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“Earth’s a big place with a lot of armies. Where does he intend to send us?”
“Here.” I heard the tap of a claw against paper and wished I had the ability to project my consciousness into someone else’s head. I would’ve given anything to see through Forin’s eyes. “Not as close to the nerve center as I would like, but it’s where the portal naturally opens. It’s going to be an uphill climb on all sides. That’s where the pentagram formation comes in. If Gavriel’s right, the portal should—”
I never heard what the portal should do, because at that moment Jayce stood up, ears and tail erect. He bristled, growling softly toward the shadows in front of us.
Shit. Time to go.
I shoved at Michael, who caught on quickly and crept around the back of the tent. I followed silently, and Jayce followed me but kept his sharp gaze on the shadows around us.
As we crept back through the camp, Jayce whined softly, then nudged me quickly around the side of a large, worn-looking tent, pressing me up against it gently with his body. Michael stood in front of me too, and we all waited, holding our breath.
A moment later, a couple of ogres wielding spiked clubs passed by.
“They were here a minute ago!” one of them grunted.
“The dragons are seeing things. They’re bored. It was probably just a couple of drunken soldiers getting it on before the march.”
“What if it was spies? Or deserters?”
“What spies? What would they do? Get an army of babies together? We have all the able-bodied already. The dragons are just bored. Come on, I’m thirsty.”
“You’re always thirsty.”
There was nothing but a grunt in response to that, and I gripped Jayce’s fur tightly, digging my fingers into the thick strands of his pelt.
Keep walking, you fuckers. Keep walking.
Chapter Sixteen
My lungs burned with the need to drag in a breath, but I stayed perfectly still. It was fully dark by now, which should help conceal us. But who knew which creatures around here had heightened night vision.
“Look at those fuckin’ things. They do look bored. Can’t believe Gavriel trusts dragons to be good at any damn thing,” one of the ogres said, and his buddy chuckled.
When they mentioned dragons again, I chanced a peek overhead—just in time to see a burst of flame in the sky a quarter mile from where we stood.
I should have been paying more attention to them.
“Yeah, all right. Let’s get that drink.”
As soon as the ogres stalked away, we made a break for the dark wilderness outside of the camp.
I followed Jayce and Michael back, since they could see better in the dark than I could. The others had been watching us approach the last few yards and dragged us into a small hollow as soon as we were close enough to touch.
“Sorry,” Xero breathed, his eyes sparking with worry. “We had to hide. The dragons have been doing random wide loops.”
“That’s our fault,” I said. “They saw us go into the camp. If it wasn’t for Jayce’s ears, we would have been caught.”
“What did you learn?” Kai leaned forward, his muscles taut.
“There’s some kind of big portal, I think. They called it the First Temple?” I looked at Xero and Hannah, our resident experts.
The fire demon frowned. “I’ve heard of it. I don’t know a lot about it, except that it’s like a big natural deposit of stones. People kept saying we should mine it, but Gavriel declared it sacred ground for some reason.”
“According to them, it’s big enough to transport the whole fallen army to earth,” Jayce said grimly. “That’s what they’re planning. They’re going to get to the temple, and Gavriel is going to send the whole fuckton of them through to earth. It’s his big end game.”
Shocked silence answered him. Then Kai cleared his throat, forcing nonchalance into his voice.
“Then I guess it’s good we’re not on earth. Banishment doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?”
