Page 15

S hadow surrounded her, her body was leaden. Moving was impossible.

Something soft caressed her skin. Grass?

The smell of outdoors and a damp, musty scent reached her nostrils. Pine and moss and something… old.

She couldn’t lift herself, head pounding. Eyes heavy.

Muffled voices spoke near her but she couldn’t make them out, as if she was in a well.

It had been minutes. Hours. Days?

She kept fading in and out but then… darkness came again, and she was lost.

It was still dark outside when Ava came to.

Her surroundings were fuzzy and she blinked, attempting to clear her vision.

Trees encompassed the area, illuminated by moonlight.

The smell of the earth enveloped her and grass tickled her cheek as she turned her head.

Sounds of the night were still echoing through the air; the chirp of crickets; the cry of a fox; the whisper of the breeze.

Groaning, she attempted to move but couldn’t, limbs still heavy from the effects of the drug, like they were weighed down with sandbags.

Something painfully pinched her wrists. Her ankles too.

Rope? Was she tied up?

Her head still throbbed, a relentless hammering within her skull.

She didn’t hear the voices anymore, and she looked around, vision clearing. Turning her head was painful, the pounding unwilling to cease.

Continuing to assess her surroundings, she saw a clearing encompassed by tall pine trees. Was she in the forest? There were crumbling ruins next to her, exactly like the ones from her dream.

Her dream. Had it been a premonition? She was sure these were the same ruins, but she didn’t see a glowing tree anywhere.

She was lying on her side, hands tightly bound, and feet tied together at her ankles, leaving her little room to move.

Her stomach churned and heart raced as though it would beat out of her chest. She willed herself to remain calm, to develop a plan, and took a deep breath, wincing at the pain in her ribs and the bruises on her throat.

Then, she remembered. The map. Though difficult to move due to the sedative still coursing through her system, she reached into her pocket where she’d left it.

It was gone.

You can’t freak out right now, she said to herself.

Glowing eyes shone from the dense woods, then a cat appeared from the shadows.

“Luna?” she whispered, barely audible.

She still didn’t hear anyone else. Where was Henry ?

Luna padded to her on silent paws and looked at Ava, concerned. She rubbed against her face, as if promising to help her escape.

Footsteps sounded from somewhere to her left. Unable to turn her head, she couldn’t see who approached but Luna darted back into her hiding place among the shrubs. A strong hand grasped under her arm and sat her up to lean against a stone wall.

She looked up and met eyes with Henry. Though he looked the same, his eyes were different. There was no love. No warmth.

“You’re finally awake.”

“What do you want from me?”

He leaned down until he was inches from her face. “I already told you.”

What had he said before he drugged her? Something about using her blood to open the portal.

That they were stuck in this world and needed her to get back.

And she had walked right into his trap. Racking her brain for information from when she took self-defense classes in college, she scrambled to figure out how to keep him talking.

If she could sidetrack him, maybe she could get away.

“Why do you want to go back?” she asked.

“Humans and their questions,” he said, looking annoyed. He wasn’t going to answer her.

“Why is my blood so special?” she said, trying again. “Are you going to kill me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You must think I’m a fool if you think you can distract me with your questions.”

So much for that idea. She tried to ignore the dread working its way through her.

The fear washing over her as she realized this was really happening.

There was no more denial. No more explaining it away.

Everything Luna had told her was true. Why her grandfather had been so paranoid, why they always moved around.

They were hiding from whoever Henry was. Whatever Henry was.

“If this is true,” she began. “If magic and portals are real? Then why can’t you do magic?”

A female voice sounded from the trees. “Because magic barely works here,” said the voice as she emerged.

A stunning woman with long auburn hair and bright blue eyes sauntered up to Henry and kissed him. The two of them turned to her. “Andras used the small amount of magic he could muster to seduce you. To help us find the map and then the portal.”

He’d used magic to make her want him? Oh, god. It explained so much. Why she couldn’t get enough, why it felt like a drug every time they kissed. How she would lose herself in lust, like she was out of control. She thought it was passion, maybe even love, but it was magic.

She was a fucking idiot.

Ava attempted to scoot away, eyes wide as she took them in. Hands shaking, she tried to wiggle them out of the rope though it was too tight. “Who are you?” she whispered, though deep down she already knew, remembering what Luna had told her in her dream state.

The demon queen.

And Henry. She had referred to him as Andras. That must be his true name. Was he a demon also?

“You know who we are,” the woman answered. “You were so easy to manipulate.”

Ava tried not to cry, tried to appear strong, but underneath she was a weak terrified little girl who just wanted her mother. Her mother always knew what to do.

“You can open the portal, Ava. That’s why you’re here with us now,” Henry said. No, not Henry. Andras.

Ava looked at the two of them, standing intimately close to each other. The demon queen and her consort. This must be the Deidamia that Andras mentioned.

“I can’t do magic,” Ava said. They ignored her.

Andras stalked toward her and kneeled.

He then hoisted her up by her armpit, dragging her over to an arch, her feet scraping the ground as she attempted to balance herself. The doorway to nowhere was engraved with symbols just like the pictures in the book.

“What is this place?” she asked, trying to bide herself more time.

If she could somehow get out of these bindings, she would run. Escape into the woods.

Andras continued to drag her closer to the archway, disregarding her questions, as she tried to pull from his grip.

They reached the archway, and he withdrew a knife from his pocket. Ava twisted harder in his grip, trembling as he brought the knife closer to her.

“Hold still,” he demanded.

She stopped squirming and looked at him. He leaned over her and as he got close enough, she head butted him, catching him by surprise, and used her bound hands to shove him down. She had hidden the fact that the rope around her ankles had come loose and wiggled free and took off running.

“You bitch!” he screamed as she hurtled into the forest.

It was difficult to see in the shadowy woods, the canopy so dense only slivers of moonlight penetrated the leaves.

She tripped over a fallen branch, cursing as she scraped her hands and arose again to continue.

She had to get back to the house, her car.

Where was it? She had no clue which direction to go.

She barely made it twenty feet before the tall creature who had killed Eleanor was standing right in front of her, looming and primed to attack. The shadows swirled around it as it bared its teeth, grinning at her predicament.

She froze and backed away, not letting it out of her sight.

Searching for a way out, she glanced to her left, when the creature lunged at her.

She fell back over a log, sharp pain from her bruised ribs shooting through her side, and crawled away in a feeble attempt to escape.

The creature stalked forward and raised its hand, full of claws.

Ava closed her eyes, waiting for the killing blow.

A growling sounded from her right and something crashed through the brush. She opened her eyes as Luna leaped at the creature, claws out, piercing its leg with her canines.

Ava was on her feet in an instant and took off in the other direction, no idea where she was going. She didn’t think Luna would win this fight but at least it had given her time to run. As she darted through the trees, she heard a yelp and then the sound of something large coming after her.

“Shit,” she said as she tried to run faster.

She entered the clearing with the ruins once again and froze, panicking. In her fervor to get away, she had run right back into the hands of her enemy.

Andras was there in an instant, fist meeting her face so powerfully she fell to the ground. She curled over herself, eye throbbing where he had punched her, and held her face in her still bound hands.

Dazed, she could barely move.

He reached down and yanked her up by her hair, turning her to face the woods where the creature emerged. His body was hard against her back as he held her, holding her wrists down in front of her with his other hand, and tilted her head to expose her neck to the creature.

“If we didn’t need you alive, you would make a wonderful meal for Deidamia. She hasn’t consumed anyone with magic in their blood in decades and she’s hungry,” he whispered into her ear.

The creature stalked forward, taking its time.

It leaned in and smelled her, breathing in slowly as if savoring her scent.

Long claws caressed her throat and trailed down the rest of her body.

Ava trembled as she tried to lean away but Andras was too strong.

A whimper sounded from her lips as the claws caressed her throat again, like it was preparing to do to her exactly what it did to Eleanor.

In the blink of an eye, the figure shifted into the woman. Deidamia.

“I thought you said magic doesn’t work here,” Ava croaked.

“It doesn’t work well,” she said as she walked around the two of them. “Hold her still.” She flicked her hand toward Andras.

Andras dragged her over to the archway, letting go of her hair as he urged her to walk forward. Reaching the archway, he held her as they faced the ancient symbols.

Deidamia followed, reaching into Andras’ pocket for a knife and he wrapped his arms around Ava so she couldn’t move. She tried struggling but he was too strong and too close for her to kick.

If she let them get the portal open, that meant this world called Eorhan was in danger.

Her world, supposedly. She had to try to stop them.

She struggled harder, fighting against Andras’ grasp but he held her firm as Deidamia walked closer and grabbed Ava’s left wrist, gripping it so hard she thought it would break.

She tried to pull away, but they were so much stronger than she was.

Deidamia sliced Ava’s palm deep and she gritted her teeth against the sting of the blade.

Blood blossomed from the cut as the throbbing almost overtook her, dripping onto the grass.

Taking her palm, Andras walked her closer to the archway and pressed it onto the stone.

At first nothing happened, but then the throbbing turned into burning and excruciating pain spread to her wrist, her arm, then coursed through her whole body.

Her muscles went rigid as the feeling intensified, making her dizzy as she stared in horror at the archway .

The voice from her dreams sounded, shouting her name to stop.

“Ava! No!”

Was that only in her head? Or could they hear it too?

She tried to pull her hand away, tried to stop the doorway from opening but Andras was still pushing her hand against the stone with immense strength as the pain continued to pulse through her.

Her vision started to hum in rhythm with the throbbing throughout her body. Fading in and out.

In and out.

It was like thousands of needles were piercing her skin, deeper and deeper.

The symbols glowed an eerie blue, bathing the clearing in a turquoise light. Brighter and brighter until the empty space within the archway filled in. Swirling blackness erupted framed by the blue glow of the symbols.

She had failed. The doorway was open.

She had brought death to an unknown realm she had never heard of.

A realm she had learned she was from. Where her parents were from.

Oh, god.

Andras pulled her back and the pain subsided as they backed away, gazing at the portal. Deidamia regarded it with reverence, triumph on her face forming into a wicked smile.

“We did it,” she whispered.

Maybe Ava could still escape. Leave them to conquer whatever they wanted. She didn’t know anyone in this other world, she could stay here and live her life. Leave them to handle the demons themselves. She was still human. It wasn’t her responsibility to fight their battles.

She wanted no part of it. If her mother truly wanted her to go save their world, she should have told her everything years ago.

Except now she had nothing in this world either. No Henry. No Eleanor.

“Please let me go,” she pleaded, pain still coursing through her.

Deidamia smirked as Andras whispered in Ava’s ear. “We still need you…” and he shoved her forward into the archway and the blackness beyond.