Page 2 of Gift from the Source
“Is everyone okay?” My voice trembles with the question as I push myself back up to stand.
We can’t linger here.
I already laid my eyes on everyone when they appeared, but Oakly and I took quite a beating traveling the realms. Everyone else seemed to have fallen through easier, but that gives me no idea about how they’re feeling. Their magic, gifts, elements…
What does being in the nonmagical realm do to all of us?
I seek Caspian out first. He knew immediately where we were the second his eyes found my tree.
His gaze collides with mine and he reads me like a book.
“We have plenty of time, Primary. We’d need to spend years here for our blessings to deteriorate. I don’t believe for a moment we were sent here with the intention of not returning home. Everyone is okay.”
I believe him wholeheartedly, but my head and heart need to know for sure that everyone’s fine.
My bond stretches out to my men. I assess how they feel as they move closer to me, while my eyes land on my brother.
Lyker has his head tilted back, subtly smelling the surroundings. Lennox, Kyan, and Zane stand stoically, searching the forest with their glares, and Aria’s boxed between them.
“Are you picking up anything?”
His face twist into a sneer. “It smells like shit here.”
The smell is the last thing I’m concerned with at this moment, but now that he’s drawn attention to it, it’s all I notice. I used to be able to detect the unnatural scents when I lived here, but they were never as potent as they are now.
That sense seems to awaken all my others. I don’t have to strain to pick up any surrounding sounds and judging by the silence, the animals of the nonmagical realm know there are fiercer predators around.
My eyes roam the duller, paler colors of the clearing and the forest. The greens here are, well…just that. Green. Nothing like the endless hues in Elementra.
“Oak, how are you feeling?”
“Better now. I’m sorry for every time I’ve picked on you for throwing up. That was brutal.” She grimaces.
Shaking my head at her, I softly smile, then look at Keeper, Trex, and Codi. The three of them appear fine, other than Trex’s intense frowning at the tree line.
“Why was that so rough for us but not everyone else?” I ask the group.
“You and Oakly suffered the worst, I believe, because you were breaking the lock to pass through, so to speak. You opened a portal, and we came through easily seconds after you did.”
San’s matter-of-fact statement startles me. I most certainly didn’t open a portal to another realm. The information on how to do that is in my book, but I haven’t gotten to that lesson.
“I didn’t open a portal. I opened a normal transport, just like we’ve practiced,” I say, nodding to Oakly for backup.
“Yeah, at first. But obviously”—she pauses, looking around—“that transport turned into a portal.”
They’re both right. I know that and I’m not denying it. I just don’t know how to admit that I somehow royally fucked up. I’m not even sure what I did to cause this.
“You didn’t fuck—”
Tillman’s words are silenced as he and the other three of my men whirl around, surrounding me protectively. It takes me a moment to catch up, but then I hear it.
The slightest sound of a transport opening.
We each hold our breaths as the timing for this one to open is taking much longer than it would in Elementra. The seconds seem to take minutes as the faint buzz grows louder and my skin pulls tight with anticipation as everyone gets themselves into a fighting position.
Whatever threat is getting ready to pop out in front of us won’t be receiving a warm welcome.
“No,” I breathe, dropping my hands and barreling through the wall my men created as soon as the newcomer’s signature crawls across my skin. “What are you doing here?”
