With tickets in hand, we headed for security. The airport was a typical steel-and-glass affair with the exposed ceilings and wide, tiled floors of alternating black-and-white patterns. Ads were posted on the walls and throughout the hallways, displaying chewing gum or the latest vacation specials. The echo of voices reverberated throughout the large space, and sunlight streamed from the glass windows, painting bright splotches on the floors.
Kull followed me without speaking. His eyes were wide with wonder as he looked from the airplanes outside, to the people walking past, to the escalators and Segways.
“I’ve read about places like this, but never have I seen any place so wondrous.”
With the crowds and my growing headache, I wasn’t sure wondrous was the word I would’ve used.
I found our terminal, and we sat facing the windows overlooking the tarmac. Kull got restless and stood by the windows, pressing his hands to the glass as he watched a jumbo jet taxi past. His fascination with airplanes gave me wild ideas. We could move to Earth and he could be a pilot. He could retire from the whole king thing, and we could live like normal people here in this world. Maybe we’d vacation in Faythander now and then. But with the impending arrival of an asteroid I would use to destroy the planet, I wasn’t sure how realistic I was being.
My daydreams were broken up by the sound of our names being announced over the speaker as standby passengers ready for boarding. I stood beside Kull. He didn’t turn to me as his gaze lingered outside.
“You ready?” I asked.
He only nodded, then followed me past the information desk and into the hallway leading to the fuselage. When we entered the plane, Kull had to duck to get inside, and he attracted a few stares. Even in modern clothing, he couldn’t hide the warrior. He looked like he’d come straight from Asgard. Judging by the curious stares of most of the females on the airplane, it looked like they all thought the same thing.
Kull and I found two seats in the back, and since we were the last people to board, we didn’t wait long before the plane started taxiing toward the runway.
I’d been on planes enough times not to be fascinated with them anymore, preferring to sit and read a book while we flew, but watching Kull as he stared out the window, looking in awe at the cloud tops and fields spreading out beneath us, I wondered what it felt like to see the world from up here for the first time. He’d ridden dragons before, but they never achieved altitudes this high. It must have felt akin to seeing magic for the first time.
I had the urge to reach over and take his hand, but I wasn’t sure how this Kull—Cursed Kull—would take it. I would most likely be giving him the wrong impression. I prayed that crossing through the portal removed the curse. If not, I didn’t know what I would do. Would he ever love me the same way? Although he’d wanted sex, it didn’t mean he loved me. His feelings now were based on lust, and that wouldn’t last long.
The flight passed in silence with the occasional quiet conversations or cry from a baby. When we landed at the Salt Lake airport, we didn’t hang around for very long before changing planes and heading for the Moab airport.
When we arrived, it was well past midnight, so I relied on my trusty credit card once again and rented a room at a local motel. We passed out as soon as we got into the room, so spending the night in the same place with Kull wasn’t as weird as I thought it might be.
Since I’d rejected him, he was nothing but a gentleman and respected my privacy, which I secretly hated, but it was what it was, and I’d already made up my mind about our current status. Right now, we were business partners, and I refused to let it get any more complicated than that.
Early the next morning, I rented a Jeep, bought a map and a few backpacking supplies, which Kull helped me choose, and we set off on Highway 191 toward Arches National Park.
By the time we arrived, the sun was climbing into the sky, burning bright over the breathtaking vistas and rock formations. After parking the Jeep, we climbed out and strapped on our backpacks. Kull found his sword in the luggage and quietly pulled it out. His face lit up as he held it once again, its blade gleaming in the sunlight.
Glancing around the park, I saw only a few hikers milling about at this time of the morning. There was no sign of the elves, but I also didn’t expect there to be. If they were trailing us, we’d have no way of knowing, especially if they were using the portals to track us.
After buying tickets, we set off down the trail, red rock and arch formations spreading out before us, hauntingly beautiful in an altogether Earth Kingdom sort of way. The air bordered on cold, but we’d come prepared and wore thick jackets, although my cheeks and nose stung with the bite in the air.
Crowds gathered around some of the more notable formations, and I spied the most famous formation—Delicate Arch, but we bypassed it to make our way to a lesser-used trail.
The path sloped downward, and we followed it into a canyon. Wind howled through the tall rock formations. When we reached a precipice overlooking the canyon, I pulled out the map I’d bought from the gift shop and removed the Faythander atlas.
Kull looked on as I tried to decipher the map and the drawing in the book.
“We need to find a formation that looks like this.” I showed
