“Every minute I spend here is like days to her,” I said calmly, brushing the dirt from Liam’s—my—clothing. “So like the wolf said, I suggest we put away this petty squabbling and focus on helping her.”
“Agreed,” Ronan said. “When do we leave?”
“Wedon’t,” I said. “I’llbe returning to the Shadowrealm to protect her while she searches for a gateway to her own realm, and you’ll be here awaiting word. I’ve come only to deliver her message.”
We all sat down, and I told them everything she’d shared about the prison and the hunter’s ultimate plans, leaving out the part about how she’d miraculously cured the incubus of his devil’s trap allergy. Recalling the way her cheeks had flamed when she’d mentioned that part of the story earlier made my vessel behave in ways that I didn’t care to reveal. “She wanted to be sure the others were rescued. That was her primary concern. The reason she stole the hunter’s soul in the first place.”
Ronan offered a brusque nod, but I didn’t think he’d heard a word I’d said about the prison. He was entirely focused on Gray.
I couldn’t blame him. Perhaps if I’d been more focused, she wouldn’t be in her current predicament.
“You say she’s fully manifested there,” he said. “How long can she survive like that?”
“I don’t know. To my knowledge, no one has ever physically manifested there before.”
“And her idea about the connected realms and her gateway,” the vampire asked. “Is that truly a possibility for escape?”
“In theory,” I replied, “if Gray could find her rune gate or even another gateway to the black forest, she might be able to get back to her realm, and then back to us. It’s unproven, pure speculation, but—”
“But when has Gray ever followed the rules?” the wolf asked, affection shining in his eyes. “Even the rules of physics.”
“She’ll find the damn gateway,” Ronan said. “Or she’ll create a new one. You said it yourself, she’s the most powerful Shadowborn you’ve ever encountered.”
“She is,” I said. “But you must realize that a working gateway could very well be the equivalent of three thousand miles away from her current location, and distance is the least of her challenges. She’ll have no way of knowing whether the gateway will actually lead her to her intended destination, or merely to another inhospitable landscape.” I stood up and began to pace, my concern for Gray manifesting in a nervous, buzzing energy that made my vessel’s heart palpitate, my hands and feet tingling with pins and needles. “The realm is constantly evolving, constantly reshaping to suit the requirements for each soul passing through. Because Gray isn’t there as a result of her natural death, her situation is completely unstable.
“To further complicate matters, hours passing on earth can be days or weeks in the realm. The more time she spends there, the more her mind will deteriorate. The human brain simply wasn’t built to withstand the soul challenges of the realm. Her magic will become both less effective and more unpredictable. She will begin to doubt her very own eyes, her sense of smell, her intuition, her memories, and even her magic.”
Emilio dropped his head into his hands, letting out a deep sigh. “And she’s all alone in that Godforsaken place.”
“Alone? Oh, no. Her situation is even more dire than that.” I stopped pacing and met his eyes. “The hunter has physically manifested as well.”
“Wait,” Ronan said. “Let me get this straight. Gray attacked Jonathan with the intention of ripping out his soul and banishing him to the Shadowrealm, but instead of their souls traveling and their bodies staying behind, they both ended up there, fully formed?”
I nodded.
“And now she’s in a strange and unpredictable realm with no clear way out,” he went on, “facing violent beasts and unnavigable landscapes, diminished mental capacity that may or may not include hallucinations, and unpredictable magic. On top of all that, the bastard who basically killed her mother, stalked her for a decade, murdered her best friend, and kidnapped and tortured her is now hunting her in that place, with none of us there to protect her?”
“That is an accurate summary,” I said.
The three men exchanged glances I couldn’t even begin to decipher.
The demon rose from his chair once again, only this time, it wasn’t to attack me.
Turning to the vampire, he held out a hand and said, “Pop a vitamin and pack your bags, bloodsucker. You and I are going on a road trip.”
Fifteen
Emilio
“She’s in the damnShadowrealm,” I said, because Liam had left to rejoin Gray, and it seemed I was the only one left in this house with an ounce of good sense. Ronan and Darius were so hell-bent on rescuing Gray, they hadn’t stopped to consider a very obvious point: they had no way to get to her without killing themselves first.
“All the more reason for us to move on this now,” Ronan said. “I don’t want her stuck in that nightmare for another minute, let alone days or weeks.”
“Neither do I, but that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t get there unless you’re dead.”
“Not true.” Ronan’s jaw was tight, his eyes flat and grim. “There’s another way.”
I knew immediately where his mind had traveled.
