Most of the portals were in extreme remote locations in faraway places. Bangladesh, Wales, Scandinavia, Nova Scotia, Borneo. Oh boy. I stopped halfway down. Utah. At least it was in the US, even if it was eighteen hundred miles away. Rifling through the book, I looked for anything else I could find about the Utah portal.
I stopped when I found the chapter about portals in the Earthen wilderness.
…and another portal that uses the magic of Earth Kingdom as its only source of power, which the dragons left untouched but for a masking spell, under the arches of the prehistoric wilderness…
Arches. Was there a portal somewhere in the Arches National Park? On the next page, my hypothesis was confirmed when I saw an inked drawing of one of the familiar arch formations.
At least I knew where we needed to go. Standing, I tucked the book under my arm and faced Kull.
For an instant, the presence of him in my bedroom stirred my emotions, making me feel exposed as he stood facing me and holding the sword.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yeah, we’re going to Utah.”
He scrunched his brow.
“It’s to the west,” I said. “And it’s not close. We’ll have to fly if we want to get there in any reasonable amount of time. Do you still have that passport Brent gave you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We’re lucky Brent has access to IDs that look halfway like you. Just hope he doesn’t get found out for loaning one of them to you.” I sighed. “Flying won’t be cheap.”
My head spun as I calculated the cost of two plane tickets. My meager savings wouldn’t be enough. I’d have to call on the powers of my trusty credit card with its awesome nineteen-percent interest rate. Yippee.
“Let’s go,” I said as I brushed past Kull, trying to ignore that fluttery feeling in my stomach as my shoulder touched his. He followed me back to the front door where Brent waited.
“Can you drop us off at the airport?” I asked. “We’re going to Utah.”
“Utah? You’re sure?”
I nodded.
“There isn’t anywhere closer?”
“No, but it’s better than traveling to Nova Scotia.”
After we exited my apartment, I locked the door behind us. Not that it would do much good at this point—the place had already been trashed.
Kull and I reached Brent’s car and climbed inside. When I scanned the parking area, I couldn’t see any sign of the elves. Had we eluded them?
“They’re still out there,” Kull said as if answering my thoughts.
“How do you know?”
He shrugged. “Call it a premonition.”
As we drove away from the building and onto Seawall Boulevard, I couldn’t help but agree with him. Queen Euralysia was too smart to let us go, especially when her people had failed to turn up the sword. They were out there somewhere, and they had the advantage. The elves had full use of portals and we didn’t, meaning they could disappear and reappear whenever they chose. Although the portals hadn’t been working well for me, the elves had more powerful magic than I had; they’d have no problem traveling between worlds. This really wasn’t looking good for us, but for now, we had no choice but to keep moving forward.
The drive was quiet except for the whirring of tires on the asphalt. An unspoken tension filled the car as we crossed the causeway, the gray water spreading out beneath us toward the horizon, the sun hidden behind a mass of thick clouds.
We drove toward the heart of Houston, then took the exit toward Hobby airport.
Everything seemed to be happening too fast. Last night, I’d finally gotten Kull to open up to me, but it had ended on a sour note, and he’d only said a few words to me all day. I knew he was in pain, and last night had only deepened his wounds.
Crossing through the portal to Faythander would hopefully be the solution. I was optimistic that the crossing would remove the spell from Kull’s mind. If not, I wasn’t sure what else to try.
Brent drove us to the terminal. Hobby was thankfully Houston’s smaller airport, and although there was still a bit of a crowd, at least I knew my way around.
We exited the car and removed the luggage from the trunk. I faced Brent as we stood behind the Honda.
“You’ll take care of Han, right?”
“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice, but yes, I’ll take care of him. Your cat will be fine.”
“Thank you, Brent. I’ll be back really soon.”
Brent frowned. “You sure about that?”
I didn’t answer, because I didn’t want to lie. “Bye, Brent,” I said bravely, as if this was just a brief good-bye and not an I’ll-probably-die-and-never-see-you-again farewell.
He must’ve known there was a possibility we’d never see each other again because he leaned in and hugged me. I hugged him back, feeling tears misting my eyes. Darn it all, why was saying good-bye, even to someone you were on lukewarm terms with, so hard to do?
When he pulled away, I grabbed my suitcase’s handle and stepped onto the sidewalk. Kull followed me. Brent got into his car and drove away.
That was harder to do than I thought.
“You care for that man?” Kull asked.
“Yeah, I guess I do. Weird, I know, to still care for a guy you pretty much used to hate.”
“That’s because you have a kind heart.”
I turned to him.
“You know he doesn’t deserve your attentions, but you also realize he is a person just like you, who has feelings just like anyone else.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. He’s also the only person who puts up with my crap. On this planet, anyway. You ready?”
Kull eyed the long line of glass doors leading inside the airport. “Yes. I’m ready to leave this world once and for all.”
As we walked inside, Kull flexed his empty hands. He’d stored both Gnat Biter and the fake Madralorde sword inside the luggage, but I knew he didn’t feel comfortable without a weapon. Inside, I found a kiosk
