am fascinated with this place,” Marcus said with a shake of his head.
I could show him so much. What would it be like to explore the planes of existence with this man? To spend decades wandering and exploring? He was so curious. Despite his long life, he was still able to be amazed.
The door flipped open and a man with red and gold hair sat in the driver’s seat. He was a handsome man and had once been famous before he’d given up his playboy lifestyle. I’d never met Dante Dellacourt, but I knew who he was.
“Hey, how are my girls?” Dante asked with a brilliant smile on his face. “Get in. Things are weird, and the faster we get off the plane, the better. Hi, I’m Dante. I’ll be your rescuer today. Don’t mind the hair. Sorry, Daniela is shedding like a beast.”
The puppy leapt into the car, yipping happily.
Kaja followed, moving into the seat beside her husband.
Marcus stared at him for a moment and I could feel his shock, though I didn’t understand it.
“Hey, new dude. I have no idea who you are, but we really need to go,” Dante said.
“Mr. Dellacourt,” Marcus began, “I am Marcus Vorenus from the Earth plane. I’ve met your mirror there. You need to understand that if you are anything like your Earth self, I will kill you without a second thought.”
Dante’s eyes had widened. “Seriously? I always knew I would be a supervillain in another life. I’m cool in this one. I fight for the side of right. I am going to need a full-on rundown of Evil Dante, Mr. Vorenus. But we need to get a move on or Taggart is going to catch up.”
“He’s not known for being bad here,” I told Marcus. “He’s the counsel to the Fae kings and a friend to my plane.”
Marcus nodded and stepped up on the chair that allowed him access to the car. He held out his hand and I let him help me up. I took a deep breath and stepped inside, trying not to look down. Marcus followed, scooting in beside me.
The door closed and my stomach dipped as Dante sped toward the surface.
Marcus put his arm around me and pulled me close.
I sighed and breathed him in. We might have another day together, and I was grateful for that.
* * * *
Kelsey
I watched the witch as she fussed over Dean.
“The headache’s getting better,” Dean said from his comfy seat.
When Erna had walked back in the small cottage, she’d immediately started boiling water for a tea that she’d explained would help Dean with the aftereffects of his brush with her magic.
“Well, I’m sorry it touched you in any way,” Erna said with a maternal smile. “I’m happy it only caused you a slight headache. I’m certain you won’t have any other problems. You should be feeling normal in no time at all.”
It was in that moment that I realized she thought the thrall stone she’d placed in Dean was still there. She didn’t know I’d found it. While we’d dealt with the fallout, I noticed her looking around the yard. She’d searched the yard, hadn’t found the stone, and decided her influence must still be in place.
So she couldn’t feel the stone working. If she couldn’t feel it, then likely Myrddin wouldn’t be able to either. He wouldn’t know Daniel and Devinshea were free of his influence unless they told him or reacted in ways that were counter to the stone.
Knowledge is power, and I was willing to use any power I could get.
But before I could even start considering what we would do when we got back home, I had to make sure Erna didn’t figure out she couldn’t control Dean anymore. I had spent the last half hour plotting and planning and trying to figure out how I was going to explain to Dean that there was a reason his mentor knew so much about thrall stones and their use.
“My headache is already better,” I said, wanting to reinforce the idea that his pain was a normal side effect of Erna getting pissed off and shoving magic around that would have been better contained.
She looked me over. “You felt it, too?”
I sat back with a sigh. “Oh, yeah. That was some powerful magic. I think even the queen caught a bit of it, and she wasn’t close to you. Dean and I were closer, so it makes sense we’re the ones who feel it. But like I said,