Kane walks up to her and snaps her neck. She doesn’t collapse; her body shakes before bursting into blood, and the blood sucks right into the creature holding me. It sighs in my mind. Kane begins the spell again, and I can’t help him. I can hear my heart slowing, and I need to say goodbye. “Kane, if I die from this, just…I want them to know. I want you and them to know that I have always felt alone growing up. So lonely. All I ever wanted was a family. Someone to have my back. To feel like I was included. And you did that. Every single year. Again and again. All four of you did. You gave me everything I ever wanted, and I will always love you for it.”
Kane finishes the spell, and the potion shimmers, growing into a whirlwind in front of him. He looks at me only with pain and desperation. “We will have forever.” He looks over me. “Take me and let her go.”
The room shakes hard enough to send Kane slamming onto the floor, and he is dragged to the sphere, just as I’m thrown to the ground. “NO!” I scream, turning over and looking up at Kane as he winces in pain. Just at that moment, Vale, Maz and Black run down the steps, screaming my name, but it’s too late.
The room shakes once more, and the dust swirling around the floor that’s meant to bring my mother to me doesn’t bring anyone. Instead, it flies like an arrow straight to me, wrapping around my body and dragging me into what looks like a portal now. The spell has made something new. I feel like I’m falling into darkness as the room explodes into rubble, and I’m dropped through a portal with a thump.
Chapter 21
Birds chirp, maybe it’s an owl, and warm sunlight strokes the side of my body as I lie on the ground. What happened? I touch the back of my head, feeling a lump. I fell through a portal that was meant to bring the enchantress to me. Kane! He took my place, and he was stuck, latched to the creature. But how did the room explode? He has to be okay; I’d know if he wasn’t, wouldn’t I?
I barely breathe through the fear as I open my eyes and look up at a tall oak tree, big brown branches spread out over the top of a brown-roofed house, which stands right in front of me. The grass is soft in my hands as I shakily sit up, looking around as everything spins. I feel so weak, and whatever that creature did has hurt me. Rubble and blood is still all over me, dripping onto the perfectly cut grass lawn as I try to stand and fail. I groan, shaking my head and trying again.
Minnie chirps from my cloak pocket, and I quickly pull her out, almost forgetting she hid in there and refused to stay behind. She curls around my wrist without even looking at me. I still feel weak as everything spins, but the image in front of me is the same. Maybe I’ve gone a lot delusional, because in front of me is a cute brown brick house, in the middle of a massive fieldwith one tree next to it. The house has white-framed windows with flower boxes hanging from their sills, and it’s cute. It looks like a house from an old human magazine I saw once. The sky is blue, birds chirping as the sun sets, and no sign of a storm. I don’t think I’m anywhere near Bloodstone Academy anymore.
The thought makes me panic, because if I’m not in Bloodstone, then where am I? How do I get back to my bonded? Maybe they are in here?
I use the cute white picket fence to push myself to stand up, and I look at the door a few feet away. It takes me a few minutes of standing still before I take a step and trust that I’m not going to pass out. Every step makes me even dizzier, and I struggle forward. My only hope is that my bonded are in this house and waiting for me. They could have been pulled into that portal.
I’m so confused about what happened; my spell was not wrong. The enchantress should have come to me. Why did I end up dragged through a portal? I walk to the front door, which is pink with little flowers painted on the front, and I slowly open it.
The house smells of baking and flowers, and it is homey and strange. There are witch talismans hanging from the walls, plants in pots by the bottom of the stairs, and a big fur rug. Everything’s been decorated purposely for comfort, from the plush rugs on the floor to the flowery paintings and the vases of flowers that are dotted everywhere. Two open archways lead to different rooms on either side of the entrance hall, but noise comes from only one of them.
I use the wall to hold me up as I limp into the living room. There’s what I think is a television on, and it is huge with a wide screen. I’ve only seen box versions of them, a lot smaller and not with very good image quality. They were lost in the war years ago, along with most human technology. It’s hung on the wall, and a sign behind the woman on the screen claims to be a news anchor. She is human, I think.
“Sad and shocking reports tonight tell us that New York has sadly been the next targeted city in our war. This is the fifth major city to be lost.” The human shakes and tears fall down her pale cheeks. “These beings—Nexus—are targeting our major cities. Here is a blurry video of what we’ve seen.” The image on the screen changes to two women standing, floating above the ground as gray power explodes out of one of them, and screams echo. One of them looks in a trance. Her hair is long and dark, and there’s something chilling about her. The other one is holding her hands over her face and laughing. The image cuts away as quickly as it came. “We are unaware of why this supernatural race is now targeting our cities, only that the death rate is in the millions, and our society as a whole may never recover from this. Contact with the race known as Nexus has been unsuccessful. Contact with the race known as the Vian, who claim to be their enemies, has been more successful. Our world leaders are currently in discussion?—”
I stop listening. This isn’t my world. My breath comes out in big pants as panic takes over, and I begin to shout. “KANE! VALE! MAZ! BLACK!” I shout their names with my broken voice and push my way to the other door in the room. I have to search this place and find my mates. They have to be here…I can’t be in another world without them.
I nearly fall through the door and into another room. This cozier room has a fireplace, and I pass through, into a dining room, and out the back to a kitchen. Everything’s spinning as I see a woman at the stove. She is dancing, and something white is stuck in her ears. I stare for a long time at her back, my mind unable to face what is in front of me.
She turns, the spoon in her hand dropping onto the floor with a clatter. The woman pulls the white things out of her ears and drops them too. Her long brown hair is braided back, and she’s wearing a checkered apron, but it’s her face that stops me. Thereare tattoos on her, one above each of her eyebrows, and beautiful intricate marks that I don’t know the meaning of. But they remind me of the mark on my hip, the same one that appeared when I mated with Black. Her gold eyes are the same as mine, her nose and mouth too. She looks so much like me…and the spell…it took me to her. To the enchantress.
“You escaped,” she whispers. “Juniper…you’re here. Tell me, tell me everything.”
“Who the hell are you?” I put my shaky hand up between us. “Where am I? Where are my mates?”
“You have mates?” The enchantress gulps. “You’re injured, and I can make tea to heal you. What happened? How did you get here, Juniper?”
The room is spinning, but I’m not passing out. Not yet. I hold on with everything I have. “Tell me who you are.”
“I guess you would know me as the enchantress.” She sobs, covering her mouth with her hand for a second. “Please don’t call me that name…I am your mother, and I’ve waited so many years to see you again, Juniper, and explain everything. You look like him, oh?—”
I fall face-first onto the kitchen tiles with a smack.
Chapter 22
Iwake up to the sound of low voices, and they are unfamiliar. My face is sore, and I instantly remember passing out face-first onto the tiles. Despite passing out, I feel a lot better and less sick. There’s a smell of herbs in the air, and I’m assuming the enchantress healed me. This is too much to process, and I know lying here with my eyes closed is not going to help. I need to get back to my bonded and out of here. There’s a thick blanket thrown over me, and my head’s lying on a soft cushion.
I open my eyes to dim lights and find the enchantress and a man both standing in front of a lit fireplace. They’re talking quietly, and the man turns his eyes on me. I realize he’s definitely a shifter, maybe a snake, and he reminds me of Parker’s bonded. His blue eyes have a scaly quality to them I’ve seen before, and he is dressed casually in a thick blue sweater and jeans. I hope Parker’s okay. I told him to hide while everything was going on, and he said no. He was going to fight along with his bonded. Just like I should be doing right now instead of lying down.
I sit up fast, and the room spins.
“Please take it slow. I did a spell to speed up healing, but you must rest for a few hours, Juniper. Please, I don’t want to see you hurt again.”
“How are you feeling?” the man asks, his accent strange. The way they move together when they come closer confirms to me that this is one of her bonded. I lean back away from the enchantress when she tries to tuck my blanket around my lap, and pain cuts across her eyes. She takes a step back. “I understand you don’t trust me or know me. I’m sure you have someone you called mother growing up who looked after you.”
“Every parent I had growing up is dead.” I don’t mean for my words to come out sharp, but they do.
