Of course, he was completely confident in his virility, in his power and ability to attract and please. That was never in question. But under all that was a vulnerable soul who wanted someone to care about him—not because of
“Charlie, when we get back … if they come for me, I don’t want you to fight.”
It was my turn to frown. “And you’ve known me how long?” I shook my head. I knew why he said the words, but they made me angry, too. “Forget it. If you think I’m going to let them take you back to Fiallan, think again.”
He leaned in, slid a hand behind my neck, pulled me toward him, and kissed me hard. Then he leaned back and searched my face. “Thank you. You don’t owe me. I didn’t have anything to lose when I fought for you and Em. No children, no family, no one waiting for me back home. You have everything to lose, and those who came through the gate won’t care.”
I swallowed hard. “I’ll do what I think is right. You don’t even know what we’ll face when we get back.”
“Yeah. Unfortunately I do.” He looked out over the sandy plain and sighed. “I’ll take the one on the column.” The biggest nithyn perced on the top of a broken column. The other two flew circles above. Waiting. Waiting. “Can you run and use your power at the same time?”
“I can try.”
“I guess we run like hell.” He was already surging to his feet.
I ran after him. Brim bolted past me in a blur of speed.
We made it halfway across the plain before the nithyn spotted us. Hank stopped and lured the one coming in fast.
He stood still, waiting and mumbling, luring, enticing the beast to dive faster and faster. Closer and closer. I stopped running and screamed his name. Hank dove at the very last second. The nithyn crashed into the ground. Hank rolled, leapt up, grabbed its neck before it could get its bearings, twisted, and broke it. Patient. Efficient. Deadly.
“Charlie, duck!”
I belly flopped immediately, not even looking at the incoming bird. Wind blew over my face. Sand pinged me. Claws dug into my back. I screamed. Air rushed down all around me as the nithyn lifted.
A shot of nitro hit the tip of its wing.
I flailed, reaching around to grab at the leathery ankle. After three tries I got a good hold, sending everything I had into my grip.
It dropped me six feet above the ground and let out a wounded cry. I landed belly first in the sand, flipped over, finally able to pull my gun, only to see the largest nithyn crash into the wounded one.
They tumbled through the air, landing in a rolling ball. I looked away from the macabre scene and focused on getting back on my feet.
A few feet in front of me, Brim circled and whined. He lay down and rested his jaw between his front legs. Alarm crept up my spine. I went for Brim, but only made it one step before I came face-to-face with the shadow creature.
I drew up short and gasped. Brim whined again.
It hovered inches from the ground. A tall, black form without solid mass and as terrifying as before.
Had it jumped planes? Jesus. My mind raced. Had it sensed my use of power earlier and had come after me? Come this far? Sensed it from another world?
What the hell was this thing?
My fingers flexed on the grip of my gun.
I saw beyond it to Hank. He was running toward me. Sand kicked up and circled around me and this creature. It spoke and the ground under my feet trembled.
Shadowy tendrils reached out, wrapping around me. The main mass of the creature pulled toward me in a blink so fast it seemed like one minute it was a few feet from me and the next it was inches from my face.
I swallowed, poised and still, utterly at the mercy of this thing.
Darkness that went on forever is the only thing I saw on the inside of this creature. Yet somewhere inside of it was a voice, a mouth, some type of creature, I was sure of it. Maybe one that didn’t
It spoke again, this time with an inflection that suggested a question had been posed. My body thrummed, the words ebbing deep into my bones. A question I had no idea how to answer.
Then it drew back, spun, drawing all of the shadows back into itself. It disappeared like a puff of wind, gone on a breeze. The sand tornado around me dropped. Brim lifted his head, stood, and shook off the sand as Hank came to a stop, heaving from the run. “That was it? That was the creature?”
I nodded, rubbing my arms as the nithyn’s death cries drew goose bumps along my skin. It made me shiver, cold despite the heat of the hot, dry dunes. At least it hadn’t gone
Hank was staring oddly at me. “You realize it jumped planes.”
Yeah. I did. And it scared the shit out of me. If that thing was lured by my power and had the ability to cross dimensions whenever I used it … Not good. It had probably felt the first time I used my power fighting off the sand lizards and it had just taken some time to get here. All it had to do was hang around and wait for me to use it again and voilà.
“Come on, they can’t be far behind us.” I took off toward the ruins.
The ruins of the Temple of the Moon were colossal. Stone blocks the size of city buses littered the ground. Yet another testament to the god-like structures of the off-worlders.
“Rex said the portal is under the altar.” I climbed onto a fallen column where I stood to survey the complex, trying to envision it as it had once been, to get a better idea of where the main temple might be. A piece of Bryn’s skirt had been wedged between two stones, a marker from Rex no doubt. “Hank! Over here!” I slid off the column and scrambled over the ruins.
Hank studied the narrow, slanted opening near the stones. “Footprints, too,” he noted, looking around. Brim trotted over and began sniffing. He darted inside the dark passageway. I pulled out my flashlight.
The passage was only wide enough for us to go single file. Blocks of stones stuck out of the walls, making us twist and angle our bodies around to make way. Eventually the space opened up to a larger area filled with fallen stones. The floor was streaked with footsteps. Rex must’ve cleared enough stone away to make the small passage.
I climbed through. “Be careful. This leads down into steps.”
Stone debris littered the way, but the going was relatively simple and soon we came to a dark chamber deep beneath the temple complex. Our lights beamed over large stones, fitted perfectly together. Side reliefs of jinn warriors had been carved into the walls, enemies and creatures subdued beneath their feet. Two ancient fire basins of black marble sat at opposite sides of the room.
In the center of the floor ringed in smooth black stones was a circular pool. Very shallow and filled with a substance that looked like liquid mercury.
“What is that?”
Hank stopped beside me. “The portal; I don’t see anything else down here that could be it.”
“Well, they were here. Their footprints are all over the place.” Mytrailed over the dusty floor. “And look, there’s a dusty handprint on the stones. They must’ve made it through …”
Hank knelt down, examining the stones.
“Rex said to feed my power and think of where we wanted to go. He said the station, to concentrate on the station. The cell block.”
“Using your power draws that creature. I’ll use mine.”
“You think Elysian power is going to work in a Charbydon-created portal?” I asked dubiously.
“We can try.” He placed his hands on the stones and closed his eyes. Instantly the energy in the place changed. A soft yellow glow began to form beneath his palms.
And nothing else happened.
Finally he opened his eyes, his brow furrowed. “Let me try this.” This time he stuck his hands into the pool. The strange liquid seemed to conduct power and the entire thing shimmered in a golden light and then dimmed.
