I am safe. I am safe. I am safe.I repeat the words to myself over and over, until a hard pull gnaws at me, as if it’s dragging me up. Or maybe down. It’s as if I’m being pulled from the gateway.
I brace myself, waiting to be flung from the gateway into another world.
Seren—where is she?
A sudden, wrenching pull yanks me from the gateway, pulling me from the portal into the world beyond. Instinctively I suck in a long inhale, holding my breath?—
I am plunged into freezing cold water that bites at my skin,sending tingling impulses through my body. I open my eyes to look around but it’s as black as the night sky without Stars.
I don’t know which way is up, but my lungs beg for air, so I start swimming. I claw through the water with everything I have.
My heavy boots and armor stop me from moving efficiently, but I don’t care. I have to find my way. I have to find my friends. Panic crushes my chest, lungs squeezing tight in exertion and desperation.
I search the waters for any signs of?—
Light.
I see light.
I do the only thing I can think to do, and force words down the tether,Kael, where are you?
The response is instant,I’m here, El. Follow the light. It’s for you.
I keep swimming, relief flooding through my veins as the light gets brighter but my chest feels like it’s being crushed by a boulder.
I break through the water, gasping for air, reaching for any sign of the ground. My hands find the cold stone ground, and I drag myself out as far as I can, but only make it halfway before my arms give out, so I let my chest lay limply on the stone, lungs burning. I lift my gaze, and the gleaming silver tip of a spear hovers inches from my face.
Ronyn stands beside a woman, casually tearing into a chunk of bread like he hasn’t a care in the world.
He rips off a bite, then drapes an arm around the woman still aiming a spear at my face, like they’re old friends, “Don’t be like that, I told you there’d be more of us.”
What the fuck?
“And this?” he adds, gesturing to me. “This is the one I told you about—my best friend. The rightful heir. The Zhari. Ring any bells?”
Thankfully, the spear is removed from my face, and I’m dragged out of the water by Kael and Ronyn.
Seren, Jax, Merrik, Rhyven, and Therion stand in a group nearby, all looking drowned and disheveled.How did they get here before me?
As if hearing my thoughts, the spear-wielding woman with skinof deep bronze, straight, onyx hair down to her waist and a leather strap pulled tight around her forehead looks to me, and says with a thick accent I can’t place, “Everyone has a different journey into the unknown, Lightborne.”She knows who I am. “The more resistance one has to the unknown, the longer and more painful the journey.”
I nod, unsure what else to say to her.
I stumble forward a few steps and lift my gaze.
My mouth parts in awe as the beauty of my surroundings crash into me.
Intricate caverns, with glittering stalactites like glass chandeliers adorn the roofs. Glowing moss climbs the walls in veins of turquoise and violet. The soft echo of slowly running water from gently flowing rivers and aquamarine channels drifts through the air like a melody. The rivers cut paths through stone streets, glowing from below, casting the caverns in a turquoise glimmer.
Hollowed bridges, worn smooth by ancient feet arch over the channels.
These people—whoever they are—live in underground caves with structures that have been built straight from their hands.
It’s beautiful.
The caves are dark, save for the glow of the waters, and the few torches that cast shadows that dance along the smoothed stone walls.
Where are we?
