Page 91 of The Wild Moon
He lifted a finger and pointed. “You have to go.Now.”
I looked at where he was pointing.
We weren’t back in his lair like I’d suspected but instead were at the entrance to a tunnel, much like, if not the same one, I’d emerged from. Back when I was young and naïve and thought gods were nothing but stories and fairytales.
“The barrier,” I said, unsettled at the thought.
Vir nodded. “I’ll fight them off for as long as I can, but I cannot risk getting trapped when the warriors arrive.”
“Warriors?” I croaked, vastly unsettled at the way Vir, a freakinggod, didn’t want to combat these foes. How dangerous were they?
“Get through the barrier, Dani. Now, before it’s too late.”
I swallowed nervously but nodded, making my way slowly down the tunnel, hands out in front of me, shuffling forward so I didn’t slam face-first into the barrier.
Frustrated by our slow pace, Vir thrust a hand out, and blue fire leaped forward, highlighting the barrier for me, perhaps twenty feet ahead.
“Thanks,” I muttered, moving swiftly to its edge, my fingers brushing against the invisible wall that blocked my path.
I grunted andpushedagainst it, determined to do as Vir asked. If he said it was dangerous, I had no reason to doubt him. The faster I got through the barrier, the sooner he could escape without drawing the so-far unseen invaders after him.
Like before, however, the barrier didn’t give. I pushed, and it shrugged my strength off. Setting my feet, I leaned into it, trying to get more leverage to push my way through the wall.
“Vir, this isn’t going to work,” I said, doubt entering my mind. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“You must,” he said. “You made it here. That means you got through the barrier.”
“Iknow,” I ground out. “That doesn’t mean I have any ideahow, Vir. It just sort of happened. I was also in the middle of a fight with my stupid ex.”
“Your Soulbound mate, yes.”
I stared at the giant god. “Youknowabout that?”
He stared at me.
“Right. God and all that,” I muttered, spinning a finger in the air. “Must be nice.”
Vir chuckled. “It has its perks sometimes.”
I nodded. “Vir, if you’re so knowing, can you tell mewhatthe barrier is? Why is it there? Why can nobody get through, not even you?”
Watching a freakinggodlook troubled and unsettled was not an experience a mortal should ever feel comfortable with. Even when they were as sexy as Vir, the uncertainty he was showing was enough to leave me terrified. I much preferred the Alpha, all-knowing version of him better. It instilled confidence in me that this look did not.
“It protects the Earth,” he said quietly.
I didn’t have to know from what. It was quite obvious he was referring to the unseen enemy whose bones literally covered the ground around us.
“I don’t understand. I mean, I get that it’s a barrier that protects Earth. But where did it come from?”
Vin stared at me stonily. Some secrets were apparently not for human knowledge.
“What happened when it went up?” I asked.
“All contact with Earth was lost,” he said. “There was no way in, no way out.”
I thought about that for a moment. Vir had said the Direen had been a wasteland for a thousand years.
“That was why you became myth and legend,” I said quietly. “We didn’t turn from you. Nor did you abandon us. The city of Shuldar, the one on the other side of the barrier. It was built here because of this passage between Earth and the Direen, wasn’t it?”
