Page 108 of Night Fae

"Yeah." Leon took a breath. "He just doesn't want me in his head right now."

Caelen's expression hardened. "We have to intercept him at the temple."

Daniel looked at his mate. "That's in our kingdom, isn't it?"

"It is." Caelen straightened, taking on the air of someone in control. "Knox, Zev—gather whatever weapons and protection you can find in the armory. Lyrian, work with the palace healers to prepare healing potions and bandages. We'll need them."

"I should study the temple," Leon said. "If I'm going to counter Yuri's plan, I need to understand what he knows."

Malik stepped forward. "I'll help."

Caelen nodded. "Daniel, coordinate with the kitchen staff. Everyone will need food before we depart, and provisions for the journey."

As everyone moved to fulfill their assigned tasks, Malik caught Zev's arm. "Wait."

Zev paused, violet eyes questioning.

"Will you be okay?" Malik asked softly. "If we face your family?"

Something cold stirred behind Zev's eyes. "I'll do what needs to be done."

"That's not what I asked."

Zev's expression softened fractionally. "I know." He touched Malik's face briefly. "We'll talk tonight. I promise."

As Zev left with Knox, Malik turned to find Leon watching him, a strange expression on his face.

"What?" Malik asked.

"I was just thinking that it's frightening how well Yuri's plan has worked so far… bringing humans and Veridians together to weaken the barriers…"

"We won't let him get away with it."

"Right." Leon gestured to the door. "Let's do some research, then. There might be something in the texts about people like us—humans with Barrier Keeper ancestry."

Malik hesitated, glancing in the direction Zev had gone, then nodded. "Lead the way."

Naturally, Leon had no trouble navigating Caelen's palace.

Even as he poured over old texts, Malik couldn't help wondering how often he'd visited this place in his dreams.

But that wasn't what he needed to be thinking about now. He needed to focus on the task.

Still… "Why did you never say anything?" he asked Leon.

Leon looked up from the text he was reading. "Can you even imagine how weird it was for me when the characters I created started roaming the city?" He paused. "I didn't know what to think, what to make of it. Were these even my creations or real people whose lives I'd somehow observed? Or real people whose lives I'd somehow created?" A helpless expression crossed his features. "I'm glad to know now that it's not the latter, but I was scared for a while. It was something I needed to process by myself."

"I think I get that." Malik glanced down at the book he was holding. He'd never written a novel himself, but he'd come up with stories and characters for his Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. He'd be pretty weirded out if those characters suddenly appeared in the real world.

Especially if they thought he might be responsible for all the trauma they'd faced in their lives.

"Now we just need to set things right," Leon said, turning back to his texts. "Yuri might have used me, but I can make use of all the knowledge he gave me to stop him."

"We'll all stop him," Malik reminded him. "Together."

Leon nodded gratefully.

"Listen to this," he said after another moment, reciting: "'At the nexus of all shadow paths stands the temple not built to divide worlds, but to contain that which exists between them.'" He looked up at Malik. "The temple wasn't just built to separate worlds. It was built to contain something."