Chapter 9
9
MEV
Clara.
Oh my God, please be okay. Please don’t have tried to follow me.
The soreness of my backside, the smell of smoke… it was all too real to be a dream. Somehow, Jon’s crazy story of an immortal realm, and a portal to it in his understated York pub, was true. The proof surrounded me.
And then there was Prince Kael.
Every time I caught myself staring at his handsome face, I cursed under my breath. If it wasn’t bad enough that the man had literally kidnapped me, he was also as arrogant as they came and much too brusque for my taste.
“He didn’t share that particular bit of information?” he asked, skeptical. Not that Kael didn’t have a right to be. Half of my story was true, but the other half, not so much. Whether or not this guy’s father was the same man who had likely forced my mother from Elydor, before closing the portal, it still seemed unwise to tell him everything I knew. Which, to be fair, wasn’t much.
Only problem?
I was a terrible liar. Couldn’t play poker for the life of me.
“No,” I said finally, remembering his question. “I’m sure he meant to. It just… didn’t come up.”
“Seems like an important piece of information.” He handed me another piece of meat. I took it, trying to push away the fact that it was the same animal he’d carried to the fire earlier. I shuddered. “Either way, the fact that you’re alive means, know it or not, you have some sort of intuitive abilities within you.”
My mother had always said as much. For years she tried to train me, coax glimpses of the future from me. But nope. Nothing.
“I doubt it.”
Looking up for what seemed like the millionth time, I took in the sight above us. In some ways, it was the same kind of sky I was used to, though the kind you’d see on a very clear night in the country. But with more stars, all brighter, and some more blue or green than white or yellow. It felt as if we sat among them, the sky closer to the ground than it was back home.
Home. Earth.
Fucking hell.
“Will you take me back?” I asked, already knowing the answer. If he intended for me to turn right around and go back the way I came, we wouldn’t have ridden so far away from the Gate for so long.
“No,” he confirmed. “Not yet. There will be people looking for you. It’s best, for now, that I take you with me.”
“Why will people be looking for me? What is this place? And why do you speak my language? And, for that matter, look like a human?” I’d thought of a thousand questions throughout the day, and he seemed to be inclined to answer very few of them.
Dispensing with the remainder of our meal, Kael leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. “I don’t look like a human.”
Of all the questions to answer, he chose that one?
“Yes you do,” I argued. “Two arms, two legs. Non-pointed ears and all that. Human.”
“Elydor,” he said in a tone that didn’t even attempt to hide how little he wished to tell me this story, “is older, much older, than your realm. The human theory of Earth’s creation?—”
“The big bang theory?”
“Yes. That’s not far off from our own. A celestial event that imbued this land, and those who live in it, with an energy you don’t have in your world. In the beginning, all Elydorians were one, but eventually their abilities began to manifest differently. Those who could manipulate water migrated to the south; those like me, who were able to manipulate the land, to the midlands; and the air-wielders, to the north.”
“That’s where I came through? In the north?”
“Aetheria, aye.” He didn’t bother to hide his contempt.
“You don’t like them?”
“We don’t like anyone.”
Your mother was the Queen of Aetheria. There were more pressing matters to talk about, namely rumors that the Gyorian king wanted to close the portal.
Holy shit. There was so much to unpack there, I couldn’t even attempt it. But one thing was blatantly clear. It was a good thing I hadn’t told him everything.
“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked, knowing the answer already.
“Gyorians.”
“Earth-wielders.” I thought about all I’d seen him do today, and didn’t need him to acknowledge it.
“This isn’t Earth,” he said, irritated.
“I stand corrected. Apologies if it’s taking me a minute to adjust to that fact. It’s not every day I travel to immortal realms.” Then it hit me. “Jon said you were immortal. Does that mean… how old are you?”
“Old. Very old. To answer your earlier question, when you came through the Gate, the magic that lives in everything here balanced your essence with ours.”
I had no idea what that meant. What question was he even answering? “Huh?”
“With some exceptions, like that word you just uttered, everything we say to each other is able to be understood.”
“You’re saying…” This was getting more and more bonkers by the second. “We are speaking different languages right now? But it sounds like English to me? And I sound… Elydorian to you?”
Another sigh. I wanted to kick dirt in this dickhead’s face, but he’d probably wave his hand and make it come flying back right to me.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
Like I said. Dickhead. At least, maybe, he wasn’t a murderer, though I wasn’t a huge fan of his “perhaps” when I’d asked if I should be afraid of him—which I was. Terrified, actually. I’d decided not to let him see it. Prince Kael, very likely the son of the same man who banished us, was like a shark. If I ran around dripping blood, it would only give him a reason to circle.
“So why will people be looking for me?” I asked as innocently as possible.
“The Aetherian Gate has been closed, as Jon undoubtedly told you, for nearly thirty years.”
Twenty-eight, to be precise.
“And?”
“And the Council will want to know how it happened. Everyone, actually, will want to know how. But the Council especially.”
I waited, but he didn’t seem inclined to tell me more. “The Council?”
“Representatives from each clan who guarded the Gate and determined who was allowed to pass through it.”
“Clans. Like kingdoms?”
“Sure.”
Ugh. He was so smug. “And there are three?”
“Aye, three. Aetheria. Gyoria. Thalassaria.”
“You mentioned humans, though. Where are they? How long have they been here? Did they all go back? Don’t they have a clan?”
I was certain Jon mentioned its name; that was who I needed to get to. Other humans. My people.
“The Gate was opened over seven hundred years ago. The humans that came through live in Estmere, to the east.”
“So four clans then.”
“Three,” he corrected me.
“But you just said?—”
He stood. “Enough questions. Rest. We leave before dawn.”
I’d have asked more questions anyway, but the dickhead stood up and walked toward his horse. If I was less afraid than I had been earlier, that was one of the reasons. A man, or Elydorian, or whatever, couldn’t be that kind to his horse but also be a total monster. Could he?
I stood, my backside needing a break anyway.
With so many questions still swirling through my brain, I walked into the hut he’d built. With a wave of his hand. It was so incredible, and impossible, that I pushed the memory away. I wanted to forget all of it. Just go to sleep, and wake up, realizing this was all a big dream.
Or nightmare.
But something that I couldn’t explain, a feeling not unlike the pull that had drawn me to the portal in the first place, told me this wasn’t a dream at all. It also told me there was a familiarity here that made no sense. Nothing about it was familiar. I shouldn’t feel liked I belonged in this place at all. And yet…
A bed of leaves awaited me. I’d never even camped before, never mind slept on the ground like this before. But as I sat, it was surprisingly comfortable. I picked up some leaves and found an interwoven vine “mattress” beneath it.
How had he done it, exactly? Did all Gyorians have that same ability? More importantly, the only question that really mattered… was his father their king?
If Jon was right, and if my mother had actually lived here, marrying the Air king, that made this entire situation eminently more dangerous.
Rolling onto my side and closing my eyes, I decided to give them just a little rest while I waited for Kael to return.