“I’m a powerful witch, Kaia, but the kind of magics you have to have to make a portal to a hell realm is . . . well, it’s more power than I alone possess. You have to understand the complexities that involve that level of skill, knowledge, and power. It would require much more than just me to be able to open a portal to a hell realm. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“But it’s my realm,” Corvo said. “I’ve been there, so surely I can help somehow.”
“I give you a lot of grief, Corvo, but in this case I am being quite serious. Even your knowing which realm doesn’t help me. You are able to portal there with ease because it is your realm of hell. You are—or were—its ruler. You are tied to it by nature. But you aren’t able to portal to other hell realms, and that is because you don’t share its magic. The hell realms are complicated. The fabrics of their existence are interwoven. And there are hundreds of realms within hell. When creating a portal to any one of them, it is easy to slip through the wrong threads and just as quickly end up in a different hell. There are witches that can portal there, but they have a combination of magics that I don’t. I’m sorry, Corvo; Kaia. I truly am. You need to find another witch so you can get to King Vareck.”
Corvo grumbled and turned to Kaia as she looked at him in question. “Well, don’t look at me,” he said. “I came to you for help.”
Kaia sighed. “I think I know a guy that can help me.”
The silence was making him tired. It was awfully warm and cozy in Hilde’s room; if it weren’t for those horrible smells, it’d be a nice place to sleep.
“If you’re thinking of Dorian, that’s a terrible idea. Was that your plan? Did you want to take a nap first so you can think on it more? I’m not against it as long as Vareck knows that it was clearly your idea.”
Kaia gave him a pointed look before she looked back to Hilde’s. “I need a portal to the human realm.”
There was a twinkle in Hilde’s eye as she smiled at them. “Now that I can do.”
Mara
The twin suns lowered toward the horizon, orbiting each other as they laid to rest. It was a shame that one didn’t have a way to stare up at their brilliance without going blind. The entire realm was beautiful in its own strange and dangerous way. Not that Mara wanted to move in anytime soon. She started to reminisce on the human realm, already missing her mother’s cooking. Couldn’t she have decided to split after another bite or two? Fruit wasn’t bad, but bacon was so much better.
“Oliver spilled the beans that I hadn’t called in, huh?” asked Sadie. The words brought her back from the depths of her headspace. She had her head resting against her sister’s thigh, glad to be close to a familiar warmth. She had been a little overprotective since they reunited, but honestly Mara didn’t mind. It was kind of hilarious to see Sadie go toe-to-toe with the boys.
“You know he never could keep his mouth shut,” she answered and gave her a smile. They kept their voices low as Sebastian remained useless, enjoying a massage from rock creature, while Vareck kept a dutiful eye on the Okalri. Mara watched as he paced around their inner circle, observing and calculating. He was horrible at taking a break, but she knew deep down she was a hypocrite at best.
“I’m glad, really. Mom and Dad hadn’t said a word about it the whole time I was there. I mean, I’ve always been able to find your troublesome ass without him, but he’s the one that told me that you’d gone looking for me and hadn’t returned.” A smirk played on her lips that left Sadie rolling her eyes as she ruffled Mara’s hair. “How did you even end up in this corner of hell?”
“I was just stopping by, really. Window shopping,” Sadie mused.
“Oh yes, dying in a hell realm is all the rage this season, especially if you die by blood sacrifice,” said Mara. “But, seriously . . . ”
Sadie took a deep breath as she leaned back on her elbows. A glance upward didn’t show a single cloud in the sky. “It’s all one mess of a blur. I can’t track like you can, but I tried all the usual places first. I used the compass you gave me to find Lou. He was having dinner with this high fae, blonde chick with a wicked looking—”
“Kaia?” Vareck asked, brows wrinkling.
Sadie pressed her lips together and snapped, “Were you part of this conversation?”
Vareck scoffed, holding up his hands in surrender as he returned to his watch. Mara tried to catch his eyes and shoot him a smile, but he was already focused on keeping his look out, even if he was still listening.
“Little harsh, don’t you think?”
Sadie waved her hand dismissively. “My bite is the least of his problems right now.” She let out a small sigh. “Where was I? Oh right, so the bastard was with some high fae warrior who wanted to go at it. Fist-to-fist. Woman-to-woman. Hand-to-hand.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, a slight smile forming.
“You get a hard on for a good fight. I get it,” Mara scoffed. “Sadie, please tell me you didn’t cause chaos. Tell me you didn’t fight Kaia . . . or kill her.”
“I behaved. Don’t worry, mom.” Sadie grinned innocently as Mara scrutinized her sister’s face.
“What happened after Lou?”
“Lou ended up spilling a bit about your”—she paused to glare at Vareck, raising her tone—“kidnapping.” Vareck didn’t take the bait this time. Sadie crossed her arms, biting on the edge of her tongue. “He’s a quick learner, that one. How convenient.”
“Sadie, stop antagonizing him. Please. We need to cooperate with each other if we are going to make it out alive, and right now, that’s really the only thing that matters, right? So lay off,” said Mara. At this rate, Sadie would never make it through her story.
“Right, right. Long story short, Lou filled me in on some of the info about the job you had been on when you went missing, and I went back to Amelia—because the first time I saw her she said she hadn’t seen you. This time I had more knowledge about what I needed to look for, so she let me walk through the back rooms. The next thing I knew I fell right into the arms of this good-for-nothing.”
“I resent that,” Sebastian muttered dryly.
“I think you mean you resemble that,” she shot back.
Sadie turned back to her sister as she drummed her fingers against her inner thigh. “So, when did you start hanging out with the elite? Didn’t think they were your type.”
“Elite?” asked Mara.
“You know, like Mr. Brooding over there.” Sadie tilted her head over to the side where Vareck stood, arms crossed and looking out toward the darkening forest.
“I wouldn’t want to bore you with the details.”
“We’re being held captive in a cave, and you are the only reality TV for miles. Please do.”
Mara sighed, lowering her voice to keep Sebastian or Vareck from listening in on their conversation. “So I told you I was seen at the ball. Well, he followed and kidnapped me because he was trying to explain that I was his . . . mate.”
“Mate?” Sadie hissed. “Is he out of his mind?”