Page 30 of Monsters of Midnight

“What is it?” I asked.

“Hibiscus tea.” She smiled as she poured the pale liquid in to the hibiscus tea. “There is some normal stuff in there like ginger and turmeric and then there are a couple other things you probably don’t want to know about.”

“Did anyone die in the making of this potion?” I questioned, trying to pretend I cared, but the truth was right now I didn’t really care about anything other than getting Ratchet back. If that meant somebody had to die, well, I knew it wasn’t right, but I wasn’t sure I cared. Still, it was a relief and Christina shook her head.

“Not even an animal,” she said. “Pure, vegan potion.”

“Fine. I don’t want to know anything beyond that,” I said. “Well, I suppose I want to know if it’s going to work.” I amended my comment.

“We won’t know until we try,” Christina said.

“I’ll try anything,” Ratchet groaned. He looked up at me, his nostrils flaring, his eyes wide. “I feel like every nerve ending in my body is on fire.”

“Can you hold steady enough to drink it?” I placed the drink in his hand and held my hands around his long enough to make sure he had a good grip on the glass.

He gave me a sideways smirk. “I’ve never met a glass I couldn’t hold.” He raised the cup in the air, using both hands to steady it before lifting it to his lips and draining the liquid until the glass was completely empty.

“Now what’s going to happen?” I queried Christina.

“He’s going to go into a sleep.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes, even though that’s what I felt like doing. This was just what I needed. My right-hand man to disappear, my wife’s right-hand woman to disappear, and me to be left.

Alone.

I needed to go to the DGC and talk to them. I had to try and see Caroline one last time before she disappeared forever out of my reach. I watched as Ratchet lay back.

He needed rest.

Now was the perfect time to petition the DGC.

Chapter 17

CAROLINE

The pulsating glow of the horizon was a constant reminder I was in a maze of shadows, and there was nothing that could get me out except for Thrain. The entire world I had known before was gone. There was nothing to connect me back to Ryder, to give me access to the world I had once known, but I still wasn’t ready to say goodbye to all of it. Here in Undirheim, it seemed so much less realistic, so much farther away, as if I was looking at it through a dark tinted window on a screen.

It didn’t seem real.

The next time I started to consciousness, my skin was healed. There was no mirror, no way of seeing what I actually looked like, but when I looked down at my hands, they were healthy and covered in peach flesh. I moved my fingers in a wave, rubbing my thumb over them.

Wherever I was, I was definitely alive. And where I was from, I could no longer go back to. A curiosity whirled within me to explore this place the portal had brought me.

I stood up and looked around the cell I was in. Dark, windowless walls were no more than an arm’s reach away on either side. A small doorway was at the far end of the tiny room. When I stepped through it, I found myself on what seemed to be a side street in a gothic, dark town.

Spires skewered the skyline, cobblestone streets weaved in all directions and fires burned everywhere. There was a slickness about the stones, but it didn’t seem like a typical rain one would expect, it was a sticky and thick moisture that gathered on the stones. Somehow it didn’t bother me, though. There was something that made me feel right at home here.

A large, whooshing sound overhead made me scream as I jumped back. A creature landed just beyond me. She was all in white with large white wings, and for a moment, I thought she was an angel till she opened her mouth and I saw she had fangs.

“About time you rose from your bed.” Her voice was lyrical and harmonious.

“What the fuck are you?” I asked.

“I’m here to bring you to the next world,” She said. “My name is Oren.”

“What world is that?” I pushed my hair out of my eyes, so I could better get a better look at her. At first glance she would’ve been what a human would call an angel. She had very pale skin and white hair and white wings. There was also something sharp about her. The white in her eyes was almost too clear, the white of her teeth too white. Not to mention the sharpness of them was too harsh. There was something visceral about her that put a chill in my bones.

“I’m a Valkyrie,” she said. “Normally I take people to Valhalla. I think it goes without saying, though, you’re not a Viking.” She twisted slightly on her heel, and I got a side glance at her wings. They were sharp, just like the rest of her. If she were ever caught in battle, it would not surprise me if these wings could be used as weapons.

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