“So what do you want to talk about, Emma?”
“Cut the crap, Darcy. You know why I’m here.”
He sighed. “Yes. But you know I can’t let you harm them.”
“But they’ve broken the law. They’ve revealed themselves to humans. Again.”
Darcy stood and walked toward a door I had failed to notice earlier in the corner of the room. I had failed to see it because it was disguised as a mirror.
“Follow me.”
“Um… where are we going?”
“I want you to talk to Shalia and Daniel. And I mean just talk. I want you to know the reason for their actions.”
I let out a frustrated breath and stomped my way over to the mirror. Darcy stood beside me and held out his hand. I reluctantly took it, and together, we stepped through the mirror.
***
The mirror was not a mirror, but a portal back into the supernatural realm.
I immediately dug in my heels and yanked my hand out of his.
“You tricked me!”
“No, I didn’t. I want you to see for yourself that the werewolf pair mean no harm.”
“Wait, they’re here?” I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. “You’re not lying?”
“I promise. But first, we’re going to make a little detour.” Darcy began to make his way through the forest. I knew where we were. A branch snapped to my left, and when I looked, I noticed a half-naked man wearing tan pants standing near a massive pine tree. He then turned and leaped, shifting into a massive buck. He quickly galloped into the safety of the nearby brush.
We were in the shifter realm.
I hadn’t been back here in almost three hundred years.
“Where are you taking me, Darcy?” I stopped walking and pulled out my athame before throwing it at Darcy. Like always, he sensed my actions before I made them. It was like he could read my mind. He put up a hand and caught my athame out of the air inches from his nose.
“I didn’t want it to come to this, but you’ve left me no choice.” Darcy gestured at something to his right. Leaves crunched, and a giant brown dragon stepped out from amongst the trees. A ball of orange fire consumed his body, and then a man stepped out from the flames.
“Ash,” I said, surprised.
Ash nodded. “Emma. It’s good to see you again.”
Then the air shimmered to the left of Ash, and Eva stepped through the veil between realms to join her husband. It had been a few years since I had last seen Ash. The Dragon King and Queen hadn’t aged a day.
“Eva,” I spat. I glared at Darcy. “What is this, Darcy?”
“I’m sorry, Emma. I didn’t want to do this,” he said, looking away, ashamed. Eva stepped forward.
“Emmaline Raine, you are guilty of breaking the trans-realm treaty which protects supernatural creatures. Despite warnings, you have chosen time and time again to slaughter innocent creatures because of your personal hatred of magic. I sentence you to spend the rest of your days in the Capitol prison.”
All the blood rushed out of my head.
And then the rage began. It began at the source, in my heart, and bubbled and boiled until it filled my entire body.
And then, when the heat became unbearable, I exploded.