Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My gut twists as I stare out the windshield of the SUV. There’s something shimmering much like the rip in reality that took us to the fae realm.
“What is that?” I ask, leaning forward.
“We’re about to find out,” Jayden mumbles. “Should I avoid it?”
We’ve been driving through swampland for the better part of an hour with no direction in mind, but that looks suspiciously as if it’s going to delay us again.
“No, it could just be the entrance to Arcadia. I don’t feel a pull toward it this time.” I grip the armrest a little harder.
“No, it feels like the opposite,” Draven says from the back. “Like it doesn’t want us to go through.”
“It could still be a portal or rip to another realm. Everyone, keep your eyes open,” Jayden says.
My stomach drops the closer we get to the shimmering barrier. Something whispers in my ear, “Danger. Keep out!” I shake my head and take a deep breath, holding it until we pass through the barrier, feeling as if ants are crawling across my skin. An involuntary shudder rolls down my spine.
“Wow, what is this place?” I lean forward in my seat.
“It’s like a paradise. I thought Arcadia was supposed to be mostly swampland to scare people away.” Jayden glances at me. “How did we come into the area that’s not?”
“Did we come into the right place? We’ve been lucky that we haven’t been thrown off course again. Maybe we’re in a different world?” I ask.
Vibrant flowers I have never seen before dot the ground around the SUV and lush foliage rises up, creating a canopy over the trees. It’s a paradise. A wild unknown land that doesn’t appear to be touched by human civilization.
“The book did say that there was a paradise, but it was surrounded by deadly swamp and demon pigeons. I’m glad it brought us somewhere safe rather than the heart of trouble.” I rub my eyes with two fingers and pinch my nose.
“That’s if,” Raven says, poking her head between the seats, “it even brought us where we need to be and didn’t derail us when we’re running out of time.”
“Wait.” Adrian leans forward and squints into the distance. “What’s that?”
“What do you see?” I glance out the windshield and a grin grows on my face. “I know exactly what that is. We weren’t sent to another realm; we are right where we need to be.”
“What?” Raven cocks her head to the side.
“Don’t you see the building? Look familiar to anyone else?” I ask.
Jayden glances at me and then back out the window. “Well, look at that. Guess the old goat has something to tell us if he moved the shop here.”
“Pan is here? That’s either a very good sign or a bad sign.” Raven clenches a fist in her lap.
“Well,” Draven says. “We probably shouldn’t keep him waiting. We are running out of time here already.”
I shoot him a glare for putting more pressure on us as we roll up to the front of the shop. “What in Hades?”
“Something’s not right here. Why does it look like that?” Raven asks.
Compared to the gorgeous landscape of Arcadia, Pan’s shop is run down. The paint on the siding is peeling and the sign above the entrance is hanging at an angle it never did before. What could have happened to the god of the wilds for his home to be like this?
“We need to go inside.” I wring my hands together. “Something is very wrong here.”
I unbuckle my seat belt and reach for the handle, but Jayden stops me with a hand on my knee. “We go in together, as a team. We could be walking into a trap set by the queen.”
“Yeah, B,” Raven says. “She knows you care and will investigate things like this. We need to be smart and prepare for what we might find.”
“You’re right, but Pan has helped us on more than one occasion. If something happens to him, I won’t forgive myself,” I say with a sigh.
We move as a unit inside the shop, but I’m unprepared for what we find. The shop is never really organized in any way that we can understand, but this time, it appears that a cyclone hit it. Papers are scattered across the ground and equipment hangs haphazardly from tree branches.
The big tree in the middle isn’t the vibrant brown and green it usually is. The leaves are turning to fall colors and withering. What happened to Pan’s wife? Is she okay? Where is Pan?
“We should spread out and look for him,” I say, bumping into a shelf but gripping it tight so it doesn’t crash to the ground.
“Where do you think he might be? The back room?” Jayden squeezes my hand.
“Maybe. That’s as good a place as any to search for him.”
“We’ll find him. He’s going to be okay. This may have something to do with Hermes. We should stay the course.” Jayden grips a tree branch, holding it out of the way for me.
We pick through hiking equipment and stores of dried meats and canned goods he keeps in the shop but are now strewn across the floor. This place has never been particularly clean but this is a disaster.
My hands shake as I press my hand to the door of the back room but it doesn’t budge. Pushing harder, I glance at Jayden with terror. Pan could be slumped on the other side of the door dying and we won’t be able to help.
“Can you shadow walk in there?” I ask. “What if Pan is the reason I can’t open it?”
Jayden nods and grips my hand in his. Shadows wrap around us, caressing my skin as we appear in Pan’s back room. There’s a table shoved against the door.
“The wilds.” A mutter reaches my ears from deeper into the room. “There has to be a solution to the shrinking wilds.”
“Pan,” I whisper, attempting not to startle the god of the wilds.
Pan either doesn’t hear me or doesn’t want to talk as he continues to mutter to himself. “Father must be strong. They have to make him strong or all is lost. The beautiful wild places will disappear.”
“Pan, what are you talking about?” Jayden asks. “Who needs to be strong?”
I step around the table he’s hunched over, tinkering with something, and crouch down to the god’s level. His gaze is glassy and unfocused. He’s not seeing or hearing us speak.
“What’s wrong with him? Why can’t he hear us?” I ask Jayden.
“I don’t know. Maybe we need water magic to snap him out of it?” Jayden waves Thad over.
“You want me to spray a literal god with water to snap him out of his trance?” Thad asks, incredulous.
“It’s better than if I zap him.” I shrug. “At least the water won’t hurt.”
“If he turns me into a tree or something, I’m going to haunt your asses for the rest of eternity.” Thad grumbles.
“He won’t. We won’t let him.” I shake my head, taking a step away from the table.
Thad moves to the place I just vacated and blows out a breath before calling his water magic and spraying it directly into Pan’s face. Pan splutters and curses, wiping his face with a hand before glaring at Thad.
“Don’t,” I say as Pan raises a hand, a green glow emanating around his fingers. “We had to snap you out of it. It was either that or zap you.”
“Beth?” Pan snaps his gaze to mine. “Thank the fates. You’re here. The roads were perilous. I wasn’t sure if you would make it without getting sucked into another realm.”
“Well, we didn’t actually make it without that happening. We just found our way back where humans can’t.” I shrug.
“But we’re here now, so tell us what’s happening.” Jayden crouches next to the table. “Why does the shop look like a cyclone tore through it?”
“My father, he’s weak. He needs your help to get back to full strength. It isn’t just humans disappearing into other realms. Whole sections of the wilds are disappearing at an alarming rate. The fewer wilds in this realm, the weaker I become. I can’t protect them.”
“Wait, are you saying Hermes is your father?” I ask. “The wilds are being sucked into other realms because your father’s power is diminishing and as a result yours is too?”
“Yes, the wilds are disappearing, but Father can’t fix it because of the caduceus. He needs it to fix everything.” Pan rubs a hand over his wrinkled forehead.
Did he have those wrinkles before? He is satyr but I don’t remember him looking this old. I glance at the others gathered around the table.
“You know where it is,” Adrian says.
“I do. It’s in the swamplands of Arcadia. The temple of Hermes. They are taking over more and more of the lush paradise though, and there are dangerous swamp creatures meant to keep mortals away from paradise,” Pan says.
“We know Hephaestus’ Stymphalian birds call the swamp home. We have fought them before. I know how to kill them,” I say with more confidence than I feel when it comes to the demon pigeons.
“We barely made it out the last time.” Jayden grimaces. “That acid sucks horribly.”
“I know what I can do now. Before I wasn’t as experienced. I think we’ll be okay,” I say even as my hands shake.
Pan nods and rushes from the room, gathering supplies, but it takes longer than normal because everything is strewn across the space.
“Okay, you should have everything you need to continue on foot.” Pan dusts his hands off.
“Leaving the SUV behind is taking our cover away,” Kira whispers.
“We don’t have a choice. I’m guessing the terrain isn’t meant for vehicles. We need stealth as much as cover, if not more. I don’t think we should paint a giant target on our backs by four-wheeling through swampland.” I sigh.
“Agreed,” Raven says.
“Same,” Jayden agrees.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Dax tightens the straps on the rucksack on his back. “There should be enough cover in the foliage to at least hide us a little.”
“Thanks, Pan. We’ll get the caduceus back so you can heal the wilds.” I pat him on the shoulder.
“Be careful and be vigilant. There’s a reason humans don’t go into the swamps,” he warns again.
“We will, thanks again,” Jayden says and wraps an arm around my shoulders steering me away.
I glance back one more time with a nod before we plunge into the thick foliage. Vibrant purple, blue, and pink flowers give way to puddles and a noxious odor.
“Gods, what is that?” I ask, covering my nose.