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“Yes. My God.”
“Do you feel the wolves now?” Landris asked.
“Yes, as though they are crying out in agony.”
“The eucalyptus has culled their memories and with it their combined power. The first alter wolves were wild and uncontrollable. They were savage, brutal, killing without mercy.”
“So, I’ve heard.”
“But so were all the species at that time. Five Bridges was a new world. We were all so angry at what had happened to us. We are more civilized today because much of the darkness has been driven underground. It lives in places throughout the five territories that most alter species know nothing about. Kryder is one of the rulers of this underground. The depredations he commits on your pack is but a small sampling of the atrocities he perpetrates at his end of the Dark Corridor. I haven’t seen it for myself, but he built a belowground club which he keeps invisible.”
Grant experienced a sinking sensation in his gut. Here it was again. Kryder’s special project. “We recently learned Kryder owns a place called The Sapphire Club. Is that the one?”
“Yes. Kryder paid several hundred grand for the spell and he continues to pay installments to keep it in place.” He glanced from one to the other. “I agreed to help you because Neil believes in you both and because you have a chance to act against an enemy that I cannot. Kryder operates in Savage exclusively. I don’t go there since I’m keeping my identity a secret.”
“Are you suggesting we search out this club?”
Landris shook his head. “I want you forewarned, that’s all. My guess is that if you seek Kryder out, for whatever reason, you will eventually land at The Sapphire Club. It’s a fortress and heavily guarded. Once there, you must be invisible if you want to survive. But I’ll remind you of what I said earlier, that your chances of survival are slim. Now might be the time to reconsider, maybe give yourselves another year to explore and enhance your abilities.”
Grant hesitated, but Natalie said, “Now is the time. I’m certain of it. If death comes, so be it. The lives we live here in the alter world are mere shadows of human life. Now that I know that Kryder, himself, turned me into an alter fae, I’ll risk death at this point. I don’t pretend to have the answers. The best I can do is assess and move on. Right now, I’m prepared to take my chances with the invisibility spell and with Grant against Kryder.”
She then turned to Grant, her complexion high. “But what do you want here, Grant? I won’t speak for both of us. If you want to walk away, you know I’m fine with that.”
Grant felt his lips quirk. “Yeah, except for one thing. You’d continue on without me, wouldn’t you?”
“You know I would.”
He chuckled. “Fifteen percent sounds damn good to me.”
“We can be careful, too,” Natalie added. “I’m not a hothead and you have a scientific mind. We can calculate, we can use your dreamglide and my futurism. My wolf has already proven to be a guard-wolf.” She then smiled. “What more do we need?”
“A shitload of luck,” Landris interjected.
“So be it.” Natalie responded.
Grant shifted in the wizard’s direction. “Load us up, Landris. Seems we’re ready.”
“As you wish.” He seemed neither pleased nor distressed by their decision. He’d no doubt seen everything during his three long decades in Five Bridges.
Landris took off his shoes and walked on the eucalyptus. Grant recalled something he’d heard about Elegance warlocks and wizards, that most of them connected with a primal element. From that element, their spells emerged. Grant would lay odds Neil’s element was stone and that Landris’s was botany.
Right here, with Landris moving around them slowly, he could feel the way Landris drew power from the branches. The column of energy moved with Landris, twisting into an upward funnel that soon lifted him and Natalie off their feet. They began to spin very slowly.
Natalie turned toward him and gripped his arm. The power became stronger. He shifted to face her as well until they’d locked forearms.
“Good! That’s it!” Landris shouted. “I can feel it now, what Neil said about you both. You are stronger together. Much stronger. Powerful. You give me hope.”
Grant couldn’t respond. The spell held him tight now, as it held Natalie. He felt as though every molecule of his body was being affected, changed.
Natalie’s voice entered his mind. The sensation is like falling into ice water. I’m tingling all over and I’m shaking.
Same here.
From the corner of his eye, Grant watched Landris running faster now. He could hear the wizard speaking but couldn’t make out the words.
Suddenly, Landris flew high into the air, almost as high as the metal railing above the pit. He brought his hands together and clapped once. “Rain!” he shouted.
The powerful column turned into a shower-like torrent of the same energy that disappeared the way it had come.
