Page 16 of As Darkness Fall
“So, it’s impossible to bring it down then, right?”
“Not impossible,” he said. “But unlikely.”
“What do you mean?”
Vir shrugged. “There are other realms. Other ways to Earth.”
“So, what you’re saying, by the sounds of it, is that to defend the Direen, it would be best to be onthisside of it. On Earth.”
“That makes sense,” Vir said, and I could feel a bit of energy return to his voice as he sensed a possibility for him here on Earth. A reason for being thatwasn’tme. Since I wasn’t going to be his for much longer.
“Good!” I said, keeping my volume low. “Then you can haunt Shuldar and stop anyone from coming through.”
“Just what I always wanted,” he said dryly. “To be a ghost. Goodie.”
I shrugged, not sure what else to say. I was trying here, okay? When Vir didn’t say anything more, I started to rest a hand on his arm, intending to reassure him that everything would be okay.
No!
Catching myself halfway, I managed to stop before touching him, but that left my hand hanging awkwardly in midair for a moment before I lowered it back to my legs.
There was no hiding it. No denying what had clearly just happened.
“Ah, I should probably go stretch my legs,” I said, getting up and hopping off the ledge. “Might help me clear my mind, see if I remember anything about how I turned the temple on. Uh, activated it.”
Great choice of words.
Forcing a smile, I locked eyes with Vir, then turned and walked away, desperate to put some space between us.
“Shout if you need me. Or any help,” Vir said, his voice drifting gently through the quiet temple chamber.
I nodded and then headed out of the room, trying to ignore the pulse of true caring that filtered down through our Soulbond. That was the problem with Vir compared to Johnathan. Vir actually seemed to give a shit about me.
And that was what made everything all the more dangerous.
Chapter Nine
Snagging another hunk of bread from one of Vir’s magical tables on the way out, I munched on the perfectly crunchy exterior as I wandered.
I didn’t have any specific destination in mind. It was more about where I was comingfrom, this time, instead of where I was going. Getting out and away from Vir was the important part right now. The fact that it gave me an excuse to finally explore some more of Shuldar was just an added benefit.
My mind contained only fleeting memories of my panicked flight through the underground city. Now, as I exited Vir’s temple, I took it in. The Field of Gods, as I was starting to think of it, was a sight in itself with thirty-foot high statues of the various shifter gods. I recognized some, but others were a total mystery, their identity lost to the ages.
Lately, I’d had enough of divinity and the like, so instead of digging through the temples, I made an immediate beeline for the edge of the field and the city beyond. The Field of Gods was raised above the rest, so as I approached, I found myself able to look out and over the city.
“So much have we lost,” I whispered to myself, watching as row upon row of stone buildings faded into the distance.
Some were small, likely dwellings, while others were a bit bigger, likely workshops or some sort of businesses. A few large buildings dotted the underground city. I wondered if those were gathering areas or perhaps administrative buildings. What kind of government had been in place? Had it been like it was now, an Alpha ruling over the pack? Or had they done it differently back then?
It still boggled the mind to think that a thousand years ago, shifters had built a city like this. In the middle of nowhere. At least, now I knewwhy. That was one big mystery that had been solved. This was where the Direen touched Earth. A passageway between realms. It made sense that we would settle here. Close to our gods.
I could see it now. A thriving city where gods walked the streets with mortals. We hadknownthe gods were real because they visited us. The proof had been obvious to even the most stringent non-believer.
“Then it was all taken away,” I mused, standing at the very edge of the Field of Gods.
When the barrier had gone up, effectively shutting off the Direen from Earth, the gods had stopped visiting. It would have taken no more than a generation or two for them to become nothing but mystical beings. Ideas and concepts instead of reality. Within a hundred years, the city would have been shrinking as people left, I’m sure. It wasn’t a good place for a city unless there was areasonfor it to be here.
People had probably left in groups, and that was how the hundreds of packs across the continent had sprung up as they settled new regions.
