Chapter 4
The first thing I noticed was the cold. Bitterly cold air pierced through my skin like tiny daggers.
Every inch of me trembled, and my summer attire of a tank top and shorts did nothing to warm my bones.
Wind whipped against my body, so frigid that it felt like ice was creeping up my skin, as if it, too, were ravenous for warmth.
Where am I? This feels like winter in Minnesota.
The black spots crowding my vision from whatever strange archway Gold-Eyes pushed me through were slow to recede, but one thing was obvious even without clear sight.
This place was dark. A strange starless sky loomed overhead, two moons hanging side by side providing just enough light to make out my surroundings.
Two moons? That’s not right. Nerves prickled across my bare arms.
In the dim light, there were a handful of dead-looking trees that surrounded me and the outline of tall mountains on the horizon.
Snow soaked through my farm boots, numbing my toes.
A strange, faint sulfur scent filled the air, and I fought the urge to plug my nose.
Absolute silence pressed in on me like a heavy, smothering blanket.
There were no birds chirping or insects buzzing or dogs barking in the distance.
My breath clouded in the cold air and my boots, which were riddled with holes, sank into the snow, doing nothing to stave off the cold. I flinched as warm fingers wrapped around my upper arm, and I automatically leaned away when I found those gold-ringed eyes so close to mine.
Though his eyes narrowed as he glared at me, his grip wasn’t what I expected. It was firm but not painful like my father’s.
What did he have to be angry about? I was the one kidnapped and brought to a strange place. As upset as he appeared to be, I was a little surprised he hadn’t tried to hurt me.
My kidnapper threw a dark look my way, glancing at his fingers before loosening his grip the tiniest amount.
“Where are we?” I breathed, my voice shaking from the cold. I wanted to cross my arms around myself to keep in a little bit of warmth, but with the way he held me it was impossible.
Instead of responding, he guided me away from the now-empty arch.
My heart sank when the silver ripples disappeared, and I could no longer see the basement on the other side of it.
He yanked me to a stop on the edge of a cliff, and the breath escaped my lungs at the sight of the surrounding landscape.
As I stared and stared, I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing.
Mountains lined the horizon as far as I could see, though as my eyes continued to adjust to the darkness, I realized they weren’t snow-capped mountains at all.
They were volcanoes.
Red lava flowed in lazy rivers down the sides, painting the landscape in a sheen of red.
The cliff we were situated on was spared from the fire engulfing the mountainside.
Despite the fact that lava surrounded us, it did nothing to warm the air.
There was no heat. Only cold. Even stranger was that the snow on the ground wasn’t melting from the heat of the lava.
Wait…Minnesota doesn’t have volcanoes, let alone mountains...
My attention snapped back to the two moons hanging in the sky, to the starless black abyss.
A terrible, sinking feeling drove my stomach into the ground.
“Where are we?” I asked again, a little louder this time. I couldn’t tear my eyes from the scene in front of me. I was a long, long way from home.
Silence stretched, squeezing my lungs tighter and tighter with each passing second. Then that deep voice rumbled beside me, and goosebumps prickled over my skin.
“Welcome to Eroth—the Land of Flames and Sorrow.”
***
“Take me back,” I pleaded.
Gold-Eyes only shook his head and kept walking.
“Please.” I tried to soften my voice since I doubted there was much preventing him from killing me if I pushed him too far.
Gesturing vaguely at the volcanoes, I continued.
“You just kidnapped me and brought me to this”—I searched for whatever he had called this place—“Broth place where I’m seconds away from freezing to death”—I waved at my lack of winter clothing—“and you’re ignoring me? ”
“Eroth,” he replied.
“What?”
“This place is called Eroth. Not Broth.”
I blew out a frustrated breath, crossing my arms again in a small attempt to warm myself up.
“How did we even get here?” I asked, looking around at the strange, unfamiliar landscape again.
“An ancient portal,” he said, then added quietly, “One of the last ones I still have access to.”
A portal? Golden light that could kill? Just what was this place?
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. “Do you want me to beg? Please take me back.”
“You are persistent, aren’t you?” He let out a long-suffering sigh.
I glared at him, biting the inside of my cheek.
I didn’t know who this man was, nor did I know how violent he might get if I made him too mad.
A life with my father had taught me to always back down, to never fight back, to cower.
I had learned to give no indication of my emotions, lest they be used against me.
And yet the stakes had never been like this.
I had never been taken from my family before, never had the ability to protect them from my father taken away from me either.
The thought of him going after my mom or my siblings spurred me to say through clenched teeth, “You don’t understand. I have to go home.”
His only response was to stare at me with the most stoic look possible before turning away. How could he not care what he had done to me—to my family—by bringing me here?
“W-where are you going?”
He started walking away from the portal, his boots somehow silent in the icy snow. Another violent shiver racked through my body, my toes aching from the cold.
My kidnapper stopped, keeping his back to me. “If you want to continue living, I suggest you follow me. It’s not safe here.”
Nausea swirled in my stomach. “Please,” I pleaded once more, hating the way my voice broke and betrayed my emotions.
He flicked a hand over his shoulder, ignoring my plea. “Fine, stay here. Your death is on your own head then.”
The man walked back toward the arch standing a few feet away, and I hoped for a moment that he would open the strange portal and send me home, but he skirted around it, continuing up a rugged path toward a cave that I hadn’t noticed before.
My hands slid into my hair, gripping at the roots as I watched him walk away.
I had no idea how to get home, but I clearly couldn’t stay on this frozen cliffside, surrounded by volcanoes and endless lava.
Despite the fact that I was somehow in a world that wasn’t my own, my brain was transfixed on the fact that I had left cold groceries in the back of the car, that if I didn’t get home, no one would be there to keep my siblings and my mom safe.
I had to get back. They were counting on that food, on me following my father’s demands.
I squeezed my eyes shut at the thought of what would happen to them when I didn’t return to the farm.
My father had told me to be back soon. I had no idea how much time had passed, but I was sure it was longer than what he considered soon.
I marched up to the archway, inspecting every inch of it, hoping to find some sort of button that would activate it, making that silver liquid-like substance reappear so I could leave this strange world behind.
I expected it to be freezing cold as I pressed my fingers to the stone, feeling for anything that might turn it on, but was surprised to find it pleasantly warm.
There was a faint pulsing as I pressed my entire palm against it that I couldn’t make sense of.
I wasted precious seconds searching for an on switch.
But the arch was smooth as polished stone, the inside empty.
There appeared to be no way to turn it on—not that I would know how to use it anyway.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my kidnapper slip into the cave without even a backward glance at me. My breath shook as I exhaled. What was I supposed to do?
I had never heard of such a place called Eroth. Was this some new country on Earth that I hadn’t learned about? Or was this truly a different world? Was that even possible?
I might have had an overactive imagination, but never in my wildest dreams had I expected there to be real worlds outside of my own.
What was this place?
And what were those golden death rays that the guy had used to kill the other kidnapper?
My blood chilled. He killed my kidnapper.
And then he kidnapped me.
What did that mean for me?
Would he kill me too?
As another shiver wracked through my body, I realized there was nothing I could do.
I didn’t know anything about this place, and I had no idea how to get back home.
I would freeze to death, probably very soon, if I stayed here.
But was going with Gold-Eyes any safer? He was a killer.
He didn’t even have to touch me and I could die.
A low rumble started beneath me, and I glanced over the edge of the mountain and stumbled back in shock. I swore the lava started moving up the cliff toward me, as though it were reaching for me. That was impossible, right?
The rumbling grew louder, and I swallowed hard, knowing my choice was made for me. Gold-Eyes was right—as much as I didn’t want to admit it. I would die if I didn’t follow him. I could feel in my bones that it was the truth.
Left with no other choice, I followed after him, crossing my arms against the frozen wind, and sloughed through the snow toward the cave.