Page 166 of The Lost Ones

Dangerous Discoveries

The Lost One’s Book 3

BY Nikita Parmenter

Chapter One

“What the hell!?” I hear Kai exclaim as I finally exit the portal on the other side, my vision not adjusting as quickly as it should and making me feel even more disorientated.

“Hold on daughter, this will not be easy.”The goddesses musical voice whispers through my mind.

Well that sounds super ominous and not that I expected this to be a walk in the park but damn that warning just confirms it. Then again a walk in the park sounds a bit boring if I’m honest, I need a bit of action in my life. I’ve come to realise that when I’m in stressful situations I tend to focus on inane thoughts that really have no bearing on the current situation. I’m calling it a coping mechanism and not a character defect, it sounds better that way.

The sound of hooves comes up beside me, thankfully distracting me from my spiralling thoughts and proving myself correct in said thoughts.

My vision finally clears and I breathe a sigh of relief, I do not like how vulnerable it makes me feel not having my sight.

“Whoa.” I say completely in awe as I take in the scenery around me.

It’s the same but different, and I’m aware that, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. We’re on a wide dirt track that stretches far in both directions, it’s obviously regularly used judging from the furrows in the dirt, I’m guessing from cart wheels. All along the edges of the track are thick and imposing forests. Whilst the trees look like the trees from the earth realm in that I can recognise that’s what they are, they’re also absolutely huge, bigger than redwoods, although there are some slightly smaller ones mixed in too.

Everything is in darker shades as well, the leaves are dark shades of green and what flowers I can see are darker shades as well, deep maroon and dark pink, they’re so beautiful. Even the sky here is a darker shade of blue than you’d ever see during the day in the human realm, it’s closer to the colour you’d see at dusk just before night fully forms.

It’s actually one of my favourite times of the day.

Of course it could actually be that time of the day here, we left the academy late in the night so time could be different here completely. I have no idea how long it takes to portal, even though it doesn’t seem that long whilst we’re actually inside it. That could just be magic having an effect on us and not a true representation of time. That’s also assuming that this realm gets dark like ours. For all we know it could stay as this dusk permanently.

I feel wildly unprepared to be here.

Levi leans over from his horse and cups my cheek, bringing me back to the present as he checks me over.

“Are you ok Darling?” He asks, his eyes concerned.

“I‘m fine.” I smile softly, allowing the comfort from him. “Are you guys all ok?” I ask looking over them all in the same concerned way, everyone seems to be in one piece and surprisingly our horses are fairly calm, despite being in a foreign place.

“We’re all good, that was an entirely weird feeling though.” Jax comments, his horse moving beneath him, not in a distressed way but more just moving for the sake of moving, not that Jax seems to pay a blind bit of attention to him.

It seems that Jax’s horse, like Jax himself, has an over abundance of energy.

“You can say that again. At least it didn’t hurt, I guess.” Kai says. “I was sort of worried it would be like in the movies and we’d be ripped apart and then put back together again on the other side.”

“Thanks for that super graphic description, dude.” Jax says drily.

“Where are we?” Hunt asks changing the subject before Kai decides to embellish more. “I mean I know we’re in the Demon realm but where?”

“I have no idea, its clear that we aren’t supposed to be here though.” Mav explains his eyes continuously scanning the surrounding area.

I can see him logging all of the differences and I would be willing to bet that he is literally itching to examine everything closer.

“You guys shouldn’t have followed me through the portal.” Levi says firmly, running a hand through his hair. “As soon as Nicole said that it was taking me somewhere different you all should of stayed put. There was enough time for you all to stop even if there wasn’t for me.”

“Fuck off.” I say and they turn to look at me with their eyes wide. “What? That’s the most stupid thing he’s ever said to me. Of course we followed you. We’re family and we stick together.” I say just as firmly as he did.

“She’s right. Like hell were we going to let you go into the unknown by yourself.” Hunter says agreeing with me.

“Exactly, all for one and one for all!” Kai exclaims throwing his hands into the air and making his horse dance underneath him. Not that he seems to notice, it doesn’t even seem to effect his balance at all. I’m glad to see that he hasn’t had an adverse reaction to riding like he said mighthappen.

“That’s from the three musketeers,” Levi says drily, “I appreciate the sentiment though.” He chuckles.