Chapter 169

Cerina and Seraphine gasped; so did I, but I forced myself to calm down. “Seraphine, please get everyone gathered at the altar,” I instructed, then turned to Soren. “Soren, I need to understand the situation more. Follow me. When did you get here?” “I came with Seraphine and Cerina,” he explained as we all returned to the altar. “But I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I stayed in the woods nearby.” His eyes went to Ethan, and I could tell that he’d kept his distance because of Ethan. He probably didn’t want to give his brother any more reasons to be angry. But Ethan was still in so much discomfort that he didn’t even look up at the sound of Soren’s voice. The group soon gathered together, and Soren reiterated that with the approaching enemy, we needed to go back to the palace as soon as possible. I looked at Ethan and checked the time. He still had three hours left before we could leave the altar. “Soren, how far are they?” “Thomas spotted them and mind-linked me. I estimate about thre