Chapter Thirty-Six.

"I thinks she's mad!"

"You think?" Eden yelled at Greyson, who giggled as he dropped the orb onto the ground. The size of a soccer ball, it was a frosty crystal that was cold to the touch. "Careful with that thing!"

"It's not gonna break from that," Greyson said. "They said you could hit it with a lot of force without even cracking it. Besides, that's where it's supposed to be."

A spear of light blasted overhead, and Greyson giggled again.

Titania had been on a rampage for almost twenty minutes at that point, doing her best to kill the Thorntons and Leosvars to avenge her husband's death. At least, that's what the two boys were sure was the source of her constant attacks in a certain direction.

Greyson looked at the four fae who had attempted to stop them. Eden had shot all of them three times each. Shaking his head, he looked at Eden.

"How much longer before it activates?"

"It should be activating in-there it is!"

Greyson looked at the orb, then jumped back. It was emitting a frosty aura, the land around it freezing. The duo walked back as they watched the frost slowly spread. When it reached a tree, the tree itself began to freeze, doing so almost rapidly, the frost picking up speed.

"Every tree it freezes," Eden told Greyson. "It will drain completely of its magic, fueling the spell and speeding it up. Think you can carry me again?"

"Yeah," Greyson answered, and Eden walked over to him.

Greyson wrapped his arms around the taller boy, pulling him against him as tightly as he could, then flapped his wings a few times before soaring straight up. It was harder to do, but also extremely rewarding, he felt.

He dodged a few attacks from various fairies as he flew towards the angel they were to meet up with, who took Eden from him.

"Ours is in place, too," the angel said. "Almost didn't make it out of there. What was in that box Adam gave her?"

They looked over at Titania, who was still in her rage, flinging every spell she had at her targets, who did their best to just avoid it. Even though she and Oberon were the two strongest fae, Titania was more than ten times as powerful as him. Even combined with the angels who had come, they didn't have a force powerful enough to stop her.

"What was left of Oberon," Eden answered.

"What was… left of him?"

"He attempted to kidnap Adam and me," Eden explained. "Only to find himself surrounded by demigods, nephilim, and ancient mages. We managed to kill him through sheer luck."

The angel nodded, and Greyson frowned, his gaze moving to the lake. The center of it had begun swirling, sort of like when he pulled the plug after a bath. Something was sucking the water down.

"Um, guys," Greyson said.

"Yeah?" They looked at him and he pointed at the center of the lake, which had begun to drain even more rapidly than before.

Their gazes traveled to the scene, and the angel swore.

"Is that bad?" Greyson asked.

"Yes," the angel said. "The local portal to the Tree of Life has been opened somehow. Since it wasn't through the ritual, that means someone knows the other method."

"There are two ways?" Greyson asked.

"Of course," Eden said. "And of course there's one that doesn't require an immense amount of magic."

"A very specific spell," the angel told them as others began to notice the lake's retreating status. "It requires a lot of magic, but nowhere near as much as the other method. It can't be shared, only given by the Tree of Life herself. It can only be done once, and then you forget how to do it. You can't even write it down or hint how to do it before you do it. What's more, it still requires an immense amount of magic and a connection directly to her."

"What does that mean?" Eden asked.

"All of our personal trees," the angel explained. "Are connected to the Tree of Life. The faster method – the one that doesn't take months and an unbelievable amount of magic to perform – requires the mage to temporarily access that connection. The last one to do it that I'm aware of was Alexander Leosvar, at a different portal. Since it's been opened this way, we'll have eighteen seconds once it fully opens – after the water stops draining – before the portal returns to being nothing more than a mural."

Greyson took off towards the lake, where everyone else was headed. He wasn't sure why, but he wanted to help them try to stop Titania, who was closest to the center. He knew he couldn't do much, but if he could do even a little, then he'd feel satisfied that he'd done something against the one who'd kidnapped his friend.

Eighteen seconds. If they could delay her for only eighteen seconds, then they'd win. She'd never be able to open the portal again. Ever. Anywhere.

The water finished draining, and Greyson registered the figure coughing on the surface of the eighteen-foot mural of a great tree.

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"CAM!" He exclaimed, finding a boost of speed he didn't know he had.

A moment later, the mural vanished, and Cameron fell from sight. Everyone put on bursts of speed, Titania reaching the portal. Just as she began to descend, the mural returned, and the Fairy Empress slammed into the stone.

A moment passed as everyone froze, then Titania let out an enraged shriek and began pounding on the mural. Greyson snorted, then covered his mouth. She reminded him of when he was younger, and his sister didn't get her way. Kayla would get hotter than a fire in hell back then.

Well, she still did sometimes.

Greyson looked at the forest, which had completely frozen over. He could see some of the fairies that had been trapped by the ice, unable to escape as they turned into macabre sculptures.

The ice was still spreading, both beyond the forest and into the lake's pit. Something about the air, he realized, felt different than before. Looking around, he flew back over to Eden and the angel carrying him as Titania took to the air once more.

"I think it's best if we got out of here," Greyson said. "You can do that, right?"

"Now that the protections on this realm are gone?" The angel asked. "Yes. I'll return you to the warehouse."

Greyson flew forward and grabbed the angel's arm, and a moment later, they were in the warehouse. He landed, then unmanifested his wings, walking over to where he'd discarded his hoodie to pull it on, slipping his hands back into his pockets.

"Cam can't come out of that portal, right?" He asked.

"He might," the angel answered. "Though no one knows where those who actually visit the Tree of Life exit. The twelve who have been there before have never revealed it. We do know that time passes differently there. Do not expect Cameron to be the same person you knew when he returns. It could be minutes for him, or centuries."

"He'll be back soon," Eden said as others started appearing. "I can feel it."

"I need to return," the angel informed him. "To pull more of the mages out and back here."

Eden nodded and walked over to Greyson, ruffling the kid's hair as the angel vanished. Greyson pulled away and fixed his hair, then looked around. The handful of people able to move between the two realms were acting as ferries for everyone, making sure no one was left behind. A few others had already been brought back, once the orbs had been activated, and the place was filling quickly.

Alex's spell still stood steady, however, ensuring there was plenty of space.

"At least," a werewolf commented. "Fairies can't move between realms on their own. This is going to slow Titania down a lot."

"Indeed," Seph said, and the werewolf shot him a glare. "Lose the glare, doggy. We were allies for the fight, but only because I was seeking my student."

"How did he get there?" Eden asked. "To the portal, I mean. He had to have swum, and even though he can hold his breath pretty well, he had to have been on the surface a lot. How did no one notice him."

"I did," a quiet voice said, causing Eden and Greyson to jump.

They turned around to face Callum, whose hands were tucked into his hoodie's pocket, right eye behind by his hair, as usual. He didn't have a mark on him, as if he hadn't fought at all. The tall man was standing directly behind them, having managed to approach without being heard.

"I still don't trust you," Eden said.

"You saw him?" Greyson asked.

"When he was diving down," Callum nodded. "I saw him just before then. I was too far away to get there before the portal closed."

"Uh-huh," Eden crossed his arms over his chest. "How do we know you actually saw him? Or made sure no one else did, so that he'd end up in there? How do we know that's not your big plan?"

"I simply want to get to know my cousin," Callum said. "That is it."

"I don't believe you," Eden stated. "Adam suspects you're his cousin Ulfar, taken human form."

"The second-to-last time I saw Ulfar," Callum said. "I promised him that I would kill him, burn his body, and destroy him in Oblivion if I ever saw him again. The last time I saw him, which was the first of November of this year, I made good on that promise."

"You!" A woman's voice called out, and Eden, Greyson, Seph, the werewolf, and Callum turned to face her.

She had the blond hair and blue eyes common among the Thorntons, her chest bound to cover her breasts, her black wings folded in against her back, though several breaks were obvious on them, and wounds covered her torso and legs.

"Victoria?" Eden guessed.

"You're the one who's been letting my son stay with him?" She asked.

"He ceased to be your son the moment you gave him up for adoption," Eden crossed his arms over his chest. "And he seems quite happy, living with me. Try to force him out of my home, and you will regret it."

"Do you really think you intimidate me?" She asked, though Eden missed the tone of her voice that suggested a lack of hostility towards him.

"It's not me you should be worried about," Eden said. "It's his father, who Adam will summon if you force Cam to live with you. For now, we'll just worry about him while he does whatever he's doing at the World Tree."

"Where's my dad?" Greyson asked, and Eden turned to find him nearly hysterical. "Everyone's back, and I don't see my dad! He should've been back! Why isn't he back? Where's my dad?"

Please don't let Greyson lose his dad so soon after reconnecting, Eden sent up a prayer to whatever god or goddess would listen as he placed a reassuring hand on the younger boy.

"Your dad's a tough mage," Eden said. "He fought the Fairy Emperor and came out one of the winners. He's probably been dropped off at headquarters for debriefing or something."

"No! He's supposed to be here!" Greyson began crying. "Dad died! He's dead!"

The boy broke down in sobs, and Eden crouched, giving him a hug. As Greyson cried, the older boy heard the sound of a phone ringing, and slipped his hand into Greyson's pocket, pulling it out. A look at the screen confirmed it was that phone ringing, and the number labeled as "Dad".

"Greyson, he's calling you," Eden said, and Greyson kept sobbing. "Greyson, your dad's calling you, on your phone."

Greyson started to calm down, and quickly took the phone, answering it.

"D-Dad?" Greyson asked, then broke down into tears. "Why aren't you are the warehouse?"

Eden let out a huge sigh of relief. It was exactly as he'd suspected. Looking around, he wondered how the others were faring against Titania.

The answer to that was 'badly'. Her fury had grown to new levels, and she began unleashing even stronger spells. It was all the angels and mages there could do to distract her, none of them able to weave a gate out without her destroying it or nearly killing them.

Adam spun the Ambrosius Staff around as she targeted his father, and when he finished the spins and aimed it at her, a beam of pure-white energy shot from the tip of the staff. The Fairy Empress lurched backwards, then hurled a meteor at him.

The mage aimed the staff at the meteor, blasting it apart, then created a barrier to deflect its shards as he channeled force magic to throw them back at her as she dodged an attack from four Thorntons, his cousin, and two Angel Kings working in harmony.

The thing that concerned all of them was the spell she was building up in her right hand, using only her left to cast magic. The orb of yellow-white light was no larger than a softball, and with how much power she'd been pouring into the spell, they knew it would not be something pleasant to encounter.

As Adam spun the staff again, preparing another beam to try and take a shot at that orb for the hundred and twelfth time, an overwhelming divine aura filled the air. The force of the divinity was so great that he temporarily lost hold of his flight spell.

"IIIII'M BAA-AAAACK!"