NARRATOR

"Could any of them have made it to this place using portal magic?" Lavinia was analyzing all the possibilities while examining the spell.

It wasn’t as easy as just dropping a few drops of blood, and whoever had done it had sealed it in a complicated way.

Once again, she was amazed by Laziel's power. Even though it took effort, he could still bypass the barrier.

"Or maybe it was one of the first De la Croix," Laziel’s low voice sounded behind her.

"My mother said they were very powerful. I don't think the descendants trapped in the realm of the elementals ever developed their magic to this level."

And Lavinia agreed.

Magic had been banned among the elementals; even the witch who talked the most about portals in her diary and who had been the lover of that vampire couldn’t pull it off.

Over the years, Lavinia had learned that to open a passage strong enough to connect parallel lands, sacrifices were needed—lots of souls or a massive amount of magical energy.

"Drusilla or Electr