at one another for the longest time and in that moment, silence spoke so much more than any words ever could. Uric knew his friend too well, well enough to see the burden of guilt weighing heavily against his shoulders.

He blamed himself for this, when no one was at fault but that pathetic, sniveling human.

“What other choice do we have?” Uric whispered, low enough so only Valerio could hear.

There was nothing they could do. They could not very well travel to Unseelie themselves to find them. It would put them all at risk and they would lose far more than they had to gain if they did so.

“We cannot go after them,” Uric whispered again. “It is too dangerous .”

Finally, Valerio sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re right,” he said.

Uric tried not to feel surprised. Very rarely did his friend listen to him, if ever.

“There is nothing we can do,” Valerio told everyone. “Except pray to Mana, and pray hard and fast that Weylyn and Bryson make it back to us safely.” His gaze went to the mushroom circle they’d fallen through, staring at it like he could will them to come back through from the other side.

Uric had to force himself to look away from the hope in his prince’s eyes, for as much as he wanted to diminish it and tell him that it was hopeless, he could not bring himself to do so. Or even want to believe it himself.