Page 130 of Wraithwound

Cross looked to her, a question forming on his lips before he realized she wasn’t speaking to him.

“Ancient magic requires sacrifice,” Runa hissed.

Lena nodded and looked to Cross, who held the question in his eyes.

“A sacrifice,” she said.

Lena placed her hand over the orb as the markings indicated and had to hold back a cry as the blade sliced through the center of her palm. Jerking her hand back, she cradled her bleeding palm in her other hand. Her blood disappeared from the orb but continued to spin. With Cross’s help, she was able to retrieve some bandages to wrap it.

Before she could wonder why the orb continued to spin, Runa hissed, “His. Now.”

“Yours too,” she said quickly.

He placed his hand on the orb, pulling it off after the blade sliced through his palm. His blood was absorbed just as quickly as Lena’s, but the orb continued to spin. And then it turned black, and the ground began to shake. They braced for the violent tremors they’d experienced in the previous realms, but the shaking didn’t intensify. As if satisfied with their sacrifice, the rumbling stopped, and the orb shifted back to the color of pale stone.

And then the wrongness in the air broke, and the sound of bubbling water reached her ears. Lena exhaled in relief before reaching for Cross’s injured hand, but he pulled it away.

“It’s all right,” he said, giving her a tight-lipped smile.

Lena took a step toward him but stopped. She couldn’t help but glance at the blood dripping on the stone at their feet, wondering how Cross could ignore it, but she nodded and turned toward the temple. Hot, humid air wafted past as they walked to the center of the stone temple. There they found a bubbling pool of turquoise water with strange swirls of gold.

It was only a third of the way full, but the reflection from the strangely colored water made it seem full. The water roiled inside, splashing and bubbling with a sickly grey foam floating atop the surface. Lena had just walked past one of the pillars in the chamber to inspect it when Cross dug his fingers into her shoulder and pulled her backward. Lena screwed her eyes shut as the pain from the wraithwound left her gasping for air. She opened her mouth to protest when he clamped his palm over it. The look of panic on his face made the noise die in her throat.

He must have seen the understanding in her eyes because he slowly removed his hand and raised a finger over his lips. Lena nodded fervently, the pain from her wound fading into the background. Cross pointed at a distortion in the air beyond the pool.

Lena saw it then.

Across the pool from where she’d been headed, a swirling portal lay open. When she turned back to Cross, he shook his head and then pointed to the left of it, where a second portal spun. There, just through the portal, she saw a simple, three-tiered fountain, in what might be an ancient city square. And on the edge of the basin, was a small ornate bottle made of green glass.

Chapter

Seventy-Four

Lena gaped at the vibrant green bottle. Even with a piece missing from the side, she’d never seen anything else like it. Approximately the size of her hand, it was shaped like an elongated hexagon and twisted near the top. A crystal stopper that resembled a shooting star was inserted at the top. She stared at the bottle but didn’t move, a feeling of unease creeping into the gut. When she turned back to Cross, he appeared to be lost in thought, like he was working something out.

“That has to be it,” Lena whispered, “but⁠—”

“—where is that and who is guarding it?” he said, completing her thought.

Lena peered around the column once more when a creature she’d seen before crawled past. But this one seemed to be missing a limb, unlike Vince.

Afraid the creature would scent them and enter the temple, Lena reached back to alert Cross, but he had already seen it. It snarled softly, sniffing the air in front of the portal, but did not enter. After a moment, it crawled off. Lena released a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to the portal that led to the bottle. She’d just begun to formulate how she might work to retrieve it when the same exact creature crawled into view through the second portal past the fountain upon which the bottle sat.

Confusion clouded her mind as she worked through what she’d just seen. She was certain the portals led to two different places. The one with the fountain led to a city square of some sort or perhaps an atrium. The architecture and color of the stone was pale and aged just like the temple they currently stood in. The other led to an outdoor corridor with walls etched from grey stone, snow covering the ground just beyond it.

“Lena,” Cross whispered.

The sound of her shortened name was so foreign to her that she didn’t respond initially, but after a long moment, her brain seemed to flag it. She met Cross’s eyes to see an apology there and . . . some other emotion she couldn’t place.

“I know where that portal leads,” he said, pointing to the one that led to the stone corridor and snow-covered ground.

The expression on his face was hard, the gold flecks in his eyes dim. And she knew then, the man she’d known before this moment was gone. The man who had reached into her soul with that world-stopping kiss had been replaced with the man she’d met near the Drowning Woods.

“I’m guessing that is the Goddess’s temple near Misted Oak. But that one, it’s where soulbounds are created.”

“What do you—” she started.

“Cross, is that you in there?” A lilting voice drifted in from the portal on the left. The one where soulbounds were made. Cross stiffened immediately, his face turning pale.