“Should we just start moving?” Maximus looked wired, like he couldn’t stand still. “I’m worried about leaving Cardia on Earth. We have no idea what’s going on back there. I never realized that being mated was so … much. I can feel her enough to know she’s okay, which is keeping me sane, but we’re too far away for any real communication.”
New mates could be quite irritating to be around. As the bond worked to establish strong ties, couples were a mess of needs and base instincts. I had no real idea how Maximus continued to leave his mate, but I’d bet she was more than a little annoyed at him right now.
I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for coming to find me. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
He gave me a wink. “Girl, I’ll always come for you.”
I couldn’t tell from his expression whether that was a deliberate choice of words – probably not since he had a mate now. Still, I swung a hand around to Jacob and Tyson.
“Don’t say it, either of you, or I will rip your nuts off and feed them to Loch Ness.”
Twin grins crossed their faces, but they did still take a step back and remained quiet. Lucky for them. Braxton cleared his throat and suddenly we were all business again. Time to figure out where we’d landed, and how to get back up to the Isle of the Gods. This was the most important thing right now. Finding the answers to how we might defeat Larky.
Chapter 10
The docks made no noise as we stepped across them. I expected swaying, but there was no movement at all. My skin tingled. The magic was as strong down here as it had been above.
“Do you think Louis will be able to find us?” I kept my voice low, not wanting to alert anybody to our presence. “Something tells me we might need him to get back to the surface.”
I also liked having him around. He was this weird combination of serious, funny, old-school, and annoyingly clever. I felt safe with him, like my pack.
“I’m sure that damn overachieving sorcerer will have no problems finding us,” Tyson muttered.
No love lost there. Tyson was an exceptionally powerful wizard, but he was young. Louis was the big kahuna in the sorcerer world, and somehow made things which should be impossible look utterly effortless. The two magic users had a lot of parallels in their journey – well, so far. Tyson was going to be one of the youngest leaders on the council, just like Louis had been. It was a lot to live up to, and coming second best was not something any of the Compasses did well.
I was starting to see our surroundings more clearly. On the dock it had been like twilight, dull but still visible. Now it was like the first cresting of the sun at dawn, a low, soft light, but with a glow that was bright and almost cheerful.
The docks were slowly fading away and now sandstone pavers lined the floor. There was even some greenery starting to scatter around and … was that a bird call? How was this possible down here? The further we stepped into this world, the warmer and more appealing it got, and it was for this reason that all of us were suddenly on high alert. We knew better than to trust the world trying to lull us into a false sense of security. It was totally going to drop a bomb on our heads and laugh while we splattered into a million pieces.
The quads spread out around me, two on either side, their usual protective stance. I was probably lucky, with my recent kidnapping and all that, that I wasn’t slung over one of their shoulders. Small victories.
The long expanse of pavers was leading to large shapes in the distance. It took a few more yards before I could see that the shapes were buildings, and not any old buildings, but massive castles with lots of intricately designed turrets and ornate marble accents. They looked a lot like sandcastles, with an earthy base color scheme, and then this splash of texture from the marble and stone scattered throughout. There were three of them, one large in the center and two a little smaller on either side. As we closed in on them I could see they were a mile wide at least, and went back really far.
I was whispering again. “Do you think this is the true Isle of the Gods? Like … the land above was some sort of façade, and they really dwelled down here? Hidden. Protected.”
No one answered. Like me, they didn’t have a freaking clue what we’d fallen into. Braxton took a step closer, the heat of his dragon wrapping around me again. Even when we were walking into the unknown like this, having my pack with me made anything okay.
Our footsteps were silent, the vegetation around us springing to life. We were walking through a landscaped garden complete with large rose bushes and hedges. There was structure to the design, but the plants were also wild, sort of like they had free run but still wanted to be neat about it. Shit. Knowing Faerie, the plants probably did think for themselves here.
The animal noises increased – more bird calls, rustling of bushes and even a few butterfly-cross-bumblebees buzzed past. These odd creatures had a bee body with these massive colorful wings and were at least the size of a small bird.
“It’s so strange,” I said, “If we hadn’t just literally climbed out of that icy water, I would never believe that this was underground.”
“Don’t trust that we’re still underground,” Jacob said, his eyes looking even greener than usual here. “Faerie is not a world to easily understand, and there’s every chance that we’re not where we think we are.”
Clear as mud. Thanks.
There was a courtyard in the outer zone of the massive castles. Beyond, large stone blocks rose up to form a barrier. It took us a few minutes of wandering along it before we found an opening, just wide enough for us to duck through, one by one. The path on the other side was perfect, no cracked pavers or weeds littered around, as if this world had a team of gardeners, maintenance mages, and cleaners on staff. And yet it was eerily quiet, like there was no one here at all. It had an abandoned feeling, but this perfect upkeep said otherwise.