CHAPTER FORTY（Untitled）Naomi

CHAPTER FORTY

Naomi

Anticipation makes it hard to sit still as I eat breakfast. Maybe I should be glad the orcs don’t have coffee. Caffeine would probably make me bounce out of my skin this morning.

Wranth, on the other hand, scowls at his food like it’s offended him somehow. I know he’s being all worried and protective, and it’s super sweet.

“It’s going to go great,” I say. “I can feel it.”

He only scowls harder, the big grump.

I’ll simply have to prove him wrong.

I crunch on a tooth-cleaning berry and open one of the pouches containing the paired crystals, which glow light-blue like a pixie. My pants pockets are full, so I shove one of them into my bra, right between my boobs. I glance up to find all of the orcs staring at me, their expressions a little stunned.

“Did you know she could keep something there ?” Brokk asks Wranth.

He grunts his negative grunt, and I laugh.

Aldronn takes the other paired crystal and places it on a clear spot of ground.

“Okay!” I stand up. “Where are we going first?”

“Ketalia.” Shadow looks up from grooming his shoulder. “As we saw yesterday, it’s a very secret realm. If anywhere remained safe from this Dark God, it’s there.”

Wranth grunts his yes grunt.

“Okay.” I stand and walk over to the stone, then squint up at the dragon perched on top. “It’s not going to zap you if I use it, is it?”

“It will not.” Lukendevener lifts his feet from the top of the pillar until he’s hovering in midair, his wings still folded on his back.

“How are you doing that?”

“Dragons have the most powerful magic in all of Faerie.”

“Oh, yeah?” I grin up at him. “If you’re so all-powerful, then why can’t you do what I can do?”

Zephyr gives a delighted whinny. “I like you.”

Wranth moves to guard my back. “How many people are going this time?”

“If we think this is a safe realm, it can be just me and Shadow, with you coming along by tether. Or I can teleport you, too?” My voice goes up at the end of the sentence, making it a question.

“No. Save your strength.”

“Well, you certainly need me .” Shadow comes over to stand by my side, leaning his shoulder against my thigh.

“I will start the timer,” Lukendrevener says. He tosses a glowing purple crystal down to Aldronn. “This will glow for two hours. When it starts to flicker, you only have ten minutes left to open any final doors.”

“Okay, then,” I mutter. “No pressure.”

Shadow strokes his cheek across the side of my leg with a quiet purr. “You can do it.”

“Thanks.” I reach down and dig my fingers into the soft fur of his mane, grabbing hold. I grip my necklace with my other hand and shuffle forward until I can press the back of my knuckles to the standing stone. Closing my eyes, I reach toward Shadow with my magic. Home. I need his home.

A bright green rope, the same color as his eyes, weaves outward from his heart, leading off into the forest in the direction of the cat sith den. For all his catitude, he really does love his home.

But it won’t help me find Ketalia. I push deeper, seeing nothing and yet more nothing. Is this even going to work, since Shadow was born here in Alarria?

“Think of Ketalia,” I whisper. “Think of the tales your people tell of it. Think of how they describe it.”

A purr rumbles to life beside me in an echo of the harmonizing, and as I fall under its hypnotic spell, a shimmer of dark green flashes within Shadow, a thin thread twisting in an invisible wind.

Even as my fingers dig deeper into his fur, my magic reaches out and snags the gossamer thread. It’s whisper thin but strong, and I send my magic flowing along it.

I follow it until I slam into a wall—or, rather, the closed door. Open, open , OPEN !

It doesn’t budge.

Shadow leans against my leg, and magic spirals out of him to blend with mine. The door’s still there, but a tunnel opens beside it, and now that I can see it, it becomes clear that the thread runs across the door and into the tunnel instead.

There’s a surprised mew from beside me, and Shadow strains forward.

Together we step from Alarria. My eyes snap open. We’re in a gray space with no discernable light source. There’s no wind, no trees. There’s nothing but a dark-gray tunnel stretching through lighter-gray mist.

“Where are we?”

“It’s a shadow road, but it’s like none I’ve ever seen.” Shadow tugs forward. “Come on and don’t let go of me. All the old stories say anyone not touching a cat sith gets lost to the mist.”

We trot along the path, me keeping a death grip on his fur. The mist swirls around us, and I know deep in my bones if I step off the path into it, I’ll be lost forever, teleportation magic or not.

“Hurry,” I say, starting to run. “I don’t want the tether to pull Wranth into this. He won’t be touching you!”

Golden light glows ahead, and Shadow speeds up. “The exit!”

We step out of the tunnel and into the bright sunlight of high noon. We were only in there for a few seconds, but it felt like forever, and my eyes squint against the glare.

A whoosh of displaced air behind me, and Wranth’s strong hands find my shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“Yep!” I blink a few more times, and the forest around us comes into view. We’re in a small glen, surrounded by pine trees and huge oaks with lots of thick, horizontal branches. “It… it doesn’t look that much different from Alarria.”

“Shows what you know.” Shadow clambers up the closest oak tree and out onto one of the low horizontal branches. He flops down, his legs hanging over the sides as his tail flicks lazily in the air. “This is the best tree I’ve ever climbed, and that’s only because I haven’t climbed that one or that one or that one yet.” His front paw jabs at the air, pointing out every other oak he can see.

“We get it,” Wranth growls. “It’s a feline paradise.”

“It certainly doesn’t feel dark and twisted like Avalon,” I say.

“Agreed.” Wranth spins in place until his arm snaps up and he points. “There’s life here. That way.”

“Back in a bit.” Shadow leaps from the tree and darts in the direction indicated, flickering out of view from one step to the next.

“Are you okay?” I squint up at Wranth. “You didn’t end up in a gray tunnel, did you?”

He scowls down at me, gripping my shoulders again, and barks, “Explain.”

The old grump. He’s not angry—he’s worried.

I tell him about the shadow road and needing to hold on to the panther the whole time. “I’m not sure I opened the door to Ketalia. I never felt it ‘pop.’” I fling my hands open, my fingers blossoming outward like fireworks exploding.

“Don’t you know by now that cat sith are masters of stealth?” Shadow appears out of thin air. “The way to Ketalia was never the main door—it was always a shadow road. It’s what keeps this realm hidden.”

“Did you find other fae panthers?” I ask.

“It was a deer.” He flicks his whiskers. “But it’s all right. The cat sith are here. The shadow roads in this realm are open—they’re being walked.”

“That’s great news! Do you want to go find them?”

“No,” Wranth growls. “We don’t deviate from our plan. Once we get all the doors of Faerie open, he can return.”

“For once, I agree with the orc.” Shadow’s green eyes sparkle with mischief. “I will see the mission through so that the doors open permanently.”

“Where should we leave this?” I pull the entangled crystal out of my cleavage and spin slowly. Everything around us is forest. “I don’t see any landmarks.”

“You’re thinking like a biped.” Shadow walks around the small clearing, his nose lowered to the ground. At the base of an oak tree, he starts digging, his inch-long claws making fast work of it. “Put it in here.”

I drop the crystal into the hole.

Once he covers it, he has Wranth step on the dirt to tamp it down. Then Shadow turns his backend to the tree, lifts his tail, and a stream of fluid squirts out to darken the bark of the trunk.

“What?” A chuckle bubbles from my lips. “Are you freaking peeing on it?”

“I’m scent marking.” He gives a couple more spurts. “It will warn regular animals away, tell any cat sith I was here, and allow me to find this spot again. I’ve created a landmark, only I’ve done it with scent.”

“You certainly have.” Wranth wrinkles his nose and waves a hand in front of it.

I laugh harder, loving that he made a joke, and am rewarded with his adorable little half smile.

When I catch my breath, I say, “Let’s get back to Alarria! We’ve got four more to go.”

The humor slides from Wranth’s face. I guess he’s going all protective again.

But his expression calls up a feeling I’ve been trying to ignore. Under the excitement of using my magic lies sadness. Every step forward on this quest puts me one step closer to leaving him.