Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,27
came too near, but when I tried to see who or what it was, he just smooshed me against him.
“Okay, big guy. Need some air down here.”
Begrudgingly, he let me go.
I turned to face those that had braved the swirling vortex to land in the unknown and found them rigid and spread out in fighting formation. Before I could ask what the fuck was going on—what threat they thought was coming—I saw a small army of beings edging forward from the shadows. Beings like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Creatures of Faerie.
“Bea,” I called, doing nothing to hide the concern in my voice, “you’d better start explaining before everything pops off down here.”
“I’m not sure I can,” she said as she ambled into the no man’s land between the fey beings and our crew. “All I know is that I remember waking up here, with the other witches and these…beings.” I looked at the witches from her coven surrounding us. Somehow, they all looked no worse for the wear, which was impressive for would-be magical sacrifices. “We’ve been here since without food or water, though that doesn’t seem to matter somehow. It’s like time doesn’t matter—like everything has paused even as it continues on, if that makes any sense.”
“Sounds like Faerie,” I mumbled under my breath. “Do you remember anything else?” I asked.
Bea and the other witches merely shook their heads.
“What exactly is this place?” Merc asked, scrutinizing both it and the silent beings on the far side of the witches.
“A forgotten piece of Faerie,” she explained, “but beyond that, I don’t know.”
I took a moment to look around at the stone and rock that surrounded us, glittering with an unnatural sheen. I walked toward one of the craggy walls and drew my finger along it. The shimmering rainbow-colored stone warmed with my touch. Brightened. Pulsed.
Like it was coming alive.
The fey creatures stared at me with a wide-eyed reverence I didn’t understand but was hardly going to argue with, given that I had no idea who or what they were, why they were there, or, more importantly, what they were capable of. Instead, I focused on the hope in their eyes—the hope of the desperate who thought their savior had arrived. Pushing that possibility deep down in my mind, I withdrew my hand and retreated a step, right into Merc and Knox.
“Bea called it the Ether when I arrived.”
The second the word left my mouth, the ground began to quake beneath our feet so violently that many of those inhabiting the strange cave were tossed to the rock floor. The fey cried out in fear, clutching one another like death was imminent.
Clearly, they knew something I didn’t.
“Piper,” Bea whispered in my ear. Fear tainted her voice as well. “This place—"
“Silence, witch!” A booming voice cut her off before she could explain any further. It came from everywhere and nowhere, and the lot of us spun in circles, searching high and low for its owner. “You,” he called out. “I see you finally decided to follow my directive.”
The voice from the fog…
All eyes were on me once again, and I tried not to shrink under their weight.
“It would have been helpful if you’d been a bit more forthcoming with the directions, but yes, I guess I did.”
Merc’s lips were at my ear as he whispered. “Perhaps now is not the time to anger the one who holds us captive.”
“I do not recall asking you to bring others, though,” the voice continued, his annoyance plain in his tone.
“We’re a bit of a package deal, I’m afraid. There was a zero percent chance of them letting me hurtle myself into the unknown without jumping, too—once my magic let them.”
“Which is precisely why I called you out alone.”
I shrugged. “Alone time is kinda hard to secure in a mansion full of supernaturals. Anyway, I’m here now.”
“You would not heed my call before,” he said, suspicion in his tone. “What changed?”
“I heard Bea begging for help. I called for their location to be revealed, and a big old cyclone of water extended toward me, showing me the portal—or at least I think it must have been a portal—so I jumped in. Now, time for you to answer a question for us: what the fuck is the Ether and where is it? Where are we?”
The voice laughed, and not the amused kind. More the kind someone lets loose before they completely snap and start killing everything around them. Not a good sign.