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“I promise,” I whisper, hoping I can keep my word because what the hell can he be expecting me to see? And what’s with Meg’s dad being there?
“And touchnothing. Especially not the hedgehogs.”
I blink. “The…what?—”
Nic says, “Don’t even look those little fuckers in the eye.” She gives a quick shudder.
“Okay. I have so many questions.” My brain pinballs between the possibilities.
But I’ll probably have to wait since Theo strides ahead of the small group of warriors gathered in the hallway, his wings blocking most of the view except the blood red tinge spreading across the distant sky. Monty flies next to me in dragon form.
Nic is in full demon battle gear on my other side. “Don’t ask about the hedgehogs,” she says.
Fine. “Where’s Dupree?” I ask instead, keeping my voice low. I’m giving Theo zero reasons to get pissed off and change his mind about taking me with them.
“He refused to come out of his room,” Nic says. “Wouldn’t even answer when we knocked. Coward.”
Well, I guess that’s one less demon we have to worry about protecting from whatever awaits us.
Ora, my favorite dwarf, shuffles toward us in an impressive suit of armor crafted of gold and is that stone? How heavy must that be? An orc struts next to her, surrounded by a legion of tinyfire sprites. Behind them comes a small battalion of ghosts, she-wolves, a few pig-faced women with tusks, and some crones who I have learned not to call witches because it’s apparently offensive—although hags is perfectly acceptable.
At a nudge from Monty, I follow Theo through the portal. For an instant, everything blurs around us, the colors colliding in a violent rainbow that makes this stupid helmet feel like it weighs a thousand pounds on my head. My stomach lurches.
“Steady,” Nic says. “The potion you drank will help with the portal travel into the Valley so it should just make you?—”
“Vomit-y?” I ask over the sourness in my mouth.
“Or dizzy,” she says. “But you shouldn’t pass out like most humans.”
“Great,” I mutter. That’s all I need, to have convinced Theo not to leave me behind this time, only for my fragile human body to betray me. Monty nudges me along with his nose against my back hard enough his little horns poke into my fancy fantasy armor. “I’m going, I’m going.”
We step onto the lushest grass ever. I don’t want to even imagine how much the gods must pay their landscapers. The air’s heady with sacred oils, and I could swear I’ve been here before. Or maybe I was meant to be here. It’s a home I’ve simply never visited before. My nerves quiet, the knots in my belly loosen, and I can’t help but feel as though I’ve walked into the church to end all churches.
Except a keening cry winds through the air, so devastating I struggle not to sob along with whoever’s making that sound.
Nic slides a look toward me, and the corners of her mouth are curved so far downward, her fangs are visible. “TheKepnir,” she says. “The beasts who can travel through water to any realm in all the dimensions, to any space and time, and even to the After Worlds and underworlds for every existence.”
“They’re crying?” I whisper.
“Which means they or their riders are dying.”
My heart goes heavy. I don’t know those creatures, yet I mourn them.
“Shields up,” Theo says.
I have no idea what audacious superhero move to take in response to his order so I plant my feet, tug the magical jacket closer, and run my fingers toward the explosives.
He drops his wings from blocking my view, and I realize what he’d been protecting me from seeing.
Dread steals my breath, twisting around my lungs in a lockdown tighter than any compression garment I squeezed into for red carpets. My pulse launches into a dizzying speed as though one of the catapults I’m seeing—actual, friggin’ medieval catapults—decided to launch my heart into the thick of the bloody battle happening to the right of the castle, down near a lake that’s probably calm when it’s not being lobbed with flying—are those? I stare harder. “Are they shooting people at the lake?”
“Goblins,” Nic answers without sounding shocked or even remotely surprised. Like firing live creatures through the air isnormal.
Worse than using people as ammo…Are goblins people? Or is the socially acceptable term monsters? Is monsters’ rights a legal thing here in the realm because I’m thinking it should be?...okay, concentrate. Worse than shooting monsters like cannonballs, giant snakes slither everywhere. Over tombs, through temples, toppling boats, and towering over people because these aren’t regular snakes…shudder…No, they are the size of the mythical snake who gobbles worlds. Taller than buildings, wider than my family’s tour bus for the show, and side-winding as though they own this place, they wreak destruction with every twist.
“Troll’s tits,” Ora grumbles. “We’re too far from the action.”
Crazy dwarf. I’m running on all systems overwhelmed and debating throwing myself back through the portal, but no, I asked for this, to be included in their fight against the traitor and to save Gilly.
