Thankfully, Puck had no compulsion against telling fibs or half-truths. Unlike Diana whose cheeks and neck would blaze blood-red whenever she attempted to lie.
“Oh course, he did! They were rescued and flown to Mount Olympus where they live happily ever after to this day.”
Balfour’s shoulders slumped in relief.
Oh, if he knew the truth! No such luck for the poor queen, but at least the child survived to live quite the eventful life.
The entire party abruptly stopped. Aquifas stepped forward with his arms outstretched. “Well, goddess. You wanted to be brought to where the first angels went missing. This”—he spread his arms wide—“is it. Good luck finding any clues, for we’ve scoured the area multiple times already.” He then crossed his beefy arms over his chest and waited.
Diana understood that she had better find something to help the case or risk being outed as a fraud and sent packing back home—the last place she wanted to be.
She tiptoed around the area with caution, peering into the dense forest surrounding them. Something was off about the place. It was colder by a few degrees than the rest of the trip. Instead of the evergreen essence wafting on a soft breeze, the odor was more pungent... something she couldn’t define. Puzzled, she sniffed the air.
“What is she, a bloodhound? We could’ve gotten a whole pack of them from the nearby city if that was what we needed.”
Diana rounded on the general. Aquifas was glaring at her with his back resting against a nearby tree. Lucifer and Puck made to object. Even Balfour huffed at his general, but she interrupted before an argument delayed the hunt any longer.
“Where’s the portal to another place? I see none.” Her tone, she admitted, was a bit snippy. It was possible her keen eyes had missed it, but not likely.
The general pushed off the tree. He canvassed the area just as she had done, then again for good measure. “It... it...” He shrugged. “There should be at least three. Here.” He pointed at a large moss-covered boulder. “Here.” This time he walked over to a patch of prickly bushes. “And... here.” He came to stand right beside her. “I don’t understand.”
He wasn’t the only one.
“That’s impossible! You must have brought us to the wrong location, Aquifas.” Lucifer’s face flamed red with irritation—or was that embarrassment?
“No, this is the place. I swear it.” Aquifas’s voice rose an octave or two. Standing so close to him, Diana inhaled the faint burnt odor of fear.
The soldiers spread out as if adding the number of observers would guarantee they’d find something that, by all accounts, was missing.
One with hair the color of winter wheat and the iciest blue eyes Diana had ever encountered kneeled by the boulder. “This is where we found Octavian and Sumatra’s swords, half lying inside the liminality and the other lying in the world beyond. There was a gateway here. Kristoff’s shield was over there.” He pointed to the bushes.
A buzzing—like being under a giant tree as it was struck by lightning—raced over Diana’s skin starting at her left shoulder. “Do you feel that?”
“What?” Lucifer sprinted to her side.
“Vibrant energy is radiating through the space.” She looked down to see all the tiny hairs on her arm standing up.
“I don’t feel anything...” Lucifer grabbed her wrist.
Good thing, too, as the portal that should’ve been there opened, and a churning vortex sucked them both through it before sealing shut again.
Chapter 19
A Strange and Beautiful New World
Seriously? First a black hole, now this!
Where was she this time? Diana couldn’t see a thing. Giant stark-white wings had enclosed around her, shutting out all light, the moment her butt had been pulled into the tumultuous vortex. It was soft and warm within their enclosure, but a bit suffocating.
She smacked against the feathers wrapped around her like she was a swaddled babe. “Let go!”
“Shush!”
Lucifer’s terse whisper sent new shivers racing up her spine. What was waiting for them in this unfamiliar world that made him hesitate to release her from his embrace?
Please don’t let this be a snake world or giant spiders one!
Despite being a renowned hunter—she’d taken down the Erymanthian Boar and even a small dragon with ease—Diana still had a childish phobia when it came to snakes and spiders. The blame rested on her sister, Athena, after she’d turned that poor woman—oh, what was her name? Arachne, or something like that—into the eight-legged creature, then placed her in a glass beside Diana’s bed. She’d woken in the night for a sip of water and instead accidentally released the creepy thing. When it had crawled over her face in the middle of the night, the scream Diana had released had stolen her voice for several days. She’d refused to sleep in her room until someone had brought the smashed spider to her as proof of its demise. As for snakes—well, who could love something that slithered?
