Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
I hang back, tears burning behind my eyes. I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry. Saying goodbye is hard enough for my parents. I don’t want to make this more difficult for them.
“It’s okay,” Mom says bravely, smiling through her tears. “We love you, honey.”
“I love you too.” I look between them. “I hope you’ll always remember that.”
Dad’s nod is jerky, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows.
“Come, my sweet.” Aruan ushers me forward with a hand on my lower back. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he says with a last tilt of his head.
My tears fall freely when we enter the portal. I burn every second of our visit into my memory so that I can revisit the time we spent together when I miss Mom and Dad too much.
The light disperses around us. Just before the vacuum sucks us in, another circle appears within our circle, the two spheres colliding.
Panic gets the better of me. What’s going on? Is the portal malfunctioning?
Next to me, Aruan tenses.
And then I see it, a form taking shape in front of us.
I blink. I must be mistaken. It’s impossible. But the Phaelix that materializes is very much real. His red eyes bulge as he notices us. He tries to backtrack, but it’s too late. Aruan has already locked his fingers around the wrist of the Phaelix, pulling the screaming lizard with us back to Zerra.
Chapter 20
Aruan
The Phaelix kicks and claws as we arrive in my mother’s quarters. I’m holding Elsie’s hand on one side, and on the other, my fingers are locked in an iron grip around his thin, scaly wrist.
My mother, who sits on her dragon chair, gives a start. My father stands next to her. He takes a menacing step toward us, his dagger already pulled.
My mother’s knuckles turn white where she grips the armrests, her face pale with shock. “What in the name of the dragons…? You’ve come from Earth. Through my portal.”
The implication hangs thick in the air. A Phaelix somehow crossed paths with us in an open portal to Earth.
I confirm their wildest guess. “We ran into a visitor on our way back.”
My father bares his teeth.
“All right?” I ask Elsie.
I only let her go when she nods.
The Phaelix screams as I drag him to the center of the floor.
“What’s the meaning of this?” my father asks.
I force the Phaelix to his knees by the back of his neck. He stares up at me with hatred simmering in his blood-red eyes.
My mother stands, her back straight and stiff. “What happened?”
“Our portals collided.” I give the vermin a shake. “He was on his way in just as we were leaving.”
“How is this possible?” my father asks.
“Portals bend toward one another,” my mother says. “If they’re created close enough to each another, one vortex will pull the other one in and vice versa.”
“Like magnets,” Elsie muses.
My father stares at me. “Who in the dragon created a portal for him? The Phaelix don’t have powers. He couldn’t have done it himself.”
I grin at the Phaelix. “That’s what I’m going to find out.”
The Phaelix glowers at me.
I switch to his language. “What’s your business on Earth?” I already have a good idea, but I want confirmation.
He spits a guttural curse at me.
My mother and father are fluent in the Phaelix tongue. They understand what I’m saying. Elsie doesn’t. I repeat the question in our language.
The Phaelix pulls his lips away from his sharp teeth, offering me a sneer for an answer.
I let his nape go with a shove and catch his wrist in another bruising grip. “This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to tell me everything I want to know, or I’m going to melt you bit by bit, starting with your fingers and your toes.”
He snaps his teeth at me like a rabid dragon.
“Fine.” I lift his arm and squeeze hard enough to break his bones. “We’ll do this your way.”
The pain forces him to splay his fingers. He swallows the agony down, his throat rippling and his teeth clacking with the effort.
He’s a tough one. Let’s see how long he lasts.
I focus my power on his little finger. His scaly flesh bubbles, his sharp claw dropping with a glob of goo and a clunk on the ground. His chilling scream pierces the air as he grabs my fingers and tries to dislodge my hold on his wrist. When that doesn’t work, he simply clings to his arm, holding it up in the air as he whines and wheezes.
“Don’t make me ask you twice, Phaelix. For every breath I have to waste, I’ll take another finger.”
He heaves, sucking air through his teeth.
“Did you go to Earth to bring back a human slave?” I ask.
“Yes,” he hisses. “Yesss.”
“For whom?”
“For me.” He snaps at me again, seemingly unable to resist biting like an animal. “For me.”