“No, Danaus!” I snapped, turning on my right heel to face him. “We follow my plan or I take you back to Savannah now and I will leave you there.” We glared at each other for several seconds. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest, and for a moment I could feel a pressure in my brain as he tried to enter my thoughts and read my full intentions, but I kept him blocked out. The only feelings I wanted him to sense from me at that moment were love and determination. I would not be swayed from this course. Nick had to be stopped, and he had to be stopped now, when the world was so precariously balanced on the cusp of a major transition. He could not be permitted to step in as the next major power.
Danaus said nothing as I turned to Adio. Pulling the sword from my side, I handed it to him. He tested the weight and the balance before giving it a few good swipes through the air. I was vastly relieved that it seemed he at least knew how to use a sword. I hadn’t been sure, but it was hard to live a long existence in this world without picking up a few skills in self-defense.
Stepping away from my companions, I approached the center of the field where I had last seen the rip in the sky through which the naturi escaped from their prison. I sucked in a deep breath and held it in my chest as I pulled all the earth energy swirling about me to my fingertips. It was so much easier now than it had been in the summer. Then, it had been like trying to swim upstream in a rushing torrent of water. Now, it was just another part of who I was. The power came to me fast and strong and hot, as if heated by the bowels of the earth before finally reaching my body.
With my eyes closed, I reached out with my fingers toward the open sky and easily felt where the scar was, marking the entrance into the naturi cage. A faint groan escaped me as I grasped the two jagged edges and pulled them apart. A bright light blinded me for only a moment before my eyes focused on a world that looked all too similar to my own.
There were green fields edged with dark trees sparsely decorated with shining green leaves. However, the sky above was a leaden gray instead of a deep blue. As I stepped through the opening, I also noticed that the ground was hard and unyielding, with patches of dried dirt showing through the thinning grass. The air was completely still and there were no sounds of singing birds or the scurry of wildlife. This world was dying.
Behind me, I heard the crunch of earth under heavy feet as Danaus quickly joined me, followed by the lighter step of Adio. I glanced over my shoulder to see that both men had their swords drawn and at the ready. And I felt guilty. Any naturi still trapped in this world were already sick and dying. If they ran, they faced death at the hands of Adio and Danaus, and if they stayed, they faced an even slower death of this world. Were they to escape to the real Earth, they had a chance at life again, this time under Cynnia’s enlightened rule. They had a chance to live.
“I’ve changed my mind,” I said in a low voice. “Don’t attack anyone unless you are attacked first.”
“Are you sure?” Adio inquired.
“You want to give them the chance to escape?” Danaus said.
“They are already dying here and are doomed to death if they stay, even if we most likely succeed today. Cynnia will give them a second chance.”
“As you wish,” Adio said softly, to my surprise. I hadn’t expected Our Liege to so quickly follow my direction, but then I believed that his larger focus was on his own survival and the eventual survival of our people. Now that Aurora was dead, the naturi were a smaller concern for the nightwalkers.
“Do you know where you are going?” Danaus asked as we started across the field and into the surrounding woods. Off in the distance I could see the crumbling remnants of stone and thatch houses built among the trees. I could feel a faint swirling earth energy surrounding us as we preceded, marking the presence of the naturi, but they didn’t approach us. For now they were content to watch from a distance and edge closer to the opening that I was maintaining in the back of my mind. The pull of power to keep the door open was minimal, like a slowly growing headache in my temple. Nothing more than an annoyance.
“I can feel a great source of energy ahead of us. It has to be her,” I said as I continued to trudge forward. I placed the knife I had been carrying in my right hand back in its sheath. I wouldn’t need it for the time being.
“I can feel it as well,” Adio added.
Unfortunately, a second source of great energy was hovering around what felt to be the entrance to the naturi world. Nick was starting to grow suspicious of my absence from this world and he didn’t trust me. We were running out of time. Danaus and Adio needed to have the goddess in hand by the time Nick appeared or this was all for nothing.
Grabbing the arms of Danaus and Adio on either my side, I clenched my eyes shut and caused us all to disappear and then suddenly reappear closer to the source of the energy. I couldn’t pinpoint her exact location with the first jump, but we were significantly closer. It felt as if she was in the center of the world, and yet I didn’t know how vast this world was. I would have to rely on Adio to do the same thing with Danaus—to get him out again with the goddess.
I kept a tight hold on their arms as I jumped us forward a second time, getting significantly closer to the power this time. We jogged the rest of the way to what appeared to be a large tree in the center of a barren field. Here the grass was at its greenest and a castle rose up in the distance. I was willing to bet that Aurora had set up her home as close as she could to the source of the power for her new realm, in hopes that it would strengthen her own powers, regardless of what kind of drain it proved to be on the goddess.
As we drew closer to the tree, we discovered that it wasn’t a tree at all, but large, thick vines that had grown up from the ground, wrapping around something. The power I had sensed at the doorway was now starting to slowly grow closer to our position. We were running out of time. Stepping back, I raised my hands above my head and let my eyelids drop shut. I dug deep into the energy I sensed from the earth, which was leaking through the doorway, and used it to touch the vines. They proved to be more than a little resistant at first, but after some loud creaking and snapping, the vines started to part and recede back into the ground to reveal a crystal chamber hovering just a few inches above the ground.
Encased in the diamondlike structure was a woman with thick brown hair and dark skin. She appeared thin and frail, with her head leaning against the side of the crystal as if she were trapped in a deep sleep. I stared at her a moment, her appearance reminding me too much of the dark-haired Inca women who had been sacrificed for the amusement of the naturi so many centuries ago at the ruins of Machu Picchu. But she wasn’t an Inca woman. She was
“Give me your sword,” I commanded, holding out my right hand, not caring who gave up their weapon. As soon as I felt the heavy weight against my palm, I wrapped my fingers around it and raised it above my head as I stepped forward. I was prepared to pound against the crystal until the end of the world wrapped around us, but to my surprise, a chunk of the crystal broke off with the first hit. In her weakness, her own cage had become fragile. Her last bit of protection had been the vines. A second blow to the crystal created an opening large enough for her limp body to slide through. Danaus immediately stepped forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.
I slid the sword he had handed me back into the sheath strapped to his back. When I looked at his face, I saw a tear roll down his cheek as he stared down at the woman cradled gently like a child in his strong arms. She was exquisitely beautiful and immensely frail. Her chest barely rose and fell with each breath, and I could barely make out her heartbeat.
“Adio, can you get Danaus to the doorway the same way I got us here?” I asked, slowly dragging my gaze from my lover’s heartbroken expression.
“Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem,” the nightwalker said, taking a step closer to Danaus so he could lay a hand on his shoulder.
“Danaus, get her to the clearing with the tree and lay her flat on the ground,” I said. “The connection with earth should help rejuvenate her.” He merely nodded, unable to break his gaze from the woman’s face. “You are to stay at her side no matter what. Protect her with your life. Promise me.”
“I promise,” he whispered.
A dark, ominous voice rumbled across the plains. “Mira!” Nick was nearly upon us.
The sound of Nick’s voice was enough to suddenly snap Danaus out of his trancelike state. He looked up at me with narrowed eyes as he realized what kind of corner I had backed him into. He had promised to watch over the goddess and so would not be able to help me in my fight against Nick. He was trapped.
“Go now!” I screamed, backing away from my two companions. Danaus gripped me with one last desperate
