Page 90 of Blood of Ancients

Glancing around with wide eyes, I found myself in a forest. My mates were all disoriented, on their backs or sides, rubbing their eyes, shaking their heads . . . but they werehere. Beside me: Arne, Grim, Sven, Corym, even Kelvar.

Corym was standing already, eyes alert as he stared out through the forest.

The climate here was warm. I sweated through my fur coat in an instant. It was like we’d been transported from winter to summer at the snap of a finger.

The forest, with its tinged green glow, was unlike any I’d ever seen. Tress of various shapes and sizes surrounded us—from leafless copses of deadwood to bushy evergreens. In the distance I could make out both deciduous and coniferous trees, tall and small, grouped together. Other branches and boles were angled oddly, looping, stretching, and seeming to sway against the windless background around us.

Everyone took a good five minutes to compose themselves, eyeing each other with baffled expressions, before the first words left anyone’s lips.

I was the one to break the silence, helped up from my ass by the outstretched hand of Corym E’tar, who seemed to radiate here like a deity. The sunlight dappled his skin in such a unique way—if it could be calledsunlight, since the orb in the sky was yellow-red with a tinge of green. On Corym’s elven skin, the glow shimmered, giving him a darker, bolder hue of gold.

“A-Are we . . .” I croaked, shocked at the sound of my own voice. Deeper, more resonant, like gravity and space here was completely different than in Midgard.

Corym smiled at me, sharp and blinding. “Welcome to Alfheim,lunis’ai.”

My heart soared. Enthusiasm filled me, mixed with something like arousal, which I couldn’t explain—other than the torrid touch of Corym’s warm palm against mine as he helped me up.

“Gods above,” Grim muttered, running a hand through his short brown beard. “Or gods below? I’m not even sure where in Hel we are in the spectrum now.”

Kelvar said, “Well, we’re certainly not in Hel, cadet.”

I chuckled. There was giddiness inside me I couldn’t shake off. I could breathe normally—even deeper than I could in Midgard—and my body felt light.

It was the sight of my men that overjoyed me. The fact we had somehow stuck together in the portal, despite no one knowing what the fuck to do.

As everyone finally gained their feet under them, Kelvar crossed his arms. “This is monumental, children. The first humans to step foot in the realm of the light elves in a millennium. Congratulations.”

Except Magnus, you mean. Please be here, Mag.

Smiles swept around our lgroup.

“Unfortunately, there’s no time to celebrate,” Corym said.

We deferred to him—even Kelvar—all eyes moving to the elf. He seemed at ease now, in his homeland, and could see the reticence and confusion on our faces.

“Humans have not been welcome here for as long as you say, Hersir Kelvar, and I daresay they still won’t be,” he explained.

“That’s why we have you,” Sven pointed out. “Our guide and tracker. Are you up to the task, elf?”

“It may not matter if I am or not, wolf. I guarantee we will be found before we find anyone else.”

“What do you mean?” Arne asked. He chewed his lip. “Are we in danger here, in the middle of nowhere?”

Corym pointed past the first row of trees surrounding us. “We aren’t in the middle of nowhere.”

Kelvar sighed. “Thank the gods, then. You at least know where we are.”

“Not exactly, Whisperer. I knowgenerallywe are in the Kiir’luri. The forest makes up one of many in Heira, the nation I hail from.”

I said, “That’s a good thing, right? That we’re in your nation?”

He smiled fondly at me. “We shall see, love. Kiir’luri is vast. It could take days in either direction to reach the edge of the forest. And this is . . . concerning.” He walked to the nearest tree and kneeled.

I followed him, noticing he was looking at a strange, rune-covered rock. “There are runestones here?”

They littered the space. Squinting my eyes and scanning, I realized they ringed the area we stood in.

“These are most likely place-markers. Not runestones in the way you think of them, because the language written on these stones is different than the tongue you are used to seeing. They are imbued with magic though—as is Kiir’luri and the rest of Alfheim.”

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