Page 2 of Forgotten Monsters
LAND DOWN UNDER
Frost skitters across my neck. Allie’s grip on my midriff loosens, and I curl into a ball on the rectangular paving stones to examine the sneaky dagger buried deep in my side.
Irregular breaths quake my sister as she leans forward, hands on her thighs, her lips blue from the freeze of inter-realm travel. “Jules! Are you okay? Gods, you’re bleeding too much.”
The thick red pool on the pavement justifies her claim. Fuck. I never saw Darkwood coming. I was so focused on the tear. He needed the horn, so I didn’t think he would kill me before getting it. By some vicious coincidence, he aimed for the exact same spot the Fae archer’s arrow hit back in Faerie, when Cole’s mother almost managed to get rid of me. My left kidney has seriously bad karma.
Gone are the closely-knit trees of Dark Falls’ forest, and I shiver at the chill of this new world. “Where are we?” Half-coagulated blood sticks to my hands.
“An Underworld…castle?” Allie scans the spider-infested hall we invaded.
A vaulted ceiling hangs high above our heads, and a wide archway opens to a dark, stormy sea. Rain barrels along the pavement beyond the arch, a gusty, wet breeze bellowing inside the building.
The portal shrivels behind me and seals itself in one breath. The darkness thickens, and my eyes slowly adjust to the lack of light. Onyx lays unconscious on her side a few feet to my left, claws out, her dark silhouette blending with the surrounding shadows. The perverse taste of death sticks to my tongue, but I’m not as weak as I was a minute ago. A part of my soul stirs to life in this gloomy, barren room. I shuffle to a seated position and force an erratic breath down my lungs. Another wave of blood pours out of my belly, and I grip the hilt of the blade, ready to test my new immortality.
Allie follows my movements. “Open the portal again, and I’ll try to fly you out to the infirmary.”
“Darkwood will still be waiting on the other side.” I grind my teeth together and jerk the dagger out of my abdomen.
“No!” Allie scampers to my side. “Don’t pull it out, you’ll just bleed more, and I’m no heal—”
Eyes wide as a goblin in a gold mine and face pale as a newborn vampire, Allie inches up my bloody shirt. “You—you’re healing.”
“It’s a long story.” I can almost taste Cole’sI told you soon my tongue. Both for Darkwood’s treachery, and the immortality I was ready to spit back in his face. The damn prince was literally proven rightminutesafter our fight, and anger sizzles in my veins at the realization.
Cole’s warning pounds in my ears.Wake up, Jules, you’re running blindly into a nest of monsters.
Despite the size of the dagger, the gash starts to heal. Still hurts like a bitch, though, so I clench my fists and wait. “Give me a minute, and I’ll open the portal again.”
Allie’s arms fall to her sides. “Jules, what the fuck is going on?”
“I’m going to be alright.”
She squeezes my hand. “How?”
A large shadow suddenly erupts into the room, but the intruder stops dead in his tracks. A big leather bag hangs under his shoulder. His torch casts a warm light over his chiseled jaw as he unsheathes a blue-tinged dagger with his free hand.
Allie jerks to her feet and spreads her arms wide. Electricity trickles out of her palms. “Stay back.”
Blood drains from the stranger’s tanned face, giving him a ghastly, sickly glow, and he quickly returns his weapon to its holder. “Hevny ye got brains? Donne use magic in here. Hollows will feel it.” His thick Scottish accent jumbles in my ears. He braces his hands on his hips and looks down his nose at us, eyes narrowed to slits. “How did ye get here, lass? Ye better not have touched my Lettie.”
The man dashes over to the archway and peeks at the sea. “Where’s your boat?”
Beyond the veil of heavy rain, I catch a glimpse of an abandoned harbor. Derelict wooden wharfs suffer the fury of the storm. The white hull of a sailing boat pierces the night—tied at the bottom of the stone staircase, it clashes with the old-fashioned, medieval look of the pier.
The man grips the hilt of his weapon once more. “How did ye get here?”
“We don’t know,” I lie. We can’t exactly tell this mountain of testosterone that we’re from another realm.
The ground shakes underneath me, and the vibrations muddle my vision. Everything moves. A window shatters above our heads, and stained glass scatters across the stones with a crystal-clear pitch.
The Scot switches his grip to the strap of his bag. “This storm is no joke. I’ll take my leave of ye, lassies, but don’t stay here. The whole manor might collapse.”
“She’s wounded! Help us!” Allie shouts after him.
He wags his large finger. “Nae. Yer friend there smells funny. Good luck.” Without so much as another glance, he whistles out into the storm.
Obscurity thickens around us as he takes his leave.
