I looked up from the multihued glowing plants and quiet trees to the sky, where there were not one, butthreecrescent moons. “So cool!” I kept my voice low, just in case there wereany beasties around. Wherever we were, I didn’t think it was anywhere near civilization.
I looked at Mistral—the only one of us who’d ever been to the goblin realm—for confirmation that we’d actually made it, and we were not in fact trapped in a pocket realm.
But he wasn’t looking at any of us. He was looking up at those three moons. The emotions I sensed from him were enough to give me my answer. We had actually traveled to a far realm. My magic, along with the guys and the Realm Breaker, had been enough.
I was glad no one bothered Mistral while he took it all in. If Sebastian said something disparaging… Well, I’d do something worse than punching him, since punching him didn’t really seem to do much. Maybe I could zap him with the vortex.
But he didn’t say anything, and as I waited I inhaled the scent of damp earth and honeysuckle, not so far off from the scents of earth. Crispin had knelt to observe the plants, and I was pretty sure I saw him plucking a few leaves and slipping them into his shirt pocket. Gabriel remained close to me, finally wrestling Ringo out of his jacket before plopping him on my shoulder.
Ringo trembled at first, then stilled as he observed our surroundings. “Oooooh.”
Ooooohwas right. This place felt like walking in a technicolor dream.
Mistral finally turned my way. A gentle breeze tugged at his white hair. With his deep grey skin and antiquated clothing picking up a subtle colorful glow from the surrounding plants, he fit right in with the dreamlike quality of the place. “Do you think you can manage one more jump?”
I furrowed my brow, waiting for him to explain.
“This pathway is far from civilization. If we can’t jump, we will have to sleep out here, and I do not recommend it.”
He was clearly pleased, but something about him was guarded. I couldn’t quite judge how he was feeling. “You know how I am about jumping to places I’ve never been.”
He reached a hand out, trailing a finger across my jaw. “Let us see if you can use me as a guide.”
Sebastian snorted. “Your funeral.”
I gave him a good ol’ side-eye. “We’re all sticking together. I don’t care if you can just poof wherever you please.”
“There’s no reason for me to remain tangled up with the rest of you here.”
I closed my eyes. Did he really have to pick now to be difficult? “If you want to travel separately now, I might just have to leave you to get back home by yourself too.”
“You would never.” He was amused now, letting me know he was just messing with me, but still—
Crispin cleared his throat. “Um, guys?”
The three of us looked at him, and I realized Gabriel was already looking beyond him, his hand lifting for his sword.
Faster than I could follow, Mistral had me in his arms, and Sebastian had stepped around me. The glowing plants a few paces from Gabriel shivered, providing enough light to see a trickle of moving darkness, like black smoke, curling through the leaves.
“It is here, then,” Mistral said, his voice close to my ear.
“Good thing we made such a small pathway.” Crispin stepped back before the darkness could reach him.
It didn’t seem dangerous, exactly, but Crispin and I had seen what it could do. In the forested pocket realm where Silvana and her people had been stranded, the darkness formed into massive beasts, their teeth and claws just as deadly as the real deal. While this darkness was just a trickle, more might prove problematic.
“We should go to my uncle,” Mistral said. “See what he knows of this and what form it takes. They may already have a way of dealing with it.”
Crispin stepped back again as the darkness nearly reached him, forcing Gabriel back too. No one argued this time when I held out my free arm, they just grabbed on.
I checked that Ringo was secure, then I clung to Mistral. “You better have a damn clear picture of home.”
“It is a place I could never forget.” He squeezed my arm, and I got a surge of not just emotion, but sensory imagery from him.
I focused on that energy, just like I could focus on the energy of any of the guys. We poofed out together in a wash of twinkling stars just as the darkness reached us.
9
We stood in the triple moonlight outside the gates of an estate eerily similar to the one at the waypoint. Of course, the waypoint had been modeled after the goblin realm. It made sense that things would be similar… if it hadn’t been so long since the ways were severed.
