I snorted as I concentrated on holding him still and Caleb reached out to start stitching the cut between realms back together.
“This is going surprisingly well,” I called out to him as I looked around at the trees, wondering if I should be bracing for an attack. But the birds continued to sing and the sun continued to shine down into the ravine from far, far above and there was nothing to suggest that was going to change.
I flinched at the sound of a breaking branch, looking around in alarm as I fought to hold Caleb perfectly still, my heart racing as I hunted for any sign of something approaching us through the trees.
It was hard to listen for movement over the roar of the rapids so close to me and my eyes darted left and right as I scanned my surroundings, bracing for an attack and calling my Phoenix to the surface of my skin as I waited for whatever it was to burst from the forest.
Had Caleb been wrong? Had that warning been sent to Lionel after all? Or were there Nymphs hiding here between the trees, waiting to pounce?
I was so on edge that when Caleb called out to me, I flinched so fucking hard I almost fell over my own feet while standing freaking still.
“That’s it,” he announced.
“Seriously?” I asked in surprise, rounding to face him and drawing him back to land with my air magic.
“Yep. Orion made such a fuss about how hard that was, but I think he must have just been looking for an ego stroke because that was a piece of cake. Of course, there was all those dark artifacts at the last one and yada yada, but whatever. I totally aced that.”
I blinked at him for several seconds, unable to believe that something had just gone to plan for us so easily.
“Looks like the stars are finally favouring us,” I said with a breath of laughter.
“Let’s hope they’re favouring the others too,” he agreed, moving close to me and taking the tiny pinch of stardust from its bag.
I took hold of his arm to make the journey even easier, hoping we had enough stardust to make it the entire way and Caleb tossed it over us.
My gut lurched as I was tugged into the embrace of the stars, spinning in circles which made me dizzy before finally tumbling from their clutches where the two of us fell on our asses in the lush grass outside The Burrows.
“Fuck. Now I remember why I hate travelling with stardust when you don’t have enough of it,” Caleb groaned as I let myself fall back and laughed, watching the clouds rotate above me and remembering lying in the grass like this with Darcy when we were kids.
We’d spin around and around until we fell over then watch the heavens twist and turn for us like we were on a ride at a fair. Of course that had been about as close as we’d ever gotten to a fair so maybe it wouldn’t have felt like that at all, but it was what we imagined at the time.
Caleb cursed and I looked around just as Darcy appeared out of thin air, falling right on top of him with Geraldine at her side, tumbling down too.
“Oh holy man abs, I have died and gone to buns heaven!” Geraldine cried as she face planted Caleb’s stomach and Darcy apologised as she scrambled away from his crotch while I just laughed at them.
“Did you do it?” I asked.
“Yep,” Darcy agreed. “I guess the Nymphs didn’t know about that one or something because it was just sitting there waiting for us.”
“Ours too,” I told her, pushing to my feet as the air rippled again and Gabriel appeared with Leon beside him, the two of them quickly explaining how badly guarded their rift had been before Dante and Rosalie reappeared too, confirming they’d closed theirs as well.
My heart lifted with excitement as I turned to look for a sign of the others returning, hope burning through me at the thought of us managing this so fucking easily.
But those hopes were dashed as Orion and Seth appeared, Seth howling loudly while Orion apologised to him, the scent of burning hair and blood clinging to them strongly enough to catch in my throat.
“-told you it was an accident! It’s not like I meant to do it,” Orion barked.
“I know what this was, Lance Orion. It was hairmocide pure and simple!” Seth snarled and as he turned to look at us, a gasp escaped me as I took in the right side of his head where almost all of his long, brown hair had been burnt clean off of his head. His face was stained with soot and he was drenched from head to toe in water.
“What happened?” Darcy asked as she hurried forward, giving Orion the once over while searching him for injuries.
“Your clumsy boyfriend sheared half my fucking hair off with his Phoenix fire sword,” Seth growled though the sound turned into a whimper as he pawed at his ruined hair.