AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He packed the campsite up quickly. Hitching his pack on his shoulder, he wrapped a scarf around his neck and face, covering everything but his eyes.
“I’m too well known,” he explained. “Don’t want people watching and interrupting us.”
I accepted this, then we were off.
We were a silent pair, trekking through the wood and snow. I had no idea where we were going, but I trusted Alex to lead the way. It surprised me just how much I trusted Alex after meeting him a short time ago. He had a confidence in him. The way he walked, talked, didn’t twist words or play games. You met him and you knew he was sincere. If he said he’d slay the monsters... I believed him.
A glow lighted in the distance. I didn’t dare hope until the whistling wind carried its good news—noise, music, voices, and four sturdy walls to keep back the cold.
We picked up the pace, growling bellies and frozen toes spurring us on.
Breaking through the trees, we came upon a rising hill that ended sharply into a cliff.
“Are you ready?” Alex whispered. “To see your father’s home for the first time?”
Excitement filled me even as I held the horror of what brought me to Olympia close to my heart. All I had of my dad was stories and vague descriptions of a life he didn’t truly live. Now, I’d get to know the real him.
“I’m ready.”
Together, we topped the hill, and I gasped.
THE ONLY THING BIGGERthan my gaping mouth was my wide eyes. My head swung back and forth, this way and that, trying to take it all in. I had stepped out of the concrete jungle into an ancient paradise.
So many birthdays ago, Mom took me to a Renaissance festival where everyone was dressed in gowns, tunics, corsets, and leather shoes. I remembered spinning around like a gaping fish then too, asking Mom if we’d really gone back in time.
Right then, I knew I had.
Horse-drawn carts rolled over cobblestone streets, carrying young men and women dressed in tight tunics, breeches, and leather armor, much like Alex’s poking through their coats. So different in how they dressed but so similar with the gaggle of girlfriends walking around in packs, couples strolling past arm in arm, and children shrieking through the streets—laughing as they pelted each other with snow.
So similar... if they weren’t different in every way.
The snowballs zigzagged impossible paths through the air, chasing their target with missile-honing precision.
The gaggle of women stopped in front of a merchant stall keeper. They handed over money, and he flicked his wrists. Fresh pastries appeared in their hands—wafting steam and the heavenly scents of apple and honey.
A woman with her nose in a book broke me and Alex apart, passing through us. Snowflakes veered sharply away from her head and her reading as if she were covered by an invisible umbrella. A young girl skated by with no skates. A man rose into the air on a ladder of growing vines to kiss a giggling lady leaning out of a third-story window.
Everywhere I looked... magic.
“It’s amazing,” I whispered.
“Just wait until I take you to Trono City.” Alex slipped his hand into mine. I wondered if he noticed he kept doing that. I wondered if he noticed that I wasn’t stopping him. “The capital city. You’ll see power so amazing that I can’t even believe it.”
“Like what kind of power?”
Rose Inn and Tavern loomed ahead. Rowdy young men spilled out of it, whistling and catcalling the group of women eating their pastries. Some things were the same in every world.
“Like a daughter of Apollo who can sing songs that give you visions of your true love.”
“What?” I cried. “That can’t be. You’re messing with the newbie.”
He laughed. “No word of a lie. Apollo was the god of music and prophecy. He blessed her with an amazing gift.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “If she came over to my world, she’d be a gazillionaire. People search their whole lives for what she could tell them with one song.” My brows drew together. “Which makes me wonder why our worlds are separate? Why don’tmundanesknow about all of you? This place. This world. I don’t understand.”
“Let’s get inside first.” Alex stepped up to the inn door and held it open for me. “Get out of the cold.”
A reasonable offer since his coat didn’t reach past my knees, and my bare legs were two popsicles waiting to snap off my body.
