Chapter Twenty-Five
Mia
I was using the cold metal rectangle with a hole in it when I heard the sound of a lock turning.
“Just a minute!” I screeched like a teenager about to get caught masturbating, frantically trying to haul my underwear up before whoever was on the other side pushed the door open and got a full view.
“Mia?” a voice called through the slit in the steel door.
“Hang on!” I said, zipping my pants up, doing the button, and then dancing around a little to get everything to settle properly. It wasn’t dignified, but it was all I had to work with.
“Can I come in now?” Tor asked, amusement evident in his tone.
I stomped over to the door and flung it open wide. The door whipped backward, clanged off the wall, then began to swing shut.
“Do you find this funny?” I snarled in his face, slamming a shoulder into the heavy steel, trying to stop it.
I failed, and the door kept closing, my feet skidding across the floor until I bounced off his chest with a very unladylike grunt of inconvenience and irritation.
“Um, maybe a little?” he chuckled.
“Really?” I said, gathering myself and pulling strands of hair from my face.
“You find it funny that I’m in jail, and you’re all contemplating whether or not to kill me?
You find it funny to come to Earth to take it over?
You find it funny that you let me fool around with you when you aren’t even human? !”
My voice reached a crescendo, and the smile slowly faded from Tor’s face.
“By the God-King,” he said, eyes widening until I could see all the swirly gray circles. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that you’re aliens here to take over the planet. I watched it happen, Tor. I saw them come through that portal thing.”
Tor sighed. “I … all right. Listen. In the most technical of senses, perhaps, yes, we’re aliens. But,” he continued swiftly, raising a hand to cut me off, “but we’re not here to take over. Nor are we really aliens. This is me, this body. It might not be my true form, but it’s me.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused.
“Come with me,” he said. “It’s easier just to show you.”
“I don’t want to go to your spaceship,” I said. “I’ve seen basically nothing. Right now, you can send me home, and people will just call me crazy if I start blabbing on. But the more you show me, the more detail I have. I don’t want that. I just want to live, Tor, if that’s your real name.”
“It’s short for Torrent,” he said. “That’s my real name.”
I studied him.
“Mia,” he said with another sigh. “This … What a mess.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Yes, I am,” he said dryly. “I never thought, in a million years, that you would be … Anyway, come with me. I’ll show you everything, the truth. You can make your own opinion, decide what you want to decide, but at least that way, you’ll have all your answers.”
I eyed him skeptically. “That definitely sounds like it’s a lead-in to killing me.”
Tor whirled and slammed a fist into the wall. The thick steel plate dented heavily under the blow as the metal shrieked in protest. I eyed the fist-deep impact crater.
“If I wanted you dead,” he said quietly, “I would snap your neck here and now and be done with it.”
“Unless you prefer your humans raw and wiggling,” I countered, trying not to fathom just how strong someone would have to be to leave that dent.
I’d hit the wall in frustration during my short imprisonment. My knuckles ached still, and I hadn’t even so much as scratched it. Tor didn’t appear to be the least bit fazed by the strength of his blow.
“You think we want to eat you?” he asked, eyebrows rising.
“It’s not out of the realm of what aliens would do,” I replied.
“Mia. I’m not an alien, not in that sense, at least. And trust me, the only ‘eating’ I want to do is what I did to you the other night.”
My jaw dropped open while my cheeks burned. To my utter shock, my hand came up and slapped him. “Don’t talk to me like that! You don’t have that right anymore.”
Tor, instead of getting angry or hitting me back, killing me, or a dozen other things he could have done, did the one thing I didn’t expect. He threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“Good,” he said through the chuckles. “Good! I like your attitude. Now, come with me, and I will show you the truth, and you can stop your little hissy fit, okay?”
“I—”
He grabbed my hand, his fingers wrapping around mine, and started pulling me behind him. I stumbled. The sheer jolt of excited energy that rushed through me at his touch fried the connection from my brain to my legs.
“Don’t fall,” he teased, guiding me out of the secret hallway. His steps were slow, measured, giving me time to walk without hurrying in his wake.
I expected him to take me upstairs. Instead, we went the other direction, deeper into the basement. Toward the room where I’d seen the portal thingy. Where the other dragon had emerged.
“This,” he said, flinging the door open after pressing his palm to a certain area, “is what we call The Rift.”
“The Rift,” I said.
“Yes. It connects my home to Earth. It’s one of four locations on Earth, leading to the one location back home, buried deep under the central mountain at the core of our home, Mount Drakonus.
That one master Rift, I suppose you could call it, guides the members of their clan to their respective portals on Earth. ”
“You lost me,” I said. “Clan? Mount Drakonus?”
“Yes, come on,” he said, dragging me into the room against my will. “I’ll show you.”
The space under the bronzed arch looked entirely different. Instead of the buzzing crackle of blue-white lightning that had filled it before, it had a brilliant silver glow, like water rippling on a vertical surface.
“That’s beautiful,” I murmured, entranced by the constantly shifting display.
Tor paused to look at it, and when he spoke, his voice was soft, reverent. “Yes, I suppose it is. Thank you.”
I glanced at him. “What? Why are you thanking me?”
“For reminding me,” he said, gesturing at the arch, “to appreciate the beauty in the simple things in life. Things that we become accustomed to. Like this.”
“Oh.”
“Now, are you ready to see the truth of it all? Of what I am?”
“Maybe?” I squeaked. “I don’t know. Am I?”
Tor grinned. “Probably not. But only because you have no idea what to expect. I’m eager to see how resilient you are.”
“Can’t you just tell me?”
“No. I have to show you. You wouldn’t believe my words.”
“Oh.” I eyed the rift-portal thing suspiciously. “You’re going to make me go through it, aren’t you?”
Tor beamed. “I knew you were smart. Yes, I am. Come on.”
He gripped my hand tighter—I realized he’d never let go. I’d simply become used to his hand on mine—and he dragged me forward. As we went, he lifted his other hand. Blue-white lightning gathered in his palm, then shot out to the Rift.
“Holy shit!” I gasped as the silver water disappeared, replaced by the lightning show I’d seen before. “You can …”
“Yes, I can,” he said. “That is what ensures the Rift knows one of my kind is trying to use it. On the other side, it also ensures you reach the appropriate Rift on Earth. You have to link it. Now come on, let me show you my home!”
The eagerness in his voice surprised me enough that I let him get me halfway to the Rift before my brain clicked in. It was lightning, and he was trying to drag me into it! Hell, no. My heels dug in—and did absolutely nothing as I slid across the surface. Tor was too strong.
“It’s perfectly safe,” he said, hauling me back to his side. “You aren’t going to be harmed, Mia. In fact, quite the opposite.”
“What?”
“Come and see!” he laughed and pulled me through the Rift.
My scream cut off as I emerged through the other side, completely unharmed.
“Wow,” I whispered, first giving my body a shakedown to ensure all appendages were still attached. Then I looked outward.
Finally, I looked upward. Way up. We were in the middle of an underground cavern.
The size of it defied understanding. Far, far above, I could see four massive holes spaced at even intervals leading at an upward angle toward what I had to assume was the surface.
The holes were gargantuan, though distance seemed to warp them, making them seem closer and, therefore, smaller.
“Welcome to Mount Drakonus,” Tor said, spreading his arms wide and finally dropping my hand.
I soured slightly as the pulse of giddy energy faded, but my awe at the size of the place kept me distracted.
Eventually, I turned to see that the portal was massive.
Easily ten times the size of the one in the basement of Tor’s house.
If not a hundred. White stones arched up to the top, glowing brilliantly from the blue-white display sizzling between them.
“This is big,” I said, swallowing, suddenly nervous at the idea of just how many millions of tons of rock were standing above me.
“It has to be,” Tor said. “My people need the space.”
“You do?” I looked at him. “Listen, you’re tall, but I mean …”
Tor grinned. “In this form. But in our other form, well, see for yourself.”
He spread his arms wide and, in front of my disbelieving eyes, began to change.