Page 7 of The Beginning

“But I wanted to take Macey!” Flint complained. “She’s much more fun than Earth guy.”

“Then you should have claimed her first,” Cam snarled, his humour suddenly gone. Macey stared at him wide-eyed, not quite sure whether he was only talking about travelling through the Mists. It didn’t seem like it... and in her mind, she had already claimed them. Not just Cam. All of them. They were hers. She grimaced at the thought of anyone else taking them. No way. She just hoped the other three elements wouldn’t turn out to be girls. Unless they weren’t into men, of course.

“Could we get out of this mist?” She tried to diffuse the tension. “This stuff is getting my clothes wet.”

Cam pulled her close and wrapped her into his arms. She didn’t mind travelling through the Staran. They should do this more often. She liked being in his arms, warm and cosy. Although it would be more fun if they weren’t wearing as many clothes...

“Ready?” Cam called and the others all confirmed.

Macey was getting a little jitterish. The last time Cam had transported her on the Staran, she’d been unconscious. Would it hurt? Be uncomfortable?

A tight squeeze was all the warning she got before they plunged into nothingness.

Darkness.

No, not darkness.

Nothing.

No light.

No dark.

No shadows.

Just her and Cam, their bodies united, being thrown through the universe.

It was hard to focus, but she tried to think about however Cam would know where to stop. Where to get out of this vacuum. If they could get out of it. Maybe it had all gone terribly wrong? Maybe this wasn’t the Staran?

A pain around her navel area made her scream as they were pulled backwards as if ropes were attached to their bellies. Suddenly there was darkness, and pain, so much pain, agony, never-ending agon-

Solid ground appeared beneath their feet and they stumbled forwards before collapsing on the ground. Shaking from top to feet, Macey looked around. They were in the Mists again. She couldn’t see the house, so wasn’t sure if they’d returned to the place they’d started from.

“Guess we still can’t get to Earth,” Cam groaned, releasing her from his grip. A second later, Jared and Flint appeared out of nowhere, falling before they could get their balance. “And neither can they.”

Na Fir Ghorma (Blue Men of the Minch)

8

“What the fuck are those?” she half-screamed, staring at the blue man-shaped things that seemed to be staring at the four of them.

“They’re na fir ghorma,” Cam replied, his voice shaking ever so slightly. So that wasn’t good. Not in the slightest.

“Storm kelpies? I’m telling you, those aren’t kelpies.” She took an involuntary step backwards, colliding with someone’s chest. Jared’s she guessed, he wasn’t as warm as Flint was, and Cam was stood to her right.

“I don’t think the na fir ghorma are actual kelpies, Macey,” Jared added.

“No shit.” She looked the blue men up and down. They were certainly odd looking, and they did appear as if they came from the water. They even had webbed hands which would’ve made swimming easy. But then, what the heck were they doing here?

“So what do they do?” Flint asked, and she whipped her head around to look at him, shocked that he didn’t know. Even in the short time she’d known him, he’d been the most knowledgeable of the three of them.

“Erm, call storms, I think,” Cam stuttered. If storms were all they had to worry about, she didn’t know why he was so shaken.

“And?” she prompted.

“No one is really sure, they’re supposedly descended from fallen angels.”

Macey snorted. “Angels don’t exist.”