"I see you are alive and well," he said as he studied me. "I wondered."
"Yes. So far," I replied quietly.
He stepped around the desk and approached me. I tried not to flinch back when he ran his finger down the side of my face in a gentle caress. "Why have you come?" he whispered.
I shook my head and said as sincerely as I could, "I really didn't mean to. I'm sorry."
He inched in closer to me and tangled a hand in my hair. He leaned in and took a deep breath. "God, you smell so good."
"Please," I said. I was saying please don't, please stop, but he took it in a completely different way.
"Yes," he said and tried to press his lips to mine. I turned my head away and he connected with my cheek instead. The hand in my hair tightened and tugged my head around to face him and then held me still, unable to move.
I did the only thing I knew to do. I pulled in a small bit of energy and warned, "Gideon, don't."
His eyelids were lowered, droopy over his eyes. He wasn't hearing me or he didn't want to hear me, either way, I wasn't getting through. He pulled me toward him with the hand at the back of my head.
I put my hands against his shoulders and pressed back. "I mean it," I said.
"Ari," he breathed.
"No," I said. "Sunny." With my hands still pressed to his chest, I pushed the energy I had gathered out in a fast white burst. Surprise, for once, on my side.
Gideon was thrust back with the impact of my energy against his body. My head yanked forward with the vicious pull from the hand still tangled in my hair as he fell away from me. I knew from the pain of my head that he had taken a good chunk of my hair with him on his way down.
He sat up and stared at me. Rage flushed over his face and down his neck. I swore I could see red flames behind his slit eyes. Eyes that were no longer dreamy, that's for sure. I pulled into the shadows just as I felt him pull in energy of his own. I stepped backward until I was up against the wall.
I forgot for a moment that I had a means of escape, until he stood up and aimed his hands in my direction. He may not be able to see me, but he could sense me, I was sure of it, as the aim was dead on my chest.
I screamed and frantically pulled the shadows toward me again. I phased into them just as the red flames of his power washed over me.
Chapter Nine
I rolled over onto my back. A small puff of red dust settled around me. I turned my head to the left. "Damnit," I said, more in exasperation than in any real anger. Judging from the red world around me, I still hadn't made it back to Acadia or home either, for that matter.
Phasing from one realm to another was not easy sometimes, especially when you were trying to do it in an emergency situation. The last sight I'd had before phasing, was of the red fire of Gideon's energy. Naturally I landed in what I assumed was the Fire Realm.
I was also hot as hell. I stood up and pulled off my gloves and pushed my hood down. Then, still sweltering, I opened my coat and took it off along with the sweatshirt I had under that, and the t-shirt I had under that. I was left wearing only my black jeans and a white tank top, but I was still hot, the sweaty, moist kind of hot. "Yuck."
I dropped my discarded clothes to the ground in a heap and decided since I was there, I may as well have a look around. If I ran into more fairies though, I was going to be so ticked.
It was a quiet place at least. It had red dirt, an orange sky, and lots of rocks, black in color, in different formations all around. Some of the rock formations were small. Some were huge. So tall they towered up high into the sky and left the only shade to be found in splotches along the ground.
There was a vibration under my feet and then a growling rumbling sound off to the left by one of the formations. I followed the noise and saw a small puddle of orange red liquid. It bubbled and waved inside the hole it was in. As the rumble got louder, the liquid in the puddle sunk down and down. Then without any warning, it shot up into the air, tossing the liquid everywhere.
I shrieked in surprise then screamed in pain when a drop of the liquid landed on my arm in a big glop. Lava. It was lava in the ground and it was burning the crap out of me. I ran to my pile of clothes and frantically wiped the burning glob off my arm. There in its place was an already bubbling blister about two inches long and half an inch wide on my forearm. Nice, another war scar, just what I needed.
Geysers. That's what that was, and they were everywhere.
"So sorry I'm late," said a man as he rushed to where I stood. I stared at him, rudely. I couldn't help it. He was red. No, I mean red, red. Not like we used to call the Indians, but actually dark, blood-like, red. His face, his arms, hands, feet, and his chest, which by the way was awesome, it was bare, and muscled, and just wow. The only other colors on the man were his tan pants, his black eyes, eyebrows and long hair. Hair so long it reached the curve of his waist. So you can understand why I was staring. Oiy. He was hot.
"Here, let me fix that," he said and without waiting for me to reply, grabbed my arm and placed his hand palm down right over the burn on my arm.
"Ow!" I said and tried to pull away.
"No, wait a second. I'll fix it for you," he said and held tight. Then he closed his eyes. I watched and felt as a warm vibration replaced the pulsing pain. There were no strange lights or anything like that, just the warmth.
His eyes snapped open and he smiled at me.
I didn't know what I was supposed to do so I smiled back.
He shook his head at me, smile still in place, and said, "No. Look. Is it better?"
I looked down at my arm and realized, yes. It was. The burn was almost nonexistent. No blister, no pain. In fact there was only a small redness left in the area to show where it had been. "Wow. That's great. Thank you!"
"It happens all the time here. You get used to it," he said. "Sorry I was late. If I had been on time, it may not have happened."
"Late? For what?" I asked, not following what he meant.
"For you. I was supposed to be here on post today, but..." he said and again he smiled.
He had nice white teeth. They were really bright against the darkness of his skin. Nice cheekbones too. Wait, what? "For me?" I looked around and asked, "Where exactly am I?"
"You're in the land of the fire people," he said.
So I was right, I was in the Fire Realm.
"We have been waiting for you for years now. All we had was the place you would come," he said as if I knew what the heck he was talking about. "It's a boring job and there are days I hate having to come out here. But I guess the seer was right after all. And even better, I get to be the one to find you."
I held out my hand to him and said, "Wait. Stop and back up. Dude, I have no idea what you are talking about. I had a bad jump from Acadia and ended up here. That's it."
That was also something I was going to have to work on. Realm jumping was harder than you would think, apparently, as I kept ending up in the wrong place.
He tilted his head and regarded me. He looked me over, up, and down. "Are you not the Sunshine?"
How did he know that? I looked around us and didn't see anyone else. "Yesss," I said slowly.
"Oh, good. For a minute there I thought I had the wrong jumper, but then you look like the picture, so I was pretty sure you were her."
"Look," I said, annoyed. Cute or not he was getting on my nerves. "I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know about any picture or whatever. So, if you don't want to explain it to me fine, but then I'm going home."
"I don't understand. How can you not know of us?"
I huffed out a breath and crossed my arms.
"Okay, okay. Let me think a minute," he said. He dropped down to the ground and sat crossed legs.
I joined him on the ground without a word and waited.
Finally, he began, "A long time ago, I was really small when it happened, but a jumper, a woman, landed in our world. She can see future events. Not everything or really even anything important actually, it
has to be about someone she really cares about or it doesn't work. Anyway she told of a girl that would land here that would need our help. So, for the last few years someone comes out to this spot for the day and waits."
So many questions were running in my brain. I didn't even know where to start asking. "Where did the picture of me come from?" Was it a drawing? Was it a photograph?
"It's not actually of you," he said.
That cleared it up, not.
"It's a really good likeness, though. It's almost spot on. Your hair is a bit longer and there is a roundness to your face that she didn't have, but otherwise, you look just like the picture."
I tried for patience and asked again, "What picture?"
"It was a picture of a woman named Arianna."
"My mother? Where did you get it?" I asked and sat up on my knees.
"Yes. She was a queen. I guess you know that though," he said.
Yeah, he was a bit thick. "Yes, I knew that."
"Star showed us the picture of Arianna after she came here. Star has carried it for a long time now."
Star? That was the name on the note my parents found with me when I was a baby. "Who is she? Where is she? Is she still alive?"
He grinned and said, "Well, she's my aunt now. She married my uncle a long, long time ago."
"Before she was your aunt, who was she?" I asked, as I tried to be patient.
"Just a jumper like you, I guess."
"What is a jumper? You mean a person that can jump from the different realms?"
"Yeah."
"You can't do that?"
"None of the fire people can do that," he said. "Wait. That may not be true. A few of my cousins can do the shadow thing like Aunt Star, but I don't think they are jumpers."
Hmm. Maybe not yet…maybe they never had the need to try it. I kept that bit of information to myself.
"And Star is a Seer?" I was assuming this meant ESP, clairvoyant or something.
"Yes," he replied then added, "but she's not very good. We have been waiting and watching for you for years. Plus, sometimes she gets the stuff wrong. Like the time, she was sure…"
"Is Star here?" I interrupted.
He didn't seem to mind or he was used to it as he nodded and said, "She's at home."
The others, Gabriel and Lucas mostly, had to be freaking out, but I made a decision. "Can you take me there? To see Star?"
"Yeah," he said and jumped to his feet. "It's not far. Come on."
"Wait, one more thing before we go," I said.
He tilted his head and waited for me to continue.
"You got a name?"
He smiled and said, "Jinx."
~ * ~
The Fire Realm was an interesting place at least. Although a lot of red, the rock formations were wild. The geysers were the cause of them, from what I could tell. They would shoot out lava and it would land and cool, and then another bit would land on that and cool, and after so much time, you had the strangely shaped black rocks. The black rocks were everywhere too. We didn't have far to walk before Jinx made a sharp turn and entered a dark cave.
It had fires all along the walls to light the way. I continued to follow Jinx as we went deeper into the tunnel. As we moved further through the cave, the air began to cool more and more. Thank goodness too, as after that little bit of walking I was sweating. What I wouldn't have given for a hair thing. My hair was sticking to my neck and arms and bugging the crap out of me.
"You live down here?" I asked.
He turned and shot me a look that said, "Duh!" Then he said, "It's too hot up top. The people moved into the ground centuries ago."
That would explain why everyone thought the Fire Realm was empty of people, but then again, everyone had been wrong about the Ice Realm being empty too.
After a small bend in the passageway, the tunnel opened up into a wide cavernous area. I was suddenly hit with noise and bright lights and people all at once. The curve in the walls had held all of it back. It was a bit of a shock to all my senses, but that didn't stop me from zeroing in on one woman.
With pale white skin and dark blonde hair, she stood out among the sea of red bodies and black hair. No, I realized as I really looked, there were a few small children that were a softer red and had her hair. Her children, I knew right off.
She slowly stood, and I knew she was the one called Star even before she made a sound. "Oh, it's you." The wonder in her voice matched the confusing emotions that crossed her face; sadness, excitement, happiness, and worry.
She ran across the room and enveloped me in a hug so tight I couldn't breathe for a moment. She took my face in her hands and inspected me. "You look just like her. Oh, you are wonderful. I knew you would come. I knew it!"
My face still in her hands, she turned to a man leaning against the back wall and said. "It's her. Look, she came. She made it."
He nodded and smiled at her. "I never doubted you."
"Well, we have so much to do," she said to me. She then dropped her hands from my face and began to pace around me.
She was talking, but I wasn't certain if she was talking to me, the room at large, or herself. "We have to prepare the army and then we need to figure out how to get them all through the shadows."
"Whoa. What army?" I asked.
She stopped her pacing and said, "Your army. We have been preparing for you for years."
"What? Why?" I didn't know what else to say.
"For you. Your quest," she said.
"Star, honey," the man said. "She seems a bit shell shocked. Maybe we should take it back a step."
"But," she said, confusion all over her face.
"We have been preparing for a long time. We know the future you have seen. She doesn't. Maybe we should, you know, fill her in a bit?" he said. He stepped away from the wall and came to stand in front of me. He held out his hand and said, "I'm Brick, Star's husband. It's lovely to finally meet you."
I smiled when I took his hand in mine and said, "I'm Sunny. It's nice to meet you too." Finally, there was someone that understood the situation.
"Come, sit down and tell us how you got here. We have all wondered for years how it would happen."
After I sat down, I realized there were a lot of people in the room and they all stared at me, expectantly.
"Well, it was an accident actually. I was trying to jump from the King's Castle to the forest, but something went a bit wrong. I figured it out though," I said as a giggle escaped my mouth. "See, part of the phasing thing is having a clear picture in your head. When you have a fireball heading your way as you're jumping, the picture in your head tends to change a bit. So, instead of a forest, I ended up in the land of fire."
After the chuckles around the room quieted, I asked, "Why are you here, Star? What happened?"
"That was not an accident," she said, but she didn't look at me. She looked down at her hands in her lap. "God, I loved Arianna. She was my friend, more my sister than my own sisters were."
Finally, she looked up at me and said, "That is how I ended up here. After Malcolm died, she wouldn't listen to reason from anyone. She swore up and down that it was not an accident, that Gideon had murdered him. No one would believe her. Actually, no one wanted to believe her because we didn't have murder in Acadia. Other realms were violent and evil, but Acadia was a peaceful land. She knew though. We should have listened to her."
"I don't know what made her run, there at the end. She would never say, but I wouldn't let her go alone. I always wondered about that. We ran first to the Ice Realm, but there was nowhere to hide and neither of us was prepared for the cold. We couldn't live there so we jumped here next, but again it was too fierce of a land for us. Finally, we phased over to the Water Realm and were surprised at the land."
"We didn't know what to make of it. The Ice Realm has fairies that can tell you the future. Acadia has the shadow walkers. The Fire Realm has the healing red people." She said this last part with a huge smile on her face. She reached for Brick
next to her and took hold of his hand. Then she continued, "The Water Realm had nothing though. The people were still so primitive that they had yet to find any gifts. They had all this technology that the other realms didn't have, but they didn't have the gift of their own minds."
"Anyway, we decided it was the perfect place for us. It took us a while to settle in as we didn't know anything about money and paying for food or housing."
All the fire people looked shocked at this revelation. There were murmurs around the room about money being an evil in itself.
"We managed though," she continued over the murmurs. "We rented a little apartment, found employment here and there. Oh, we lost more jobs than we kept as everything was so foreign." She chuckled again and shook head. "You should have seen us." She was quiet for a moment. Apparently she was remembering, and it made her happy, but by the sad smile on her face I could tell it made her unhappy as well.
"She was getting huge with child. Everything with the child had gone well throughout her pregnancy. Then suddenly, everything went so wrong. You came in the night. It was so fast. Suddenly, we had this beautiful baby, with white blonde hair, sweet little lips, and chunky little cheeks. You never cried. It was the strangest thing. You just took in your surroundings and never cried a sound. Oh, you were gorgeous, and so perfect, and we were so happy that we didn't notice right away the fever." Star's voice broke on this last part.
"I didn't notice the fever. I think she did. I think she knew all along. The fever came and took her before I even knew how to help. She got weak and weaker, and she bled and continued to bleed, and then she was just gone. It was so quiet how she left us. I held you in my arms and we sat at her side. She took in a breath, let it out, and never took another. I waited at her side for her, unable to believe she was gone.
"I am a seer, why didn't I know?" she asked, and her voice cracked again. I could tell she was holding desperately to her emotions, but it wasn't doing her any good. She may not have been sobbing, but she cried all the same, with silent tears that flooded down her cheeks.
"I don't know," I answered. "Sometimes they say if you are too close to someone, you can't see their futures."
Shadow Dancer Boxed Set Page 40