Varek’s eyes narrow slightly. “You’d be going, too, then?”
“Not without Jamie,” I add, my tone firm. “He’s coming with me. I’m not leaving him behind.”
“You want us bring weakling child into field?” one of the rebels asks in broken English, her tone incredulous.
“He’s safer with us than without.” Solan’s voice is calm but laced with steel. And he doesn’t give a shit that he’s making it clear that we don’t fully trust the Riftborn.
Shanae steps in, her expression unreadable but her voice steady. “They’re right. If they can’t be apart, it’s better they stay together. And the kid’s no liability. He’s smart and tougher than he looks.”
I glance at her, surprised by her support, but she doesn’t look at me. Instead, she crosses her arms, her attention fixed on Varek.
After a long moment, Varek nods. “Fine. But if you’re going, you follow Shanae’s lead.”
“You’re sure about this?”Solan looks at me, his gaze steady.“I can refuse. We can all stay here,”he says just for me.
“Do I have a choice?”I ask, trying for levity but falling short.“Besides, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
His lips twitch into the faintest smile, but his worry bleeds through our bond.“Stay close to me. No risks.”
“Same goes for you,”I reply, my hand brushing his.
Jamie shifts in Solan’s arms, his eyes wide but unafraid. “Are we going now?”
“Soon, mate,” I say, ruffling his hair. “But first, we gear up. We’ve no idea what we’re walking into.”
The crack in the sky finally fades. Whatever’s been pulled into this world is out there, alone and terrified. Hell, unless it’s from a dimension filled with dinosaurs or some shit and gobbles us all up, it’s better to convince myself that it’s a person or a species who isn’t going to try to eat our faces off.
And if they are defenceless—or even worse, human—then the crown will be hunting them before they can even catch their breaths.
We have to find them first.
The next hour is a blur of activity.
Jamie and I prepare our kit for travel while Solan and Calythra join the others to make a plan. The whole time, Solan keeps me in the loop with a constant flow of updates. It means that by the time the group of fourteen is gathered, I’m prepared to leave without any big surprises.
Well, almost no surprises.
One of our companions steps forwards, and I can’t help but stare. The creature, called aSornath, looks like it crawled out of a fever dream. It has a sinuous, serpentine body covered in iridescent scales that shimmer between green and gold. Its head is vaguely dragonlike with six gleaming eyes that seem to take in everything at once. When it moves, it doesn’t walk so much as glide, its body undulating with an eerie grace.
“That’s Nera,” Solan says, sensing my curiosity. Yeah, we’ll go with “curiosity” rather than the need to check my undies. “They’re one of the few species with the ability to track rifts.”
“No shit?”
“Exactly,” he replies, his tone calm. “Nera can sense the energy left behind and follow it like a trail.”
I watch as Nera turns their head towards the horizon, their forked tongue flickering out as though tasting the air. They make a low, guttural sound—completely incomprehensible to me—butone of the other rebels, a humanoid creature with bark-like skin, nods.
“Nera says the trail is faint but clear,” the bark-man translates, his voice a low rumble.
“Of course they do,” I mutter under my breath, earning a glance from Solan.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I say, shrugging. “Just trying to figure out how we’re the ones who ended up ordinary. Humans, I mean. No super-senses, no dragon eyes, no tongue-tasting-energy tricks.”
Solan’s lips twitch into a small smile. “You can create fire.”
“Yeah, because of you,” I counter. “Before that, my greatest skill was being able to quoteTerminator 2on command. Not exactly world-saving material, mate.” I’m talking shit, nowhere near as big of an Arnie fan as Solan.
