Page 46 of Fractured Souls
“I did,” he rumbled.
“I wish I’d seen it,” Rhett lamented. “Then again, if I’d been there they probably would have been slaughtered much differently.”
“He told you who captured us?” I asked. Both men offered me heavy looks and a nod, my chest squeezing uncomfortably. I knew that the two of them were a bit better at handling situations like this… Adriel, Dean, Desmond, and Draven? Yeah, not so much.
Once they realized I was up, it was going to be athing.I understood it, though—if one of them had been captured to be sold to the highest bidder, I would have lost my shit. I mean, of course I would have—I loved them.
I couldn’t help the way my cheeks heated slightly thinking about just how much Zander felt for me considering the chaos that had ensued…
“Wait, how do we know no one will come after us?” I looked back towards the Kingdom of Day.
“Even if they do,” Zander said, “we’re heading right to the portal.”
“Oh.” I offered a confused look. “Where are we going?”
“The Old Realm of the Ethereal Sea.”
Rhett’s answer had everything clicking into place as I remembered the dream with the Cosmos god and his instruction to meet the other prophecy holder there.
“You said it in your sleep,” Cash explained. “Figured it was important.”
“The Cosmos god said the other prophecy holder was there.”
“It’s a good place to go regardless,” Zander said, sitting up so Cash and Rhett could hear him better. “The realm is completely removed from normal society. It is inhabited by a massive institute that is claimed to be a sentient library. So even without the prophecy element, it would allow us time to do the research we need.”
A sentient library. Sounded promising.
“Alright…” I murmured, looking in the direction of the portal. “So where is this place? Do we have to go back to Earth realm?”
“Yeah.” Cash nodded. “We need to find where the portal is exactly, but Draven says he believes it’s in Bora Bora.”
Oh Maker. I swallowed, keeping my eyes on the portal and trying to not think about my last trip to Bora Bora and why it went so bad.
Really bad.
CHAPTER16
Rhett
Something wason my bunny’s mind.
It was clear as day, and despite her consistent attempts to act unbothered, I could sense the heaviness of whatever was weighing on her shoulders. I also knew that it wasn’t the time to ask her about it yet, especially given the portal experience we’d just had.
Unlike last time, the portal was like a hurricane, creating a tumultuous and horrible ride that affected all of us. Usually it was just my brothers and I that were affected physically by portals, but as we stumbled down the mountain, everyone looked a bit green in the face.
Including Lorcan and Zander, although they appeared to be faring far better than us.
Zander looked exhausted though as he walked to my far left, his gaze on the path ahead of us. The afternoon sun lit up the landscape we traveled through, and I wasn’t positive, but I had a feeling it was the same day that we had left—that we’d only been ‘gone’ for a matter of hours. It was odd to consider, but I was thankful that we hadn’t lost too much time—it seemed to be a trademark of going to other realms.
“You good?” I asked Zander.
His eyes flickered to mine, and he nodded sharply. “Just a lot of magic at once—I’m not used to that anymore. It’s been a very long time since I’ve done anything of that scale,” he explained.
I nearly chuckled at that. ‘A lot of magic’ didn’t begin to describe what he had done in the Elven realm—it was a painful understatement. I didn’t respond, though, because I knew that Lorcan was partially listening, her hand intertwined with mine. I didn’t want her to think for a minute that Zander being tired was her fault, and I had a feeling he would want that as well. Luckily, she was at least partially distracted.
“I promise I feel great,” she said to Dean, who was walking on the other side of her. He offered only a grunt in response, and I knew he didn’t buy it. More importantly, she hadn’t reassured him in the least.
The unrestrained fury and fear we felt when we’d realized that she and Zander were gone could not be understated. It was terrifying to not know where my bunny had gone, especially when through our connection I could feel her panic and terror. The explosion of power had brought us back to the warehouse, where we’d quickly collected the texts as we tried to figure out where the hell they had taken our woman.
