Page 4 of A Soul to Guide

Cykran’s voice was strained and distressed. “I’m supposed to protect you. I can’t do that if you don’t let me through.”

A tornado of wind began to form, her growth spell changing into something else entirely. It was the sucking sensation in the air and the yellow magic of a seam cracking open that alerted her to what it was.

The cold dread of fear trickled down her spine.

She let go of the vine to grip the closest bench, praying to theGilded Maiden she had the strength to hold on. Her feet lifted off the ground, and her long, billowy skirt whipped around her ankles.

It’s a chaos portal.Raewyn shut her eyes tight as she held on with all her strength, despite feeling her hand slipping from the marble edge.It’s an unknown rift.

Since it had opened, it meant the world on the other side hadn’t blocked the Elysians from entering. It was an unknown place, with unknown people... and unknown dangers. What if she went to the Demons’ home realm... or somewhere worse? What if she couldn’t get back home?

Her pulse quickened, pounding wildly in her ears from the fear pummelling its way through her veins.

“Cykran,” she sobbed out, as she was pulled so far back she lost her grip on the bench’s edge.

She scrambled to grab something else, unsure of what could tether her toNyl’theria, their realm, when she wrapped her hand around a cold pole. Fearful tears escaped from her clenched eyes, and they were sucked away instead of fallingdown her face.

“Cykran.” Her voice broke as she pleaded, “Pleasesave me.”

She suddenly wished she hadn’t barred him from reaching her, but she hadn’t wanted him to come to harm. This wouldn’t harm them, though, only remove them from this realm.

She couldn’t lower the barrier without using at least one of her hands. One was tangled in vines trying to yank her closer, as if they were alive, while the other was holding on for dear life.

“I’m coming, Rae! Just hold on.”

The cracking of vines, as Cykran struggled to break through, was quiet in comparison to the ferocious roar of the portal at her feet.

With a crunch, whatever she was gripping broke under the force of the powerful vortex. Raewyn still held the metal pole when she was sucked through.

Cykran’s beastly roar was the last thing she heard, her answering scream eaten up by the swallow of magic before she disappeared.

I just wanted to feed my people!

Raewyn tightened the thin hood of the cloak she wore over her head with her right hand to make sure it didn’t fall back. With her left, she glided the backs of her fingers over the side of a building to guide herself through the town.

Despite the fact that it was apparently summer here, the heat was rather cool to an Elysian Elf. Nyl’theria was hotter than this even in winter, and it was likely brighter as well.

My hair isn’t showing, is it?

She doubled checked again, worried that the head wrap she wore beneath the hood had untied. She wore it to hide her hair’s white colouring.

The sound of chatting, in a language she was growing familiar with but had never properly spoken before, was loud as she passed person after person.

Raewyn spoke very little. Her accent was weird to them, and they’d comment on it whenever she spoke.

Her father had taught her many Earth and Elvish languages, but she hadn’t spoken them since she was a teenager.

Of all the realms I could have teleported to with sentient beings, why did it have to be Earth?She sighed with discontent.Why couldn’t I have teleported near a town with Anzúli?

Why did it have to bethisrealm? Sure, it was better than the few realms with poisonous gas for air, but every day she worried about being discovered.

The Elysians had made sure the Demons who travelled through the many permanent portals to Earth couldn’t return to Nyl’theria. She dearly hoped the humans didn’t know that.

She didn’t know how much Earth had changed, but when her people had come here last, the humans had been rather fearful and violent towards anything different from them.

And Raewyn wasverydifferent.

She’d studied many humanbiologybooks before she lost her sight. She’d read humans came in varying shapes, sizes, skin tones, and ethnicities.

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