Bloodrose

“Okay, Nev,” Ren said. “Why don’t you come meet the team? We’re heading out in a minute or so. You don’t happen to speak French, do you?”

“There’s a language requirement now?” Nev laughed as they walked away. “Man, you should have mentioned that before I volunteered.”

Our smaller team approached Anika and the other Searchers, waiting for orders.

“When you’re ready, Pascal.” Anika gestured to the Tordis Guide.

Pascal nodded at one of his team members, who drew skeans from his belt and began to weave a door.

“How will we know when the Guardians have taken the bait?” I asked.

“Pascal only needs five minutes,” Anika replied.

Connor laughed. “He’s good at making a scene.”

“Merci.” Pascal grinned at him.

Anika lifted her hand in salute as Pascal, Ren, and their team passed into the shimmering portal.

From where I stood, I couldn’t make out much other than glistening white and stark blue. Snow and sky. A hard lump caught in my throat when Nev shifted, trotting through the door. Ren, still in human form, turned toward us. He caught my eye and smiled, and then a charcoal gray wolf rushed after the team.

A moment later the door winked out.

“What now?” I asked. My fists balled up. There was about to be a fight and I wasn’t there. My skin felt too tight. I wanted to be a wolf in battle. That’s who I was. Who I’d always been.

“We wait,” Anika said, giving me a sympathetic smile. I met her eyes, realizing that as the Arrow, she gave orders but rarely joined the fight. A steely flash in her irises told me she hated missing out as much as I did. There was no clock in the room, but it felt as though my pulse ticked off each minute they were gone. Anika, who’d been pacing back and forth in the room, suddenly stopped. “Now, Adne.”

Adne had already begun to move, immediately lost in the intricate dance of her weaving. Multicolored, glimmering threads of light streamed from her skeans, twisting, braiding, slowly forming into the pattern that would be our door.

A door to what?

Tordis lay ahead. If we succeeded, Shay would have the first sword of the Elemental Cross. Remembering Logan’s hideous creation that had waited for us in the bowels of Haldis, I shuddered. What was hiding in Tordis?

“Okay.” Adne was breathing hard. When Connor put his arm around her, she leaned into him.

“You all right?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just making sure we’re right on top of it.”

Ethan strode toward the door. Sabine, in wolf form, stayed close on his heels. He nodded once to Anika before passing through the portal.

I peered into the doorway. Through the shimmering passage I could see the almost-blinding whiteness of snow occasionally cut by jagged black rock.

A soft touch on the small of my back made me jump.

“Sorry.” Shay was smiling at me. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” I said, throwing a teasing grin back at him. “You nervous?”

“Nah.” He rolled his shoulders back. “I’m the Chosen One, remember?”

I laughed when he twisted to show me the ice axes he had strapped on.

“For luck,” he said. “And ’cause we’re headed for another mountain.”

“Let’s hope we have more than luck working for us.” Connor laughed, brushing past us and into the portal. He threw a disgusted look back at Silas, who had pulled out his Moleskine and was already scribbling notes. “Don’t say anything embarrassing, kiddos, ’cause apparently it’s all on the record from here on out.”

Adne tapped her foot. “Could you guys get a move on, please? The other team would probably appreciate us getting this done as quickly as possible.”

“Sir, yes sir!” Shay grinned. He took my hand, squeezing my fingers before turning to follow Connor. Instead of letting go, I pulled him toward me, raising up on my tiptoes to brush a soft kiss across his mouth.

“You don’t need luck,” I said. “But I’m still glad you brought the axes.”

He drew me into a longer kiss until Connor whistled. Shay shook his head as he let me go and followed the Searcher through the portal.

The warmth of Shay’s grasp was replaced by a cold touch. I glanced down to see Mason, a wolf, gazing up at me. I shifted forms and was greeted by his voice in my mind.

Follow the leader. Ladies first.

I’m no lady and don’t you forget it. I nipped his shoulder.

Good point. Mason’s tongue lolled out. I don’t think proper ladies let themselves be kissed like that.

Shut up, Mason.

Just tell me. He yipped, wagging his tail. Would you have let lover boy get that close if Ren was still in the room?

I said shut up.

I just need to know what kind of odds I should be getting from Nev. He barked when I bit his flank, chasing him into the glittering doorway.

When I hit the ground on the other side of the portal, two thoughts screeched inside my head. That the air pouring into my lungs was the coldest, freshest I’d ever breathed.

I gulped the frigid air. How high up were we?

Glancing around, I got my answer. The ground sloped away from my feet at an angle that seemed impossible. If I took one step down, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to stop until I reached the bottom of the mountain. If I turned the other way, I could see blue sky in the distance, partially blocked by a cloud drifting past. A cloud at eye level.

Shay was turning in a slow circle, careful to keep his footing. “Where are we?”

“Altitude fourteen thousand, seven hundred fifty feet,” Silas rattled off. “Latitude seven degrees, longitude forty-six.”

“In the Swiss Alps,” Adne interpreted as she closed the portal. “Not too far from Murren.”

She pointed one of her skeans at the sheer obsidian rock face a few feet in front of us. “That’s the passage to Tordis.”

Shay stared at the black wall and voiced the thought that lodged in my own mind. “But there’s no entrance.”

“There’s an entrance,” Adne said, sliding the sharp spikes back into her belt loops. “It’s just tough to see.”

Ethan was already moving toward the dark surface. When he reached it, he put his hands out, walking sideways, all the while sliding his palms along the rock. He stopped, gave a small cry, and disappeared.

Sabine whined, rushing to the wall. She sniffed the edge, pawing at the rough black stone. Suddenly a hand appeared, reaching for her. She yelped, tumbling backward. I jumped forward, terrified she’d begin the long, unending fall down the mountainside. My jaws clamped into the ruff of her neck as I leaned back on my haunches while digging my paws into the snow.

Let go, Calla. She snarled.

Not until the law of gravity isn’t working against us. I growled back.

Mason’s voice reached both of us. Stop fighting her, Sabine. You don’t want to fall off this cliff. You wouldn’t be an attractive pancake.

She growled but stopped struggling.

Thanks, Mason. I held on to her, probably digging my teeth in a little harder than I needed to, but she’d almost taken us both for an unwanted skydive. I was pissed.

When I felt sure that we were both upright, I released her. She threw me one spiteful look before turning back to the rock wall.

Ethan’s head, which looked like it was detached and floating against the black surface, appeared just as the hand had. “Sorry! I was just trying to show you the way.”

Sabine and I moved toward Ethan’s bodiless head. Scanning the rock wall, I still couldn’t see where the rest of