Chapter Forty-Six
~Leo~
The light above the forest had deepened as the portal came into view, sending streaks of gold filtering through the trees. We all came to a halt, everyone staring at the portal that was now clearly visible to all of us who had been through it before.
Kalo shouldn’t have been able to see it, since he’d never crossed over to the fae realm, but he squinted at the spot where it stood anyway.
“What do you see?” I asked him.
“Nothing out of the ordinary, but I can feel a strange energy. See?”
He held up his arm, and I could indeed see the fine hairs lifting off his brown skin, as if being pulled towards something ahead of them.
Silo paced restlessly inside my head as the rest of the group paused, as if the reality of what we were about to do had finally dawned on them all. We were about to walk into another realm to negotiate with dragons and bargain for a stolen immortal heart in an attempt to satisfy Death.
Objectively, it sounded insane.
“I still think one of you should stay behind,” I said for what had to be the fifth time as Vaughan checked the weapons strapped beneath his jacket and Felix fussed over Evalina. “If something goes wrong over there, the pack loses its entire leadership team.”
Neither of them looked remotely persuaded.
“If my mate dies because I stayed home, I’m no good to anyone anyway,” Felix replied dryly.
Vaughan nodded once in agreement. “Same answer.”
A month ago, I would have said they were both being irresponsible, but with my own mate beside me, I finally knew exactly why they felt the way they did.
Darius stood apart from the rest of us, his attention fixed entirely on Visenya. The reaper herself remained unnervingly calm, just as she had on the drive over. The iron band around her arm still sat snugly in place, keeping her connection with Death at bay.
“Is everyone ready?” Vaughan asked the group.
Although no one looked especially confident, everyone nodded anyway.
Kalo stepped into place beside me just before we approached the portal, and when his fingers slipped into mine, warmth spread instantly through my chest so suddenly and intensely it almost hurt.
Silo pressed close beneath my skin, far calmer now that Kalo was touching us, and I squeezed Kalo’s hand once before we stepped through the portal side by side.
Whatever happened next, we were facing it together.
Crossing between realms felt strangely similar to plunging underwater. Pressure wrapped briefly around my body, distorting sound and sensation for one disorienting second before releasing us abruptly onto the other side.
The landscape beyond the portal was nothing like the forests surrounding our pack lands.
Barren wasteland stretched endlessly in every direction, cracked stone and dark earth broken only by sparse patches of strange pale grass that shimmered silver under the fading light.
Warm wind caressed my skin, carrying a metallic scent with it.
To our right, a massive forest rose in the distance, its trees towering impossibly high with pale trunks and violet leaves that swayed softly in the wind.
“The fairy kingdom of Etta lies that way,” Evalina explained to those who may not have arrived this way before. “And the dragons are over there.”
Jagged mountains loomed on our left, clawing upward towards the sky like the teeth of some enormous beast.
Nothing ominous about that, Silo muttered inside my head.
Without wasting any time, we started towards the mountains, our boots crunching softly against the dry ground. The warriors Darius had selected spread out around the group, alert and watchful despite the eerie stillness surrounding us.
Beside me, Kalo studied the landscape, breathing the strange air deeply. “It’s beautiful, in a melancholy sort of way.”
‘Beautiful’ definitely wouldn’t have been the word I used, and I glanced over at him curiously. “Was your home anything like this?”
That earned me an immediate laugh; not mocking, exactly, but definitely amused.
“Oh, Leo. You need to get out and see more of your own world.”
He probably had a point. “That’s a no, then?”
“It’s a no,” he confirmed, still smiling. “You’ve never been to the Middle East?”
“No. Most of the travel I’ve done has been for work, and we only really deal with packs in our area, so…”
I trailed off there as Kalo’s jaw dropped. “Are you saying you’ve never been outside your own region?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”
“Because it is bad,” he teased.
I bumped my arm lightly against his. “Maybe I’ve been a little sheltered.”
“A little?”
“Hey, I’d been to the fae realm before you even knew it existed.”
He laughed again, and the sound was somehow even more enticing in the strange openness around us.
“Maybe you could show me some of the places you’ve been,” I suggested. “When all of this is over.”
Kalo’s expression softened into a wistfulness that I was sure must have been reflected in my own face. “I’d like that.”
The shadow passed over us so suddenly that every werewolf in the group stiffened instantly, but Darius reacted first.
“Above us.”
All of our heads snapped upward, to the massive shape circling high overhead, dark against the pink sky.
Vaughan immediately scanned the barren landscape around us. “Any ideas for cover?”
“There isn’t any,” Calista answered grimly, and she was right. The wasteland left us completely exposed.
The dragon began circling lower, and tension rippled through the group. The warriors’ hands went to their weapons, but Vaughan’s voice stopped them. “No sudden moves. Let’s make it clear we’re not a threat.”
Next to Felix, Evalina grabbed one of the containers from her bag and dumped the contents directly onto the ground. Bright green vegetables scattered across the dark earth.
“Move back,” she instructed. “Slowly.”
We obeyed immediately, retreating several feet as the dragon descended sharply towards the offering.
It landed with enough force to shake the ground beneath our feet, even though, to my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as big as the dragons we’d encountered before when we finally got a proper look at it.
This one was sleek-bodied and bright orange, with oversized wings and curious golden eyes that immediately locked onto the vegetables.
“It’s young,” Evalina whispered. “A child.”
The dragon lowered its head cautiously and sniffed the lettuce. Then, to my complete disbelief, it made an excited chirping sound and pawed enthusiastically at the pile.
Kalo chuckled. “Well, you were right about the vegetables.”
The tips of Evalina’s ears turned pink at the acknowledgement as the little dragon snatched up an entire cabbage in its mouth and crunched down happily.
Evalina stepped carefully forward. “Hello. We’re hoping to speak to whoever leads your group.”
The young dragon blinked at her but didn’t respond verbally. Instead, it lifted its head and released a loud cry towards the sky. A second shadow immediately appeared overhead, much larger than the first.
Felix blew out a breath. “Looks like we found mom.”
The second dragon descended far less playfully. She landed hard between us and the younger dragon, massive yellow wings partially spread and smoke curling steadily from her nostrils as golden eyes narrowed on the group.
The young dragon immediately shuffled behind her while still trying to drag vegetables along with one claw.
The larger dragon’s voice rumbled deep enough to vibrate through the ground. “What are you doing here?”
Silo snarled back inside my head, but Evalina bowed respectfully. “We’d like to speak to your group.”
The dragon’s gaze swept over all of us slowly. “You are a fairy,” she said to Evalina first before her attention shifted towards Visenya. “And you look like an elf, though you don’t smell like one. The rest of you are strangers to this world.”
Felix cleared his throat. “That’s right. We’ve come a very long way to speak with the dragons who have the fae prince Tarron’s heart.”
At the mention of Tarron’s heart, the dragon went completely still, and even the younger one stopped chewing. Once more, we were each inspected, and when the dragon’s gaze passed over Calista’s satchel, smoke curled from her nostrils.
“You may come.”
There was a collective exhale of breath as the dragon gestured towards the mountains with its large head.
“I will take you to the king’s den.”