I got up and faced the gate again. This time I didn’t consider it as an obstacle. It wasn’t the gate that was keeping me from going home, it was my own reservations about my worthiness to face my mother empty-handed, to go back home a failure with no lead on how to seek justice for my father—but I couldn’t stay here. Killian deserved better than me and if I could fix one thing in my life, I was going to do it.
Coiling my legs, I sprang and caught the top of the gate and hung there for a moment worried I was going to fall.
Dangling, I glanced back at a gaping Jasmine.
Smiling, I hauled myself over and landed on the other side.
I hit the ground running and bolted for the ocean.
“Seriously?” Jasmine growled as if this newfound sense of strength inconvenienced her. “What kind of human are you?”
A thunder of wings told me that she’d mounted her wyvern and had launched into the air to follow me from above, but I didn’t have any qualms about who and what I really was now. I ran faster than I ever had as a human, burning the divine energy in my blood that would always help me match my innermost desires.
I couldn’t just want for something to happen—I had to wish for it on a primal level with no hesitation. That’s why instinct worked best, why I’d won the duel and why I was able to jump the Academy’s gate when Jasmine had found me. Fear surged my fight or flight instincts—literally.
When the ocean crested the horizon and I liked salt from the moisture in the air, I wondered how I was going to convince the Lady of the Lake to take me back home.
As if summoned by my own desires, a massive black vortex formed over the waves. “New girl!” Jasmine shouted with fresh panic in her voice. “Don’t you dare go anywhere near the Tunnel!”
“It’s Vivi,” I grumbled back even though she couldn’t hear me.
If Jasmine didn’t want me to enter this “Tunnel,” then it had to be my ticket home.
The second I reached the water I dove headfirst and swung my arms over my head, propelling myself forward with the strongest breaststroke I could manage.
The temperature changed when I grew closer to my target. I snuck in gulps of air as I continued my broad strokes, catching glimpses of a multitude of other vortexes spotting the horizon. Dragons with riders atop them dove into the breaks in time and space.
Perhaps this wasn’t taking me home… but somewhere else.
Whether or not that was the case, I couldn’t stop now. This was clearly a transit between realms and I would figure it out. If Jasmine managed to get her hands on me, she’d drag me back kicking and screaming just so she could score some points with Killian and I’d never get the chance to run again.
The stream of dragons the multitude of vortexes diminished the closer I reached my target. I realized that when someone entered a “Tunnel,” it would close after them, so that would be my one chance to get Jasmine off my tail. A strange rush filled my limbs and my birthmark burned as if it’d set on fire. It was the same feeling when I’d dueled with Jasmine, and when I’d found the resolve to jump over the gate. This… this was my goddess blood.
My speed increased as I zoomed through the water. This was the last vortex now and Jasmine hurled herself from her dragon, determined to enter into it before I did.
My heart thundered in my chest and the roar of the ocean engulfed me as I went under and propelled myself with one final kick.
A rush of ice swept over my body and immediately all my weight came crashing down onto a hard surface. I coughed up salt water and pinched the sting in my nose.
For better or for worse… I was through the portal.
THIS NEW REALM didn’t feel like a solid place. The air shifted as if I was still underwater and the ringing in my ears wouldn’t go away. I strained to see something in the darkness, but I could only pick up screams, the clash of metal on stone, and the roar of dragons.
No… not stone, scales.
Biting my lip, I went toward the noise. Flashes of light caught my eye as knights slashed with their swords. Most zoomed in and out of my vision, flying atop their dragons, although some rushed on foot fighting… something dark.
Wild dragons.
The term came as a rush of emotion that reminded me of my short time with Killian. These were the creatures that had taken my home, that attacked Earth and brought destruction down onto the realms.
My stomach sank when I realized I’d been spotted. A massive dragon, much larger than anything I’d seen on campus, locked onto me with pitch-black eyes. Dark, slimy scales covered in seaweed and rot twisted as it took a step closer to me, using his tail to swipe away a group of knights. Another dragonrider came at the creature from above. The wild dragon reared its head and released a plume of blue fire that engulfed the attacker.
I froze, unable to assist or to do anything but stare at the death and destruction all around me.
The dragon took another step closer, only to pause and shift his stare to the darkness behind me.
I didn’t even want to know what would frighten a wild dragon, but some sick curiosity made me turn anyway.
Black humanoid shadows twisted, warping the darkness around them as tiny glimmers of light flickered from their dead eyes. One whooshed past me, sending a wave of frost to cover my body as I chocked on a scream.
A hand grabbed around my mouth and pulled me down as another dark shadow flashed by, streaking the air with red embers as it
