Page 42 of Vicious Little Vows
I slithered awkwardly behind the sofa, then rose to a crouch. Once I had moved, the tapping stopped. Definitely not just a branch in the wind. And I didn’t remember any foliage that close to the window anyway.
I rose up enough to peek beyond the couch toward the window. There was now a shadow there, blocking the moonlight. Frozen once more with fear, I tried to sense the guys, but I couldn’t feel anything. It was like the golden cords between us had been severed.
The window creaked open, the glass panel swinging inward. Holy shit, had there not been a lock on it? I knew I should run, but I just crouched there, paralyzed as a sound like tinkling glass filled the room.
I blinked, and suddenly I was outside under a sea of glittering stars.
“What the—” Was this a dream? But it didn’t feel like a dream. The air was cold. Painfully cold. And fear churned my stomach so violently I thought I might vomit.
I sensed a presence behind me and turned. I was still within the wall protecting the estate from the gray, but something else was in here with me. That something shifted in the darkness between me and the doors of the estate. I heard the tinkling glass sound again as the form grew more solid. It was mostly black, but every so often it shifted and something within it glittered like the stars overhead.
I thought of the guys, intent on jumping to one of them even if magic was muted in this place.
You have finally come,a voice spoke into my mind.
I held out my hands as the figure shifted closer. It was forming more solidly into the shape of a person, but was still made of swirling darkness and stars. “W-what are you?” Maybe that was rude. Maybe I should have askedwhoare you, but mostly I was just trying not to wet myself.
A guardian, nothing more. Created and left behind to protect this waypoint.
“Waypoint?”
The figure shifted, forming an arm to sweep back and encompass the estate.
Okay, it was here to protect things, and it wasn’t attacking me. Maybe it wasn’t a monster after all. Still though, if it got too close to me, I would try to jump myself back to the guys… wherever they were. “Is this another pocket realm?” I asked. “A place between earth and the goblin realm?”
The figure seemed to nod, showing more stars glittering inside its faceless head.A waypoint.Its head seemed to tilt.You are half human. The voice in my head sounded utterly perplexed.How did you travel the pathway?
Ye-ah, didn’t really want to explain the conduit stuff to a weird star being in another realm. “I don’t know,” I lied. “So this isn’t the goblin realm? Do you know if that gray area out there was caused by a vortex?”
Vortex?
It was clear it didn’t know what I was talking about, but I wasn’t sure how to explain it. “Do you know what happened here?” I tried instead. “Is there anyone else in this realm?”
No one. No one ever comes.It sounded sad.I sensed you. I thought—It cut itself off. Its form shifted and started to fade.
“Wait.” I held up a hand, stepping closer, but the guardian unformed, the stars within it drifting out in every direction. I sighed. “Shit.” I didn’t have a chance to ask it where the guys were. They wouldn’t have left me alone.
Not knowing what else to do, I started walking toward the nearest doorway. Nothing stopped me from going back inside, but I hesitated in the entrance. It was pitch dark inside. The tiny hairs at the back of my neck prickled. Having a bad feeling, I stepped back out into the night.
“Mistral!” I called out, taking a few more steps back to observe the visible windows. They were all dark. “Gabriel! Crispin!”
No one answered.
I backed further away from the estate. I could wait until morning, but it was freezing out, and what if the guys were in trouble? I longed to hear a voice, any voice. Even the voice of the strange guardian creature.
As if summoned by my thoughts, it appeared before me again, making that tinkling glass sound as it formed.
“Do you know where the guys went?” My voice came out shrill. “The ones I arrived here with?”
I exist to guard the waypoint.
“Did you do something to them?” I had stepped toward the guardian without thinking. I wasn’t sure what I could do to it, but if it took the guys I’d find a way.
They brought ruin. Something drains the magic of this place. I exist to protect. You are half celestial. Perhaps it is enough.
Oh gods, it had done something to them. And I couldn’t sense our cords. “They didn’t do anything!” I choked out, worried it would disappear again. “The magic was being drained here before we arrived. It’s a vortex, somewhere in… the realm that connects to this one.” It didn’t seem to comprehend half of what I said, so it probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about if I mentioned the Bogs. If it had been left here before the pathways were severed, it wouldn’t know much about my current world at all.
I was starting to hyperventilate, and had to take a moment to force my breathing to slow. “I need them back if I’m to fix what’s happening. We’ll find the vortex, and it will stop draining the magic here. Your waypoint will be safe.”
