Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER ONE
“You have to tell them you were lost in the woods.” Luna’s mom pleaded for the fifth time as they got out of the car.
It was a bright cool morning though there was a darkness that hung over Luna as she stepped out of her mom’s car.
“Okay Mom, I know.” Luna rolled her eyes, they had gone over it at least twenty times before they had even left the house. She knew that the police wouldn’t believe her real story anyway, it was too out of this world, and that wasn’t an understatement.
“We can’t have them looking in the woods, promise?” Luna’s mom hissed as she reached for Luna’s hand, her voice lowering as they approached the Police Station doors.
“I promise.” Luna repeated, squeezing her mom’s hand in hers as she reached her other hand towards the brass knob to open the door.
It had only been a day since she had crossed back over from Eranox, the strange world with a portal in the woods behind her house. The Police had already called, insisting that she needed to file her official report so that they could close the case.
She had been declared a missing person, though she had only been gone for a few days, her call to the police on the night that she had gone missing had set off a wild goose chase when they had gone looking for her.
If she hadn’t come home they never would have found her, she had been farther away than the woods behind her house. But she couldn’t admit that to them, they would only think that she was crazy.
Maybe she was.
The official story, at least the one that she and her mom had agreed to, was that Luna had heard something and called the police and then run to the woods to take the shortcut towards the school to find help, the night had disoriented her and she had become lost, only to return the next night when she finally found the path again.
Lucas still hadn’t returned, and she hoped that no one had realized he had gone missing with her. She wasn’t sure what had happened to him when she had left him behind, she didn’t really want to think about it.
The story they had was clean and simple, and the police weren’t likely to question her too much about it, they assumed that she was already embarrassed enough. Everyone in River Falls had probably already heard that she had gotten lost, she was never going to live it down.
“And that was all?” The officer leaned forward, staring into Luna’s eyes. She was sure that he must have thought she had come from Bev’s party, or had been lurking in the woods looking for something, but that wasn’t what she was lying about.
“Yes.” She looked down, trying to look embarrassed. It was a shame that she couldn’t share the real story, about how she had escaped a labyrinth filled with creatures. The real story made her sound much braver than a teenager who had been lost in the forest. But she had to keep it to herself.
“Okay then, you’ll need to sign here, and write the date.” The officer added, sliding a page and a pen across the table towards Luna.
The officers hid their smirks well while Luna signed her statement, and finally she and her mom were free to forget about the whole ordeal.
They were in and out of the station in less than half an hour, more than enough time to make Luna feel foolish, but enough to give them what they wanted; a closed case.
As Luna walked out of the station doors she felt the weight lifted off of her shoulders, the police wouldn’t be prying anymore, but that didn’t change much for Luna.
“They must think I’m an idiot…” Luna hissed as the doors to the station closed behind her.
“Sorry it has to be this way.” Her mom tried to look serious, but she was hiding a smirk.
Her mother seemed happy, relieved even, that it was finally over and they wouldn’t have to deal with the police anymore.
But Luna had questions.
There was so much spinning in her head that she could barely grasp it herself to make sense of it. She had slept since her return, but the nightmares were vivid and woke her in the night, they even managed to slip into her head during the day. She would imagine the dark smoky man walking towards her and jump before she realized that he wasn’t really there.
Being alone in the Gateway, surrounded by creatures, it had left her terrified. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to make sense of it, but her mother seemed to know something more. And Luna wasn’t going to let it slip away.
“Mom?” Luna asked as they walked down the steps towards her car, “I need to know the truth…”
Her mother’s eyes flashed, she looked back over her shoulder, “Not here Luna, wait until we get home.” She hissed, moving faster towards the car.
A group of Luna’s classmates walked past, staring at her as they made their way towards the school. Luna ducked into the car avoiding them, but that didn’t stop their prying eyes from staring. She knew they were whispering, mocking her adventure in the woods with giggles.
Luna wasn’t returning to school yet, her mom had agreed to give her a week, and let her story about getting lost in the woods blow over. The way that things worked in River Falls, Luna knew that her classmates would be waiting for her when she returned, and they wouldn’t have forgotten about her trip into the woods.
Jessica had already texted her five times, word had already spread and everyone knew about the whole thing, or at least the story they had shared with the police. She knew that when she finally returned to classes she wouldn’t hear the end of it, getting lost in the woods for a weekend was a laughable story.
But they could never know the truth.
The truth was, Luna had gone somewhere else, somewhere far away called Eranox, through a rift in the woods behind her house that was guarded by fireflies. But she couldn’t tell anyone the truth, only her mom and Lucas knew the real story, and Luna had left Lucas on the other side in Eranox where he belonged.
He hadn’t been the friend she had thought he was.
No one seemed to notice that he was still missing, the police hadn’t even brought up his name.
Back in the car, Luna’s mom was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.
“Are you okay Mom?” Luna wasn’t sure what it was that was bothering her, but she had to know something about that gateway in the woods that she hadn’t told Luna yet, and Luna was waiting for her to spill the beans.
“Yeah, I just…” Her mom faltered, turning into the driveway before she could finish her sentence, “I know I owe you an explanation…” She finally admitted, parking the car and turning towards Luna, the pained look in her eyes failing to hide her emotions.
Luna’s mom ushered her back towards the house, staring up the street like she expected that there would be someone there watching them.
“Mom, what’s going on, how did you know about…”
“Luna not here.” Her mom stared down the street, taking Luna by the hand as she rushed towards the door.
Normally they would sit in the living room or the kitchen when they had something to talk about. Instead, Luna’s mom led her straight in
to her office, without even taking her shoes off. She closed the door over and locked it, pulling out a chair for Luna.
“Sit.” Luna sat down, staring at her mom while she tried to make sense of it all.
“Mom, what’s going on, how did you know about that place?” Luna asked again, from the safety of her mom’s office, there were no more excuses for stalling.
Her mom was busy closing the blinds and pulling the curtains across the small window.
She turned, her sad eyes landing on Luna, pleading even.
“Honey, I owe you a real explanation,” She sat in her office chair, pulling it towards Luna so she could hold her hand.
“I’m sure I startled you when I saw the ring, I know you have questions.” Her mother, spun the ring on Luna’s thumb, staring at it for a moment, “Thank you for being so patient with me.” She breathed, looking back into Luna’s eyes.
“What’s going on?” Luna asked again, pulling her hand away, it was as though her mom had become a stranger. Luna had known her for her whole life, through hundreds of moves, and she had never seen this side of her mom before.
Her mom was hiding something from her, Luna was starting to wonder just what kind of person she really was. There was clearly a part of her past that she hadn’t told Luna about, what else was she hiding from her?
Her mom leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling.
“Eranox,” She smiled, “it’s where we are from.”
“No,” Luna stared at her mom, she had finally lost it. Luna remembered seeing her birth announcement in the paper, the fire at the hospital, she knew that her mom was leaving something out.
“Well at least your father and I.” Her mom continued, “I know you went to the library, you know you were born here… when there was still a hospital.” She shook her head, “But before I tell you about that, you need to know why we came here.”
It was all so strange, sitting there and listening to her mother spin a story that sounded more fictitious than real, but Luna had seen the places she was talking about, met the creatures that roamed the Gateway, her brain was hurting from trying to make the connections.
“It was a long time ago Luna, things were once much more pleasant in Eranox.” She began slowly, “Though I’m not sure what it has become since we left, your father and I.”
“There was a powerful Wizard, one of the High Bloods. He wanted to change things, he wanted to take the universe for himself and create a new world. Eranox stood against him, many others stood against him too. But in his search for power he came to Eranox, and there was a fight. He cursed Eranox and left us. When he did that, the council, the one on our sister world, was forced to seal us off for their own safety.”
“Sister world?” Luna laughed.
“We are all a part of one universe Luna, I really should have taught you sooner.” She paused, thinking, “Eranox is the birthplace of magic, human magic. It is where the Wizard bloodline was born. There are some who are more powerful than others, certain bloodlines that were harvested to keep the High Wizard bloodline stronger than the others.
“High Wizards?”
“Yes Luna, High Wizards.” Her mom sighed, “Your father was the High Wizard of Eranox. You would have been trained to follow him.”
“So like royalty?” Luna was confused again, Lucas’ father had clearly been the King of Eranox, she didn’t think they were related.
“Kings and High Wizards are very different, and much the same.” She sighed, “In the our sister world there was a council, tasked with ruling the universe in fairness. Each of the realms had a representative. Your father was Eranox’s.” She spoke so plainly that Luna could only nod as though it all made sense to her. “There was another Wizard, he didn’t like how the council was run, the choices they were making…” She paused.
“And?” Luna was still trying to make sense of it, but she wanted to hear more, it was like a story that she wanted to hear the end of.
“And… he decided that the council was obsolete, that there should be one ruler to reign over the universe.”
“Why?” Luna didn’t understand much about the other world, but she knew that a council was more likely to make unbiased decisions than one person.
“He felt that too much of it was decided behind closed doors, he had been stripped of his High Wizard status after some indiscretions…” Her mom frowned, “He was upset, and ultimately he blamed the council, so he moved against them.” Her eyes looked haunted as she recalled the memory. “He struck Eranox first… so the Wizards wouldn’t be able to help…” She whispered.
“What happened to the rest of the council?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know.” Her mother looked saddened by the thought. “I suppose they survived… if Earth and Eranox are still here, then they must have found a way to stop him.”
“So Eranox was sealed off, then how did we get here?” Luna was searching for the fault in her mother’s story, the thread of truth that she could cling to.
“There are rifts, Luna, I can’t really explain, but the passage in the woods is one of the ways that these two worlds connect. The Gateway connects Eranox to two other worlds, and protects Eranox from intrusion from them. This is one of the worlds it is connected to.”
“So the Gateway, was it always there?”
“Yes, the Gateway has been there as long as Eranox itself. The gateway used to be guarded by Knights, it was a means of keeping outsiders from sneaking into Eranox unannounced.”
“What kind of outsiders? What other worlds are connected there?” Luna remembered the symbols from the labyrinth, at times there were others that she couldn’t place.
“Eranox is connected to Earth and Oro, two of the realms in the Avidauran Universe. The Gateway was built to guard the rifts, and keep Eranox free from unwanted visitors. Not that any ever came from Earth…”
“But the Oreo people, it kept them out of Eranox?”
Her mother laughed. “Yes, it kept the folks from Oro out…if only you knew…” She seemed amused for a moment as though she had stories.
“So Eranox had Knights to guards the Gateway to keep those people out?” Luna wondered.
“Yes. Until the curse was cast.”
“And the things in the Gateway? They’re from the curse?” Luna asked, trying to picture the maze as a peaceful place, somehow she just couldn’t imagine it as anything less than the horror she had seen.
“They were human once.” Her mother seemed sad, “I had many friends who served as guards of the Gateway.” She explained, “But then the curse turned them, and they weren’t the same after.”
“They were human?” Luna breathed, remembering the creature that had stalked her in the maze. They looked like things that she couldn’t have imagined in her worst nightmares, it was hard to believe that they had once been human, or anything close to. “They didn’t look human.”
“They were.” Her mother nodded, “And then they were turned, they became creatures of immense rage when the sun set. Nothing could pass through the gateway without succumbing to the curse or the cursed.”
“Eranox became isolated, there was nothing anyone could do to cure them, so the Kingdom sealed off the Gateway until they could find a way to restore them. They couldn’t risk the curse spreading into the other realms, and into Eranox.”
“So those things…” Luna shuttered, “they’ve been there for eighteen years?”
“Eighteen years Luna,” her mother nodded sadly, “eighteen years of changing, creatures at night, men during the day. Though after all this time I don’t know how much of their humanity could be left…”
“And they just locked them up like that?” Luna still wasn’t sure that she trusted the Kingdom of Eranox, how could they just leave people in a maze like that, evil or not.
“The curse is contagious, even in their human form they can spread it. Most of them volunteered to stay in the Gateway to keep their families safe. The curse spread though Eranox like a wildfire at
first, it took us weeks to contain them and stop the curse from spreading. That was when the King decided that it was time to find help.”
“That’s when you left?” Luna hadn’t realized she was so keen on hearing the story her mother was telling her, she was leaned so far forward in her chair that she nearly fell out waiting for her mom to continue.
“Your father was the last of the High bloodline in Eranox, they chose him so he would escape the curse. I couldn’t let him go alone, though I was pregnant with you. I knew that it would be safer for you outside of Eranox until the curse was lifted.”
“But he didn’t make it.” Luna breathed, waiting for her mom to finish.
She nodded, “Your father didn’t make it out of the Gateway, one of the creatures bit him. I thought he had died, he spent his last moments, or at least his last moments with me, fighting to keep us safe so we could escape.”
“And you just left him there?” Luna pushed herself back into her chair, realizing what her mother had gone through to keep her safe, all the heartache she must have carried all those years thinking that her husband had died to save her.
“I thought he was dead Luna, you have to understand that.” Her mother’s eyes were watery, Luna had to look away to keep herself from crying. “I had a baby, and a quest…”
“Do you think we can still save him?” Luna asked quietly, though she had never really known her father she could feel the hurt radiating from her mom, the pain of losing him, even all these years later was still there.
“I don’t know Luna.” Her voice quivered, and still Luna looked away. “When I arrived in this world, I didn’t know what to do, it was so different. I lived in the woods for a while until someone took me in. You were born here, and then we began to move. At first I thought that I could still break the curse, but it’s been eighteen years Luna, I don’t know that we’ll ever find a way…”
“So you stopped looking?” Luna stared, her mother’s face, still pink from her tears had taken an undertone of guilt.
“The council world is connected to all of the realms, there is a mirror here on Earth that leads to them. I was supposed to find a way to get to them, a way to find help and restore Eranox.” She pursed her lips with frustration.
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