Page 98 of The Curse of Golden Blood
I launched myself skyward, wings of pure energy carrying me toward the disturbance.
Shewas going to step through. She was going to leave.
Part of me wanted to let her go, to watch her disappear where fae politics and dying courts couldn't touch her.
But I looked past the portal. The landscape beyond wasn't right.
Gods, what insanity had she done?!
Those weren't the rolling meadows of the human realm. The sky held an unfamiliar cast of orange and gold. Strange memories rose unbidden in my mind… it seemed familiar, yet unknown.
More importantly, how had she managed to open a portal at all?
Muscles straining, I forced my wings to propel me to her.
Before she could take that final step, I launched myself forward again, gritting my teeth with effort. My arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her back from the threshold with enough force to send us both stumbling away from the gateway's edge.
"Let me go!" she gasped, struggling against my grip.
But I wasn't looking at her face anymore. I was staring at her eyes.
They glowed. Not golden like the eyes of the high court, but crimson. The very same crimson as my own eyes.
I breathed, the words falling from my lips like a revelation that should have been obvious from the beginning. "It's you. You're the changeling."
twenty-seven
The Other Side
Miralyte
"Letmego,"Ihissed, struggling in his grasp.
His arms wrapped around me like iron bands, yanking me back from the threshold just as my foot touched the portal's edge. The world spun as we stumbled away from the crackling gateway, his grip unrelenting even as I fought against him.
I had been so close. So close to freedom, to escape, to never having to face the choice between my death and everyone else's.
But Zydar didn't release me. Instead, he raised his hand toward the portal, power flowing from his fingers like liquid starlight. The gateway began to collapse in on itself, the tear in reality sealing with a sound like breaking glass.
No.No, no, no.
I watched my escape disappear, watched the last glimpse of another world fade into nothing. My chest felt hollow,scraped clean of hope. I'd broken the cardinal rule. I'd tried to use magic I didn't understand, attempted something that should have been impossible for someone like me.
Now I was doomed.
"You're the changeling."
The words hit me like ice water in the veins. I turned to stare at him.
"What?" The single word came out as barely a whisper.
Tremors ran through my hands where they pressed against his chest. Changeling. The word brought back memories of childhood stories, of my father's voice warning me about fae who stole human babies in the night. 'Eat your porridge, little one, or the fae folk will come steal you away and leave something else in your place.'
Zydar's eyes searched my face, looking for something I didn't understand. "You opened a portal. Only high fae can open portals."
"That's not... I'm not..." I shook my head, backing away from him. "I'm human. I'm mortal."
"You're coming with me."
