*Xander*
I opened my eyes to the feeling of soone wrapping their hands around my throat. Slate was hovering over , blood drenching his hair and face as his eyes widened with surprise.
I shoved him off, and he scread, and scread, and...
“Oh, shit!” I cried, the words hitching in my throat as I dug my heels into the ground and sat up. Slate’s screams had faded into nothing but a distant echo. Before was a gorge, and I was sitting right on the edge of a cliff.
I struggled to catch my breath as I rose to my knees and gingerly looked over the edge of the cliff, my eyes widening at the sheer gravity of the depth of the gorge below. Slate was nowhere to be seen.
“Well, that takes care of that,” I mumbled under my breath as I scooted away from the cliff’s edge and ran my fingers through my hair, ruffling the filthy, black strands that had grown far too long for my liking.
But then I snapped back to reality.
I was up in an instant, turning and looking wildly around. Lena was laying on her side, facing away from , her arms wrapped protectively around her stomach.
I ran to her, turning her over and checking for any sign of injury. I ran my fingers through her hair, which she had cut short. I brushed a few of the white, chin-length strands away from her face, then shook her, hard.
“Wake up!” I cried, and she groaned, blinking into the soft pink sky above our heads. I held her face between my hands, breathing heavily as I watched her co to. “Lena–”
She took a sharp breath, and her eyes flew open, just as a shadow passed over us.
One of the guards who worked for Maxwell stumbled toward us, his eyes wide with confusion. He stopped walking, looking down at his tattered clothing and burnt skin, then looked up to et my gaze.
Steam, or smoke–I wasn’t totally sure–wafted off the exposed pale skin of his body, and he started to scream in agony. I rose to my feet, looking around at the jagged, black mountains and sparse trees I couldn’t na.
“Shut up!” I hissed, pointing my finger at him. “You need to shut up!”
He continued to scream, trying to shield himself from the faint light traveling through thick, gray clouds. We weren’t in Crimson Creek anymore; that was for sure. I’d seen a sky like this, a mix of pale pink and violet, once before.
When I’d left Henry’s cave.
We were in the realm of Night.
The guard rushed , and I wasn’t entirely sure whether he was attacking or only trying to shield himself in my shadow, but I acted before coming to a conclusion. I shoved him, then drove my shoulder into his chest, sending him staggering backward and over the cliff’s edge. His scream faded as quickly as Slate’s had, and soon we were cloaked in eerie silence once more.
I turned to Lena, panting with exhaustion as I studied her face. She was pale, her lower lip trembling as she looked past , through , toward where the guard had disappeared over the edge of the cliff and into the gorge.
“Lena,” I said slowly, holding my hands up in surrender. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” she said weakly, hugging herself with her arms.
But then she burst into tears, and I ran to her, skidding to a stop on my knees as I wrapped my arms around her. I pressed her into my chest, scrunching the fabric of what was left of her soiled sweater in my fists. I laid my cheek against the top of her head and breathed, taking what felt like the first full breath I’d taken in weeks.
But she stiffened under my touch, and as I pulled away I noticed the look of rage blurring her features.
“What?” I said in a low whisper.
“Where the hell have you been?”
I ran my tongue along my lower lip, fixing her with a glare as I leaned back on my knees away from her.
“Where have I been?” I repeated, sliding my hands down what was left of my jeans. “You’re asking where I’ve been?”
“Yes,” she growled, rage flashing behind her eyes. “You just left –”
“You blasted into another realm, Lena!” I started, crossing my arms over my chest. “Your realm, actually... your garden.”
“W-What? My garden?” Her face flushed, but the fury tightening her shoulders eased as she relaxed. She looked utterly confused as she looked up at and t my eye.
“I saw your paintings, and t your friend, that weird voice.”
“You couldn’t have been there. I would have felt your presence there!”
“Well, I was there. For a month, it sounds like, based on how much ti had passed in your realm.” I sat back against the soft, damp grass that grew in patches around the edge of the cliff and wrapped my arms around my knees. “Have you been there recently?”
“No,” she admitted, her eyes shining in the violet light. “I don’t go to the garden often anymore. I used to go all the ti as a little girl.”
“How did you make it?”
“I don’t know. I just did.”
“And the voice? Is that your subconscious–”
“No,” she said briskly, her eyes flicking away from mine as she examined the tears and tattered fabric covering her knees.
“Then who is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s always been there–”
“Lena,” I said hurriedly, noticing the shadows beneath her eyes.
She looked exhausted, thin, and battered beyond a doubt. Anger surged through , not toward her but toward the people who had locked her up and forced her to use her powers like this.
She looked up at , her eyes shining with tears.
“I’m sorry–”
“Don’t apologize to ,” I said gruffly as I inched toward her, reaching out a hand to gently graze her cheek with the back of my fingers. “I know now that you... you didn’t know–”
“How did you get out?”
A rumbling echoed through the gorge, and I instinctively grabbed her, gathering her in my arms as I rose to my feet. I was holding her upright, and at that mont I realized how weak she truly was.
We needed to get out of there.
“I closed it behind ,” she said weakly, her cheek pressed into my chest as I gathered her in my arms and cradled her like an infant. “The portal... it’s closed.”
She closed us in, more like it.
“I can open it–”
“No, you need rest. We need to find shelter.” A chill ran up my spine as a distant screech ripped through the air.
Lena didn’t even flinch, her eyes fluttered against my skin. The pinkish, violet sky was beginning to fade into a rich navy, and distant, faded stars were visible on the horizon. Night was coming. I thought of Henry and his mirror-lined cave, his fear and urgency when he’d led off that peak and into his hideout.
“We need to find shelter,” I repeated to an already sleeping Lena.
Had she been awake, I would have shifted and had her ride on my back, but there was no way I could do that safely now.
I held her firmly against my chest as I walked away from the gorge and into the dense trees, glancing over my shoulder only once before I let the dark forest embrace us.
***
I’d never experience such darkness. My eyes didn’t adjust to the night as it crept over us... no moon, hardly any stars, just a black, inky abyss that swallowed us whole.
I’d been walking for at least two hours, occasionally crouching behind a thicket of brambles or resting against a tree. Lena was completely out, a dead weight in my arms as I gingerly walked in what I hoped was a straight line through the forest and not in a circle that would lead us back to where we had started.
I had plenty of ti to think back on my experience with Slate, Maxwell, and his guards as I carried her through the forest. I had ti to go over every morsel of conversation I’d had with Henry. Henry had ntioned cities in this realm, cities of slaves, cities of Lords and their riches. But he hadn’t ntioned a forest.
I had no idea where I was going or why. I just knew I needed to keep moving until daybreak. I couldn’t rest, no matter how much I needed it. Lena had healed , that was obvious, but I was starving and exhausted.
The second we stopped, and I let the fatigue set in, however, we’d be sitting ducks... prey, waiting for slaughter.
But after a third hour of walking, I started to get disoriented. The trees were only getting thicker, and carrying Lena through the dense underbrush was becoming impossible. I was out of breath and exhausted beyond belief.
If the sun could just rise... just for a mont....
I saw a light in the distance, flickering as it moved through the trees... or, the trees were moving, tilting in a breeze. I stopped moving, my breath caught in my throat as my chest tightened with unease.
I was imagining it. The light disappeared, and a silence fell over the forest, broken only by the soft, rhythmic sound of Lena’s breathing.
But then the light reappeared, closer this ti, swinging as though soone was carrying it.
I backed up, my arm scraping against a tree and tearing the remaining fabric of my shirt clean off my arm. I hissed out a breath as the rough bark sliced my skin.
The light stopped moving again, only ten or so yards in front of us.
We were dead. This was it.
The crunch of leaves sounded as the light began to move closer again. I backed up further, but my back hit a tree. I couldn’t see anything but the light. If I made a break for it, I risked slamming into a tree or tripping over roots or low-lying branches. I was stuck in place.
I tightened my grip on Lena, and she flinched and cried out under the strength of my hold on her body. The light stopped for a mont, and whoever was holding it hesitated.
“Hello?” ca a feminine voice, oozing fear.
I cast that shadow of power over Lena, protecting her from whatever was coming our way. The light moved again, and again, as whoever carried took two more steps toward us, then stopped as the light moved over my face.
She was a small woman, slight in build and barely tall enough for the top of her head to reach my elbow. Her hair was shrouded in a thick cloak made of black fabric that made her nearly invisible in the darkness surrounding us.
She was one of them, I realized... a lower vampire, like Gideon and his family. She nearly dropped her lantern in her haste to get away from us.
“Wait!” I cried. “Please, we need help!”
The woman stopped short, her lantern illuminating the forest around her as she slowly turned her head back to , her eyes focusing on mine. Could she see the warm color of my skin? Could she sll my scent?
“I’m a wolf,” I said hastily, then nodded down to Lena. “She is too. She’s pregnant. We need shelter.”
The woman paled, if that was even possible, as she moved her gaze to Lena. She tilted her head as her eyes moved over Lena’s body, then stopped as she glimpsed her hair.
The woman said sothing in a language I didn’t understand. It was an exclamation of surprise. She looked back up at , her eyes widening with sudden understanding.
“Co,” she said, extending her hand. “Hurry.”
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