“Like hell you will,” I say. “You think you know so much about what’s happening, but if you lock the rest of my friends in that cage, my mission will fail and it won’t just affect us as you said. Your world will burn as well.”
The warriors step back from my friends, glancing at each other in confusion as I speak the truth. Draven is a key part of this damn mission, and they just tried to lock him and the others up. Adrian as well. What if he has another vision and he can’t tell us from his fucking cage? Fuck no.
“What do you mean?” Rosaline asks. “How are they supposed to help you? They are little more than human themselves.”
“Only a Hermes descendant can enter the temple with the item of power inside protected by magic.” I wave at Draven. “My seer friend here, needs to be there in case he has a vision. So, you see? You can’t contain shit and I’m disgusted you even tried.”
Rosaline turns pale again as she glances around the group of us in confusion. “I misjudged the situation. My apologies. Come with me to my home and we can talk about a way to get you all back to your home realm.”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of what you’re doing here,” I say. “Every single person on my team is important. The queen has hundreds of monsters at her disposal and we have almost lost to them on more than one occasion with six of us.”
“Separating our group is a damn stupid idea. Especially if the war in our realm affects this one as well.” Jayden crosses his arms. “In our last mission, it was the six of us and we were overrun. If the other team hadn’t shown up when they did, we would all be dead.”
“The queen would have won and the worlds would all be gone right now,” I agree.
Rosaline’s hands visibly shake as she reaches up and smooths back her pink and gray hair. “Yes, I must have misinterpreted the seer’s prophecy. I am deeply sorry for upsetting you and almost ruining everything.”
“You wouldn’t have ruined it,” I say with a malicious grin. “Because we would have never left our friends and we would have burned this village to the ground to get to them. Don’t fucking test me again.”
“I understand. Please, will your whole group come with me to my home so we can discuss things less publicly?” Rosaline bows at the waist.
I glance at Jayden and Raven, debating on whether we should just fight our way out of here and take our chances finding a portal or some way out of here on our own. Shadows pulse around Jayden’s arms and his sword glints in the sun. Raven is still in a relaxed fighting stance with her swords at her sides gripped tightly.
They are ready no matter what I decide, but I deflate because it will be faster with Rosaline’s help than wandering around a strange realm hoping to stumble on a way home.
“Fine, but it’s the whole group or nothing. We will not be separated again and if anyone thinks to touch one of my friends, I will unleash my magic on them.”
“Understood. No one will touch your friends. Please follow me.” Rosaline moves forward but Axel grabs her arm.
“Are you sure about this, wise one? They are quick to temper. Let me and a few of my men join you.”
“We are only quick to temper when provoked. You provoked us on more than one occasion.” I raise a brow.
“You are guests in this realm. You should be more hospitable,” he spits the words at me.
“Guests? We have been treated like prisoners the entire time we’ve been here,” I scoff.
“Axel, you will not be permitted to join this meeting. You have antagonized them since they showed up and your attitude is supremely unhelpful,” Rosaline says.
“But Rosaline, you must be protected,” Axel pleads.
“As long as she doesn’t betray us again and try to lock up or hurt my friends again, she will be perfectly safe.” I shrug.
“No more games or betrayals, I promise.” Rosaline nods.
“Good, then protection isn’t needed. You need something from me and I need something from you to make it happen,” I say and wave for her to walk ahead.
We all file into the living area of her large home and find seats for the discussion to come. Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to be as easy as transporting ourselves back to our home realm?
Not everyone can transport and I have only transported a person one time and I have never tried inter-realm transport. That’s a little too dangerous for me to try on a whim. That’s a skill to learn if it’s even possible when the realms aren’t counting on me to save them.
“The way our realms are clustered together and separated by the veils between worlds, we are in one of the farthest realms in the cluster from the nexus, which is your realm, so we don’t have direct travel from here to your realm.” Rosaline waves a hand and a gust of wind carries an old book to her on the breeze.
“Cool,” Raven whispers. “She has air magic.”
“This book has a map of the realm cluster with the realms labeled. So we know where each one is in relation to us and the nexus. The only ones we can travel directly to are the ones that share a veil.” Rosaline lays out the map and points to a small circle labeled Faerie.
“The portal that’s closest to our current location leads here.” She points to a larger circle that isn’t labeled.
