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Arkimedes’s face scrunched in pain, and Nava dug her nails into his arm, attempting to pull him away. But he was as immovable as the statue. “We’ll find another way. It’s not worth it. Is it hurting you?”
He flinched at her words, and his face hardened further. “The spell’s not hurting me badly. It doesn’t know what to make of me…”
“You left the Society of Crows more than ten years ago. What were we thinking? This was foolish and?—”
The blood-like water turned clear liquid, and the groove of the arched door reappeared before them. Arkimedes let out a sigh of relief, quickly withdrawing his hand from the liquid and wiping it on his leg.
“I’m fine,” he said tightly. “Transfer with me. It may not allow me back in if I have to come and retrieve you.”
Instantly, her body lost substance, and she became pollen, dust, and leaves. Wind moved through her, and in this state, her senses sharpened. She could hear the voices of her bees, warning her about the danger of crossing portals in this state, telling her to stay with her soulmate.
Telling her that a storm was coming…
Arkimedes crossed, and Nava embraced his body like a second skin, floating from the misty morning of the Copper City to the chill space of an unknown garden.
Gasping for air, she transformed back and strained to see the alley they had left behind. But it was pointless, as the gate had already closed, shutting them in.
Inside, the same ivy wall rose before them with an identical fountain sticking out from its other side, and yet everything else was different.
A worn stone pathway led them to a narrow house that stood on top of a hill, surrounded by massive trees. Dozens of colorful globes hung from their branches.
Nava narrowed her eyes at the strange spheres. They appeared to be fashioned from blown glass that caught the gray light and cast an array of colors over the garden. What were they? Sculptural decorations? Birdhouses?
An icy breeze seeped through layers of her clothes and pulled her focus to the house. She needed shelter and somewhere to rest her aching body.
With its gray stone and tapered rooftop, the safe house appeared to be hundreds of years old.
“Is this place in the Copper Kingdom?” Nava whispered, studying the climbing roses that grew over the arch of a pointed window with detailed ornamental stonework. Plants shouldn’t bloom at such a temperature. Not when her breath billowed in front of her face, and the chill burned her cheeks.
“The fountain is a gateway to a secret location in Caztian. Even the Society members don’t know where it really is.”
They walked the rest of the way to the house in silence, not veering off the crumbling pathway. The place had a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere. Every plant, rock, and sculpture seemed to be spelled to survive unnatural conditions. Somehow, even the butterflies hovering over the flowers felt wrong.
Devon had left the front door wide open instead of waiting for them on the porch.
“Do all portals lead to the same safe house?” Nava asked as their steps led them across polished tiled floors and into a circular room with a winding staircase.
“There are twelve portals that lead to six safe houses. There is only one safe house in the Copper Kingdom.”
Were there any safe houses on the islands? Cameron was traveling to Pearl Island with Gavin and Violet, and the thought of him being exposed to Crows made Nava’s blood turn to ice.
She hadn’t considered how the Society moved from kingdom to kingdom so quickly without having to pay the price to the God of Shadows each time they needed to use one of his portals. It made sense now. They had used their magic-wielders to create twelve portals to specific locations. No need to travel through the shadow world at all.
The house smelled…pleasant. Like lilacs and something warmer—vanilla, perhaps? Not like a place that hadn’t been visited in years. Memories of Nava’s youth came to her in flashes, of the manor she’d called her childhood home. Of tending to the front garden whenever her mother left.
Of course, Nava had been forbidden from setting foot outside during daylight hours, but she’d done it regardless, craving the feeling of dirt underneath her fingernails, wanting to be close to nature. That was, before Devon and Arkimedes had arrived on horseback one fateful afternoon and forced her and her family to leave the Iron City.
She wrinkled her nose, although a smile threatened to break free.
Arkimedes snaked a muscular arm around her waist, preventing her from heading deeper into what she assumed was the parlor.
“Stay here while I check if it’s safe.” His words drifted through her mind.
Nava blinked, surprised. They had communicated like this before. Sometimes accidentally. Sometimes when they were practicing how to use the mental bond they shared to its fullest extent. But only ever before he’d lost his memories.
Was he truly embracing their connection now?
Either way, she stayed behind until Ark crooked a finger at her from the doorway.
