AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tingles ran up my arm.
“Rehan!” Jay yelled, bolting forward.
The tingles became waves of pure energy engulfing me from head to toe. The taste of salt water filled my mouth. Jay’s fingers clasped around my wrist, and then I was hurtling through space with my eyes tightly shut.
No wings, no magic, no control. Once again, I was a little kid who’d touched something I shouldn’t.
“Control it!” Jay’s voice barely reached my ears, and her grip on my forearm tightened painfully.
I couldn’t be that kid again.
I forced my eyes open. Air and power stung them. I squinted and blinked into streaks of color zooming past us. Pods of withering, sickly fluorescent-green blotted the light, demons, thousands of them still growing in the Ley Lines’ power. I forced my gaze onto Jay’s glowing face, her big green eyes willing me to act. The metallic scent of blood filled my nose. Bone-deep fear burst in my chest. We needed to get out of this. I bent my arm,Jay still in my grip, and pulled her into my chest. Someone’s body part bumped my shoulder and my hip. I didn’t know how many of us had reached her, but I wasn’t alone.
I searched deep within myself. Hearing my grandad’s voice, passing down his spells, then Og’s voice as he and Jay, via paper and pencil, talked about the Ley Lines.
The Ley Lines are energy. Magic is nothing without the will to power it.
I’d powered this by touching those runes. So, it had to be mine to control.
A ball of silver, so different from the streaks of light, caught my gaze. I reached out and closed my palm around it.
Pain like I’d never experienced before locked my grip. The colors zooming past us slowed, and the energy tingling my skin crawled to the other side, sending waves of agony through my muscles. I screamed, and the sensation of falling took over my world. I called on my wings, but they wouldn’t come. I wasn’t falling through the air, but space and time.
And then, I wasn’t falling anymore. The jolt from my essence coming apart, to not even a hint of pain, made me sway on my feet. Jay shifted in my grip, and the two of us went crashing to the ground. At least two more grunts joined us.
“I thought you were heavy last night,” Jay moaned under me.
My stomach rolled. I kept my eyes squeezed tight and scooted off Jay, only to land on someone else who grunted. My brain sloshed around in my body of wet spaghetti. Even my hardest leg day at the gym hadn’t left me this wobbly.
The body under me tilted, “Rehan, dude, can you just…” Lux begged.
I scooted again, hitting a hard, cold stone wall but freeing Lux and coming up to a seated position with my hands supporting my head. I still hadn’t opened my eyes, and I was honestly worried if I did, I’d blow chunks.
Jay’s scent reached my nose as she leaned against me, rubbing my shoulder. “You changed our direction mid-travel. I’m surprised you're conscious.”
I grunted, wishing I wasn’t.
“What the feck happened?” Tyson asked.
“And where are we?” Ogden added.
Lux grunted. “Here or back at Scalehive?”
“Both,” Ogden and Tyson said at the same time.
The cold stone at my back radiated through my tank top. Sweat I hadn’t noticed covering my body rapidly cooled, easing my queasy stomach. I opened my eyes. It wasn’t that much brighter with them open. I sat on gravel, and I was pretty sure the ceiling above me was domed, made of layers and layers of flat rock, held together like a giant puzzle pieces. Like the larger stone I rested against, a row of much larger, vertical stones made up a long passage where the hint of light emanated.
Tyson crouched in front of the entrance, already alert. I growled, not willing to be weaker than the fire prince, and forced the last of my panic down.
Jay’s eyes glinted in the dark. “We’re in a prehistoric passage tomb, I’m pretty sure. I won’t know which one until we leave.” She pointed up at a light bulb. “But it’s got lights in it, so it’s probably a tourist attraction now. As far as what happened.” She squeezed my shoulder again. “That portal was keyed into the very shields around the island, and Rehan’s a natural. Not only did he activate someone else’s portal, but he pulled us out before we made it to the final destination.”
“Is that good?” I asked.
Jay pursed her lips. “Good is a bad word.” She winked. “The portal would have taken us wherever the mage who made it came from… either their home or some safe location of their choosing. We would’ve arrived in a heap, me still magicless, and set off whatever defensive spells they had waiting, whichcould have killed us on sight.” Jay scratched her chin. “On the other hand, as the portal was still active, whoever made it was definitely not home. So if we had lived, we might have learned something.” Jay tapped her palm. “Or, the maker might have traps set up. We could have been spit out into reinforced prisons to be added to a demon army.”
“We get it,” Og said.
Jay bit her lips together. “Whomever this fucker is, he has to have almost god-like magic to create that many demons. I doubt he forgot that portal existed. It was there for a reason.” She squeezed my arm. “Never take a strange portal because you have no idea what’s on the other side. If I had my magic, I would have pulled us out. You did good, Love.”
