“Is she...”
“A...a human?” the gray one finished for him.
My grasp on reality was quickly slipping away. I feared I’d lose my mind if I didn’t ground myself immediately.
“You know what? I’m going to find someone in charge here,” I stated, spinning on my heel to head toward the magnificent glass building that towered to our right.
It must be a movie set. The building was a prop, a façade that hid the reality from view. If I could just make it behind all this shine and glitter...
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Leslo yelled behind me.
Catching up with me, he grabbed me by the arm again. But we were no longer in his van or out in the open ocean. We were on dry land, with other people around, and I was done with this asshole.
“Get your fucking hands off me. Now!” I yanked on my arm in an attempt to shake his grip, but it was like trying to free it from a vise of steel.
The shimmering warrior quartet flanked us, but none of the four intervened, allowing Leslo to manhandle me.
His appearance made me pause. In addition to the red streaks in his brown eyes, red sparks crackled along the lines of the extensive tattoos on his neck and right arm. His tanned skin had also gained an otherworldly glow. It wasn’t as pronounced as the shimmer of the warriors, more luminescent than iridescent like theirs, but it definitely didn’t look normal.
Alarmed, I took a closer look at my own arm, but it remained the same it had always been—covered by beige skin with a hint of bluish veins underneath and without any trace of suntan since I had no time to take a vacation last winter.
My confused gaze fell on Leslo’s massive hand gripping my upper arm and crushing the short sleeve of my blouse. He handled me as an object, one that belonged to him, and he clearly feared no repercussions for his actions.
Red hot anger throbbed inside me.
“This man kidnapped me,” I stated loud and clear, hoping there were indeed some movie cameras around to record my words.
The four men glanced at each other, not looking overly concerned by my accusation. Though they appeared to be acutely interested in me, staring at me as if I were a museum exhibit or an alien crashed in their midst.
Leslo cared about my accusations even less than about my protests.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I should’ve forced that glacier saffron drink down your throat or just chosen someone else.” He spat on the sand, shoving me ahead of him while stomping toward the glass building. “Is your king there?” he asked the men. “Because I’m getting tired of this human. Hopefully, he can put her in her place.”
Flanking us on both sides, the four men escorted us around the glass structure.
“You targeted me, didn’t you?” I hissed at Leslo, with the meaning of what he’d just said about choosing me settling in my brain. “You watched me. You heard me talking to the ticket agent, then to Aisha on the phone. You knew I was desperate and decided I’d make a perfect victim.”
“I wouldn’t call youperfectin any sense of the word,” he scoffed. “Quite the opposite. But we’re here now, so try to impress the king or all my troubles will be for nothing.”
“Why do you think I give a shit about your troubles? Or about some fucking king?”
He tsked and chided, “Your language is unbecoming of a lady at the royal court.”
“Then maybe you should’ve left me back at the airport and found someone else instead, someone morebecoming.”
“I really wish I had done exactly that,” he growled, dragging me by my arm.
We rounded the magnificent glass construction, and more people came into view. Men and women dressed in clothes made of flowing fabrics mingled on the open plaza in front of the wide entrance with high curved pillars.
They didn’t just loiter around like extras in a movie waiting to film a scene. The scene was already unfolding. Several people rushed purposefully somewhere, carrying baskets and fishing nets. Others worked on the grounds, raking the sand and tending to the large plant beds on either side of the paved plaza in front of the glass entrance. One or two who were closest to us turned around and stared at Leslo and me. Most, however, seemed to be keeping their distance from the glass palace, and they didn’t notice us at all as they went about their day.
A whole new world opened up from here, and I forgot what I was going to say to Leslo next, mesmerized by the view.
The majestic glass structure stood on one of many islands interconnected by white bridges. The path from the palace ran toward one of them, then across a strait, and after that farther into what appeared to be an intricate system of islands, beaches, and straits. As far as I could see, there were gardens, trees, towers, and many houses, but none of them were made of glass.
There were no cameras, no crew, not a single person out of costume, and I feared my assumptions were wrong. Only if this wasn’t a movie set, then what could it be? I had no other logical explanation, and without it, nothing made sense.
Two men, wearing the same chest armor as the four who were escorting us, stood guard by the entrance to the glassbuilding. Its high crystal doors were shut with no one going in or out.
