𝐂𝐎𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐂 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ! [ rhysand ]

𝐯𝐢. the suriel !

Ana felt relief wash over her. At least her friends were okay, even if she was not. "Okay. That's good." Running her fingers through her hair, she sighed. What to ask next? "How did I get here? How did I go from my world to this one?"

The Suriel chuckled. It was raspy and hollow and intelligent. "They still have not told you?"

Ana's eyes narrowed. "Told me what?" The Suriel only hummed, its milky eyes holding nothing but amusement. Ana nearly growled in frustration. "Told me what, Suriel?"

"The time is not right for you to know. The fates and Raziel keep me from informing you of the truth." This time, Ana did growl in frustration. She internally cussed out the angel, mentally flipping it off from how angry she was. "But there is a way to return to the world you came from. If only you are willing to fight for it."

Ana tensed. "What is it?"

The Suriel studied her for a moment, its nails clicking against one another in thought. "You must finish the business you were brought here for."

The blonde frowned. "Business?" A nod from the faerie "But there is no business for me to finish. How can I finish something I don't know?"

Click, click, click. "Think, hafling. There is a battle in this world that you were brought to fight and finish. Raziel and the fates would not have brought you to this world unless you were meant to save it. That is what you were trained to do, Shadowhunter halfling."

"A battle . . ." Her eyes widened. How could she have not thought of it before?! "The blight!"

A hollow chuckle. "Yes, halfling. The blight."

Ana's mind raced as she absentmindedly tapped her left kindjal against her thigh. Blight. The blight was a battle she needed to fight and finish in order to get home. But how can someone "finish" a disease? You can cure a disease, or maybe even wipe it out. But finish? The only thing you can really finish when it comes to a battle is a person. And Lucien had mentioned a "her" while on their ride yesterday, meaning . . .

"The blight isn't a disease," she muttered, the pieces slowly coming together in her mind. The stiffness of Lucien and Tamlin anytime the blight was brought up. The her that she'd been hearing about every once in a while. "The blight isn't a disease, it's a person!" Ana noticed how the milky eyes of the Suriel seemed to shine with something. Pride? "Who is the her that everyone is so afraid of? Is she the blight?"

"Asking the real questions now." The Suriel chuckled again. Hollow. Empty. Void of any amusement. "She is the blight."

Ana would have celebrated if not for the horribleness of the situation. So the "blight" was a person. A person so powerful they took most of the power of the High Lords of Prythian and managed to wipe out half of the population. Ana knew she should've been shaking with fear, but she couldn't find it in her to. She had faced worse in her life. This her didn't even reach her Top Ten list. 

She licked her lips. "Who is she? How⎯how did she obtain control over Prythian and weaken the High Lords?"

"She is a wicked woman from the kingdom of Hybern," the Suriel explained. "The nastiest general of the King of Hybern. She is the disease that plagues Prythian and the one who holds most of the land captive Under the Mountain."

Under the Mountain? Wait, that's where Rhysand said he was located. So this wicked woman from Hybern had him trapped under some mountain, controlling him and everyone else. And Ana had a feeling that if people went against her, they'd end up dead or worse. The thought of someone having that much control over a country made her sick to her stomach.