Page 77 of The Iron Fae

"Hold tight."

I squeeze Lincoln's hand, hard enough I'm worried I'll hear the crunch of bones. He doesn't even wince as he takes the final leap into the portal and pulls me through.

Time no longer exists. In the step from this part of the world into the next I've both breathed a thousand breaths and lived a thousand lives with the single inhale it takes for me to take an exaggerated step down. My foot lands in clean white sand. My body tilts forward while my heels sink awkwardly. Neither myself nor Lincoln can catch ourselves from the force of our entrance.

Our hands finally slip away from each other’s, gravity dragging us down. Small particles of dust cling to my cheeks. I cough to expel any that have managed to settle in my lungs as I breathed them in.

Heat and perfect white light from the sky above us illuminates the sand like a thousand diamonds. Water tickles at my toes. With one hand, I feel for Lincoln, finding his leg. He sits up slowly, looking out at the great blue ocean before us that crashes with foaming white waves and fills the air with its crisp salty scent.

"Where are we?" I whisper.

Lincoln twists, his face paling to a shade I would compare to Lylix's ghostly color. "Nowhere good." He says at the same time as a blade is pulled from its sheath.

I turn slowly, following the singing sharpened edge that's tucked under Lincoln's chin and up the extended arm of its owner. Buckles and leathers are fitted to a curvy but lean frame, curling dark hair falls over the woman’s shoulders. Behind the swordsmen are several more women who shift without sound to surround us, all with their swords pointed for us.

"The better question... iswhoare you? And where have you come from?" Her voice is a deep baritone, gravelly, with a hint of an old accent I can't quite place.

We may be out of Cordelia's grip but we haven't out run death just yet.

I stare down at the blades aimed at my heart.

Death surrounds us.

THE END