was standing next to a stinky sewer, wearing clothes that weren't exactly the height of current fashion, he still looked knee-weakeningly hot to me. I had a funny feeling I could be convinced to follow him just about anywhere.
'Follow me,' he said. 'I'll see you on the other side.'
And with that, he jumped into the sewer. One moment he was standing beside me and the next he was gone.
My eyes widened and I looked down into nothing but darkness. I waited, but I didn't hear a splash. Or a scream. There was only eerie silence.
Follow me, he'd said. By jumping into a sewer? I thought he was going to climb down inside, not jump into it like it was the deep end of a swimming pool.
And he wanted me to do the same thing?
Um. . unlikely. Very unlikely.
I watched for another minute, frozen in place, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.
I don't know if I can do this, I thought. He didn't telepathically project anything back to me. I guess he was out of range now.
I looked back in the direction of my house. It was around the block and I couldn't see it anymore but I knew it was there. I could go home and crawl into my warm bed and pretend this had never happened. I didn't have to meet my father. I didn't have to do anything I didn't want to do. But I did want to.
I turned back to the sewer and, without thinking twice about it, I jumped.
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself to land in a pool of unmentionable ickiness, but instead my feet touched down lightly onto something soft and springy.
I opened my eyes and looked around.
Grass. It was green grass.
I blinked and looked up to see that I was standing in a field next to a forest in the middle of the day. A moment ago it had been a cold, snowy December night, but now the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and it was very warm- especially since I was wearing my long pink winter coat and scarf, which I quickly removed.
The green stone of Michael's amulet glinted under the light.
He smiled at me.
'What?' I managed.
'You're braver than I thought you'd be.' 'Brave?'
'For a second I thought I'd have to go back to get you. I'm impressed.'
I squinted at him while my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. 'Now that I think about it, I guess jumping into a sewer is a little bizarre.'
Michael looked at me a moment longer, shaking his head. 'I can't remember the last time somebody from the human realm visited the Shadowlands.'
There was a forest ahead of us. The field of grass was spotted with wildflowers-orange, purple, and yellow dots of color across the vast field of green. A butterfly fluttered past me and I felt a warm breeze against my face. It smelled like spring.
'Wow, it's beautiful here,' I said. 'I'd almost forgotten what grass looks like, I've gotten so used to snow. It's like something out of a fairy tale.'
He moved to stand next to me. 'You think so?'
I shook my head and smiled at him. 'When you said we were going to the Shadowlands, I think I was expecting something else. Hearing all that stuff about demons and Hell, I guess… I don't know. I'm glad I was wrong. Do we need to go into the forest? Is that where my father is?'
Michael didn't answer for a second.
'Well?' I prompted.
'This area isn't the Shadowlands itself,' he said.
I frowned. 'Oh. Well, where are we going, then?'
'The Shadowlands are actually behind you.'
I slowly… very slowly… turned around and felt the blood drain from my face.
'Okay,' I managed. 'That's much more what I thought it would be like.'
There was a castle about a half mile away from where we stood. A big one. But definitely not a Cinderella- type castle from Disney World that looked lovely and welcoming and part of the fairy-tale landscape I stood in at the moment.
The green grass and sunny skies stopped just before the castle and turned to ominous storm clouds that swirled around the castle. I could see the jagged edges of gray mountains in the distance. The castle itself consisted of sharp black spires that reached high into the dark clouds overhead. The entire structure seemed to be made of some kind of black stone. There were no windows that I could see.
Michael touched my arm. 'It's really not as bad as it looks.'
I swallowed hard. 'Well, that's good to know. Because it looks very bad.'
Dracula could totally live in that castle. Or some other monster.
Like a demon king.
Yeah, I thought. Seems fitting. Definitely. I was so going to throw up.
I tore my gaze away from the castle and looked back at the forest. 'I think I'd rather go in there.'
Michael shook his head. 'Not a good idea.'
I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we'd just jumped into another dimension. 'Why not?'
He glanced at the thick patch of trees a hundred yards away from us. 'That's the faery realm.'
'Seriously?' My eyes widened. 'I love faeries. They're cute. They have wings.'
Also, I had no idea they actually existed. I wondered if I should have brought a notebook, or even a camera, so I'd remember all of these bizarre facts.
Faeries were real. Demons were real.
Okay.
I realized I was clutching Michael's arm very tightly and I loosened my grip. 'Sorry.'
'It's fine. I can take it.' He smiled at me. 'The faeries in that forest you wouldn't like so much. They're territorial. Anyone who comes onto their land is in big trouble. They can be vicious when they need to be.'
I blinked. 'Evil faeries?'
He studied the line of the forest with a bit of apprehension. 'Not evil, exactly. Just not something you'd want to come face-to-face with if you can help it.
They really don't like demons, so I don't think we should stand here for much longer.'
'But I thought you said you weren't a demon?'
He met my eyes. 'I'm not.'
'But-' And then I shut up. Oh, right. Half-demon princess present and accounted for.
I looked at Castle Dread again. 'And you're trying to tell me that there's nothing to be afraid of.'
He turned completely to me. 'I promised your father that I wouldn't let anything happen to you. Nothing will. Everything is going to be fine, Princess.'
'And you promise to stay with me?'
A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. 'As the Princess wishes.'
'The Princess definitely wishes.'
His smile widened and I got that annoying little twist in my stomach again. Even here with the prospect of trekking across fairyland to go to a monster castle, Michael was making me all mushy inside.
No guy had ever made me this mushy before-not even Chris.
