Page 90 of Pain

I barely managed a chuckle.

Lifting my head, which felt more like a ball of liquid fire, I squinted as the sun’s angry rays glared at me. “Anything for you, Little One.” Then, with the last few pitiful bits of energy I had left inside of me, I slowly stood up. “You go first.”

“No chance. I need to make sure you get through.”

I shook my head, unable to lift it to look at her. “You go first,” I said again.

“Zandren, don’t make me pull rank with you, please. Just do as I ask without me having to get all queeny on you. I’ll be fine. But I’m not walking through that portal, leaving you in this terrifying state. Go. Please.”

It was that last word that did it. The near begging way she said, “Please.” There was a sob to her tone, a desperation I could feel in every poached cell of my body. I didn’t have enough energy to argue. So with another barely there nod, I took one step forward, then another, and another. The hum of the portal grew more intense, the crackling and sparkling in the air was electric, and a few times those sparks landed on my skin, leaving a benign burning sensation for a second or two.

I took a fourth step, but was falling to the ground face first before I could take a fifth. My upper body collided with the dry, cracked mud with a harsh, painfulthud.

Omaera was at my side as I put my hands on the hot dirt to push up so I was on all fours. “Oh my god, are you okay?” she asked, her hand on my shoulder.

Grunting, I nodded. “Gonna crawl the rest of the way.”

“Whatever works, Pooh Bear. You just need to get there.”

She walked as far as she could with me to the portal, which in reality was only another five or six steps. The buzz was deafening now. I glanced up at her as bestI could. With a smile, she took my face in her hands and kissed me. Then she pressed her forehead to mine. “See you on the other side.”

I grunted. “See you on the other side.” With more than a hint of hesitation, but a lot more desperation to get the fuck out of Hell, I crawled through the portal where my body was instantly sucked forward like a vacuum.

And just like last time, the pain from being exploded into a billion little pieces was more than I was prepared for. I was nothing more than pink mist, getting siphoned from one dimension to another in a giant, noisy vacuum. The one good thing about the portal? The lack of deadly heat. Or maybe it was still there. I just couldn’t feel it because my body was no more than water droplets racing through a wormhole.

Either way, I was relieved as clarity came rushing back. I did my very best to keep my thoughts linear, focusing on getting back to Earth, back to Omaera, and keeping my dick.

Just like last time, I had no idea how long I flew through space and time as no more than wet dust. A minute? An hour? A week? No fucking clue. All I knew was that I started out in Hell, wanting to die from the heat. Then I wasn’t hot, I was blown to a billion and five chunks—but no longer hot—and before I knew it, I was reassembling and landing face first down in the dirt on the other side.

Or at least, I hoped it was the other side.

Before I did anything else, I slid my hand beneath me to make sure my favorite body part was still there.

Thank fuck.

I sniffed the air. It didn’t smell like Hell. It smelled like Earth.

I nearly kissed the fucking ground as tears of joy stung the backs of my eyes.

“There you are,” said the mage with amusement.

I blinked a few times, taking in the darkness of our surroundings. It was nighttime on Earth. The sky was almost blinding with how many stars filled it. It reminded me of back home, where my cave was. I would go out nearly every clear night, lay in a field, and just stare up at the vastness, at the trillions of diamonds so far away, yet still so beautiful.

With my chest heaving like I’d just sprinted up the side of a mountain aftera juicy rabbit, I rolled over to my back and closed my eyes, running through my body to make sure everything was accounted for. Just because I made it through the portal with my cock intact, didn’t mean a toe or a much-needed joint didn’t get lost on the journey.

But for what I could tell, I left with 206 bones and returned with 206 bones.

“Where’s Omaera?” the mage asked. “She should have come out by now.”

Terror swamped my veins.

Little One.

I left her behind. She made me go ahead of her. She insisted as much when I didn’t want to leave her there alone. Why the fuck didn’t I listen to my instincts?

And now, we may have lost her.

CHAPTER TWENTY

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