10. Rae
RAE
What. Was. Happening?
It was the only thing I could think. Over and over. And it swirled around in my mind as I tried to grab hold of anything: a thought. This stranger who had freaking wings. The ground.
“You have wings,” I croaked.
They were beautiful, too. Not feathered but not exactly bat wings either. They were that shape and black, but they had an iridescent, reddish-orange coating. Like beautiful fire. Completely otherworldly. But somehow…familiar.
The stranger didn’t answer me.
Maybe he wasn’t even real. I mean, how could he be? We were flying. He had to be a hallucination. Or a dream, maybe? Memories scratched at the back of my brain, trying to break free, but they were hazy snatches at best.
It all felt so real: his arms, so solid around me. The scents of leather, smoke, amber, and that…something else. The wind whipping against my face. The twilight sky blurring around me.
What was wrong with me?
“Do I have a brain tumor?” The words tumbled out as if I couldn’t stop them. “Did I accidentally take hallucinogenic mushrooms in one of my labs? They aren’t supposed to have any in our greenhouses, but maybe someone snuck some in.”
“Does she ever stop talking?” the stranger grumbled.
“Nope,” a familiar voice answered far too cheerily. “She even talks to the plants.”
I gaped at my best friend. “Pax?” I squeaked. “You have wings, too?”
His were coated in an orangey-yellow and were a little smaller than the stranger’s, but they had that same iridescent glow.
He winced. “Sorry about the reveal. I was hoping we could ease you into it.” He sent a censuring look in the stranger’s direction.
“I think you need to take me to the hospital,” I mumbled. “I’m clearly delusional. Is it weird to hope it’s a brain tumor? Or maybe the mushrooms would be better. Are you seeing this, too? Maybe we both ate the mushrooms.”
“Is there seriously no off button for her?” the stranger clipped.
“It’s part of her charm, Rhys. You’ll get used to it,” Pax informed him.
Rhys.
I couldn’t help staring up at the man. At Rhys. The name fit him. Abrupt and a little harsh but somehow beautiful. Those amber eyes swirled and sparked. It was then that I realized they matched his wings a bit—not exactly, but it was clear the two were related in some way.
“If your brain were breaking, you might be freaking out, too,” I defended. “I might talk a lot, but at least I didn’t kidnap someone from their house.”
A muscle fluttered along Rhys’s jaw. “I think you mean your hovel.”
My jaw went slack, and I reacted on instinct. I reached up and flicked his nose.
Those amber eyes darkened. “Did you just flick me?”
Pax snickered as he flew next to us.
“You called my home a hovel. That deserved a flicking.” But as soon as I said it, I realized that I’d let go of his shoulder to do said flicking. I abruptly grabbed him again.
“What’s the going punishment for flicking these days, King Rhys?” Pax asked.
“King?” My single word came out high-pitched and a little breathy—and not a sexy breathy. A panicky breathy. The kind of breathy that promised an anxiety attack was near.
Rhys glared at my best friend. “Was that really necessary?”
“I’m gonna tell everyone she flicked you,” Pax teased.
“You’re not helping.”
Pax only laughed.
“King?” I pressed. “Of the…magical butterfly bats?”
I swore Rhys’s hold on me slackened for a fraction of a second. I squealed and held him tighter.
“Did you just call me a magical butterfly bat?” he demanded as his grip on me solidified again.
I swallowed against my suddenly dry throat. “Are you gonna drop me if I answer that?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to drop you.”
“Kinda felt like you were.”
Rhys let out a huff like a petulant child. “I won’t drop you.”
“He can’t,” Pax added.
I frowned as Rhys glared at him.
Pax only smiled wider. “Calling you a butterfly bat from now on.”
“You’re one, too,” Rhys snarled.
“It’s the wings,” I explained, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of a midair brawl. My fingers extended as if I had no control over them whatsoever and brushed against the almost-translucent material.
The moment my fingertips connected, tiny sparks flew through the air. I gasped as a zap of electricity swept through me.
Rhys let out a low, rumbling growl. “Do. Not. Touch. My. Wings.”
Oops.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Is that a no-no zone? I know that now. Lesson learned.” But my arm still buzzed with the energy.
Pax laughed so hard he had to wipe tears from under his eyes. “A no-no zone?”
My head snapped in his direction. “What? He seems mad. But then again, he always seems angry.”
A little of Pax’s laughter died. “He wasn’t always that way.”
“That’s what happens when your life is hijacked. You get a little cranky,” Rhys grumbled.
Hijacked? What did that mean?
“Hold on,” Rhys ordered. “Sometimes, people feel a little sick going through the portal for the first time.”
My eyes widened. “Portal?”
Rhys gritted his teeth, making tiny divots appear at the corners of his jaw. “Do not puke on me. Then, I will drop you.”
“He won’t,” Pax promised.
I wasn’t taking Pax’s word for it.
“Do not puke. Do not puke. Do not puke.” I whispered the words over and over again like a mantra.
Rhys simply grunted.
The air ahead of us rippled as if it were water and not air at all. There was also an iridescent shimmer to it, similar to the guys’ wings.
“Wha—?” My question was abruptly cut off as we passed through the portal.
The sensation was nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was like a vacuum was sucking us forward. It was more than that, though. It felt like some thick—but not altogether unpleasant—substance coated my entire body, undoing my equilibrium. My stomach pitched.
“Do not puke. Do not puke. Do not puke,” I kept ordering myself as I squeezed my eyes closed. I couldn’t risk what the visual might do to me.
“You can open your eyes now.” Rhys’s words were low and commanding.
“I don’t want to,” I said quietly.
“Petite étincelle.”
That nickname. I swore I’d heard it before the times he’d said it in recent days.
My eyelids fluttered open as I took in his face. “Who are you?”
Rhys stared at me for a long moment. I thought he might answer, maybe explain what the hell was going on, but he didn’t. Instead, he set me down.
The action itself was painfully gentle as my feet hit the dirt in my unicorn slippers. It was then that I remembered I was wearing my cactus pajamas, which read Don’t Be a Prick in tiny script all over them.
Awesome.
I let out a huff of air, finally looking around. But my brain couldn’t compute what I was seeing. Not really.
I’d never seen anything like this. Not even in the storybooks I remembered from my childhood. My fingers reached up to trace the scar along my collarbone.
Fire had always made me uneasy, ever since my adoptive parents had explained that my family was killed in a fire and that my scars were from the same event.
It had not only claimed my parents and two sisters but also my memories.
I remembered nothing from that time. And because of the devastation, there were no photos for me to use to try to jog that memory either.
And this place?
It was all fire.
My arms instantly wrapped around my middle, but even as they did, I realized the fire wasn’t the kind of scary it should be. It was…beautiful. Like Rhys’s wings.
The trees and flowers looked like they were made of embers—glittering, glowing sparks that were full of life. But the sky was the opposite. There was no light at all.
No stars. No moon. Nothing.
“Are you okay?” Rhys asked gruffly.
My gaze snapped to him. “Everything’s…fire.”
That muscle along his jaw fluttered again. “Yes.”
“It’s beautiful,” I told him honestly. “But does it… Will it burn?”
He stared at me for a long moment. He seemed to do that often, as if trying to read beneath my words. Or maybe he was just calculating his next move.
Finally, he bent and plucked a flower that looked a little like a poppy in shape but was made entirely of embers. “Hold out your arm.”
Sweat broke out down my spine. “I, uh…”
“I won’t hurt you,” he clipped, his annoyance clear.
My arm shot out as if it didn’t want to piss him off more.
Rhys tugged up the sleeve of my pajama top, exposing my bare forearm. Ever so gently, he traced the flower over the delicate skin. The sensation was glorious. Like a pleasant chill or an infinite number of mini explosions setting off in the best way.
“I… It’s magic.”
I thought I saw the barest smile curve Rhys’s lips, but it was gone before I could be sure. He dropped my arm and the flower, then stepped back.
But I couldn’t let the bloom go. I bent, picked it up, and twirled the stem between my fingers. Sparks flew off the petals, hypnotizing me.
“Uh, Rhys. We’ve got company,” Pax warned.
My head snapped up just in time to see Rhys pull some kind of martial arts staff from thin air. Pax made a similar move as about two dozen warrior-looking people emerged from the forest.
My mouth went dry. “If I could stop tripping right now, that would be great.”