“You were in a trance of sorts.”
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t…” He looks over her shoulder, but she grabs him by the chin and forces him to face her.
“Eyes on me. This is one of your memories, a bad one. We need you to focus on something good.”
His Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “I’ll try.”
He closes his eyes and scrunches his brows together, but the fire grows hotter and wilder. Whatever he’s doing isn’t working. I glance at the medallion that’s still in plain sight. He was clutching it before. Maybe that’s the key. If this is the Magna Vis King Ruel is looking for, it should open a portal out of here.
“Use the medallion,” I tell him. “Focus on your last memory before you ended up here.”
“I… I don’t remember.”
I grab him by the shoulders. “The memory is there, Adrian. I trust you. You can do it.”
He stares at me as if I sprouted a second head. “How do you know I can? We’ve just met.”
“You’ve survived in this godforsaken place for centuries without completely losing yourself. I believe you can do it.”
He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes again, still clutching the medallion.
“Manu, quickly, hold his arm.”
I do the same in case the magic of the medallion works in a similar way as walking the wind does.
Seconds tick by, and nothing happens. The blaze is so close now that it’s stinging my skin. I fear we have only a minute before the fire consumes us.
“Karl,” Manu whimpers.
I take her hand, lacing my fingers with hers. “I love you, Manu.”
No sooner do I say those words than a cool breeze envelops us, gaining momentum with each breath I take. It spins and spins, and then we’re levitating above the ground and soaring high, putting distance between us and the fire raging below. My pulse is racing. We’re at the mercy of a foreign magic and an unstable user. But I don’t want to say anything to break Adrian’s concentration. After a moment, the fire disappears as if it was never there. All I see around us is a starry sky. It’s like we’re floating in space.
Then comes the drop, so sudden, I can’t even scream. Manu’s hand slips from mine, and she disappears from view.No!I lose sight of Adrian too.
The sensation that I’m falling out of the sky doesn’t last long, but those few seconds are the most terrifying of my life. When I reach solid ground, it’s just like when I wake up in bed with a jerk. There isn’t any pain, but my heart is beating a hundred miles per hour.
“Son of a bitch!” Manu blurts out to my right. “Take your paws off me!”
“Get off me first!” Selor shouts back.
Shit, I forgot about the male. But if he’s here, then we’ve escaped the Valley of Lost Souls. I jump to my feet and look for them, ready to celebrate. It’s nighttime, and a moonless sky to boot, so everything is shrouded in darkness. Eventually, my eyes adjust to the gloom, and I spot Manu and Selor a few yards from me. They’re facing each other, but while Manu is glowering at him, Selor is busy dusting off his clothes.
A groan to my left reminds me that Adrian came with us. He’s closer to me, trying to get up.
“Are you okay?” I offer him a hand, and he stares at it for a couple of beats before accepting the help.
“My head feels like it’s going to split in two. Where are we?”
“I’m not sure, but we’re not in the Valley of Lost Souls anymore.”
His eyes seem to grow larger. “We’ve escaped?”
I nod, but before I can elaborate, Selor walks over. “Did you get it? Did you find the Magna Vis?”
My gaze drops to Adrian’s throat, but I see nothing but skin. My stomach bottoms out.
“No,” Manu cries out. “Did we lose it on the way here?”
