It was still blacked out.
Theo pressed the buttons on the side.
Nope. Still nothing.
“That won’t work here,” Steve said. He stepped closer to Theo to peer down at Theo’s nonworking phone with him.
“Why not?” Theo demanded. “Mitch calls from the hell realm all the time.”
Steve shrugged. “Unseelie magic. They have a barrier over this part of the realm. They don’t trust any magic but their own. And forget about technology. They are totally against that.”
“Unseelie magic,” Theo repeated slowly. “What does that mean? Mitch uses magic all the time.”
“He uses hell magic. There are many different types of magic based on realm and species.” Steve waved his hand around. “You’d have to pass through the dark forest across the troll bridge around the poisoned meadow and over the haunted hill before you can get any technology from the human realm to work. That’s where the barrier ends.”
None of that sounded good to Theo. None at all!
He was almost afraid to ask his next question. “And what direction is your house?”
“The same,” Steve replied with a shrug. “But once we get into range, I could call one of my brothers to pick us up at least.”
“You don’t have a phone that will work here?” Theo questioned.
“Not one that will work in the dark part of the realm.” Steve shrugged. “Honestly, we landed in the worst place possible.”
Theo reallyreallywanted to just stay there and wait for his mates to come to him. Surely it wouldn’t take too long.
He opened his mouth to suggest just that when the buzzing started.
Looking around, Theo couldn’t spot where the sound was coming from. Or why the buzzing was getting louder. “What’s that?”
Steve had frozen in place with a look of pure fear on his face.
Theo grabbed Steve’s arm and shook him. “Steve!”
Steve turned wide panicked eyes to him. “Run!”
Wait! Run?
Without another word, Steve yanked himself from Theo’s grasp and started to run. Fast. Very fast. Toward the dark forest that he’d pointed out earlier.
Theo turned and caught the concerned look on Garrett’s face. “Run?”
His gargoyle friend nodded. “Run.”
Garrett turned but as he tried to push off the ground, he tripped and face-planted into the thick grass. Just went down like a stack of bricks.
Hellcats! How was Theo supposed to run with a gargoyle who’d never walked before? Theo hurried over to Garrett’s side and attempted to pull his friend up. Garrett was heavy! Even with his shifter strength, Theo had a hard time pulling Garrett up.
“Run, Theo. The pixies are coming,” Garrett told him as they both struggled to get Garrett to his feet.
Garrett might no longer be pure stone on the outside but there had to be rock inside as there was no way that Garrett should be that heavy.
“I’m not leaving you!” Theo tugged Garrett’s arm. “Come on!”
“They probably can’t kill me,” Garrett said. “They would have to bite thousands of times for their venom to have any effect. I think.”
He thought? And pixies had venom and bit? How was this Theo’s life? Just a month ago Theo was a boring college student desperate to make friends and get through four years of education. Now he was dragging a gargoyle toward some very scary-looking trees.
