“That sounds a lot like something a god would do.”
“The Forgotten Ruler was a god. You were a god. It may take some time before you reach the pinnacle of divinity again, but one thing is for certain: you have the potential.”
“I’ve heard of a god complex, but I’ve never heard of god potential,” Ben said. Despite how much he knew about power corrupting, he couldn’t help but be drawn by its allure. Hell, if he could somehow become a god by going with Melody to this other world, then there was no fucking way he would stay here as some run-of-the-mill code monkey.
Melody looked at him blankly as he was saying all that. “You say such funny things, Benjamin. You will have much to learn about magic in our world.”
“Well, why don’t you take me there and we can start learning right away?” he asked as he finished slipping into his bomber jacket.
He grabbed his rucksack and thought about what he’d need to bring with him. He discarded his laptop, his tablet, as well as a plethora of USB cords and chargers. He kept his notepads and pens, since he figured he might need to jot down a few things while in Melody’s world.
Ben paused to glance around the hotel room, his eyes landing on the items at the in-room bar. “The hotel can just add it to the room fee,” he said to himself. “Not like I’m going to be around to have to pay it.”
He snatched up the candy bars, a few little bottles of spirits, as well as the packet of mixed nuts, along with the two bottles of distilled water. He went to the bathroom and took off his clothes again before giving himself a quick sink wash. Then, he grabbed all the soaps and shampoos and stuffed them into his rucksack.
After scanning the room again, he took the thin blanket that went on top of the bed, rolled it up tight, and secured it to the top of the rucksack.
“Are you ready now?” Melody asked him.
“Just one more thing,” he said as he fished his car keys out from his pocket.
He went out into the bright morning sunlight, warding it off with his arm. His car was sitting in the lot, and he opened it up before reaching under the driver’s seat and grabbed his mini first aid kit. After doing a quick look over the rest of the car, he decided he didn’t need anything else.
He returned to the hotel room, where Melody was waiting. Her lynx-like ears were poking out of her purple hair, and he almost did a double-take before remembering that this was, indeed, the same woman he’d met in the bar last night. She hadn’t had those ears then, and her hair hadn’t been quite that purple, nor had she sported a tail.
Still, she was damn gorgeous. And strangely, the beast-like additions only made her hotter.
“Alright,” Ben said as he closed the hotel room door behind him. “Let’s move.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” She flicked her gaze over to the bed.
He turned and glanced at the egg. The object that apparently carried the child of their union. Well, that thought was far too crazy to deal with right now. But still, he couldn’t exactly leave the egg behind. He could only imagine the kind of hullabaloo that thing would cause if someone found it and it ended up on InfoWars or something.
When Ben grabbed it, he noticed right away that it was far heavier and denser than it appeared. It had to weigh almost fifteen pounds. He removed a few extra t-shirts from his rucksack to make sure the egg would fit, then cushioned it with clothing and the hotel blanket.
“Perfect,” Melody said after he’d slung the full to bursting rucksack over his shoulders and fastened the straps over his chest.
The beautiful catgirl pulled a stone about the size of her palm from one of the pockets on her ridiculously tight jeans and held it out in front of her.
“How exactly do you keep pulling so many big things out of those jeans?” Ben asked.
“Magic.” Melody’s lips curled mischievously.
“You couldn’t keep the egg in there?”
“Even if I could, it needs to be close to you if it is to hatch.”
“Hatch?”
“That’s right. What else do eggs do?”
“They can make a nice omelet. This one feels like it could make one big enough to feed an army.”
“Why would you feed our child to your army?” Melody gasped. “You, Benjamin of Davies, may very well become a far more twisted ruler than your predecessor.”
“It was, uh, just a joke.”
“You ought not joke about such things,” Melody said with a scowl. “Now, shall we depart?”
Ben was too far down the rabbit hole to back out now. He nodded.
With a flick of her wrist, Melody flung the stone into the air.
A sucking, tearing noise filled the room, and a bright burst of energy spread out where the stone had been. A circular disc of light shimmered in front of Ben.
“A magical portal,” Melody explained. “And our means of leaving your world behind.”
“Cool,” Ben said. He wished he had something more badass to say, but that was all that came out of his mouth. He’d have to work on that if he were going to be a badass emperor.
Melody stepped through the shimmering portal and vanished.
With a deep breath, Ben squared his shoulders and stepped through behind her, into the unknown.
Chapter Two
Benjamin and Melody emerged from the portal onto a green hillside. Only a few feet in front of them, the slope plunged into a deep chasm. Behind them, it reared up into a steep mountain face that seemed to rear ever upward.
Ben took a long moment to process what the hell was going on, what had happened to him.
“I’m in a new world,” he said aloud.
He’d woken up that morning prepared to bask in the afterglow of hooking
