And I was about to lose her.
I lifted my hand to touch her, but I didn’t get far, terrified I was hallucinating.
‘It’s really her?’ Abaddon asked from beside me, though when he’d moved, I didn’t know.
‘Is she real?’ I breathed.
Don poked her shoulder with his forefinger. She swayed slightly from the pressure but quickly straightened, the action proving her tangibility but also how out of it she was. There was no reaction.
Our names were called from somewhere across the courtyard, but I ignored it. Abaddon started cursing up a storm, gripping my arm in a vice-like grip as if afraid I was about to be forcefully taken from him.
Just as I was plucking up enough courage to stroke my fingers over her cheek, Abaddon was suddenly between us, blocking my way. I snarled, my instincts raging at being cut off from my mate, but he snarled right back. Except, it wasn’t directed at me.
‘Don’t touch him,’ he ground out, and I blinked away the fog of finding my mate to take in my surroundings. A small group of battered and bleeding Humans had encircled her, tucking her out of view as they took up defensive positions, blocking her from me. I didn’t like that. At all.
The Humans guarding her were all larger, even the female, and I wondered if that was normal. Was her height an abnormality among her people, or were these ones just giants? I cast those thoughts aside when I took in their fierce expressions. These Humans cared about my mate, which was the only reason I felt comfortable enough to calm down, though I didn’t dare back away. I didn’t want to hurt her friends trying to keep her safe, but I wasn’t abandoning her, either. At least we had a common goal.
The large male in the front spat angry words at me and Don in a strange, round language that flowed smoothly from his lips with little pauses here and there as he used his teeth, tongue and throat, and I noticed his eyes were the same brilliant shade ofblue as my mate’s. His features were definitely more masculine with a squarer jawline that was bruising and a more prominent brow ridge, currently bleeding from a cut. But the thin, slightly upturned shape of his nose also reminded me of hers. His hair was a yellowish, almost white shade rather than green, but there was a clear familial connection between the two. I wondered just what their relationship was. Was he a brother? A cousin? I couldn’t tell from looks alone.
Abaddon nudged me with his elbow, snapping me out of my thoughts. I let them drift away to focus on the present and peered around the yellow-haired man to get another look at her. Don nudged me again, and I turned my head slightly to look at him, only to find him glaring.
‘Get your head on straight, Phenex. This is not the time for daydreaming.’
I cleared my throat, hoping whatever was blocking my common sense would leave with it. ‘Right. Sorry.’
It was painful, but I tore my attention from my mate and the Humans surrounding her to take in the scene unfolding before me. The different races were attempting to carve out small sections of territory around their catatonic friends to keep the other races at bay. Many had already come to blows, mostly with Daemons. I could see why. Our physical appearance would have been daunting to those without horns, wings, claws, or barbed tails.
The Fae seemed to be the most aggressive, while the Humans were merely defensive. Large, beastly creatures that looked like oversized Humans shapeshifted animals, and I tried not to gawk. Bulky, four-legged creatures with shaggy fur covering the entirety of their bodies, long, scaled things with zero appendages that seemed to move by undulating their bodies, and even small, winged things with taloned feet and protruding beaks, their bodies encompassed in an array of colourful feathers. Each ofthem had natural weapons in their second forms that rallied against the metal weapons of the Fae, though they did nothing against magic.
Blades sliced, whistling through the air. Magic flashed, bright and dangerous. Claws and fangs tore through flesh. Blood splattered on the grass, the crimson colour contrasting starkly against vivid green. My hands went to rest on the daggers at my waist as I readied for an attack. I didn’t want to draw them yet in case my actions were misinterpreted as an offensive threat. I was standing too close to my mate to risk her like that.
A wave of power burst from the centre of the courtyard where the portal pulsed with magic. It tore through me, almost knocking me to the ground, but I forced my feet to remain planted firmly in the short, green blades of grass. It hadn’t hurt, but it hadn’t been a pleasant sensation, either. Like small insects crawling beneath my skin. A prickly tickle, more than anything.
‘Abaddon, what is happening?’ I asked as we took up a fighting position with our backs pressed together.
‘I do not know, little brother,’ he replied in a strained voice.
‘Juniper!’ I heard one of the Humans surrounding my mate call. It was the other male, the one with darker, soil-coloured hair and multicoloured eyes, also in earthy tones. I wondered what he was saying, but there wasn’t any time to guess as the group caught up in the portal’s magic suddenly lurched forward towards the centre. The Humans surrounding my green-haired beauty scrambled to hold onto her, but whatever magic that gripped her had too strong a hold. She took a step forward, and another, and then another, all the while her guardians tried and failed to hold her back.
All around us, groups attempted to halt the magically possessed people to no avail. Closer and closer they walked to the portal as if the rest of us didn’t even exist, and I fell in line with the Humans and joined their attempts. Abaddon movedonto the Daemon he had been shaking moments ago and the group that had rushed to hold him, but none of us were able to even slow down their progress.
The Humans eyed me warily, but when they saw I was trying to help, they didn’t push me away. I took that as a good sign for our future interactions, because wewouldhave future interactions. I wasn’t letting her go now that I knew she was real and right in front of me, which meant these Humans were likely to be in my life. I needed them to like me, and this was not the best introduction.
My eyes connected with the male she shared a resemblance with. Blood poured from his nose, and the tendons in his neck strained with effort. An understanding passed between us that surpassed any spoken language. She couldn’t be allowed to step through that portal.
Chapter 9
Oswald
My brain was struggling to compute what was happening, but there was no time.
At the sound of the first screams, I was running from my room to see what was going on. Junie was out there, and I was suddenly feeling very stupid for letting her go outside on her own. It wasn’t safe, but her garden was warded. Only she could get in, so I thought she would be okay.
Clearly, I was mistaken.
‘Mister Drudner? What’s happening?’ one of the younger girls asked as she peered out from the small crack between her door and its frame, fear and uncertainty urging her to remain safely hidden behind it. I recognised her from my class. Agnes Faith.
‘I don’t know, Miss Faith,’ I admitted, my voice tight. ‘Close the door and stay inside until someone gets you,’ I instructed and then tore off down the hallway to the main entrance once her door snicked shut and I heard the lock click into place.
