Page 117 of Seducing Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“I know. Everything points to the Jar containing something nasty.” Zee shivers.

I scratch the back of my neck. “Doesn’t explain why Archan wants Pan dead.”

I put the Jar down, ignoring Duncan’s musings over the key and the threat it poses. “I’ve been meaning to ask—when teleporting, how do you know where to land? You never land on a person or a table… orina table. I bet that would hurt.”

“It’s one of the mysteries of the universe,” Duncan answers.

My mouth drops open. “Oh, no you don’t! It’s a mystery you can solve right now, so spill your secrets.” He grins as he stares down at me. “Zee, hold him.”

Zee wraps his arms around Duncan from behind, and I raise my hands so they’re just above his hips. “I won’t go easy. Tell me now, and this can stop before it even starts.”

Duncan smirks. “Do your worst, Locks.”

I dig my fingers into his ribs and tickle him; he tries to bend over, but Zee’s stronger. I stop after a minute to let him catch his breath. “Surrender now! Resistance is futile.”

He shakes his head. I go back in for another tickle.

“Stop, stop, I give in!” he gasps.

“Spill it, Dumbledore!” Zee shouts, in an apparent random Harry Potter obsession.

Duncan rolls his eyes, catching his breath. “When you feel the twist, it’s searching for a clear spot, making sure there are no objects—including people—in the way before we land.”

Zee releases him. “I guess that makes sense… A bit anticlimactic,” I grumble. “Why does your teleporting feel different from Jed and Archan’s?”

Duncan’s forehead creases. “In what way?”

“It’s more like flying through ribbons of color. Smoother, too. I get a sense of peace, rather than going on a fast fairground ride.”

Duncan’s eyes widen. “It sounds more like moving through dimensions.”

“Is that something you can do?”

He shakes his head. “No, Locks, it’s not. I’ve never met anybody who can. It’s theorized only gods and higher beings can do that.”

I snort. “No wonder Archan’s ego is bigger than the entire Avengers’ put together. We knew they were different, and now you know someone who has traveled through different dimensions.”

“I’m being serious. And if they have bad intentions, I’m not sure what we can do,” Duncan mutters grimly.

“He has the Jar, but not Pan. So we find this person first and figure out his intentions—if he’s here to unleash the last evil or protect us from it,” Zee says.

I make some coffee with supplies I found in the panic room while we mull over the possibility of facing higher beings. In a truly terrifying way, it makes sense. Khalkaroth tried to stab Archan with the Poison of the Gods. The power cloaking Archan is intense and great, and he’s able to leash it. The only time I felt it leak was back at HQ, in my bedroom. Other times, it was done intentionally, as warnings. Archan’s team all have power, too—not as strong, but stronger than anything I’ve felt before.

If he found out I was a protector of Pan, would he kill me?

***

I’m lying on the top bunk with my eyes closed, turning over the possibilities of whom, or what, Archan is, when a hot breath tickles my ear. I slap my hand blindly to the side. “Knock it off, Zee.”

“Not Zee, sweet Iris,” a seductive, deep voice rumbles.

I shoot up, knocking my head against the ceiling. Duncan and Zee sit at the table with their legs bound to their chairs and arms secured in front of them. Both are gagged. Lawrence, in his handsome human form, sits between them; he points at the only empty seat across from him.

“Come join us, Natia. We need to talk.”

I blink. Tensing my muscles, I ready myself for an attack. Lawrence reaches inside his suit jacket pocket and whips out a knife, pressing it against Zee’s throat. Anger rolls through me.

“I just want to talk,” Lawrence drawls reasonably.

---