Chapter 6

I had no words.

I’d come through the portal with every intention of telling the others I swore I’d seen Starke on the cosmic plane, but at this precise moment in time, I was speechless.

After falling through the portal and landing a bit shakily on my feet—I was getting better at landings—I steadied myself, ready to spill the beans. But Jill, Kara, and Zoe had not been waiting for us with bated breath. They were already standing at the end of what looked like a narrow alley between two aluminum-sided buildings. They hadn’t even noticed Bish and my arrival. Glad to see they were so worried about us. I approached their backs, with the knowledge of what I thought I saw in the hall of doors, but what they were looking at rendered me as slack-jawed and speechless as they were.

The cityscape beyond the alley resembled scenes from any of the futuristic movies of my world. The whole street was ablaze with multicolored lights bouncing off the glass. Metal? Whatever the material these buildings were made from. And I use the term building loosely. They were more… orbs. The buildings were round. Round, squat pods layered on top of each other, some so high they disappeared up into the dense clouds above, like giant, rounded waterslides. One building in particular caught my eye. It was a massive arch that reached high and around with an open center. It looked like a giant glass doughnut in the middle of the city. We could see straight through its center to the buildings on the other side.

But more impressive than the buildings themselves were the moving streets. Holy Toledo, the streets were actually moving. Like a giant conveyor belt or those airport moving walkways. People were standing, hanging onto poles or sitting on the bench seats like they were just riding a bus. A bus with no wheels, or floors, or walls. And every single person was wearing glasses. Well, sort of glasses. More like visors? Like the dude from the Star Trek movies. Only these were shaped to cover each eye like psychedelic sunglasses. What the freaking heck?

“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Zoe sounded just as astounded as I felt.

“Yeah, I’m seeing but not sure if I’m believing,” I answered back. “This is something straight from some bad sci-fi movie. All that’s missing are the flying cars.”

“You mean those things?” Jill asked, pointing upwards.

She was right. Elongated, clear tubes crisscrossed the sky. So clear I hadn’t seen them before, but as I watched dark, egg-shaped capsules shoot through them, carrying what, I could only guess. People? Products? Who knew? Not quite cars, but I had no other word for them. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around any of it.

“The Jetsons had it right,” I muttered.

“Enough wasting time.” Bishop grounded my wandering thoughts. “We need to find the earth elemental as quickly as possible, with as little interaction with this world’s inhabitants as we can. If the portal brought us here, he shouldn’t be far. Reach out. Search for his aura.”

He was right. We’d had enough interaction with the inhabitants of the other worlds. This needed to be done as cleanly as possible. We backed down the alley, out of sight of the street riders.

“We’re up, girls,” I shot at Jill and Zoe. “First one to pick up his presence wins a hug from Bishop. A rarer prize than a fluffy stuffy at a carnival.”

Like usual, Bishop ignored me, but Kara snorted with laughter.

Closing my eyes, I reached out with my magic, trying to find something of Sash to latch onto. The waves pulsated, prying into alleys and buildings, searching for something it recognized. My nose crinkled in puzzlement as something collided with my magic. Something foreign, yet familiar. It pricked at my magic with teasing tentacles, like it didn’t want me to know it was there. Was it Sash picking up on my magic? Or was I picking up on Zoe and Jill. I drew my magic back, about to ask just as Jill shrieked in triumph, “Got him.”

I grinned at her with pride. “Look at you, all grown up now. You’re starting to make the rest of us look bad.”

She flushed at my compliment. “I am not. Don’t be silly.”

“Which way?” Bishop was not lying when he said he wanted to get this done quick.

“Down this alley and to the right.”

Bish started moving even before the words finished leaving her lips. The rest of us followed, me finally able to tell them about what happened during the jump.

“Uh, guys, before we go any further, I have to tell you something. Just before we jumped, while me and Zoe were in our consciousness, I thought I saw Starke in there as well. Is that even possible?”

Everyone halted in their tracks and stared at me in horror.

“You’re just telling us that now?” Zoe growled as she unconsciously touched her bow over her shoulder, glancing around.

“Well, we were all a little sidetracked by Jetson central back there. And I’m telling you now at least. I don’t want any secrets. To be honest, now that I think about it, I don’t even know if it was him. The presence wasn’t tangible. He was like a will-o-wisp or something. All shadow and mist. Think it was just my mind messing with me again?”

“Possibly.” Bishop crossed his arms and studied me, like he was looking for something not right. “Or it is possible he was trying to hijack your jump, just like the precognitive did. Obviously he did not succeed since we are where we need to be. Still, more reason to do this quickly and quietly.”

“Just stay on your toes, everyone,” Kara warned, pulling out her threatening twig wand. I hid my grin from her. I knew she could do massive magic with that thing, but she looked as intimidating as a monkey on a unicycle. She really needed a new magic weapon.

I agreed with Bish on doing this as quickly as we could. As much as I craved to see Starke again, now wasn’t the time. Not with Stabby Starke still so fresh in my head. We needed to restart the prism first. That was our only option of defeating Asha and breaking her hold on Starke. I hoped.

Following Bishop silently around the back of the building, we found ourselves in another alley. Slightly wider and brighter than the last, it didn’t take us long to see the three occupants lounging at the far end. I felt the rush of magic permeating my skin, and I knew right away one of those people was Sash. But the other two posed a problem. Did we approach him now and do this as quick as possible? Or see if we could catch him alone.

I probably would have asked the opinion of my colleagues if Zoe hadn’t made the decision to march right up to them.

“Wait,” I hissed at her back, but my warning fell on deaf ears. I sighed as the rest of us followed her. She’d better have a plan.

“Hey,” she shouted as we approached, and I rolled my eyes. So much for having a plan.

The three people all turned in our direction. A woman and two guys. The woman was tall and thin, and one guy had a similar build. But the other guy was built like a brick house. Massive shoulders and arms told me he did a lot of lifting weights. And of course, the magic humming from his aura also told me he was Sash. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. He had definitely not appeared this massive in my visions. Taking this ape against his will was not going to be easy. Not unless one of us brought chloroform.

All three were dressed alike in black pants and white, stained smocks. The front of their smocks depicted an image of a creepy-ass, cross-eyed chicken. A uniform of some sort? They were also wearing the weird visor glasses. What the heck were they? Was the light here bad for the eyes? Were we all going to be blinded if we didn’t wear them?

As we drew closer though, they all removed the visors. I held my breath, expecting to see them be cyclops or some shit. But they regarded us with two normal eyes, filled with a lot of confusion. Well, two of them did. Sash’s confusion mingled with recognition as we got closer.

“Hey, Sash,” I called weakly as their confusion turned to suspicion. “How you doing, buddy?”

His eyes narrowed. “Do I know you?”

“I think you do. I think you know us three, at least.” I pointed to myself, Jill, and Zoe.

“Everything okay here, Sash?” the woman asked. Up close she appeared a lot older and seasoned. Like she’d seen a few things in her day. Not someone you wanted to tangle with.

“Everything’s just fine,” I answered cheerfully, hoping I sounded like I wasn’t really here to kidnap someone. “We just need to talk to Sash for a few minutes alone. Think we can do that, big guy?”

He studied us for a few moments before a massive smile crossed his face, changing his whole demeanor. He looked more like the happy-go-lucky guy from my hallucinations. It helped me breathe a little easier.

“Go ahead, guys. I’ll be there in a moment. This won’t take long.”

Won’t take long? Oh boy.

The others left, but not without a few glares of suspicion before going inside. I shot Bertha a smile as she passed by, tying to assure her we were harmless, but I didn’t doubt for a moment that given the opportunity, she’d shank me with no regrets.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Sash whirled on us, his smile replaced by total confusion. “How is this possible. How are you here? You guys aren’t real. How can you be standing in front of me?”

He shook the weird visor in his hand as if all the answers to his questions lay inside.

“So, you know who we are?” I questioned.

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “I know I’ve seen you in… in my head. But I thought you were residue left over from too much time spent in VR.”

“VR?” Zoe questioned.

“Virtual reality?” I snorted. “Is that what those visors are? Really? Are you telling me everyone on this world is addicted to virtual reality?”

“Virtual what?” Sash asked. “No, that’s not what I meant at all.” He held up the visors. “I’m talking about the visual reactor.”

I rolled my hand at him. “Which is?”

“What do you mean ‘which is’? You telling me you don’t know what this is?” he scoffed.

“Duh, obviously.”

He blinked. “Well… it’s a visual reactor. A neural connection to our daily lives, I guess you’d call it. It’s how you talk to other people. Do your schoolwork. Order food. Do your shopping. Watch movies. It’s… how you do all your shit. How the hell do you people not know that?”

I grabbed the visor from his hand, ignoring his offended hey and flipped it around.

“Are you kidding me? It’s a wearable cellphone?”

“I don’t know what the hell a cellphone is and give that back.”

I was itching to try the stupid thing on, but as much as I didn’t want to, I gave it back. Sash snatched it from me, his easy grin long forgotten.

“Okay, I’m only going to ask one more time. You don’t know what a visual reactor is. Most of you have been haunting my dreams for years. And that little one looks like she’s about to rip me a new one with that stick she’s holding. Who the hell are you all?”

“We’re all elementals, just like you. You’re the earth elemental. A magical being who has a magical hammer as his instrument. And we all have to help restart the prism to stop an evil queen from taking over the worlds and turning everyone not Fae into slaves. We came to find you since you have to go with us to another world and help save the multiverse.”

A shocked silence followed Jill’s rant. Sash looked like he was either going to laugh or run away in fear. Like he couldn’t quite decide which was the appropriate response.

“Geez-us, Jill,” I muttered. “Could you be a little more blunt?”

“I’m sorry,” she cried, glancing around at us with big eyes. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, really. I opened my mouth, and it just all shot out.”

“Yeah, we noticed,” Zoe huffed in disgust.

However I expected Sash to react to Jill’s verbal diarrhea, it was definitely not the hyena-like laugh that exploded from him.

“Okay, I think I finally figured out what’s going on here. Someone messed with my neuron link.” He shook the visor again. “Possibly those two assholes in there. That’s why they played along like you guys were real when you showed up. Yeah, that’s something those two clowns would do.” He looked us up and down, pleased as punch at his explanation. “Makes sense. They pulled you three from some game I must have played back in the day. Twig girl probably from some movie. But the old man, don’t know what part of my mind they dragged you from. Possibly a nightmare?”

Bishop pursed his lips at Sash. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was offended. Sash didn’t seem to notice as he shook his head.

“Yep, that’s gotta be it. Magical being with a magical hammer.” He snorted, apparently cracking himself up since his booming laughter echoed down the alley.

I sighed and placed my hands on my hips. “Let’s start again, shall we? Believe it or not, Jill was correct when she sprouted off that most eloquent spiel. You are an elemental, just like we are. That’s why you’ve seen us in visions over the years. We are connected, Sash. All of us. Deep down, I think you know that. You can feel it. Reach out with your magic and touch our auras. Can’t you feel the connection?”

He pulled himself to his full height, and I recognized the typical stubborn, male look. He was about to argue.

“Reach out with my magic? What sort of drug are you on, girl? And I ain’t touching nothin’ that ain’t mine. You get where I’m coming from?”

I nodded, a grin tilting the corner of my lips. “Fair enough. That sounded a little weird. Okay, then, check out the sigil on your wrist, Sash. Your birthmark. Look how it has changed.”

I didn’t think he was going to listen at first. But curiosity won out, and he glanced down at his arm. I saw the moment his astonishment kicked in, and I knew he was seeing the same thing we all did. His green ring was joined by ours.

He studied it for a moment before reacting the exact same way I did when Starke first marked me. He wet his finger and started scrubbing at the rings.

“How did they manage to do that? Like, this goes beyond messing with my visor.”

Bishop had finally had enough. He harrumphed at Sash with impatience. “They did nothing, boy. That is your connection to the other elementals. You are the earth elemental, and you are in grave danger. You have to come with us now before you are found by others that hunt you. We have no time to waste.”

Sash held his hands palms up. “Woah now. I’m not going anywhere with you weirdos. The only place I’m going is back inside with my friends to have a nice relaxing meal after a hard night of work.”

“Sash.” I stepped toward him, and the mammoth backed up like he was an elephant scared of a mouse. I kept the smile itching at my lips at bay. “May I?” I asked, holding out my hand for his.

He looked around as if in panic.

“I don’t bite, I promise. I just want to show you something.” I could see he was about to refuse. “If you want to understand, this is the only way. Trust me.”

He offered his hand in hesitation.

Gently, I pulled it into mine. I tried with all my might to do the mind melding thing Starke had done to me. To show me his real intent. To show how we were connected. I released a little bit of my magic, trying to connect with his. Instead of the calming effect I tried for, my magic bolted against Sash’s, causing him to jerk away in confusion. He backed away, palms held in the air.

“Okay, freaks, not quite sure what that was, but I’m out of here. I suggest you all go back to where you came from if you don’t want me reporting you to the authorities.”

“Wait,” I yelled at his back, but it was too late. He disappeared through the tin door, leaving me standing there and looking like a total idiot. That didn’t go well.

“Great job, Jette.” Zoe’s sarcasm was unmistakable.

“Shit.” I ran a hand through my tangled hair. “Starke made it seem so easy. What did I do wrong?”

“Matters not what you did wrong. We need to gather the boy and jump back. I fear the longer we stay here the more we will attract the wrong attention.”

I shot Bish some serious shade. “And how do you suggest we do that? The boy is built like a gorilla. Not like we can force him to go anywhere.”

“We will find a way. But we must not lose him, so inside. And be inconspicuous.”

Bish pulled open the door Sash had disappeared into earlier. The moment he did, the aroma of deep-fried deliciousness smacked me in the face and my stomach growled in anticipation. Okay, so those weird chicken pictures on their shirts suddenly made sense. This was a chicken joint. I could pick that smell out of an array of odors. And they all worked here. I guessed even in advanced worlds, people still wanted to eat fried chicken. And who could blame them? Other than vegetarians.

As for the inconspicuous part… well, that didn’t go so well. The door we entered lead straight into the restaurant’s kitchen, and dozens of pairs of curious eyes watched every single one of us file in. I’m sure we mimicked that exact look as we took in the labyrinth of tubing that crisscrossed the kitchen. More workers, dressed the same as the three we’d met outside, stood at the counters stuffing delicious smelling boxes into the tubes and sending them off to oblivion. It was fascinating.

One guy started to approach us, and I tore my eyes away from the pipelined delivery system. His chicken shirt was stretched so tight across his broad belly it looked like the chicken was grinning manically at us. The nametag underneath his left shoulder told me his name was Randall.

“You can’t come through here. The door for patrons is around the front of the building.” He glowered at us, looking almost as crazy as his chicken shirt.

“Sorry, Randall,” I muttered as I started ushering everyone to what looked like sliding doors on the other side of the room. “Our bad. We’re not patrons though. Just looking for a bathroom. We’ll just be on our merry way. Smells fantastic in here by the way.”

“No. No! You can’t go through there,” he yelled at our backs as we kept moving, ignoring his warning.

His yells got cut off as we scurried through the sliding doors and they dropped shut noiselessly behind us.

The place was packed. Tables squeezed into spots where there was barely room to stand. Each table was connected to the same tubing as we saw in the kitchen, and the whole place was abuzz with those boxes zipping through and landing at the patrons’ tables. Cool. But I couldn’t let myself be sidetracked by the uniqueness of the place. I had an elemental to find in this throng of people.

“Over there.” Jill immediately found him standing at a corner table with the two from the alley. Apparently, he saw us at the same time since he pointed our way, gesturing wildly. He looked like he was about to run, but there were so many people around he was kind of hemmed into the corner.

We headed toward him. I knew the moment Kara started using a little bit of her magic to file our way through the crowd. I felt it humming against my skin as the people made way for us without even knowing why. Smart Faerie.

“Not you guys again,” Sash yelled at us as we narrowed in. “I told you to leave me alone. That was your one and only warning. I’m alerting the authorities.”

He picked up his visor at the same time a wave of magic started pummeling my body. It was overwhelming, and I swayed, trying to steady myself. The constant muttering and noise of the room ceased abruptly, and my head swiveled, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sudden fear buzzing over me. The dead silence was ominous.

Acknowledgement soon accompanied the fear as my gaze swept the room. The room full of people frozen in spot. Cups raised in the air. Forks about to penetrate lips. Smiles stuck in place, totally unaware of anything happening around them. I’d seen this before. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

“Jette?” Zoe muttered in puzzlement.

“What the hell is going on?” Sash whispered loudly as his gaze bounced back and forth between his immobile friends. “How are you people doing this?”

“This isn’t us,” I muttered, glancing around. “We need to leave now.”

We were the only ones in the room not frozen in place. Maybe because we were all kissed by magic? Or maybe it was done intentionally. Like the one responsible for doing this wanted us to be totally aware of what was happening. Like we were being bated. Teased. Whatever the reasoning, there was one thing I was sure of. This was done by one person and one person only.

“Bish, get them out now,” I whispered to the old man as my magic bounced around the large room, trying to probe out Starke. Where was he? I squinted through the large plate-glass window to my right, expecting to see him standing outside. Other than the people moving up the street, the front of the store was empty. I needed to pinpoint him so we could make sure we moved in the opposite direction.

Icy fingers tickled down my spine as a strange awareness swept over me, intensifying with every passing second.

There he was.

I whirled around, averting my gaze to the kitchen doors we had come through earlier.

I’d pictured him in my head so many times since I’d lost him. I had thought of this moment—dreamed of it. But nothing prepared me for the wave of longing at seeing him live and in person. My lips parted as my heart started flip flopping around like a fish out of water. The pull between us was still there. I wanted to run to him. Throw my arms around his neck and never let go. The only thing stopping me was him.

The magic exuding from him was primordial. In its purest form. I could see it oozing from him in ribbons of black mist, whipping about the room and dissipating into its unwilling captives. It eddied around him, tainting his skin with its mystical waves, making his flesh appear to be pulsating. Even his eyes pulsated, I swore. One moment they shimmered with a clear green, only to look like shards of black obsidian within seconds. I was fascinated and terrified all at the same time.

I felt movement behind me. Bish was doing as I asked and stealthily moving everyone to the entrance. I just needed to keep Starke occupied long enough for them to escape.

“Hey, Starke.” My voice trembled as much as my insides were right now. “Nice to see you again.”

“Bridjette.” He nodded at me like we were old acquaintances meeting on the street. But his civil response gave me hope. He knew who I was. My heart quivered excitedly, even though my head told me I was probably being foolish.

“You remember who I am?” I croaked.

“You are the water elemental. I have been sent to retrieve you along with the others.”

My hope shriveled and fell to the pit of my stomach. Not quite the answer I was looking for. Evil mama bear was still in his head. I sniffed, holding back the stupid disappointment pricking at my heart.

“How did you follow us? Did you hijack my jump?”

He smiled. He actually smiled, his dimples causing a hitch in my chest. At that moment, he looked so much like my Starke that I couldn’t look away. I felt… ensnared.

“You were wretchedly easy to follow. And your silly little plan to distract me while the others try to escape is an insult to us all.” He tsked softly. “Give up, water wielder. Come with me now and save yourself a world of pain.”

“An empty threat, Princey. You need us. You can’t hurt us.”

“I need your powers. Your bodies do not have to be… undamaged.”

Okay. Maybe not so empty.

He wasn’t finished. “I know you and your capabilities. All of you. You cannot defeat me.”

I swallowed the lump of fear and heartache threatening to cut off my air supply. “Yeah, well, if blood magic wasn’t clouding your brain right now, you’d know what you just said was a waste of breath. I’m pretty damn stubborn and don’t give up that easy.”

He tilted his head. “My brain has never been clearer. We do what we do for the good of the Fae. We need to destroy those tainting our bloodline, humans being the most predominant cause of these abominations.”

If I had any hope that this guy standing in front of me was my Starke, his words destroyed that optimism. My Starke would never say such a cruel and xenophobic thing.

“The Starke I know doesn’t believe that. And I know he’s in there somewhere,” I growled in frustration. “So, fight it already. You’re stronger than this. Fight the blood—”

“Enough!” His yell was accompanied by a rush of magic that exuded from him in a black wave. Reacting on instinct, I pulled my sai. The wall of ice crystalized in front of me, protecting me and the others at my back from his attack. Starke’s dark magic slammed into it, fissures appearing instantly and webbing the shield. Crap. This was not going to hold.

“Run!” I screamed over my shoulder, pivoting on my heel and aiming to be on their asses as they hurried through the door. Starke was right. We couldn’t fight him. Not without the prism’s help. Our only chance was to get somewhere safe long enough to jump back to Endova.

I knew he’d broken through my shield the moment his magic surrounded me like a pocket of smoke, squeezing my chest and threatening to cut off my air supply. My feet were swept out from underneath me as the magic lifted me into the air, my stomach lurching from the loss of equilibrium. He spun me effortlessly mid-air to face him, even as I fought to regain my footing. He was so damn right. I was no match for him.

“Jette!” Jill screamed.

“Get the others out of here,” I shrieked over my shoulder.

I couldn’t tell if they listened to me. My eyes were glued to Starke as he magically manhandled me, a glimmer of maniacal glee stamped across his face.

“Starke, listen to me,” I pleaded urgently, terrified of what he was about to do. I didn’t want to be damaged. “Put me down please. You know me. We have a connection. You merged with me, remember? We’re friends. Buddies. We’re tight—"

“Silence,” he growled. The band of pressure tightened around my chest.

“Starke,” I squeaked, trying to catch a breath. “Please… remember… little rabbit…”

The pressure eased, and my starving lungs desperately sucked in air. Even though I was still hovering a good two feet above the floor, Starke’s head tilted to the side like he was debating what he’d just heard. Was I getting through to him?

“Remember… please…”

“Let her go!” Kara roared as the bolt of magic zipped across the room and struck Starke in the chest, throwing him backwards through the sliding doors. The good? She knocked him off his feet and disrupted his hold on me. The bad? His magic retaliated, sending me spiraling through the air. The sound of shattering glass surrounded me as I smashed butt-first through the window and landed in a crumpled heap on the moving street outside.