Fuck.
“Maybe we should save this conversation forafterwe get ourselves to safety.” I get to my feet and reach down to help her.
I think ... we are alive. Both of us. Which means I have to get Sunny the hell out of this crumbling realm.
“My thoughts exactly.” Ignoring my hand, she agilely hops to her feet, then turns toward the capital. “We have to get to the Mortal Realm.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” I catch her hand and give it a sharp tug, and she tumbles into my arms. Then I kiss her soundly on the mouth.
Gods, we really are alive.
With a moan that shoots straight to my groin, Sunny presses herself against me and licks the seam of my mouth. I open up for her with a groan and tilt my head to kiss her more deeply. The sky makes another ominous rumble.
“We might have to save this kiss for later, as well,” I breathe against her lips, then pat her round ass. “Now step aside.”
“Why?” she asks even as she takes two steps to the side like a good little wife. “The entrance between the realms is across the field.”
“Have a little trust in your husband.” I wink at her. I am far from fully recovered, but I don’t want to lose the chance to impress Sunny.
I am truly a dingus.
I summon my axes and concentrate thegiof Mountains running through my veins into them. Spinning away from her, I slash a diagonal line down the fabric of the Realm of Four Kingdoms, then its mirror image cutting across its center, marking anX.
“Whoa,” she breathes. “Did you just make a new gateway between the realms?”
“Yeah.” I rub the back of my head, feeling sheepish postexhibition, and clear my throat. “But it’s more of an exit from a disintegrating realm.”
“Speaking of disintegrating realms ...” She glances meaningfully at the white flames engulfing the Kingdom of Sky, as well as the sky about to fall on top of us.
“Right.” I sweep her off her feet, and she wraps her arms around my neck with a little squeak. Before I’m tempted to kiss her again, I leap out of the exit and into the Mortal Realm.
I hover for a moment, high up in the sky—the mountaintop that marked the entrance to the Gray Void but a speck below us. But as I make a slow descent with Sunny in my arms, the lush mountains and blue waters sparkle in the sunlight.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispers.
“Welcome home, Sunny.” I kiss her softly on the forehead, lest she break. But I cringe when realization hits. “Shit.”
We can’t fly around in broad daylight. This isn’t the Realm of Four Kingdoms. I hurriedly cloak us in invisibility.
“Shut. Up.” Sunny smacks me in the chest. “Did you just turn us invisible?”
“Uh, yeah.” I grimace. “I forgot to tell you about that, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did.” She smacks me again, then gives me a brilliant smile. “But wehavebeen kind of busy.”
“Kind of.” I grin back at her. “We deserve a vacation. Where to?”
“Let’s go to that cave near my childhood home,” she murmurs.
“That’swhere you want to go?”
“For now.” She rolls her eyes. “You’re expending a lot of magic with the flying and the invisibility. We’re in the Mortal Realm now. We don’t have an unlimited supply ofgito fuel our magic.”
“It’s for the best.” I sigh, some of my giddiness fading. “But it’ll be daunting for the Shinbiin to learn a new way of life.”
“It’s not that complicated.” Sunny shrugs in my arms. “In the Mortal Realm, the beings of the Shingae have three rules to live by.”
“What rules are those?” Holding her close against my chest, I fly toward the mountain she grew up in.
