"What is this place?" she asked, watching glowing spots float between the leaves. Their light changed to all colors of a rainbow. One tree appeared to be weeping with the lights floating down from a branch. A light floated near Kira. A body formed within the mass, two wings flapping behind created the illusion it was nothing but a light.

"Calandria," Addrick said. "Or, at least the Calandria we think of."

"How can I think of a place I've never been?"

"Same way I can, our blood. Calandria has been sealed away since before our parents were born. No Wilder has set foot in it for over a thousand years."

"I don't understand."

"Guardians feared their own power," Addrick said. "Power has a tendency to corrupt even the purest souls. Guardians, though powerful, are still mortal and susceptible to the same faults as humans or Wilders. They came to this grove of statues. They say these stones were constructed by the God's themselves. Here, they bound their magic to each other. They formed a pact of three."

"The jewels," Kira said as she looked to her necklace.

"Aye." Addrick stepped in front of her and held her hand around the necklace. "The interlocking spirals represent the power of the Guardians united. These jewels are the Gods they're bound to. The missing jewel is supposed to be a peridot and will replace the brass when it comes into contact with a Guardian that joins with the wind Gods."

"The ruby is what my magic is bound to? That was showing before you touched it."

Addrick nodded. "It is from the fire Gods. Mine is the sapphire bound of the water Gods."

"That's ironic."

"Why?"

"Because you're a cat." Addrick raised one brow as Kira laughed at her joke. "You have no sense of humor."

"I have plenty of humor, just as I have a heart. I simply didn't find it amusing."

"Why were the jewels brass in the first place? Why did it take you touching my necklace for it to change?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Guardians bound their magic to one another in an effort to keep one from being more powerful than the other. No one Guardian shall rule, we rule as one or as none. At least, that was the idea behind the binding."

He released her necklace and stepped to one of the statues. She watched as he pressed his hand to the stone feet of a man holding a trident. Next to the statue, Addrick was a speck among specks. His head tilted back. Kira joined his stare. The trident pointed to the sky, three tips dipped in gold shined in the moonlight. At the center of the trident, where the three points met on the staff, was a blue gem. Kira squinted but still couldn't make out if it was a sapphire.

"For a time, the binding worked, but it was also a weakness waiting to be exploited. To use our powers to their full potential we needed to use them together. Without other Guardians aiding us, our abilities are no stronger than that of a normal Wilder. And peace, as always, is fleeting at best. Evil will always find a way to break through even the strongest of barriers. A young fairy girl—no older than I am now—decided she didn't want to live in the shadows of the Guardian's and she created unrest among the Wilders. Many sought the power of the Guardians, draining other Wilder's blood in hopes of rising to the levels of the Guardians. It didn't work. But that didn't deter Zarich. She turned her eyes on the Guardians themselves. The binding became the undoing of the Guardians of the past.

"She came at them, one by one, draining their blood and drinking it. Our blood strengthened her beyond all imagination. While she didn't become Guardian, she became something more. Something worse. Zarich became death itself, destroying this once beautiful realm and turning it to ash. Calandria fell in a matter of months. Guardians and Wilders fought together, but it was futile. She was too powerful, corrupted by the very blood flowing within you and me. Our ancestors did the one thing they could think of," Addrick said.

"They sealed off Calandria." Kira grabbed her necklace. Her fingers coiled around the chain as she continued to watch Addrick stare up at the statue.

"Aye. Those who didn't side with Zarich was allowed asylum within the human realm. Those who did were sealed away with her. Our beloved home, Calandria, became a prison, left to rot with the evil inside it. It took magic beyond anything we've ever seen before to create a powerful enough spell to lock her in."

Addrick's voice cracked as he spoke. His shoulders slumped as he turned away from the statue to look at Kira. Tears rimmed his eyes. One hand brushed his Guardian tattoo.

"They say Calandria can be opened once more if the surviving Guardians united their powers."

"Then why kill off the Guardian?"

Addrick sighed. "When a Guardian dies, their power disperses among them evenly. But if one was to kill another, that power becomes theirs. If all but one Guardian were to perish . . ."

"The lone survivor could re-open Calandria and release Zarich into the human realm."

"Aye."

"Why would Rodyn want to release Zarich?"

"That, I don't know."

"It doesn't . . ."Kira grabbed her throat. The sensation of something was squeezing on her jugular cut the words from her lips before she could speak. Dizziness swarmed her mind as she dropped to her knees. Air refused to enter her lungs. Addrick knelt beside her. Kira winced when it felt as though something kicked her side. Bruises formed on her arms with no obvious cause. She rolled on her back, begging for breath to reach her lungs. Addrick leaned over her. A cut formed on his face from nowhere. Blood filled one eye while it swelled up and close.

"Hold on Kira. Our bodies are being attacked. It's not me biting you, but this will be painful."

He pressed two fingers against her forehead. Her scream was swallowed by the lack of air. Pain seared through her until darkness prevailed.