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)
For all I know, it’s a trap. Maybe I’m the one they’re banishing to Earth this time, a plan they concocted while I went feral and my power ran rampant. If I go, it may very well be a one-way ride. There may not be a portal to bring me back.
And maybe it’s better that way.
If Elsie is dead…
“Do it,” I growl, barely able to hold back the surge of rage. “Give me a portal.”
My mother nods, and the circle of lights appears in front of me. I don’t look back as I step inside.
A dissolving sensation later, I’m spat out on the other end, finding myself on a green pasture in front of a house when I come to. It’s a small pasture but a big house. Elsie’s parents’ house. I recognize the furniture through the window. But I also recognize something else—a vibration that hums through my body. Awareness hits me like a strike of lightning, firing through my veins.
Dragons.
Gaia was right.
Elsie is here.
The sensation grows inside me, filling every part of me until I’m on fire with it. That painfully sweet longing tugs at my heart again. It becomes unbearable, tormenting me until I think I’ll go crazy, and then everything inside me clicks into place. Perfect peace descends on me. I’ve never felt such harmony. For the first time in my life, I’m whole and not broken. Not incomplete.
My heartbeat quickens, keeping time in my chest with a pleasant echo. It takes me a moment to figure out the echo doesn’t mirror my pulse but is someone else’s. I can’t explain what’s happening to me, but the longer I listen to those twin pulses beating in my ears, the more at home I feel in my own skin… as well as in a different skin.
Then it hits me. I’m no longer alone. Elsie is here, inside me, our bond complete. She’s a part of me just like I’m a part of her, two people who’ve become one. And I know exactly where she is.
I take off toward the path, trying to get my bearings. She’s not close but not so far that I can’t reach her through a portal. If not for the miraculous completion of our bond, it would’ve taken a long time to find her. I would’ve needed to go back for Gaia or my mother, who would’ve had to do continuous portal work.
A contraption with windows like a house and wheels like a cart rounds the corner. It moves fast, heading right at me. A man sits inside what I presume is armor. I blink as he screeches to a halt right in front of me with a blaring noise that comes from his armor. He leans through the open window and shouts curses at me.
I don’t have time for this. I bang a fist on the front of his armor. A huge dent appears in the shiny surface. The man shuts his mouth and closes his window. He moves around me and gets out of my way. I barely make it to the opposite side of the path before another contraption in a different color barrels past.
Closing my mind off to the surroundings, I focus on Elsie. Her feelings spear through my heart. Her pulse races in my chest, speeding up my own. The cold sweat that covers my body is a mirror-reflex of our bond.
She’s scared. It’s the kind of fear one feels when one’s life is in the balance. I feel her breath leave her lungs even as I call up a portal, letting her know I’m on my way, refusing to face what the bond is trying to tell me.
That I may have come this far only to be too late.
Chapter 23
Elsie
Tarix is still out on his shopping errand, but it’s been a while. He could return at any moment.
I refocus my efforts on finding animals around the cabin in which he has locked me. He was clever enough to make sure there are none except for birds and insects. I test my power on a few ants that pass through the kitchen. The ants change direction as I command them. However, they’re of no use to me. I can’t attack Tarix with a few sugar ants. If they were fire ants, it would’ve been a different story.
Where the hell am I? There’s not even a bee or a wasp around, and it’s freezing cold.
I stoke the fire I built in the fireplace so that it doesn’t go out. I found a few pieces of wood, old newspapers, and a box of matches in the cupboard next to the fireplace. The warmth is welcome, but my main objective is boiling the water in the pot that hangs from a hook over the flames.
Rubbing my arms, I take stock of the space for a second time in case I’ve missed something that could be useful as a weapon, but the room is pretty much bare. It’s not a very comfortable hideout.