Chapter 1 #4
The man put her down on her feet, and moved his big hands to her waist to steady her as she swayed.
The heat of his body seeped through her clothes and spread over her skin, suffusing her with warmth.
He had to be the biggest, most intense-looking man she’d ever encountered—and she’d always loved the ancient warrior type.
Although Lucy was tall for a woman at five-eleven he towered over her, his incredibly beefy build making him look twice as wide.
She checked out his clothes again, and noticed his fur-topped brown boots had been crudely made from hide or leather and, judging by the primitive look of the seams, had been hand stitched.
Who made their own boots in this day and age?
Only it isn’t my day and age, Lucy reminded herself.
She wanted to be more skeptical. Could the voice and this man be working together, like a con artist team Justin had hired to mess with her? This guy could be a cast member from one of the theme parks, still wearing his work costume. Why was he looking her over with such an angry expression now?
“I’m sorry.” She saw trees behind him, but they were gigantic sessile oaks—the kind that grew on the other side of the Atlantic.
That was when she realized that everything around them looked different, from the huge boulders on either side of them to the enormous shimmering lake only a few hundred yards away. “Could you tell me where I am, please?”
His jaw tightened. “You’re trespassing on my land, wench.”
That was not an American or a Latino accent, Lucy thought, even more bewildered now.
He sounded a little like James, her father’s secretary, who was Scottish, although with such a heavy accent she could barely make out what he’d said.
His eyes had flashed gold for a moment as he’d said that, but maybe it had been a trick of the light.
She couldn’t understand why the sun was setting, either.
Was he mad about her being here, really?
Lucy abruptly recalled she’d dropped out of the sky on top of him, and if he hadn’t caught her might have seriously hurt the guy. Of course he had a right to be angry.
“Thank you for saving me, sir. I’m Lucy Brooke.
” She waited for him to reciprocate and tell her his name.
When he didn’t she gave into an impulse, stood on her toes and kissed his cheek before she stepped back.
She’d meant it as a gesture of gratitude, but her lips tingled madly.
“I really appreciate your help, and I don’t mean to trespass. Something very strange just happened–”
The ground began to shake under Lucy’s feet, and the man grabbed her and yanked her against him as he spun around to face a huge forest of gigantic trees.
Some began to fall over, creating fountains of detritus and dirt as they crashed into the ground.
An inky blackness appeared in the air, as if something had torn a hole in reality.
The darkness flowered outward like a rotting wound, blasting both of them with a frigid, cutting wind.
The bizarre wrongness of it made Lucy tremble. What was coming out of that rift?
Lucy gasped as the wind coming from the strange dark hole blasted the colorful shawl right out of her hand.
She tried to catch it, but it flew over some boulders and vanished from sight.
The black-haired man grabbed her, holding her against him with one strong arm.
In the next moment a raven-haired woman stepped out of the dark cloudy gap in the air.
This is definitely not better.
Taller than Lucy and her savior, the woman had such stunning features and a magnificent build that she could have been a computer-generated image of a dark goddess.
The crimson fabric that draped her seductively-curved body resembled coagulated blood, and yet seemed to move as if it were actively bleeding on itself.
The cuffs and neckline had been trimmed with fur the color of fresh pus.
The entire ensemble moved like water as the woman floated over to them.
Was she walking on air, or just levitating?
Her incredible, impossible gown matched the twisted crown of rubies and a sickly green jade-like stone that she wore, which seemed to be nailed into and also sprouting out of her skull.
She can’t be human. Lucy looked into her eyes, which changed color from red to pink to yellow every time the woman blinked. What the bloody hell is she?
Behind her a dozen huge thugs wearing full-face monster masks spread out on either side of her.
They were taller than the man who had caught Lucy, and armed with swords that had multiple, highly-polished black blades.
Only after another few moments did she realize the thugs weren’t wearing masks.
The hideous, nightmarish features were their real faces .
“Son of Rune,” the woman said, her booming voice making Lucy flinch. “Your father died for failing me. You and your brothers shall do the same, unless you find and return what that thieving mortal stole from me.”