“Everything is going to be fine,” she said, taking a step away so we weren’t tempted to begin anything.
Gods, was I tempted. I wanted her alone, and I wanted my knot in her, but I didn’t want to do it when Caspian was missing from the bond. He was going through the worst experience of his life right now. I inhaled a deep breath.
“Nothing is ever fine in Zemterra, in my experience,” I said. “My childhood there wasn’t great, and neither were the circumstances I left under.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “If you don’t think you can go back, you don’t have to come with us.”
“No, I’d never let you go without me, but I need you to understand it is a horrible place. You cannot believe everything you see or hear, and for the love of the gods, I need you to be careful.”
“I will be, I promise. Normally my promise wouldn’t mean much, but in this case I’m serious. I refuse to do anything to endanger Caspian and Shan more.”
I nodded, kissing her cheek as I brushed past her to the portal. “I trust you. Let’s get in and out as fast as possible.”
“We’ll be back before dinnertime.”
Stepping into the portal, I closed my eyes against the wave of nausea and kept walking until I reached the other side. When I felt the cold air and caught the musty scent of the realm, I opened my eyes. Nolan and Oswald were leaning against a crumbling wall in the area where we’d portalled in. The spot they’d picked was uninhabited, on the east side of the bustling capital city. This side of Eimburn was rundown to begin with, only housing the poorest of the residents, and this area had been given up to bandits.
You would think that would make it a dangerous place for us to be, but it was in fact the safest.
People here didn’t give a fuck about Omegas or even portals, really. They only paid attention to how they could survive the next day.
Well, not really day.
Zemterra didn’t have daytime, not in the traditional sense. There was no sun. Two moons glowed overhead, travelling across the sky and emitting enough light for humans to see by, though not well. Demons had advanced eyesight for a reason. When the moons weren’t visible, that would be the true night. It lasted twice as long as the day did, so sleep schedules were quite different here.
“This is drearier than I expected,” Freya said from behind me, her thin form stepping through the portal.
We all wore our Earthen clothes, which would set us apart from the populace, but we hadn’t had anything else. Freya had disguised our marks, making us all seem unclaimed, and changed the basics of our features, but wasn’t willing to risk more magic lest someone sense it. Matthias had been able to rustle up a cloak for her and she had it on now, the hood obscuring her face. Her pale skin and silver hair still glowed like a beacon, and I reached out to tuck some strands back into the hood.
“If you think this is dreary, you’ll hate night time,” Oswald said.
They pushed off the wall and came over to us as Freya murmured spells, trying to eliminate as many traces of the portal as she could. The three of us formed a circle around her, carefully keeping a lookout. To one side was the decrepit building made of brick, and opposite that was a thick forest. Where we stood would be considered the ‘backyard’ of this house, if people had backyards here. Down either side there were more empty, grassy spaces behind the houses. No one was around, the area quiet.
“Isn’t this night time?” she asked, standing up straight as she finished with the portal.
“The two moons are the closest thing to a sun we have. I thought you had read books on the other realms?” Nolan explained.
“Astronomy wasn’t exactly what I cared about. I guess that’s why it’s so fucking cold, though. How is the whole realm not frozen?”
“Heat emanates from the ground,” I said, placing my hand on the small of her back and beginning to herd her along. I was already uneasy, and we hadn’t seen a soul yet. “Veins of lava penetrate the entire realm.”
She glanced down at her feet. “That sounds dangerous.”
“The closer to the Outlands you get, the more dangerous it is. This is about as far as you can get from the Outlands, which is why Eimburn was constructed here.”
Freya went quiet as we turned onto a main road. The ground was packed dirt with carriage treads through it, rock solid. During the rainy season this entire place would be a swamp with ankle deep mud, but it dried out at this time of year.
A few of the houses were still livable, and I spotted the movement of a curtain in the window of one, the occupant noticing strangers wandering through. I fought the way my back wanted to stiffen. We already looked to be on high alert. The more casual we appeared, the better for our safety.
As we wandered toward the city, the buildings got taller and less rundown, though not prestigious by any means. Three story inns towered above us, the ground level featuring taverns with drunks wandering in and out. No one tried to stop us, but we got some appraising looks.
Oswald knew the way to a shop that sold crystals. We hoped it still sold crystals, anyway. He hadn’t been to Zemterra in two hundred years, but none of the rest of us had spent much time in the capital city. I’d grown up far away from here, and without modern methods of transportation we didn’t go on vacations much. Nolan had visited, but mainly stayed in the company of Dukes and upper-class people, not venturing onto this side of town.
“It’s around this corner,” he said, pointing toward a crossroads.
It was busier there, the street a main drag whereas this one was a side road leading out into nothing. All four of the buildings on the corner were inns.
Actually, on closer inspection I determined one of them was a brothel, not an inn.
