And then I landed on cold stone. My lungs seized, coughing up whatever I had inhaled, but I was breathingair. My palms pressed against the slicked stone as I steadied myself. Water still clung to my clothes, but the air wasn’t as wet as I thought it would be.
I blinked against the dim light. There was no sky or anything. It looked almost like some sort of underground cave.
The floor underneath me was as cold as ice and somehow, I felt a strange energy pulsing beneath my feet, like the entire room was impregnated with dark magic.
A few meters away from me, I noticed Sparrow leaning against the wall, tracing out where we had landed. His tail was gone,replaced by his legs once more.
“You feel it as well, right?” he asked without turning to me.
“Yes, magic is in here. But I don’t see Gwendolyn and Damien,” I replied. “Where are they?”
My brother turned to me now, his eyes glowing faintly with purple, a side effect from shifting into his siren form.
“They definitely came through it… just not in there…”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“What do you mean?” Panic unfolded in my chest; I needed to see her.
“It means that when his dragon magic created a portal, there also must have been forces of his energy wandering through other places, causing the portal to split into pieces. And we just found one of the pieces…”
“So, we found the wrong one, I guess?”
Sparrow stayed silent as he kept studying the wall.
“This isn’t a game, brother. Tell me what you know. What did Seth tell you about this place?”
“If the portal is truly connected to Aetrum,” he began slowly, “then there might be ways to other places… including the ones that can’t be hidden behind a Veil, Xavier.”
“You mean?”
“Yes,” he exhaled. “I’m pretty sure this place is tethered to the forgotten places of Lasrach.”
Lasrach.This had been a realm existing several thousand years ago, it was said to be the land of dragons and time travelers, including the most powerful sorcerer in the world.
Merlin.
And the nightmare bringer.
“But fire dragons have died out… Damien is the only existing dragon in this land…”
Sparrow nodded, but then his gaze drifted to mine, his eyes widening.
“What?”
“You remember telling Damien you have sensed Gwendolyn to be something other than human?”
I nodded slowly.
“I’d say it is possible that due to the bond they share, either her powers are coming back… or it’s worse…”
“What do you mean by worse?”
How would Gwendolyn even feel when she learned about her entire life being changed by someone else?
“If this place was taken by the cursed ones…”
The Nightbinders.
