Chapter 32

Nova watched the street, not sure if she should expect to see Bastian come running down it or what exactly.

Her plan seemed perfect, right up to the point when she saw the two with dark souls. Then she’d had a ‘now what?’ moment. Calling Bastian seemed like the best thing to do, and she didn’t know why he’d sounded annoyed when she had. It was a good thing she found some of them, wasn’t it? Checking, she made sure the men were still there. They were, one was leaning against the wall at the side of a store, and the other looked down the street one way and then would turn and look the other way for a moment. She bit her lip, hoping they got here before they got bored and left. Her phone vibrated in her hand, she didn’t look to see who it was, just answered it. “Bastian?”

“Which roof are you on?”

She closed her eyes, trying to remember what the building she stood on was. “Pottery,” she blurted out. “The pottery store down from where you saved me.”

“Have you been there?” he said to someone, because she was sure he wasn’t asking if she’d shopped there before.

She heard someone else talking.

“Give me one minute,” he said into the phone this time.

“Okay.” She nodded, wondering where he was and that it would only take him a minute to get here. She scanned the street below, looking for him.

“Good spot.”

She jolted and turned around to see Crissy and Bastian standing behind her. How had they gotten up here so fast?

Both tapped the screen of their phones, then came over to her.

Bastian looked at her from head to toe and squatted down beside the ledge surrounding the roof.

Nova looked back to the street.

“We see you,” Crissy said and then nodded.

“Tall, red hair, green jacket,” Bastian said into his phone, “and Captain obvious that’s looking up and down the street.” He held his hand over his phone and pointed. “The woman wearing the hoody with the dark-haired lady are Princesses Autumn and Paisley.”

Nova spotted who he was talking to. The princesses had come to help.

“The one with the long black hair is Paisley’s mate, Prince Arius.”

She saw the man, then glanced at Bastian.

“Trendan’s down there, but you can’t see him right now.”

Nova wanted to ask, but he held the phone up between them and she could hear the voices now.

“Babe, slow down, you’ll scare them off.”

Someone chuckled. “if you want me to move any slower, I’ll have to crawl.”

Bastian grinned.

“We’ll take the one looking around, you chat with the other one,” another woman said.

“Just hurry up. How come I have to wait here with the invisible one?” She recognized Daxx’s voice.

Someone laughed. “Because, Huntress, your expression says, ‘I’m going to beat you to a pulp’.”

“They deserve it.” Daxx didn’t sound happy at all.

Nova was amazed. One phone call and all these people came to help Bastian. She watched the two women approach the dark one that was looking for her—gut reflex told her he was looking for her.

“Hey, maybe you could help us?” she heard one of the women say.

“Excuse me.” Arius’ voice came through the speaker.

She watched him touch the man on the shoulder and then his hand, but the intimidating prince didn’t say anything else, just leaned down in front of the man. He straightened and turned to look at the women.

“I should land a back kick right in your face,” came over the phone.

“Hey, if I don’t get to have fun, Autumn, neither do you.”

Nova leaned further over the edge and looked. The man that had been looking around was waving his arms around, but not moving from where he stood.

“Little faster, guys, he’s going to draw attention as he struggles,” the one she pegged as Paisley said.

A woman with long straight blond hair, a similar shade to her own, came jogging around the corner with Bastian’s brother right beside her.

Arius turned and placed something on the wrist of the one just standing there. He held his hand out to Autumn, she took something and turned back to the struggling one.

“You can either stop and hold out your wrist or I can kick you in the face.”

Her tone alone would have made Nova stand still. She wondered what her expression looked like.

“What’s this on his wrist?”

Bastian rose up and looked down. “Is it a link? Tell me it’s a link.”

Trendan and Daxx reached them. “It’s a link, brother,” his brother said, “an older model.”

“Yes.” Bastian grinned in a very unpleasant way. “They’re all registered,” he said into the phone.

“Good.” Daxx pulled a small box out of her pocket. “Any gawkers watching?”

“None are paying attention, Daxx,” Crissy told her.

“Perfect.” Daxx stepped over to the one that hadn’t so much as moved since Arius spoke to him. “See you in the cells.” She held the box out and the man was gone. Completely vanished.

Autumn grabbed the other one by the collar and shoved him toward Daxx, then he disappeared.

“You guys are always vanishing,” Nova said quietly.

Bastian grinned at her. “Those ones were banished to the prison cells in Alterealm.”

“Did you need us to stick around?” Arius asked.

Bastian stood up and looked around. “I don’t see anymore nearby.” He glanced at Nova with a questioning look.

Nova realized he was asking if she saw any more. She shook her head. “It was just the two.”

“Okay. We’re out.” Daxx glanced up at them on the roof. “I’ll send Troy to visit our new guests.”

“We’ll be over soon,” Bastian told them.

“I’ll go, Bas, you get Nova home,” Trendan offered.

Bastian nodded but didn’t answer.

Daxx and the two other women walked to the corner and then they were gone, just like the men.

“Do you need me to get down?” Crissy asked.

Nova turned to see Bastian shake his head. “No, Nova’s going to show me how she got here.”

She turned to look down at the street, but Trendan and Arius were gone now too.

Crissy grinned. “This was fun.” She was gone before either of them could say anything.

Nova backed away from the edge. “How do you all vanish?”

“That varies. Trendan and I use our links, they only take us to Solrelm. Alterealm’s have programmed porters.” He tucked his phone into his jacket. “Except those with royal blood, if they’ve been somewhere before, they can think it and port there.”

She raised both eyebrows. “So, Crissy has been on this roof?”

“Crissy prefers high places.”

Nova shrugged. “No one ever looks up.” She put her phone in her pocket. “The fairy princess, does she port?”

“She has magic and I have no idea how it works.”

“Oh.”

“We need to have a talk.” The usual amused glint was gone from his eyes. “I need to explain everything that’s going on. It may be a long talk.” Looking around, he cocked his head and turned back to her. “Want to get us off the roof first?”

Nova blinked, completely forgetting she’d have to show him how she managed to travel along the roofs in this area. She’d take it slow, give herself time to decide if she was showing him where she really lived or if she was going to sit upstairs again. She wanted to trust him, to finally have someone down there that didn’t live in a fish tank, but she didn’t know if she should.

He walked beside her until they reached the first ladder.

“Older buildings had to install these for emergency situations.” She turned and went down the ladder to the next building.

Bastian followed without comment until his feet were on the next roof. “What would you say if I asked you to temporarily hide in another realm? Until we get to the bottom of the dark souls that are after you.”

Nova paused and looked at him. “Another realm?”

He nodded.

“I can do that?”

Bastian shook his head. “We’d take precautions, a stabilizer, so your body has no issues.”

“Your realm?”

He frowned. “No, not until we know who is behind the dark-souled ones.”

She shrugged; he had a point. “Those links they wore, they’re from your realm?”

“Yes, they are.”

“So how are these men walking around there and no one has noticed their darkness?”

“A very good question. I don’t have the answer. Yet.”

“Where would I go then?”

“I was thinking Alterealm.” He motioned for her to go to the next ladder.

Nova started walking again. “I don’t think I need to hide in another realm, my home is pretty secure.” She started down the ladder and looked up at him. “And I have fish, I can’t abandon them.”

Bastian followed her and then stopped and put his hands on his hips. “Did you say you have fish?”

She nodded.

“These fish are more important than your safety?”

“I have responsibilities.” She walked over to the final ladder that would bring her to the end of her alley. She wasn’t taking him the full way, because it led to the roof ladder where she lived.

“To fish?” He caught up to her.

“And maintaining the journals and home, for the next—”

He put his hand up. “Can we just not talk about you dying and your soul moving on? I just found you.”

Nova looked up at him as she went down. “It can happen at any time, and I want to leave everything ready—”

He jumped down the last few rings. “What I need to talk to you about is more important. On a different level, I mean — yur breathing is quite important as well.”

She smirked and then started down the alley. “Like what?”

Bastian signed loudly. “Nefarious plots, brainwashing, journals that talk about men being taken, and a few other things.”

Nova dug around in her jacket for her key, she always had it ready before she reached the door, even when running anytime she was spooked by a feeling.

They were at the door, and she still didn’t know if she should show him where she really lived or not.