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Instead of answering, because it’s the thing he doesn’t do with anything resembling clarity, Sion Loho walks straight through one of the prismatic walls.

“Look there.” He points below us as he sets me on my feet.

The electric gumballs conform to the soles of my feet like memory foam sneakers. When I glance down past the small island of jewel tone spheres holding us, my heart accelerates from trot to gallop. We’re hovering at least fifty feet in the air.

I can’t draw a full breath. Alternating between gasps and gulps, I fight to keep from passing out. We’re too high. There’s nothing between me and the bodies in sleeping bags near the smoldering mass that was once the bonfire.

I bury my face into Sion’s jacket and grab fistfuls of his padded sleeves. I don’t care what he is or what he’s doing. If I’m up here a moment longer, my heart will burst.

“Down,” is all I manage. The roar in my ears from absolute panic renders me deaf, mute, blind, and utterly useless to save myself.

Sion coos in Irish and gently turns my face to show me our feet are back on solid ground. We stand in the shadows outside the stone circle.

I release my death grip on him. “Don’t ever do that to me again.” I drop my face into my hands. “You know damn well I can’t do heights.”

He raises my chin with his thumb, his stare boring into mine. “I swear to you, Eala Duir. You’ll never fall when you’re with me.”

Untainted sincerity is a fresh and welcome note in his repertoire on this unbelievable night with rainbow walls and men who turn into small mammals.

A faint shimmer wavers between us and the peaceful campsite. “No one seems very concerned I’ve disappeared.”

Sion juts his chin to where Colleen and Charlie snuggle against one another. My own sleeping bag is not empty. “They’ve no notion you’re gone.”

“What the—is that a shell of my body or something equally disturbing?” Images of spirits rising free of their human forms race through my mind. Did Sion and the Veil separate my body from my soul? I clutch my arm, relieved to find it solid. I’m not an astral projection here, but what am I down there?

Sion stands so close behind me, I feel his chest rumble with a quiet laugh. “It’s your backpack I’ve stuffed in there.”

This is all true. We’re travelling between worlds, dimensions, realities.

He takes my hand.

Flash.

We’re back in the prism chamber engulfed in streaks of rainbow light.

Flash.

We pass through a different wall.

Now, we’re at the edge of yet a third forest. Not the one by the campsite and not the Veil forest we first traveled to. Trees rise behind us in a semi-circle, blocking the land beyond from our sight. In front of us is a grassy hill spotted with caps of embedded granite slabs.

Sion points to a stone tower not fifty paces away. “There’s no slow going with this. Take a breath and give me a chance to tell you all.”

Black fissures run through decaying stones of what once might have been the single turret of a larger castle. At its foot amidst sprouting grasses rests a pile of rubble reminiscent of a cairn or burial mound. The tower perches on a low, sheer cliff. The river below hisses discontent as its current crashes against hulking boulders. Spumes of brilliant white spray upward.

Before I can make sense of our location, I double over. A wave of nausea racks my body, and I clutch my stomach. I’m going to be sick.

Sion rubs my back. “Shh. Whisht. Sorry, I pulled you through too fast. You’ll get used to Veil travel. I swear it.”

I strive for calm so I don’t vomit. “What have you done to me?”

“No more than a wee bit of crossing through the Veil.”

Truth hits, a fist to my already tender innards. I’m powerless against Sion and his intentions. He lured me into his Veil forest and will smash us through fantastical walls to wherever he chooses. I need to slow this insanity and get clearer answers.

“Stop everything. Turning into a fox. Yanking me through dimensions without giving me a say.”

“Can’t risk stopping.”