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‘I’m trying,’ he snarls, ‘but you have no idea.’
‘Of course I do!’ Kallum growls through gritted teeth. ‘Do you think any of us liked them watching her? Seeing her like that? Just five fucking minutes, and we’ll find a place for you to shift in the next world.’
My eyes widen. ‘Shift?’
‘Not now, Harbinger,’ Dane mutters, eyeing the Gate and waving the parchment from Councilor Merrick at the large orc guard when he notices us. ‘Fuck, that’s Reyn.’
‘Where?’ Kallum snarls.
He points. ‘There on the main road. The cunt looks like he’s in a hurry.’
‘Probably just got out of bed and found out he wasn’t invited to the meeting,’ Kallum chuckles. ‘You’re not getting what’s mine either,’ he says under his breath.
I glance at him and away again when I see the possessive glint in his eyes that I know should scare me but instead makes me feel safe because I know that if Reyn tries to keep me here, Kal will cleave him in two.
The Gate suddenly roars, and the Breach opens. Kallum turns and gives Reyn a wink as we go through, and I hear Reyn screaming for the guard to stop us as I step into the Breach, noticing Dane crumpling the Writ the councilor gave him and throwing it in the Healer’s red face.
The tunnel is dark, and I close my eyes as my stomach drops, gripping the first hand I feel, which I assume is Kallum’s, but when we step out into dappled sunlight in a forest clearing, I see that it’s Grey I’m holding onto, not Kal.
I let go immediately and look around for the others as the Breach closes behind me, but they weren’t with us.
‘Where are they?’ I ask Grey, turning in a quick circle in case I’ve somehow missed them. But there’s no one here but us.
‘Fuck!’ Grey and an animalistic bellow follows, making me jump.
‘I can’t hold it!’ he snarls, staring at me with wild eyes. ‘I’m sorry. I promise I won’t hurt?—’
The shift happens quickly, almost instantly, and a second later, there’s a huge black, wolf-like creature standing where Grey just was. There’s a mass of black fur and what look to be spiked plates or scales run the length of him from his round snout to the end of a long, bushy tail. His teeth are white and jagged, and his claws are shiny and long. Dark smoke seems to rise from his body in small wisps, creating a slight haze around him that looks menacing in its own right – Dark Realm through and through.
His unwavering gaze is directly on me.
I take an involuntary step back and trip on a stone that looks like it’s fallen from the crumbling ring of the gate, landing hard on my sore arse with a cry.
The beast’s violet eyes narrow, and I freeze as it saunters over, staring into my face. It sniffs at me, and then its pointed ears prick up, and it turns and runs off into the forest, leaving me alone.
I stare after it for a long moment and then look around me, not sure what to do. I’m in a Dark Realm, in a forest. I have no weapons and, in fact, only the hated slave dress to my name. I look up through the trees, trying to figure out how long I have until it gets dark, and I die horribly at the hands or claws of some Dark Realm beast … probably Grey.
It seems to be late morning, so I get up and look around near the gate. Dane said there was always a box close by if the Gate wasn’t in an outpost. I see a couple of trees at the edge of the clearing with holes in their trunks, and picking up a long, sturdy stick, I go to investigate.
The first hole yields nothing, but my stick hits something hard inside the second. It takes me a few moments to maneuver it out without putting my hands inside. And I’m glad I know at least the basic rules of Dark Realm survival when I see the black, shadowy tendrils of whatever thing lives in this tree during the day, moving down to investigate my stick. I smack the nearest frond hard with my makeshift weapon, and it retreats up the middle of the trunk.
I drag the box out, hoping it’s got good news in it because I definitely don’t want to be here in the dark.
I open it and find a single parchment. This is the fourth circle. My mouth falls open. Grey and I traveled over four circles in one journey. I recall the councilor saying that the Breach was strong at the moment, but I never thought … I frown as I see that there are three gates here. There’s the one I came through, another a few miles to the south, and a third to the north. There’s also a small addendum underneath that mentions parties being separated in the tunnel sometimes, with half coming through at the southernmost site.
I let out a relieved breath. That’s where Dane and Kallum will be. I didn’t realize how worried I was about them.
I turn the parchment over and see that this Gate, like on the other world we stopped at with two Gates, is one-way. I close the box in disgust and push it back into the tree with my stick before sitting back on my heels and trying to decide what to do.
I still don’t know why Dane and the others took me with them. For the moment, I’m free, but I’m still a human in the Dark Realms. I have no disguise and no supplies … and there are still four rings to go through to get to the Light Realm. I’d had vague notions of staying with them for a while, but if I have the chance to be free and secure, I have to take it. I need to try to get back to where I came from.
I make up my mind quickly. If I try to make a life in the Dark Realms alone, I’ll be enslaved and turned into a pet or killed. I say a silent goodbye to The Cunty Trio, though, after everything that’s happened over the past weeks, I’m inclined to just call them The Trio. They did keep me safe and alive, after all. I ignore the desolation I feel when I realize I’ll probably never see any of them again.
It’s for the best. I couldn’t have done whatever they wanted me for, anyway. I’m not the Harbinger anymore, and they only wanted it.
I find myself a little disappointed that none of them laid with me … properly. I would have liked Kallum to be my first, maybe even Grey. I think they would have made it good for me.
But it’s too late now. I’ve been given a second chance, and I need to take it. I stand up and begin picking my way through the forest. There’s some semblance of an old path, so I stick to it, hoping that the trees clear before the sun sets.
