The portal closed like a curtain, the burning bayou shrinking smaller and smaller until I could barely make out the cathedral’s stone walls.Enzo.Another dimension. God, I was leaving him. He was still wrapped in those vines, his blood infected with dead demon blood.
I'd go along with this. All of it. Whatever Ari wanted, whoever he needed me to face—I'd do it. Just let Enzo survive until I could get back to him.
"Stop." The word came out strangled. The darkness pressed against me from all sides, thick and suffocating. I couldn't see Ari, couldn't see my own hands. Just his grip on my arm, dragging me forward through nothing. My stomach lurched. "I can't—I can't breathe?—"
A low chuckle rumbled through the darkness, so close it vibrated through my bones. He leaned closer, his breath brushing over my ear, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Too late.”
I pushed at his hand; his fingers stuck to my arm like they’d melded to my skin. But then I was glued to the darkness parting right in front of my face.
Oh my God. Oh my God. This was really happening. I was going into another dimension.
I shook my head and pulled back. “No. I don’t want to go in there.” People didn’t come back from the Elder Dimension. That’s what everyone said—you could get lost, trapped foreverin a place where time didn’t work right, where the rules were written by the Unseelie who’d forgotten what it meant to be mortal.
Ari's hand closed around my throat, cutting off my air. "If you don't keep going, girl, I'll torture your vampire a thousand different ways." His grip tightened. "Then do it all over again."
Tears pushed on the back of my eyelids, and I bit my lip, trying not to cry. I was done giving Ari the satisfaction of hurting me, breaking me. I straightened my shoulders and forced steel into my voice. “Fine. Let’s go.”
The void split like torn fabric. Brightness blurred my eyes in a painful wash of color, and I winced, blinking rapidly as tears streamed down my cheeks.
When my vision cleared, I looked down at my sandals. The soggy ground had vanished completely. Now a road of red-and-black-checkered tiles stretched out beneath my feet, each square gleaming like polished marble. The pattern was perfectly geometric, almost playfully precise.
Just breathe. Just breathe. Just breathe.
A soft breeze brushed over my face, blowing my hair across my cheek. I shoved it out of my eyes, wishing Enzo was here. Crap. I wished he could hear me.
Nothing.
No connection.
No way to reach him.
He was back there in that damn church, and I was here.
I held back a sob and inhaled. Ari gloated when people were in pain. I drew a deep breath and held my chin high.
Warm, flower-scented air replaced the humid bayou atmosphere, carrying with it the sweet fragrance of blooming gardens and something that reminded me of jasmine and roses. Above me, two suns hung in a lavender sky—one pale gold, theother deeper amber—casting everything in a dreamlike double shadow.
Ari smiled. “Perfect. We’re not far from the palace.”
I followed his gaze and trembled. There, rising from gardens that seemed to glow with their own light, stood a fortress of impossible beauty. This was real. This was where he was taking me. Where I would face whatever queen claimed to rule over me.
Ari led me down the checkered path, his grip firm on my arm. I looked over my shoulder, desperately searching for any sign of escape. Maybe I could open the portal without Marsha’s magic—find some way to force it open and get back. But the portal had vanished completely. Not even a shimmer in the air remained to mark where it had been. I was trapped in this strange land with no way back to Enzo.
A forest lined both sides of the winding path, dense with trees I had never seen before. Towering specimens with pristine white bark smooth as marble stretched toward the lavender sky, their branches heavy with leaves that shimmered like amethyst silk in the double sunlight. The purple foliage rustled with a sound like wind chimes, soft and musical.
I tried to peer through the trees to see if there were animals, birds, or even the Unseelie. The shadows between the trunks could hide anything—or anyone.
There were trees that looked like pine trees, but wrong in every way. Their needles were deep crimson—the color of fresh blood—and they gave off a spicy, cinnamon-like scent that made my nose tingle. The bark was pitch-black, so dark it seemed to absorb light, creating an eerie contrast with the red and black tiles beneath my feet.
Something cracked like a twig. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. I desperately scanned the trees to see what had made that noise. But the darkness turned even blacker,as if it was trying to conceal something, something that made my heart race.
I glanced at Ari, expecting to see the same unease that was clawing at my chest. His face remained perfectly calm, that infuriating smirk still playing at the corners of his mouth. But then I noticed his hands.
His fingernails had lengthened into razor-sharp claws, gleaming like polished bone in the double sunlight. The transformation was silent, deadly—a predator preparing for attack.
Shitshitshitshit.
My mouth went dry as sand. If Ari—ancient, powerful Ari—was preparing to fight, then whatever was out there in those beautiful, musical trees was far worse than I’d imagined. My pulse hammered in my throat as I watched his shoulders tense, his body shifting into a stance I recognized from watching Enzo hunt.