That leaves us.
Viper turned toward Ward. “Last chance to run away and live in the woods with me and a bunch of sword-wielding lunatics.”
Ward arched a brow. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
They both smiled, clasped hands, and with a final smile for the Fianna and Fionn, they too they stepped through the portal.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ward didn’t knowwhat he expected when they stepped through the portal—maybe vertigo, maybe nausea, maybe a wrenching sensation like something inside him would resist leaving the land that had remade them all. But instead, the transition was seamless. One step through and the mossy ground of Dun Fianna gave way to a damp forest floor and the earthy hush of Trace’s upstate New York woods. The trees here were old, their trunks wide and gnarled, the Dolmen standing sentinel in the clearing like it had waited a thousand years to be remembered.
For a long moment, none of them moved. Viper’s hand was still clenched in his, Trace was breathing like he’d run a marathon, and Juice had both arms out like he couldn’t decide whether to hug Trace or punch him for dragging him through a veil again.
Then Kaze broke the silence. “That’s it? No thunderclap? No wormhole nausea? Not even a glowing butthole?” He looked around, disappointed. “Man, I feel cheated.”
“You want nausea?” Reaper asked dryly. “I can punch you in the gut.”
“Appreciate the offer, bro, but I’m good.”
Trace didn’t speak. He turned slowly, knelt in the damp earth, and touched the Dolmen. A pulse of gold shimmered across the stone and vanished. “It’s holding,” he whispered. “The portal’s stable.”
Thank fuck for that.
“Come on. Let’s go home.” Trace led the way down a winding forest path, the heavy canopy of trees overhead filtering the late afternoon sun into fractured beams of gold and shadows.
Ward walked just behind Viper, still holding his hand like a lifeline. After the power they’d channeled to get through the portal, he felt a little stretched thin at the edges, like someone had drawn every last drop of magic from his bones or cut all but one of the puppet strings and he was hanging a bit lopsided on the last one.
He barely noticed the silence until Zero grumbled, “Are we going to have to go through your fairy barrier shit again, Trace? Because I’m not in the mood to get zapped right now.”
Reaper snorted. “You mean unlike last time, when most of us got our asses lit up?”
“Hey, I only got zapped once,” Kaze said. “It took Viper three times to figure that shit out before he tossed me under the bus like a fucking virgin sacrifice.”
“You are about as far from a virgin as you can get,” Viper grumbled. He stopped directly in front of Ward as they stepped into a clearing.
Juice and Trace scooted around them, followed by Reaper, and all three kept going for about ten steps before they paused and glanced back at the rest of them.
“Why are we waiting?” Ward looked around in confusion, but he couldn’t see any reason for stopping. He went to go around Viper and frowned when his warrior yanked him to a stop. “What the heck?”
“There’s a fairy protection barrier,” Viper said. “We can’t see it, but it zaps us every time until Trace says the password to let us through.”
Ward raised his eyebrows and turned to study the ground, hoping to catch a glimpse of fairy magic. “I don’t see anything.” He didn’t even see a glimmer of one, never mind a shimmer. The invisible protection had let every single one of them through without hesitation.
“Come on.” Trace smirked as if issuing a challenge. “It’s not going to bite you.”
“No, it will fucking zap us,” Zero growled at Trace. “It’s the same barrier, right?”
“Yup.” Trace nodded, his expression serious. “Same lines. Same threshold. But you’re not the same men.”
Kaze raised a brow. “Explain that before Reaper starts thinking he’s immortal again.”
“You’ve crossed the veil,” Trace said. “You didn’t just visit another world. You became part of it. The Fianna have claimed you, whether you wanted it or not. The moment you stepped through that door and helped bring Fionn home, you weren’t fully human anymore; you became brothers in blood as well asin heart when you swore an oath to Fionn on the stone in Dun Fianna. The protection barrier recognizes that you belong, so it won’t spring into action.”
Ward went very still.
“Wait.” Reaper narrowed his eyes. “You’re saying what exactly? That we’re magic now?”
“No.” Trace turned, walking backward a few steps so he could face them as he talked. “I’m saying you carry the mark of Fianna blood now. You are now trusted. The old protections recognize you as kin. And kin don’t get zapped.”
