Page 8 of My Eternal Light

*****

Kincaid watched on as Leon packed as many blankets as he could into two large duffels. Aeson pointed back toward the palace. “Let me get this straight. A demon told Meryn to go to a certain set of coordinates and whatever is there is bad enough that he preemptively denied having had any hand in it?”

Kincaid nodded. “When you say it like that, it sounds really bad.”

“That’s because it is!”

Kincaid frowned. “It didn’t seem that bad when Meryn was explaining it.”

“That’s because her sense of normal is off the freaking charts so her tone never really changes when she discusses catastrophes,” Leon remarked dryly.

Aiden checked his gun. “Darian, how do you want to do this?”

Darian looked up from his phone. “It looks like forest, with no human buildings nearby. I’ll open a portal about a mile out and close it. We can hike in and once the site is secure, I can open one there to return.” He put his phone away. “I hate going in blind, but we don’t have anywhere close by that is an established route.”

Ari lifted one of the now zipped duffels. “Ready, when you are.”

Gage grabbed the other one. “The sooner there, the sooner back,” he said, looking to his sons.

Aeson wrapped an arm around the shoulders of both Ame and Yuki. They stayed behind this morning since the meeting was supposed to be a quick update. “We have a full afternoon planned. Hahaue and chiciue can do what they need to, right boys?”

“Hai!” they answered.

Ame smiled. “I am helping in the kitchen today.”

Yuki pointed to the back of the house. “I have drills.”

Gage sighed. “If you need your mother, she’s at the palace. We’ll be back soon, I promise.”

“Time for your dad to act like a warrior,” Aiden said, conspiratorially, winking at the boys causing them to giggle.

Aiden straightened and his face hardened as he looked at them. “Move out.”

“Yes, sir!”

*****

Stepping through the portal, Kincaid wasn’t the only one relieved that they were in the middle of nowhere. Normally, that would be a bad thing. But, in this scenario, they didn’t have to worry about the prying eyes of humans or being detected by whatever they would find at the mystery location.

“One-hundred bucks it’s a trap,” Priest said, as they made their way through the thick brush.

Brie shook her head. “No way. Meryn looked sad when she confessed what the demon said. I think we’re walking into another warehouse type scene.”

“Maybe it will be a cozy cabin and the blankets and food were meant for us to take it easy,” Ari suggested playfully.

Brie, without looking back, let the branch she was holding fly, smacking Ari in the face.

“Ow!” Ari rubbed his nose. “Or it could be a trap,” he corrected himself.

When they were within a half a mile, their banter ceased. Aiden pointed straight ahead, then to his chest, then to Kincaid and Darian. Next, he pointed to Brie, then to Ari, Priest and Gage and made the hand gesture for them to veer off to the south and come up separately.

Brie nodded and her group broke away.

“Kincaid don’t be afraid to use that magic of yours to do another box if you have to,” Aiden said quietly.

“Yes, sir,” Kincaid replied feeling nervous. He really hoped that they wouldn’t be dependent on his unreliable magic once again. Sealing the bad guys once had been a miracle, he wasn’t sure there would be a repeat performance.

As they eased closer, the outline of a building took shape.

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