21. Allan

Chapter twenty-one

Allan

T he slender ashen-grey fingers of the Fae had more strength in them than I would have thought. Sheq'wa-nay's grip on my wrist tightened as he pulled me through the portal.

Whoosh.

The single step through the threshold into the Fae lands was violent. As if someone had grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me through a tornado. My insides felt like they'd been stirred.

I leaned over and vomited.

"That is an expected reaction for the first trip through a portal. You will get used to it."

I threw up again. "No, no, I don't think I will," I grunted out as my stomach heaved again, threatening to spill. "Oh my gods." I attempted to right myself, but the world before me spun out of control.

"It will take time to adjust. There is no hurry."

"Well, thankfully, I'll only have to go through that once more to get home."

"Not accurate, young one. We use portals to travel the vast distances across our grounds. As I said, you will get used to it."

The landscape around us left me agape. Sylvan Lake had disappeared. In its place was a far-reaching prairie that stretched toward the horizon. But except for our immediate vicinity, the ground lay barren.

As I glanced around, I noticed the air behind me shimmer like heatwaves above hot asphalt highways in the middle of summer. The ripples were so close they looked tangible. I stuck out my hand to touch one, enthralled by the magic.

Sheq'wa-nay grabbed my wrist and held me back.

"Touching the shimmer will activate the portal, and you are not allowed to return…yet."

"Noted. No touching. Where is everyone else?" The small crew that Sheq'wa-nay had travelled with were no longer surrounding us.

"Two are standing guard at the portal, and the others have ventured ahead to ensure our path is clear."

Before me, where I stood, wild grasses grew shin-high, with sporadic clumps growing as high as my shoulders. Scattered close to the ground were spongy-looking plants with odd little flowers balanced off the tips of drooping stems, all flashing a variety of colors. The air was crisp, clean, and easier to breathe than back home. Two giant trees stood guardian behind us and looked as if their massive trunks held the border of the portal. Their branches merged and knotted together in the canopy. Colorful birds I'd never seen before jumped from limb to limb.

And there on the uppermost branches sat Kaos.

Caw!

"You've got to be kidding!" I rolled my eyes. The velociraptor bird was not the companion I wanted for my year-long stint. But then, I thought of Patrick and smiled knowing I had a little piece of him here.

"Evidently your bird decided its presence is required. While we were not going to permit anyone other than yourself to travel here, we cannot control the animals. Should they choose to cross over and migrate back and forth, we allow it. However, most choose to stay within their own realms."

Caw! Kaos squawked, then launched herself off the tree and swooped down toward us. Her downward spiral flight brought her closer and closer, until she got far too close, and I threw up an arm to protect my face from being clawed off. Obviously, she wasn't as happy to see me as I was to see her.

A flurry of black feathers and wings batted my head. We battled with flailing wrists and flapping wings until Kaos took up perch on my shoulder and pecked at my head.

Onyx feathers floated to the ground as I took stock of the multitude of scratches and welts on my hands and neck.

"Ow! Damn bird. That hurt!" I yelled at her. Now I wished Patrick had kept his damn bird.

"I believe she was admonishing you for making her landing difficult."

I glared at Sheq'wa-nay. "So you can talk to animals?"

"Talk? No. But we do understand them. Their thoughts are basic, primal, and often more images in our heads than actual words. She is trying to help. She knows you need support."

That took me aback. How could she have known that? What lurked out in the dead land ahead of us? How did she know I would need her? I glanced suspiciously at the raven, one eyebrow arched.

She nodded her head at me then ran her beak over my earlobe like I'd seen her do with Patrick so many times.

"Okay. I'm sorry, Kaos. Just don't startle me. I'm happy to see you too."

She bobbed her head again. I took the movement as agreement.

"This way, please." Sheq'wa-nay held his long arm out and gestured toward a well-worn path within the prairie grasses. From the lush-green, flower-dappled ground, I suddenly found us treading over barren dirt, dust, and rock.

Looking over the shoulder that didn't have Kaos digging her talons into my muscles, I could see a distinct line of where the vegetation ended and where the ground before us lay dry and bare.

"You see? This is what we face. This is why we need you."

"I don't understand."

"The ground near the portal has been brought back to life. It wasn't like that a month ago."

I stared at him for several seconds, then shook my head, "I'm sorry Sheq'wa-nay, I still—"

Sheq'wa-nay stuck his index finger into my chest. "You. It was your magic that did this."

"But how? I've never been here."

"Did Patrick not explain why the island on the other side is left to us?"

"Well, I mean, sort of. Mostly because we don't want to have to explain your existence," I said.

"That is true, however there is more to it than that. The portal is a bi-directional doorway that is always open. Whatever occurs near the shimmering in the Fae lands has the potential to seep across into the human world, and vice versa." Sheq'wa-nay nodded his head, then began to continue our trek.

I plodded along, ruminating on what he'd said. Then it dawned on me. "Oh. So when I came into my power, the outpouring of magic seeped across into your world?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"But I don't understand. Why is it so lush around the doorway? Are they all like that?"

"They had been, at one time. Not now. This doorway is the only one supporting life. Our entire realm has been decimated, but your magic, your healing waters have returned life—" Sheq'wa-nay stopped as he stared ahead. "The demons' appetite for living things is unsatiable."

"So, you mean to tell me—" Sheq'wa-nay threw his hand up to stop me and then placed a single finger over his lips.

Caw! Kaos launched herself into the air, climbed in height, then circled far above us.

"She senses danger. Come, but step slowly and stay close to me."

As we moved, I noticed a heap of clothes laying on the ground, but we were some distance away, and I couldn't be sure what they were or why they were there.

"Is that—" Sheq'wa-nay pivoted faster than I could comprehend, pulled me close to his body, and slammed his palm against my mouth.

Keeping me tight within his grip, we cautiously spun toward the anomaly on the ground, but I could see it was no longer a pile of discarded clothing.

The broken and bloodied body of a Fae warrior stood, blood staining the front of its body, an arm bent in an abnormal position as its head tilted to one side.

"Allan, I want you to turn back to the portal and run. Find the guards; they will protect you. I will stay and bide you time. Now go!"

"But what is wrong?"

"That is a demon-possessed body of one of my crew who went ahead to clear the path. Evidently, they have failed. Now go!"

"Oh, shit," I said as the reanimated corpse lurched toward us.

It moved surprisingly fast.

Before I could get back to the healed area, which was lush in plant life, the zombie had passed Sheq'wa-nay and clamored toward me.

It shrieked. Unholy, otherworldly, and spine-chillingly terrifying.

I turned and froze.

The Fae were odd-looking creatures, but the dead thing racing toward me struck chords of fear so deep within me, I stopped as if a sleep-paralysis demon anchored me to the spot where I stood.

Sheq'wa-nay, bloodied from the quick attack of the demon-possessed warrior, stood and made gestures toward the sky.

Kaos, still circling, called out a long caw I had not ever heard before.

I glanced up.

As she spiraled down toward me, she grew. With each circle she gained mass, until she reached a monstrous size. Her wingspan created dark shadows, covering most of the area around the portal. As she made her last descent, the dead warrior launched itself at me.

As the corpse's fingers dug into my shirt, Kaos's massive talons latched onto my shoulders, one leg on each side. Piercing my flesh to anchor herself, she flapped her wings so hard that dust and dirt billowed out from us, but despite my weight, and the demon clutching onto me, she managed to pull us all off the ground.

We continued to ascend as I punched and kicked and shoved at the dead thing until I won, and it fell off in mid-air.

Thankfully, I watched, with no small measure of glee, as the warrior's body plummeted back to the earth. The sickening splat as it hit the ground was audible even from where I hovered in the sky. But Kaos wasn't done. She flew higher still.

And then higher yet.

"Kaos, I think we're safe now. Put me down!" I pointed to the ground as I screamed to her.

She croaked and warbled but flew even higher in an upward spiral.

I couldn't look at the ground so far below me. My head was spinning, and I was nauseated beyond belief.

Blood seeped down the front of my chest as Kaos's claws gripped tighter. I couldn't berate her for it—she was keeping me safe in her clutches.

That was…until she dropped me.

The momentary feeling of motionlessness enveloped me, and the sensation of being weightless mixed with the rush of endorphins from the past five minutes of chaos as an all-encompassing high washed over me. The euphoric feeling made me numb until a monstrous tidal wave of panic took over when I realized that Kaos flew in the opposite direction from me, and the meteor-speed plummet to the ground registered in my brain.

With arms flailing, me screaming, and the whoosh of air speeding past me, it dawned on me very quickly… I am going to die.

Glancing down at the ground speeding toward me, I noticed the possessed corpse had peeled itself off the ground and lifted its head to glare at me. Even as I failed to stabilize myself, it looked like the corpse was baring its teeth and stretching its limb toward me.

"Oh. My. God!"

I tumbled over backward, then spun around, my clothes fluttering in the rush of freefall.

Kaos squawked off in the distance.

Then everything turned to slow motion.