Page 23 of Deadly Little Games

We were in a small stone room. I could distantly hear the ocean, but there were no doors and no windows. The only light came from the crumbling ceiling far overhead.

Panicked, I looked around for Sebastian and Elena, but I couldn’t see them at all. I had shifted fully.

I looked at the dejected elf in front of me as he hung his head, shaking it back and forth.

I had shifted fully.

And now I was trapped.

9

“Not exactly whatI had in mind,” Crispin said to my back.

I pushed against the nearest stone wall. It couldn’t be real. I couldn’t be entirely trapped here, and without anything to focus on to bring me back. Worse, whatever I had done had pushed Crispin all the way through too.

“You still can’t see them?” My voice was tight with panic.

“As I already explained, you coming here seems to have fully opened the pathway I was trying to create. You brought me all the way here, away from the tools I need in order to return.” I looked back at him as he crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Not that my situation is really worse, other than my only hope of escape being trapped here too.”

I turned fully toward him. “What were you even trying to do? Why come here?”

His blue eyes were the dullest I had yet seen them as he answered, “I was only trying to chart the path. I thought if you could see a path, it might help you to travel.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I suppose in a way, I was correct.” He gestured toward me. “You’re here. You realm jumped. Although, this little pocket is very close to earth. I would not yet task you withtraveling to the elven realm. You would probably end up trapped inside a star.”

Clouds shifted across the crumbling hole overhead, darkening the small space. When night fell—ifnight fell in this place—we would be left in total darkness. “What do you think the chances are of us climbing up to that opening?”

Crispin sighed loudly. “Slim to none, and even if one of us could climb like a spider, we would still be stuck in the wrong realm.”

I narrowed my eyes at his tone. “Let’s can the bad attitude. We’re stuck here because of you, after all.” I stuffed my growing panic back down as I approached him. “We just need to think. We both got here, we can both get back.” I paced across the stone floor of our prison. I could do this. I had traveled once, I could travel again.

Crispin pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against. “I’m willing to try, but I fear it will be up to you.”

I abruptly stopped my pacing to turn on him. “Why is it up to me? I barely just learned to travel myself. I don’t know if I can take you with me. We mightbothend up trapped in a star.”

He leaned his head back with another heavy sigh. “I was able to use a mixture of magic and alchemy to travel from my homeland to earth. It took considerable power to blaze a new path, but fortunately I had some old star charts to guide me.” He lowered his head to look at me. “Then when I reached earth, I found I had far less magic than before. I knew right then and there that I would not be able to travel back on my own. And here—” He spread his arms wide. “Here I feel hardly any magic at all.”

I tried to sense what he was talking about, but I really didn’t feel much of a difference.

“You are half celestial, Eva.” He stepped toward me. “You channel the magic of the stars, and the stars areeverywhere.Even right up there.” He nodded toward the slowly darkening hole in the ceiling.

I took a moment to consider his words. “So let me get this straight. You left the elven realm only to get trapped on earth. Then you risked traveling here, knowing you might not be able to return.”

“I didn’t mean to actually come here,” he huffed. “I was only trying to create a path for you. Something to use as practice.” He looked away, then muttered, “Only I made a slight miscalculation.”

I crossed my arms. “You know, if we ever get out of here, I’m going to have to seriously reconsider working with you.”

His nose wrinkled at my words. “Well, I suppose I couldn’t blame you,” he said tersely. “Now are you going to try to get us out of here, or not?”

“Considering the alternative is being trapped here for eternity with you,” I stepped toward him, “I’m willing to try.”

He straightened, then looked down at me as I neared. “Splendid. So what did you do to get here? It seemed like the devil had angered you.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. I wasn’t sure what to tell him. That my magic came from a mixture of sex and strong emotions? “Sebastian was trying to help me in his own irritating way. And it worked, though perhaps not how he planned.” I looked around the room. “Though who knows? Maybe he’s just watching, laughing at us.”

“While I do not know the extent of his power, this realm might be a bit too far for him to travel.”

My eyes whipped to his face. “I thought you said we were close to earth.”

“I did. But maybe not quite as close as the hells . . . ” he trailed off.

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