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“I don’t recognize this place,” he said. “I couldn’t even begin to guess where we are. I can tell you where we aren’t though, and that’s anywhere near civilization.” He glared at the plants, which were singular in species and excessive in number. “Or food. Also, it’s cold, which has me kind of fucked up.”
“So what do we do? Climb up on that rock and use a portal to transport as far as we can see, then do it again?” Jayce asked.
“No, you dumbass. I’ll do a flyover and see what’s up.” Kingston shook his head at Jayce, but his tone and expression were fond.
“That’s not a bad place to start,” I said. “Go ahead, we’ll wait here. But if you see anything threatening, come back for backup. Don’t be a hero.”
Kings
ton nodded grimly. He shifted, then flew up and began circling. I watched him until he was out of sight, shivering in the cold. We weren’t dressed for this weather. Xero put his arm around me and led me to the big stone. We found the one spot the wind couldn’t touch and cuddled up together there. Kingston had stamina, and he’d become a very strong flyer during our previous time in the underworld. He could be up there for hours.
“It’s not what I expected,” Hannah murmured. “I figured it would be more… I don’t know. More volcanos and swamps and finger bone trees.”
“That’s what it always has been before,” Xero said, looking unhappy. “I don’t like this place. It makes me nervous.”
The feeling was unanimous. We sat in silence for a while, listening for anything threatening, but all we could hear was the wind. Which actually sounded very threatening, to be honest. The high-pitched shrieking kept making me think of harpies, and I obsessively checked the sky every few minutes.
It wasn’t long before I spotted a black speck in the distance. As it grew bigger, I could see that it was actually green, not black.
Kingston.
He landed hard and shifted quickly, then dove into the middle of our cuddle pile. Violent shivers shook his body, and the whole group by extension.
“Too… cold,” he wheezed. “No fur, no feathers, no nothing. Just stupid lizard skin, and it’s too damn cold.”
“Did you see anything?” Xero asked.
Kingston shook his head. “More of the same as far as I could see. Can’t even see any mountains or anything. Just flat gray yuck.”
“Great. So flying’s out.” I wrinkled my nose. “We need a new plan.”
“Couldn’t we transport somewhere you guys have already been before?” Hannah asked.
Jayce shrugged helplessly. “But where though? Most of the places we’ve been, we barely escaped with our lives. I’m not super thrilled about the idea of going back to any of them.”
“Well, not every place,” Kai pointed out. He took a small throwing star from a hidden pocket and smiled tightly. “I kept a memento. Should be enough to get us past Michael’s wards.”
“Michael? That’s the werewolf guy who helped you break Xero out of Gavriel’s fortress, right?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah. He didn’t come with us, but he loaded us up with enough weapons to have a fighting chance,” I told her. Then I turned to Kai. “Okay, good plan. Michael’s it is. We can’t stay there, but maybe he can point us in a good direction. And at least it’ll be warm.”
We all linked hands and thought very hard about Michael’s basement. All except Hannah, who kept her mind as blank as possible.
The familiar tingling rush washed over me, and a moment later, a blast of hot air wafted over me. The red sun bathed my skin, welcoming me back to a place where I’d been treated well.
Wait. Sun? That’s not right.
I should be inside. We’d been aiming for Michael’s basement. Had we gotten our aim wrong?
No.
We stood where Michael’s basement had once been. Now it was nothing but a pile of rubble and a stone staircase leading up to the ground level. Sunlight beamed into the sunken hole of the basement.
A solemn quiet fell over our group as we slowly picked our way across the debris to the stairs. Scraps of Michael’s clothing littered the pile, and I found myself checking them for bloodstains.
“Do you think he was in here when it happened?” I asked nobody in particular, my throat closing around the words. I hadn’t known Michael well, but he’d helped us a lot. He had stuck his neck out for us.
Was this the consequence of that?
