I don’t plan to tell him about it, but he’s in my blood circle. If he dies, my dietary restrictions go from frustrating to dire.
Luca crawls up the slight rise in the ground. Everyone fans out on either side of him, and I get my first look at what passes for civilization here.
It’s primitive. Smoke-blackened log cabins are configured in a loose circle. But they aren’t normal cabins. They’re elevated, hovering some twenty feet off the ground, each one held in place by a single spiked stilt.
Weird.Smoke curls up from the cabins, although there aren’t any visible chimneys. It rises hundreds of feet into the air, eventually disappearing among thefloating junk.
While the cabins are strange, they’re of little interest to me. I’m far more concerned with their potential inhabitants than any questionable architectural choices.
Beyond the nearest cluster of cabins, there are dozens more. And further back, looming ominously over everything, there’s a massive structure. Round and imposing, it’s enormous, domed, and worryingly reminiscent of an ancient coliseum.
I don’t like the look of it.
Luca points to the center of the nearest bunch of cabins, and I spot two guards standing in front of a warped glimmer. It’s barely visible against the dull backdrop, but my heart jumps to my throat, anyway.The portal.
A flicker of annoyance runs through me. The guards look cold, bored, and painfully normal. Sure, they’re wearing cloaks designed to hide them, but I should have noticed them sooner. White, brown, and mottled to match our surroundings, each cloak hangs to the ground, where it blends in perfectly with the bleak vista.
With Ciprian’s magic hiding us, we could theoretically sneak right past them.
A glance at the sky tells me the midday eclipse isn’t far away. A sliver of the neighboring shifter realm has already blotted out the edge of the sun.
Luca holds up two fingers.
I decide that means two minutes and brace myself.
Exactly sixty-seven seconds later, the guard on the left stretches and looks around. His eyes pan over our hiding spot, and we go impossibly still. No one moves until he turns his head.
He says something to the other guard, glances at the darkening sky, then chafes his hands against his upper arms and heads for the nearest cabin. He taps on the large central column—nearly the size of a redwood tree—and dozens of metal spikes shoot out.Using them like a ladder, he climbs to the narrow, wraparound porch and disappears inside.
The second guard follows him up.
My neck prickles uncomfortably, but I ignore it. We’re close. This is it.
Luca points at the portal.
And we take off.
Then the temperature drops. Violently. My body wants to crack open from the pressure, and each step becomes difficult.
Sharp, stabbing pains rack my chest.
Gods, the very air in my lungs is freezing.
I keep moving.
Ciprian slows. It’s hard to see him clearly now, but his face is pink, his pale eyelashes frozen into tiny spikes around his piercing black eyes.
I wrap my arm around his waist and urge him forward. We’re only forty feet from the portal. Gods, I won’t leave him behind, even if I should. I can’t do it.
Luca and Malach reach the edge of the shimmering portal.
Celine doubles back for us, her red hair as dark as dried blood in the failing light. She grabs Ciprian’s hand and tugs.
Fifteen feet to go.
Blinding pain stabs my temple. I squint sluggishly at the ground, having a hard time making out the shape of my own boots as darkness erases the contrast of the leather against the gray sludge.
I slip and crash to my knees.
