Page 29 of Awakening Storm

His eyes lifted and widened. His lips curled into an agonizing grimace, and he called her name. His feet raced forward as he tried to close the distance. His fist cut through the air, and then he transformed into a tiger and ate up the distance.

It was a futile effort, though. Both Theodora and Rhianna were traveling too quickly to be stopped. They passed into the darkness and the swirl of earthly hues closed in, smaller and smaller behind them.

The roar of a great cat shook her, even inside the bubble.

She was thrown from side to side like a marble being shaken within a cup. And then she was tossed unto the solid, dusty ground, landing hard and rolling to her knees. She glanced backward and up.

A porthole whirled shut.

The last thing Rhianna saw was the horror reflected in a pair of tiger’s eyes.

In shock, she sat on the ground staring up at Theodora. That old saying fromThe Wizard of Ozechoed in her head: we’re not in Kansas anymore. Her eyes darted around. Everything was a colorless gray with a heavy dose of barren and stark.

“That’s right, sweetheart. Get a good look at your new home,” Theodora said, seeming totally pleased with herself.

Rhianna stood. Instinctively she knew that it wasn’t a good idea to aggravate her abductor, but she couldn’t help saying, “You’ve made a mistake. I need to go back.” She heard the panic rise in her own voice.

Theodora laughed. “They all say that.”

Rhianna wondered how many people “they” were. She swallowed hard. The place smelled like dust, stale and old. Abruptly, like a cat who wasn’t finished playing with a new toy, Theodora swished her scepter, floating Rhianna over the ground. She moved like a tumbleweed as Theodora flicked her around. When she finally released her, Rhianna was so disoriented she staggered, then halted, then staggered some more.

As the dizziness subsided, she noticed people entering the streets. Maybe this was just a ghost town movie set or something. It seemed that way. Maybe this was all a hoax. Maybe she was losing her mind.

She inhaled deeply and coughed on the stale air.

“Rhianna!”

She heard her name and turned. Dillon Savage ran into the street, Steve and Sean right behind him.

Oh god.The only people who knew exactly where she was were in this hellhole with her? She grabbed her stomach. Her lunch was threatening to spill.

“Now,” Theodora remarked, “go join the other new recruits. The next war game is at five, so you’d best prepare.”

Rhianna was about to ask what a war game was, but the sorceress vanished in a puff of smoke. Stunned, Rhia moved toward Savage and the men. She glanced along the street as she walked. Dozens and dozens of people were staring at her with empty eyes and sad faces.

Savage tugged her into the closest building. It was sparsely furnished inside—just an old sofa and some chairs. Again, she thought of a movie set. She’d watched programs on filming; she’d even considered film as a profession in her youth.

Rhianna wrapped her arms around her middle. None of this seemed real. It couldn’t be real.

* * *

Aidan’s roar did nothingto stop it. Theodora had been silent in her attack. He’d had no warning, no way to catch them, no way to leap through to the other side.

Without hesitation, he turned and sprinted toward the Divine Tree. He had only one chance to bring her back. That was, if Custos would give him the key to crossing.

He would go to the catacombs and appeal to the Divine Tree. He would even call upon Seth to guard the tree in Aidan’s absence.

Changing into his human form, Aidan halted outside a space between the rocks. There, he slid into a hidden entrance that led to an underground passageway. “Seth! Seth!” He glanced up to the heavens, as if that would help summon the archangel. “Get your ass down here.”

He didn’t actually know if Seth was in heaven or hanging someplace else right now. He only knew that when he called the angel, somehow the angel showed up. Just as he did for all the Hearst brothers ever since he’d made them Guardians.

Inside the tunnel, he made his way to the roots of the tree. He paused at the threshold of golden knots of wood in the shapes of tiger and eagle. He held his wrist beneath a pointed root and waited for the drip of sap, the anointing ritual that joined him with his tree. In his impatience, it seemed to take forever, but at last, Custos recognized Aidan with a drop of amber sap onto his tattoo.

“Benison,” he whispered, feeling the power of the oak.

“Benison,” the tree replied.

It hadn’t been long ago that he’d conferred with his brothers over the changing tide of the Dark Realm. Since the one hundred days before the Age of Atonement had begun, all evil forces were scrambling for change, to find the best position from which to win redemption they didn’t deserve. Theodora was one of those forces. He knew he should’ve told his brothers what happened as soon as Theodora had appeared again, but since Rhianna had shown up, he’d been a bit preoccupied. He didn’t even want to think about the earful they would give him. Maybe if he could fix it before they found out, they would take it easier on him.