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Arjax glanced at his companion, then with a nod, cut back through the briars.
I slipped my fingers into Kage’s grip and blew out a long breath once Cy followed, Gwyn and Asger keeping watch at our backs.
The blue-haired woman kept pace beside us. Golden hoops lined her pointed ear, and on the lobe was a golden dragon. Delicate fern shapes gleamed like bits of sunlight on her skin. Not tattoos like our dark ink but stunning all the same.
I could not place her in any of my memories, yet there was a pull to keep staring. I couldn’t stop.
She noticed and flashed me a grin, brightening the rich gold of her eyes. “I’m Stella. Apparently, I’m queen of Sepeazia.”
I didn’t need a spell to translate—she spoke mortal words.
“Apparently? You don’t know?” Kage said with a jagged bite to his tone.
All at once it clicked, like a strike to the face. I clapped a palm over his bicep, squeezing until he murmured that I was shredding his flesh. I gawked at Stella. “You’re another sacrifice, aren’t you?”
Stella’s eyes widened. “You were one of the eight?”
“Adira.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “Were you in Las Vegas?”
“Ihlkit!” The unfamiliar word came out in a sort of gasp. “Yes. I’m still reeling a little, to be honest.”
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to learn you can shift forms. I thought being told I’m basically a wizard was hard.”
Asger let out an irritated groan. “How long until we rid that word from your mouth? There is nothing pathetically wizard about us. Do we use wands? Of course not. Magic is in our blood the way true spell casters ought to be.”
I snorted a laugh and looked back to Stella. “He’s a little sensitive about titles. You really can shift, right?”
Stella chuckled. “Yeah. It’s . . . an experience. I’ll say that.”
“I’m still trying to recall everything and figure it out, but”—I glanced swiftly at Kage and tightened my hold on his hand— “it gets easier.”
The distance to their camp wasn’t terribly far, but the closer we came the more carcasses of slaughtered creatures surrounded us.
“Arjax and his cousin really will want to feed you.”
“He’s incredibly tall,” I whispered. “Are all the men like that?”
“No. He’s not even a water serpent. He’s a Vawtrian, a general shapeshifter. Arjax and his cousin are a little like us. Both brought here from another world. They seem to have acclimated well enough.”
“Then there’s hope,” I said, grinning.
Stella scoffed. “Good news to hold onto.”
Conversation flowed simple enough. Most realms in Terrea could speak in mortal dialects, but occasionally we’d add moretongue oil when we slipped back and forth between Sepeazian words and magish.
Kage kept close, somber and distant, but the other three were fascinated in the tales of Stella’s arrival. Even Asger ceased worrying for a moment. Stella’s experience was unique. Where I was flung through the vortex of hell and Ember was literally kidnapped, Stella had somehow returned on a different day.
“How does that happen?”
“No idea. If I understand all of this correctly, we all left the same day. But then—well, I got trapped in one of the passages in a Sepeazian Shadow Hall. Some sort of holding magic, it seems. Trapped me there for weeks. So, I’ve only been back and living here for maybe two weeks.”
I wanted to ask a thousand questions the same as I’d done with Ember. Each Sacrifice seemed to have their own experience, their own way they arrived at Terrea. Any questions I had cut off when we stepped into the camp and we strode past a bound man.
“Who is that?” I inched closer to Kage’s side.
“Oh.” Stella released a tight breath and managed a smile that shook a little at the edges. “That’s . . . that’s my husband and love of my life. The king of Sepeazia.”
King? He was bound in heavy dark chains from shoulder to foot near the fire, two lengths of chain secured through the loops surrounding his body and fastened into the ground itself. He slept fitfully, the sculpted muscles in his arms and fingers occasionally twitching and pulsing his numerous serpent and fire tattoos.
