Savage King: New Worlds - Milly Taiden Page 0,3

face down.

“That was brilliant,” Lilah said, sitting up. “I think I broke my ass.”

“And that’s a lot of ass to break,” Wren replied, hiding a smile.

Lilah snorted. This was old banter between them. Lilah loved her hourglass shape, even though it was a large hourglass. “Better a big butt than no butt and all boob.”

“I happen to like my flat butt. Men look at my face when introducing themselves, not at my ass.”

“Wrong,” Daphne added. “They can’t take their eyes off your chest. Big boobs are a blessing.”

Wren could argue with that, but now wasn’t the time.

“Both of you stop complaining,” Daphne rolled over. “Wren, you could’ve been cut in half if that portal would’ve closed on you. You know that, right?”

The thought slapped her in the face. Shit. Her cousin was right. What would’ve happened with part of her on one side and part on the other? Would she have been sliced in half? Blood spewing everywhere. How long would she have been in agony before finally dying? Who would water her plants at her home? Not to mention she was in the middle of a book with a tight deadline. She had to pay her bills. Her heart jumped in her chest as fear clutched her stomach. Her throat dried. Beginnings of a panic attack.

Calm down, Wren. Deep breath. Still lying on her stomach, she clenched her hands into fists and hid them under her chin. Nobody knew how bad she’d gotten in the past six months. She was too embarrassed to ask for help. Her mom would blow it off, calling her a hypochondriac; while her father didn’t care if she had problems at all.

Lilah held out a hand to help her up. She couldn’t take it yet. “Wren?” Lilah said, worry in her voice.

Letting out a loud breath, she got control of herself, and she pushed onto her elbows. “Oh, thanks,” she took the help, trying to play it off, “I didn’t see your hand.” She climbed to her feet, looking around the darkness. The sun had set or hadn’t come up yet. She wasn’t sure of the time difference between Earth and the Crystal Kingdom. She should’ve asked Grandmom more questions before coming on this visit to her cousin’s.

When her eyes made out the giant jungle-like foliage outside the circle of dirt they stood in, bile climbed the back of her throat. This wasn’t the woods around Grandmom’s lake house.

From the hours she’d spent in the forest around the lake as a kid, she knew every tree and had climbed most of them. When the world became too much for her, with a romance book in hand, she’d disappear into the woods and sit in the limbs of the mighty elms and walnut trees. From there, she escaped into the world of shifters and their mates. Sometimes it was vampires and ghosts, but shifters were always her favorite.

It had been years since she’d been back there, but she knew this wasn’t right. Her pulse picked up again.

She tightened her hand, feeling for a rock that was not there. “My stone,” she said, hearing the tremor in her own voice. “Where’s my stone?” She dropped to her knees, blindly reaching under fern fronds, her hands frantically slapping the moist ground. Her heart beat so hard, it hurt. Her lunch rose in her throat.

Lilah knelt beside her. “It’s got to be here, Wren.” A hand pressed on the back of her shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll find it, okay?”

She nodded, breathing too hard to talk normally. This was her fault if they were lost. They could die here, nobody finding their bodies in the dense jungle as bugs crawled in and out of their joints. Signs would be posted everywhere searching for three lost cousins. Her face would be on the back of a carton of milk for years. And who would water her plants?

“Here it is, Wren. I got it.” Daphne leaned back, handing over the damn nugget. Wren clutched it to her chest, feeling stupid for freaking out over a rock. Her best friends studied her with concerned eyes.

Her chin dropped. “Sorry,” she said. Her chest ached knowing the horrible situation they could be in.

Lilah’s arms reached around her, soon followed by Daphne’s. They hadn’t had a group hug in a while. That showed how much life had come between the girls. Nobody said anything. They didn’t need to.

Wren’s heart knew her two besties were dealing with life the best they could. Being single and twenty