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I twisted to see if he had a hidden backpack when his meaning hit me.

He means me.

He was lucky he stood a few feet away or I might have kicked him in the shin for that stupid joke.

And worse was the fact it wasn’t a joke. So long as he had his personal feed-bag around, he didn’t have to worry about much else. I was sustenance, medicine, everything all wrapped into one sarcastic package.

“That’s enough. Come on, Galen, do the thing.” I waved my fingers at him, already regretting this whole thing.

We hardly managed to survive council meetings together, but now we were going on a trip? What the fuck was that all about? There was no way we’d make it through this mess without someone killing someone else.

In fact, I wouldn’t past it being me that lost my temper and offed one of these men.

Still, as we took our spots, I had to think that…well, I did look sort of bad ass. If there was a superhero team made up of moody, ill-adjusted, morally gray characters, we could fill that spot pretty easily.

Galen packed his items, then stripped. It amazed me he could manage it without looking nervous. Well, hedidglance over his shoulder just once, at me, as thoughImade him nervous.

I’d think baring his ass to a group of Spirit men would be the more dangerous position, but maybe that’s because I knew exactly howthatwent.

He shoved the clothes into his backpack, then held it out to Ruben, who took it without a word. No doubt he’d picked Ruben because he was less likely to make a stupid joke.

Galen turned his back to us again, facing the full moon that sat just above a mountain range, appearing larger because it was closer to the horizon. He rolled his shoulders, the action causing the muscles in his back to shift. It went to show just how built he was despite the fact he spent so many hours before a computer.

He spoke softly, his voice deep, just as his body started to twist. It happened differently than it did for me, lacking that rush of flames, the power, the magic. Instead, a Were’s change was more brutal, with the popping of bone, the rending of flesh as it went from one form to another in quick succession.

He kept speaking as he shifted, though the words became more difficult to make out, to understand. They deepened, turned rougher, and as he fell forward to all fours, as he took that plunge into the final transition of his change, the words broke into a howl.

I froze, wondering…had it worked? Maybe we were too far gone. Maybe the tiger had gotten it all wrong?

A spark of electricity danced through the air, however, and a shimmering doorway appeared. It wasn’t perfectly arched—messy and glowing amber instead.

Galen jerked forward in a leap, as though drawn to enter, but froze and looked back at us.

Right, it might close after him.

Which meant we had to go first.

I stepped up, ready to take the plunge, when a hand on my chest pushed me back and Ruben crossed it first. The shimmering made it difficult to tell what happened on the other side, but his figure showed through and he appeared to still be upright.

That was a good sign, right? It meant he probably hadn’t died or anything.

I figured it was the best we’d get, so I crossed that line next, heading into the unknown, into the shimmering amber that led somewhere I’d never been, somewhere I didn’t understand, that none of us knew much about.

On the other side, I took a deep breath and instantly knew what Porter had meant.

It didn’t feel like home at all…

There were trees, and in some ways, it reminded me of the jungle Galen and I had gone to. Part of me wondered if that was why the weretiger had gone there, like some desire to return to this place?

Not that it mattered, really.

Despite the similarities, there were too many differences to ignore. The trees weren’t right, with jagged lines to their leaves and a few that had feathers growing across them as well. The ground was covered with rocks that were smooth and had flecks of colored crystals in them, so many colors that it appeared like confetti.

I was used to the colors of the council, as though the world were made up only of those, but here had every color and shade imaginable, all of them sparkling from sunlight even if I spotted no sun.

After I came through, Kelvin crossed, then Porter, the Mind and finally Galen. As soon as Galen crossed, the portal closed with a sharp snap, trapping us here.

It gave me the chance to look out at the sprawling space before us, the world unlike anything I’d seen before, and wonder just what the fuck we’d gotten ourselves into…