AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I got to my feet, shrugging off my wolf form and picking the exhausted Winter Sprite up from the floor. “I can’t believe it’s you,” I said, tears streaking down my cheeks. “How did you find us? And how do you know who I am?”
“Can’t… explain,” he panted. “About… to pass out.”
“I hate to break this up,” Valerian said, raising a finger and pointing across my shoulder, “But that thing is still out there.”
Turning my head, I saw it. It was far away from us, now, but it was still there—still wreathed in darkness, andstilladvancing. “Dammit.”
“It’s going to keep coming. All your friend has done is condemn himself with us.”
You don’t have a choice, now.
I shook my head. “No,” I said. “There’s still one last trick I can pull.”
Valerian frowned. “Why haven’t you used it yet?”
“Because I’ve never done it before, and I don’t know if it’ll work.”
“We don’t have a lot of choices, here. Whatever you’re going to do, do it now.”
Fear and panic threatened to hold my throat closed and deprive me of breath, but I concentrated hard, lifted my hand, and drew a circle in the air. Tears were still streaking down my cheeks, but for a different reason, now. I had lost my home. I had lost my family. I was lost in the woods. Through my own selfishness, I had allowed myself to become cursed, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
Arcadia had forgotten me, someone else had taken my place as Princess of Windhelm, and I was being hunted down by Fate itself. Even if we managed to slip this creature off our backs, I couldn’t go back to Radulf, or my parents, and Valerian’s face was likely to be on wanted posters all over the realm.
All of this had led me to one place, one choice, one last option. Colbolt and Tallin were living proof that the curse put on me wasn’t perfect. I didn’t know how Tallin had come around, but he had, and that meant all I needed were time and somewhere safe to figure as much of this out if I could.
And maybe find a way to break the curse.
With hands spinning clockwise, creating a circle in the air, I pushed the very last of my magical energy into a simple spell only Royals could use. I felt my energy leave my body, and then felt the warm rush of air wash over me as a portal opened that would take us far away from this place.
“What are you doing, Amara?” Valerian asked.
“The only thing I can do,” I said.
I grabbed Valerian’s hand, and with Tallin cradled against my chest with my other arm, I stepped through the portal I had just opened.
A portal to Earth.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Traveling through a portal wasn’t for the faint of heart, or stomach. It was disorienting, and nauseating; something you had to do on an empty stomach or face the consequences. This wasn’t my first go around—I had stepped through portals before—but it still took a great deal of internal fortitude to keep from retching once the portal spat us out the other side.
My feet touched solid ground as if I’d just taken a little jump. Tallin was still in my arms, and I still had Valerian’s hand in mine. Once I’d reoriented myself, I spun around on my heel, let go of Valerian’s hand, and made a striking gesture across the air to seal the portal behind me, leaving a flurry of Arcadian snow in the air where the portal had stood, along with a gust of cool wind.
Panting, heart pounding, I stood on the street, watching the snow blow past me. I knew we had just crossed between worlds, I knew we were no longer standing in the woods of Winter, being chased by a manifestation of Fate, but my heart hadn’t gotten the memo yet. It wasn’t until Valerian touched my shoulder, startling me, that I snapped back into my senses with a sharp inhale I immediately regretted.
I started to hack, and cough. Valerian moved his hand to my cheek. “Are you alright?” he asked.
I let myself enjoy the warmth of his touch for a moment too long while I recovered. “The air,” I said, struggling to breathe. “I forgot how much it reeked, here.”
“It’s not pleasant,” he said, his voice calm, and collected. He didn’t look disturbed in the slightest. “It’ll pass. It’s warmer than the air on the other side of the portal, at least.”
Pulling away from him, I scanned the area we were in. The soft, snowy ground had been replaced by a hard, cobble-stone street. I could hear cars—earthly vehicles—rolling around an adjacent street, prowling like unseen predators in the night. We were standing at the mouth of a quiet alley, in the middle of the night, devoid entirely of people besides us.
Though we had left Arcadia behind, the layer of frost on the stones at my feet and piled up on the windowsills all around me were, at least, a little touchstone to remind me of where I had come from.
“Where… are we?” Tallin asked.
“Good question,” Valerian said.
