“Well? Any sign of Wes?” Donovan demands, asking the question we all want answered.
“No,” Cosmo replies, his voice clipped.
“Could you expand on that?” I keep my voice mild. A stupid part of me wants to hug Cosmo, but not the Cosmo who is now; I want to cuddle the small, broken boy inside him.
“I didn’t see any sign of life at all,” he mutters. “I couldn’t… couldn’t get far. There was a storm. The wind was too strong. Almost like it was pushing me back.” He’s lost the usual Drakeward arrogance, and there’s a haunted look in his eyes.
“Pushing you back, like it was sentient?” Alexis asks, frowning.
His lip lifts in a sneer, and Cosmo finally looks a little more like his old self. “Why are you surprised? We are in an unknown realm after all. So, yes, yes. Sentient storm, with voices begging me to give in to the darkness and destroy everything around me.”
Cosmo’s words make me shiver. I zip up my sleeveless hoodie, but it doesn’t help the sudden chill in my bones.
“So, fairy land does have a dark side,” Donovan says, going towards his friend. “But you didn’t become the villain. Think about that.”
I’m not sure what Donovan is referring to, but Cosmo just rolls his eyes. “Yeah, let’s have a parade.”
Enough of this.
“You didn’t see Wes, so we’ll keep going on this path,” I say decisively. “And at least it’s in the opposite direction to the storm clouds,” I add, looking at each of the men grouped around me. “Agreed?”
“If that’s what your gut says, then of course,” Alexis asks.
“I go where you go, Tee-Tee.”
—We follow the path—
I let out a sigh, hoping I can trust my intuition. “Let’s go.”
As we walk, the breeze blows a dry, dusty scent, not unpleasant, more like the odor of sun-baked paper.
“Where do you think our adventures are gonna take us, sweet-cheeks?” Max asks me.
“No idea, and that makes me really nervous.”
“Aww, baby, don’t be scared. I’m the big bad wolf, remember. No one will hurt you when you’ve a hellhound at your heels.” He plants a large wet kiss on my ear.
“Moron,” Cosmo mutters.
Alexis moves closer and cuffs his cousin around the head. “No touching,” he growls.
“Ooh, careful of your brittle bones, old man,” Max chuckles, skipping out of the way of Alexis’s second punch. “Don’t want to break a hip.”
We’re climbing a rise, Max dancing around Alexis, Donovan and Cosmo walking behind me, and Ludo at point.
—NYMPH!—
Ludo raises his fist in a stop gesture. The rest of us immediately freeze.
“What is it?” I whisper.
—Come see—
I join Ludo on the rise to look into the valley below. It’s filled with a soft, diffuse light, and there’s a structure in the middle of the dip.
“What is that?”
Four columns of polished stone anchor an open roof. The golden glow pulses from the center of the structure. The light isfiltered by shimmering walls of flowing fabric suspended from the crossbeams. The cloth is almost translucent, with beautiful swirling colors like petrol in a puddle of water. “Wow.”
