And he didn’t. But the portal closed, and with it came his hand, still wrapped around my wrist. A scream claimed my ears, and it took seconds to realize it was mine.
“Shh, shh,” came a deep voice. Soon, the shadow entity appeared. He looked different than before. More defined. I could see, in what appeared to be the middle of a field at night, that he was dressed in dark trousers and a matching tunic. He had short dark curls, which reached his elongated, pointed ears, like a Dobermann’s. Why was his form more realized here? Where exactlywashere?
He ripped Harris’ detached hand from my wrist and tossed it over his shoulder into the tall grass surrounding us. “Sorry you had to see that happen. He should have let you go. Although I understand why he didn’t want to. You are something special.”
I didn’t want to be special to him. I wanted to go home and back to Harris. I wanted to help him. I knew he was going out of his mind, physically and mentally. My stomach twisted at the memory of the panicked look on his face. I’d never seen him so…scared. I had to get back and see if he was alright.
I stepped away from the shadow creature, looking around. The area seemed familiar, yet different. Although it was dark, the grass, which reached above my knees, didn’t seem green. Maybe indigo or navy blue. Not quite black. I could see in the distance dome-shaped houses of various heights that I had to assume were some type of housing. And there were no stars in the sky, but there were two round moons. Or what looked like moons. The air held a slightly damp chill and I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Where are we?”
He looked up at the sky, as if just now noticing where we were. “My realm.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
He looked down at me, his eyes glowing eerily in the dark. “I meant to bring you to my home.”
I frowned. I did recall reading that the shadow creatures were able to portal directly to the human world long ago, but that the witch's magic had kept them from getting through. “You got here through my open portal.”
He tilted his head, assessing me. It was challenging to see his emotions in the dark. Yet again, I wasn’t sure his features allowed for much emotion either. All I knew was that I didn’t like him looking at me. It made my skin crawl. “No, some of my kindcan get into your realm without the use of others’ portals. I’m one of them.”
“That’s how you’ve been getting in all this time?” And here I thought it was my broken magic.
“At first, I was coming in through portals you seemed to have left open. At that time, I was not able to break through on my own for very long. I’ve been building my magic to get me to the human realm for some time, but it has been a long and tiresome process. When I was finally able to get through on my own for a significant amount of time, I came here and brought friends to help me get to you. We had some use their power to get us here, and the rest to fight.”
They must have attacked the guards to try to get to me. It was also a distraction to get Harris away from me. “What do you want from me?”
He took a step toward me, and I took several back. I did not want his icy touch on my skin. I wrapped my arms around myself, looking away. I needed to get out of here and back to Harris. He was hurt and it sickened me. I could portal home, assuming my magic really was fully working. However, that wouldn’t stop this creature from coming if he could now use his own portal magic.
He stopped walking, assessing me with a wide-mouthed smile that nearly split his face. He was beautiful, in an alien way, with flawless, marble-like skin, but monstrous at the same time, with those gruesome, sharp teeth. “Oh, I forgot to exchange pleasantries. My name is Argo.”
“I don’t care.”
“I knew your father.”
I stilled, my heart hammering with fear and confusion. “How?”
“I met him some time ago when he was brought here with a warlord. I thought he worked for him, but I soon found out yourfather was enslaved. I was a servant at the time, so I suppose I felt some kinship to him. Although I was freer than him.” He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace in front of me slowly, the tall grass swaying against his movements. “We grew close, your father and I, for the time he was here. I could tell that he was broken.”
He pointed to his head as if to imply my father had mentally cracked, which I suppose he had at the time. “If he stayed too much longer, he wouldn’t have survived. He talked about his wife and his children often. But the stories he would tell about you and how special you were interested me the most. You see, I was lonely and broken, too. I longed for love and someone to ignite my mind. So, when your father was rescued, I stayed close and secretly came back through the portal with him.”
How had that happened? Could Harris and his people not see him? No, he was a shadow. I was sure he disguised himself as such and went undetected. But what could he have wanted in the human realm? He could barely materialize there.
“I stayed with your father for a while,” he continued.
“Did my father know you were there?” I asked. My father wasn’t in his right mind back then. It was possible he would know and think nothing of telling anyone. But he was getting better, so why wouldn’t he have said anything all this time?
“At first, he did and thought nothing of it when I visited. I could never stay too long because I wasn’t supposed to be in that realm. I was getting drained of energy being there. Before your portal openings, he’d send me home and bring me back until I had enough energy to travel on my own. Opening the portals on my own would drain much of my ability at first. Such that I couldn’t stay in the human realm more than a few minutes. And during my time with your father, I saw you and learned more about you. Maybe, some might say, I studied you. Each time you visited him, it was an exciting time for us both.”
I felt an icy sickness in my throat. Suddenly, all the horrors that Harris described about these beings came tumbling front and center in my mind. I had to get away. Sweat dripped down my back as my eyes ran the course of my surroundings, finding little escape.
He stopped walking, gazing at me with something that appeared to be admiration. I didn’t like it. “I loved hearing your voice, watching you move, seeing the art you would share with him, and how you talked of the beauty of the world. How your eyes sparkled. How your laugh melted something cold inside me. I would brush against your skin and feel energized. Alive in a way I never knew. I was envious of how you cared for your family. At the patience you had for your father. I could never be in your realm long enough to follow you home, so I was limited to when you visited him, but I wanted more.”
I shook my head, suspicious. “My father didn’t care about your fascination with me?”
He suddenly disappeared, and I held my breath until I felt a coldness behind me. I tried to move, but a shadowy arm crossed over my stomach, pushing me back against what felt like a chest. I struggled against him, but he was stronger, several of his shadowy tentacles wrapping over my legs and arms. Terror seized my mind, causing me to momentarily freeze.
“Let me go,” I cried.
