Chapter 1

The never-ending darkness pressed down on me, making it hard to suck any air into my lungs. I wasn’t used to this total blank canvas of nothing. No sound. No light. Even the moon was blocked by the towering Goliaths lining the city streets, making them appear that much more menacing. I couldn’t shake the fear that more of those creatures were hiding in the buildings in wait for us, ready to pop out any moment and rip out our throats. My ears strained, searching for any noise out of place, but all I heard was our softly padded footsteps on the weed carpet under our feet as we snaked our way through the dead city.

Dead truly was the only word for this place. Everything seemed so wrong. The lack of light, saturating everything around us with inky shadows. The heaviness of the air. The rusting carcasses of vehicles clogging the roads and slowing our progress. Whatever had happened to this world had happened a long time ago, and it felt like even the earth itself had given up hope on ever returning to normal. I never thought I’d say this, but I actually missed Contigo Springs. Even Lexa Buttface. As messed up as that world and the people in it were, at least it was still alive.

I shivered, my shoulder throbbing where Asha had hit me, the ache spreading up my neck and blooming over the top of my head. Man, fingers crossed this world still had Advil left in it. My head was about to explode. It felt like we’d been walking forever, and I really needed to sit down.

“Where the hell are we going?”

The shrill words dropped from my lips before I could even think about holding them back. I regretted them immediately. They echoed loudly in the thick, stale air, and I felt, rather than saw the redhead leading us, whip around in fury.

“Quiet, you idiot,” she hissed at me.

Despite the remorse at my slip, my own anger ricocheted in my chest. This Bixby chick was one unhinged witch. I really wanted to tell her straight where to go and what to do to herself once she got there. I didn’t need her extra bullshit considering we had enough of our own to deal with. But before I could act on the anger, Starke’s warm hand found mine in the dark, and he gave my fingers a gentle squeeze.

“I understand your anxiety but don’t be stupid, Jette. We don’t need to draw attention. I do not wish to tangle with those creatures again so soon. We need the cooperation of these people.”

His words only exacerbated my guilt. I swallowed the anger down. He was right. I didn’t want to meet those things again either. And Bixby and her crew really didn’t deserve my fear-fueled anger. They had just saved our asses from leeches after my stupid ass dragged us here. Wherever here was. This parallel dimension/multiverse stuff was seriously playing with my head. If I thought jumping through a burning door into a magic realm filled with Fae and Ogres was bad enough, jumping us to another world filled with human-eating leeches took the cake.

The blonde giant walking ahead of us appeared to take pity on our confusion. What had he said his name was? Luke. Right. He slowed his gait, waiting for Starke, Jill, and I to catch up. His soft words found their way to us through the darkness.

“I know you guys must be beat, probably hungry, and not to mention totally baffled, but now is not the time for explanations. Just trust us. We need to get off the streets. As the night goes on, more and more leeches and queen leeches will be prowling the city. We need to be safely hidden before that happens.”

His lips tilted in a half smile on his rugged face, like that somehow distracted from the chilling words he’d just spoken. He jogged ahead to catch up with Bixby, leaving me not reassured in the least. The thought of more of these things lurking about terrified me to no end. Not for the first time in the past hour, I cursed myself for bringing us here. What had I been thinking believing I could do this? Trust me to choose the wrong door. Fifty-fifty chance and I messed it up. Story of my life. This world was so far out of my comfort zone, so surreal, that I’d even questioned if I’d finally gone over the edge. Maybe this was really an episode in my head, and I was seriously having a doozy of a breakdown.

I ran a weary hand over my face trying desperately to hold back…tears? Screams? I wasn’t even sure. All I knew was that I was pulling apart at the seams and had no idea if I would ever be able to stitch myself back together. The tiny child part of me yearned for Bishop. My rock and voice of reason. I really wished he was here right now, assuring me everything was going to be alright. I needed a grownup, bigtime.

But since wishes were just as useless as glass hammers, I locked the threatening hysteria down and gripped my sai, trying once again to dredge up an ounce of magic. I knew that was our only option. Open another door and jump us away from this awful place. But again nothing. The slight sizzling in my gut sputtered and blinked out without catching fire. There was no magic. No power. I was running on empty. I glanced sideways at Jill, her pale face a ghostly blur in the dark.

“Do you have any magic left?”

I made sure to whisper. I didn’t need another reprimand from the witch up front.

“No.” Her answer was absolute. “Whatever I had, Asha sucked me dry of. I have nothing. I can’t even produce a flicker of flame to light our way through this damn darkness. And even if I did, my magic isn’t the most reliable. I can’t control it. I’d probably burn the rest of this godforsaken city down and us along with it.”

“She needs her magical instrument to control her power.”

Jill’s head swiveled in Starke’s direction. “My what?”

“Your magic wand,” I informed her like that was the most normal thing in the world. “Apparently all magical beings on Endova have them. Starke’s is his sword, mine’s the sai. I wonder what yours is?”

“The fire elemental’s instrument is a whip,” Starke answered my question. “The earth elemental’s power is contained by a stone hammer and the air elemental has a bow. Only with your instruments are you the most powerful and in control of your magic.”

“A whip? Really?” I whispered in awe. “That’s so freakin’ cool. Man, I wish mine was the whip.”

“I wish I knew what you were both talking about,” Jill muttered, shaking her head.

“Doesn’t matter at the moment,” I added. “You’ll see later. What matters is you’re a bust, and so am I. How about you?” I turned to Starke. “You have any magic? Can those runes of yours get us out of here like they did the tower?”

“I’m afraid not since neither of you can open a portal right now. You will need to regenerate, the same as me, and this world has barely anything to pull from, as far as I can tell.”

His words only pissed me off once again. “But you’re Fae, dammit. A magical being. You should have something in your arsenal. You’re telling me you can’t even use any of that blood magic again?”

I felt his accusatory gaze through the dark. “I know you’re scared right now so I’ll let your juvenile behavior slide, this time. Magic is not infinite, Jette. You should know that by now. And blood magic is not something to play lightly with. It has… consequences.” He sighed as if he was dealing with an obtuse child. “After expelling the amount of power we did to escape, all of our bodies need time to rejuvenate. We need a magic source. Our only chance of getting out of here will be to find a ley line.”

Great. That’s all. Find a ley line. Like we could just go to the corner gas station and get a map for that.

Jill brushed my shoulder as she leaned past me to whisper at Starke.

“Did you just say we were stuck here? In this world with creatures trying to kill us?”

“I did.”Steel exasperation laced his voice. “So I suggest we be on our best behavior with these people, since I doubt we’d last here very long on our own with no magic.”

“So much for saving me,” Jill whined as she pulled back. “Seems like all you people did was pull me from the pan and shove me headfirst into the fire. I was better off taking my chances with the evil queen.”

I wanted to give her a crap ton of my best snark. Take my irritation out on her instead of Starke, but I knew her words stemmed from fear. And besides that, there was no arguing her comment. Basically, we had done just that. Or I had. But the mention of Asha aroused a much bigger concern.

“Crap, I almost forgot about Asha. What if she follows us here? Or sends her morquals after us. There’s no way these people can protect us from your demented mother. And with our magic bone-dry right now, I’m guessing the odds likely won’t be in our favor.”

A sliver of moonlight squeezed its way between two buildings, highlighting Starke’s square jaw as he stared ahead.

“Asha can’t track an ending point as easily as a starting point. If you jump from anywhere on Endova she can pinpoint it to the precise location. But where that jump door takes you? That is only between the traveler and the multiverse.”

It felt like a weight lifted from my chest. “So, you’re saying she can’t find us?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying she can’t track you as easily. But eventually she will find us. And she will come. That’s why we need to find a ley line as quickly as possible.”

And just like that, the weight settled again. I glanced sideways at Starke through the gloom wishing for once he could actually lie to me, just to make me feel better. “A word of advice. If you ever decide to choose a new career path, don’t go with motivational speaker, k?”

I heard his weary sigh at my cattiness, and another wave of guilt washed over me. He didn’t need me adding to the stress. But it was like I couldn’t help myself. Stress and fear brought out my mean streak. Before I could utter anything in the way of apology, a shaggy head shoved its way through the tiny space between us.

“Not to be a nosey Ned, but I’ve been eavesdropping your convo, fellas. I didn’t hear every word since you were whispering pretty low, but I swear I heard you guys talking about magic. Are you being serious? Are you guys really saying you have magic? I mean, cause like that would be totally awesome.”

The young guy, Gordo, was probably not much older than me, but the excitement in his voice made him appear all of twelve-years-old. Without waiting for an invitation, he wiggled his body between Starke and I, hip checking me to move over. Out of all of them, he appeared to be the most open and receptive, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and get some answers from him.

“Yeah, you heard us talking about magic. I take it magic isn’t common on this world?”

“If you call card tricks and pulling bunnies outta hats, then yeah, we have magic. But I get a feeling that’s not what you guys are talking about.”

I grunted to myself, half laughter, half fear. We were in so much trouble here.

“So people here don’t have abilities? You don’t have people that can control the elements or Fae of any kind?”

Starke’s question sounded stupid even to my ears, and I actually believed in magic.

“What? Fae? As in Faeries?” Gordo’s skepticism was obvious.

“Yes. Exactly.”

Gordo’s snort at Starke’s definite answer tapered off to a low whistling intake of breath. “You’re not joking, are you?”

“Not in the slightest,” Starke replied.

“Man, I knew Amy was right.” The skepticism gone; his voice practically quivered with excitement. “I knew you guys were special, ‘cause you severed that QL’s head like you were slicing through butter. We would never be able to do that. Only a magic blade could do that. She said you guys were coming from another world. The others wouldn’t believe her. Said she was just having bad dreams and nightmares, but I knew she was telling the truth. And now here you are. Come to save us, just like she dreamed.”

I hated to burst the guy’s bubble. We ended up here by accident. We weren’t here to save anyone. Heck, we probably couldn’t even save ourselves.

“You keep mentioning this Amy,” I asked instead of spilling the truth. “And that she knew we were coming. Who is she?”

“She’s part of our group. Or what’s left of our group.” Gordo’s tone grew tight with grief and I suddenly didn’t want to hear any more of what he was about to say. I knew I wasn’t going to like it. “She’s been rambling on about you guys for about a week or more now. Only yesterday she woke in a frenzy. Said you guys were coming and that we had to be here to help you cross over. Bix tried to play it down to another bad dream, but Ames was insistent. Only way Bix could calm her down was agree to do recon on Queen Street last night. Imagine how we almost crapped our pants when we showed up and saw you guys waitin’ there, just like she said.”

Interesting. So this Amy person was dreaming or hallucinating us? Just like I did with my mom and the others. Maybe there was a bit of magic in this world after all.

“I wonder how much Amy knows about the other realms,” I whispered past the kid to Starke. “She may be able to help us pinpoint Larry and Curly.”

“Other realms exist too?” Gordo practically leaned in my face, blocking my view and interrupting my words. “I knew it.” He sounded tickled pink by this. “I always believed that, ever since I read The Man in The High Castle. You know that one? It’s by Theresa Nagler. Awesome story. It’s all about parallel worlds and dimensions and Nazis and---”

My brow wrinkled in confusion as I interrupted. “No, that’s not right. The Man in The High Castle was written by Philip K Dick.”

“Ummm no,” Gordo snorted at me. “I’ve read that book at least twenty times over. There’s no way I’d get the author’s name wrong. She’s one of my favorites.”

I blinked in confusion. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Positive,” I replied. “I read that only last year when the TV show came out.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense….oooh, wait.” Gordo’s tone rose like he just had an epiphany. “Are you telling me in your world someone else wrote that book? You realize what that means, right? Our worlds really are like the book. Things are the same, but different. That’s freakin’ awesome.”

I looked past him to Starke, not in the least as excited as Gordo.

“Is he right? Are some of these worlds similar? My world had nothing in common with Endova, but this one? This one seems to be eerily similar to the world I grew up in. Minus the aliens, of course.”

I couldn’t see Starke’s expression through the murky dusk, but the uncertainty in his voice was obvious.

“It’s a possibility, I suppose. No one, not even Asha, is aware of how many parallel worlds there are. The odds of some being mirror images of others is higher than we may have thought possible.”

I decided to test the theory and switched my attention back to Gordo.

“Bixby asked if I thought we were in Disney World. I recognize that name.Where I come from, Disney World is located in a place called Florida. Is yours the same?”

Gordo practically guffawed in my face. “Florida? Hell no. Disney World is in Georgia. At least in this world it is.” His eyes opened even wider. “Hey, if our worlds are different versions of each other, then does that mean the people are too? Like does a version of me exist in your world? Does a version of you exist here? Wouldn’t that be something. I bet—"

“Gordo.” The hissed name from the front of the pack had the guy stiffening in fright. “Shut your trap and get back to position. Now.”

He did as she ordered, whatever he was about to say caged by the angry command. I didn’t blame him. Bixby was one scary chick. But there was so much more I needed to ask him. Was he right? Were the parallel worlds similar just like in that book? And were there different versions of people? Of me? Just thinking about it made my head want to explode. And if there was a different version of me still alive in this world, then I hoped she was a hell of a lot smarter than I was and was staying out of this whole damn situation.