Ann heeir hass nott fooundd theeirr way iinnttoo the deeepppps innn aaa verrryy looongg tiime. Thhhhiiiisss iiisss noooott heer fiirssstt fooorayy eiiitherr.
Alches wrapped a tentacle around my waist, using it to nudge me slightly behind him. I huddled in his embrace, content for once to let someone else fight my battles for me.
Shee iss thee ooonee whooo woookee thhee reeaallmm aannd usss frooomm oouurrr sluuummbbeerr,one of the other leviathans said.
She cannot remain here. She has her own fate and mission to accomplish,Alches told them.
The leviathans at the back of the pod began to turn away, leaving only the two right in front of us.
Veerrryyy weellll. Wwweee willll nooott feeasst onnn heeerrr.
Thhiisss tiiiime,the other added.
A shadow, its color just a shade deeper than the rest, lashed out at me. Alches snarled, his tentacle pulling back as the rest of his appendages moved to cover me.
The shadow evaded, twining through the narrow opening before striking me in the chest. I spun, the force ripping me from Alches’s grip. Around and around. Like a child’s toy. Whirling through the darkness.
Light fractured the black up ahead. My way out.
I reached for it with everything in me, pulling at the light the same way I had the shadows.
My feet hit soft sand. My legs buckled under me, sending me face first onto the ground.
I lay there for a moment, processing the fact that I was out. Granted, with no idea where I was, but I’d made it.
Lifting my head, I spit out a mouthful of sand and looked around.
“Where the hell am I?”
It wasn’t my bedroom in the mansion Thomas had bought. It wasn’t Ohio either. Or any place I’d ever been before.
I was in a desert. The sand and arid landscape gave that away. Somewhere far off the beaten path. Rock formations towered in the distance, their shapes blotting out the stars in the night sky.
I pushed myself upright, wincing at the sand clinging to my skin and getting into my sensitive bits as I came to a sitting position. “Why couldn’t Brin have given me a change of clothes before throwing me in that dungeon?”
The outfit I’d started the night with was reaching the end of its life.
Blood covered it, courtesy of the wounds Brax had given me earlier. The shoulder of my top was barely hanging on thanks to the rip he’d left in it when he took a chunk out of me. My heels had long since disappeared, leaving me barefoot. At least my shorts still covered everything important. Though they offered little barrier to the elements.
A grunt escaped me as I climbed to my feet. “Alright. Which way?”
The desert offered no answer.
“I think this is still Nevada,” I muttered to myself.
The landscape fit what I knew. Unfortunately, that didn’t help me. I was still lost.
I started to reach for the same thread of magic that had allowed me to shadow slip earlier before hesitating. The shadow’s depths had been far more dangerous than I had anticipated. Braving them again should be an act of last resort.
At least until I had a better idea of what I was doing.
“I should have just stayed in the dungeon,” I grumbled, picking a direction at random and setting off.
In the end, I decided to head for the monoliths in the distance, figuring if nothing else they could provide shelter once the sun was up. I’d need shade to survive. Preferably in the form of a nice cool cave. That had to be my first priority.
I broke into a light jog, trying to avoid the worst of the rocks and shrubs that might shred the bottoms of my feet. Shoes would have been nice. Even heels. Anything to protect the skin on the soles of my feet.
The journey wasn’t a quiet one. Rather it was full of wincing and cursing.
