I look up.

The sun blinds me, but I blink it out of my eyes to focus on the threat.

If I’m still on Earth, it certainly isn’t the 21st century any longer. The only thing that makes sense is my psychotic episode has led me to hallucinate that I’m in a prehistoric era – back when animals were huge. Thethingflying towards usisan eagle; but only if eagles had wingspans the length of a bus, and cruelly hooked beaks that were longer than my arm.

The bird screeches out imperiously as it swoops down towards us, and terror washes over me.

The only thing keeping me from crawling into the fetal position is the strong hand steadying me. The mohawked warrior’s eyes track the eagle as it flies towards us, and there’s not a hint of fear in his gaze.

His arm moves so fast it can’t be real.

That eerie black axe whistles through the air, cutting towards the flying death that wants to rip us to shreds. The head of the weapon smashes against the breast of the bird, and scarlet blood arcs out. At the last second, the eagle opens its wings wide and pulls away, blood splattering down and soaking against the warrior’s arm. The bird veers off, screeching in pain, and the rush of wind from its beating wings nearly throws me onto the ground. Soon, the monstrous bird becomes a dot on the horizon, and then disappears into nothingness.

The warrior’s hand is still around my wrist. For a moment, I wish I knew his name – so that I could thank him. Then I realize the stupidity of that thought. These men, whoever they are, are the wholereasonI was in danger in the first place. I yank my arm in a huff, but I can’t escape the looming stranger’s vice-like grip. I’m reminded of how powerful he truly is. If he wanted to, I’d never be able to escape his grasp.

The mohawked warrior squeezes, and his face changes and becomes brutal and terrifying. His veins bulge, pulsating with green venom, and as he snarls his face contorts into a beastly mask.

“You’re hurting me!” I yell, trying to pull back. His eyes clear, and then he reluctantly releases me. I wipe cold sweat from my forehead. Finally, the mohawked beast speaks to me in his guttural language – but the only word in the string of speech I understand is “Aubrey”.

How does he know my name?

I’m incredulous the thought crossed my brain. It’s so mind-numbingly obvious.

Because you’re have a psychotic breakdown, Aubrey. He’s a delusion! Of course he knows your fucking name. Be smart. You didn’t get made partner because of your looks.

A shiver runs through me as the warrior reaches forward, brushing back a strand of my hair. I’ve always found a man touching my hair to be strangely intimate, and I shudder as part of me aches for the beastly man to do much more than just touch my hair. I ache for him to rip these stuffy, warm clothes off my body andclaimme. I rub my arm where he held me too tightly, and I can see his handprints on my skin. I don’t know what came over him. It’s as though he changed for a moment – lost himself in anger.

Then he swallows hard, and I stagger back from the beastly man. He strides to retrieve his axe, and the moment between us passes.

The leader of the three – at least, that’s what I assume he must be, since he was the one who picked me up and flung me over his shoulder – kneels down in front of me as though he’s proposing. His veins are pulsating as well, his heart clearly pounding from the battle, but he seems to have more control over his emotions than his mohawked companion.

The beast of a man is kneeling down before me, and I get a sickening flashback to the mortification I felt when Joshua proposed to me, back in that crowded restaurant in the Upper East Side. I still said yes – but I’d wished dearly that he’d asked me in a more a private place.

Instead of a diamond, like Joshua had offered me, this towering, long-haired stranger plucks a huge, golden feather from the ground and offers it to me. It shimmers in the sun, and I gasp.

The sun.

How did I miss it? I guess being flung over this monstrous man’s shoulder, and then being terrified for my life as he hoisted me through an alien jungle, offers a fair excuse...

…but now I pay attention and look at it, I notice what’s wrong immediately.

The sun istoo big.

Too red. Too hot.

That confirms it.I’m not on Earth any longer.

I tremble as I take the golden feather, tingles shivering through me as my hand touches that of the ridiculously huge, long-haired warrior.

For a moment, this feels soreal.

For a moment, I almost forget that my career, the last thing of value in my life, is over.

Dead.

I walked out of a partner’s meeting on my first day in the position – one I’d worked an entire decade to get.

Now? I’m probably strapped to a bed in a psych ward.