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“I could see earlier. Just a bit, but I could see. This fellow knows the healer, and we are close. The key…”
And that was the third distraction and the strongest thing he could latch onto: the peak of her journey.
“Is it glowing?”
“It glowed down the water.”
“Okay. I will leave you to get prepared.”
Translation: Please get dressed.
The creature didn’t follow him when he left and Daria didn’t say a word. He left the space and went back to the tunnel, where Oscar was just waking up and two figures sat inside their sleeping area. Diego and Riva weren’t looking at each other, but the tension in their wound-up bodies was palpable.
“Join the club,” he wanted to say, but shut up and got down to business. “Pack your stuff. The next portal is ready.”
Two heads snapped up and questions peppered from Riva’s mouth. Diego stared at that mouth, looking angry, then decided to excuse himself and wake Sona up. Riva stared at the man’s back. When everyone gathered, Charlie turned around slightly, still unable to alleviate the bulge that tightened his pants.
Damn it.
“What’s next? Where’s Daria?” Sona asked.
“Hold on.”
He gave Daria time to get dressed—just in case she remained temptingly, infuriatingly nude—and actively erased every visceral image that assaulted his senses. When he was half-successful, he nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Clouds. It looked like fog at first glance but it wasn’t fog, the more he looked at it. It was a sea ofclouds,extending wherever he peered just like the beach line, thicker where they stepped on it and wisp-like where it surrounded them. The voices behind him registered.
“Do we always have to pass something wet? My clothes keep getting ruined.”
“Then why don’t you just take them off?”
“Because I chew loudly, and I like my clothes, you smug nut.”
The hand clasped in his tightened, there since he had first linked with her. The others had let go but he couldn’t, not when hers was trembling and bubbling with what she couldn’t voice out: hope.
“It’s not closing.”
“What is it this time, you loud beast?”
“The portal. It’s not closing. It’s—incoming!”
The shout was cut off and a scream followed as a force pushed its way out of the portal toward them. It hurled towards them, seconds from making contact before he and Daria yanked each other out of the way. The rolling blur kept going until it crashed into clouds, but its weight had it sinking further until the puffy white was a gaping hole and something else puffy was holding on for dear life—
“It’s the creature!” Charlie exclaimed.
He ran for it, but Diego was faster, matching the giant blur earlier and reaching down. Then Diego was wrenched out of sight, a horrible, gurgling sound in his wake. Charlie flew to the hole in time to see thorny vines clamp around the two, but with Diego pushing the heavier creature up to take the brunt of the attack.
Charlie felt Daria beside him and heard Sona snap out what she saw. The two joined hands. A second later, a small amount of energy vibrated down Sona’s growing tail as she wrapped it around the creature and pulled it with all her might.
“I need more energy,” she called out.
“I don’t have enough,” Daria said through gritted teeth. “The water revived me but not by much.”
Oscar’s arms wrapped around Sona, securing her in place. Then Charlie’s arms wrapped around Oscar, adding to the anchor before he spoke.
“Pull on three.”
