Chapter 498

Nina

The morning sun came too soon.

None of us slept for more than a few minutes. Either we were too frightened and just didn’t want to admit it, or our minds were whirling with too many possibilities. I spent the remaining hours of the nighttime laid out on the mattress, letting the shaman’s medicine work its magic, while Daphne and Enzo paced nervously around the little hut.

“The veil here is thicker,” Daphne explained, her nails practically bitten down to nubs from chewing on them all night. “The place where it’s thinner is still days away if we move on foot. And who knows how much time we have left before they find our trail again? God, we never should have stopped.”

Enzo scoffed and shook his head for the millionth time. “If you don’t want to be here, Daphne, then leave,” he scolded. “But I had to get my wife someplace where she could be helped. She’s pregnant. I won’t just wander through the woods with her for days when she’s in so much pain she can barely speak.”

“I’m sorry, guys.” I propped myself up on my elbow and looked at them both with sincerity in my eyes. Sincerity and tears. “This is all my fault—”

“No, Nina.” Enzo rushed over to me and crouched down beside me. He reached out to cup my cheek in his hand, and I leaned into his touch, soothed by his warmth. “It’s not your fault. You have no control over what happens to your body.”

“But I could have made it, if only I had been a little stronger.”

Enzo sighed. “It’s not your fault,” he repeated.

Finally, Daphne let out an exasperated breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Enzo is right. It’s no one’s fault. I’m… I’m glad to see you’re better now.” As she spoke, her face reddened a bit. It wasn’t easy for the nervous bird shifter to say such things—I could tell.

I sat up then. I was feeling much better now that the shaman’s medicine had run its course, and had virtually no pain at this point.

“Daphne, you can open portals?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Okay,” I continued, standing. “Maybe if we try together, we can open one here.”

Daphne’s eyes flickered down to my pregnant belly, and she shot me a look of concern. “You’re sure you want to try?”

I shrugged and threw my hands up in the air. “It’s not like we have much of a choice, is it?”

…

The portal fizzled out for the hundredth time. I cursed, clutching my spinning head as I wavered in my spot.

“Fuck! Just one more try…”

“No, Nina.” Enzo, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly stepped forward and grabbed my hands before I could make the movements. He guided me over to the mattress and sat me down. I had such little strength left that I couldn’t resist in the slightest.

“There has to be something we can do,” Daphne said. “No one here has the ability; the Dragon Queen has made certain of that.”

“But we’re too far from the thin spot,” I added. The morning sun was already beginning its ascent, and the village was waking up.

The shaman had been very clear with his instructions: we needed to be gone. We had seen the extent of their help, and for good reason. The people here didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in all of this.

If only we had Luke…

“We have to go back,” I suddenly said.

Both Enzo’s and Daphne’s eyes widened. “What?” Enzo hissed. “Nina, are you serious?”

“We need Luke,” I explained. “And Mila’s palace is much closer. With him, between the three of us we could open a portal anywhere.”

My words were met with abject silence. Daphne and Enzo looked back and forth between me and each other, completely taken aback by my insane suggestion.

“Please.” I looked up at Enzo as tears began to mist over my eyes. “You know we can’t leave him anyway. It’s not… it’s not right.”

Enzo stared at me for a long time, pondering my words. At first it seemed as though I had hit a brick wall, but then recognition slowly seemed to dawn on him.

“I don’t want to leave him, either.”

“Are you two kidding me?” Daphne exclaimed. “Am I the only sane person here?”

I stood abruptly even though my head spun. “No one is forcing you to come with us, Daphne. But Luke is our best bet to get out of this place, and besides… He would never leave us behind. Not in a million years.”

Daphne swallowed as her green eyes darted back and forth with disbelief. But Enzo and I weren’t backing down; our friend needed us, and besides, it was either this or trek through the forest for several more days with packs of hyenas on our tails.

Finally, she shook her head and averted her gaze toward the ground. “I know of a secret entrance.”

…

Enzo and I crouched in the bushes, our eyes focused like hawks on the little cave that Daphne had flitted into.

It was a risky location; this close to Mila’s fortress, and the forest was still being patrolled by her hyenas. But they didn’t expect us to return, and so they weren’t looking around here. At least we had that to our advantage.

Enzo turned to look at me briefly. His hand found mine beneath the ferns.

“You’re sure this is what you want?” he asked.

“Yes.” I swallowed and tightened my grip on his hand, but didn’t tear my gaze away from the cave. “If we can just find Luke, we can get in and get out. It’ll be much quicker this way, and besides…”

“I know.” Enzo let out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry I ever suggested leaving him. I thought we were doing the right thing.”

I shook my head. Taking Enzo’s hand, I placed it over my belly. “You were doing the right thing. For our baby.”

He scoffed. “And yet, here we are again.”

“Sometimes the right thing isn’t the kindest, or the most logical.”

Enzo chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We fell silent again, carefully watching the forest around us. Aside from the sounds of the birds and the insects, it was quiet. Hopefully, none of the creatures around us were Mila’s shifters. And if they were, hopefully we could be quicker than them.

Finally, a flicker of red caught my attention. I gasped, pointing. “Look!” I exclaimed under my breath. “She’s back.”

“But… no Luke,” Enzo pointed out when Daphne flitted out of the cave all by herself. She had promised if she came across Luke, she would bring him back. It seemed as though she hadn’t.

Daphne flitted over to us and shifted back, crouching in the ferns. “I think I know where he’s being kept,” she said. She looked at Enzo then. “But I need your blood to get in.”

“My… blood?” Enzo asked.

She nodded. “A door with a magical seal; I think it leads down to the morgue, and maybe even a whole slew of other places. It’s likely where Luke was taken, but it requires a drop of dragon blood to get in. And it needs to be fresh.”

Enzo turned to look at me. Recognition came over us; he needed to go with her.

And I sure as hell wasn’t letting him out of my sight again.

“Alright,” I said, standing. “Let’s go.”