Page 96 of The Serpent Prince

“Welcome to the Under, my darling.”

Terror gripped her heart, and Imani felt like she was falling again through the slip. The ground seemed to shift beneath her, and she looked around widely, trying to take in everything she could about this new realm. It certainly felt different than home and was different if the sky proved anything.

Imani had heard of slips taking people to other places in the Mesial realm, but a doorway? That was the only magic that could take them to another realm. How had Kiran found one unsealed? All the doorways had been sealed ten thousand years ago, after the First Realm War.

She stared at him and scoffed. Then, wanting distance, she backed away from him on all fours. Kiran just smiled cruelly at her like she was pathetic. Maybe she was, but she didn’t care.

Her back hit a tree trunk and, finally, she found her voice. “Where is the wyvern?”

“Gone while we finish our business. I will call him back when needed.”

“Why have you brought me here?”

Kiran stayed where he was, but every muscle in his body tensed. He didn’t deign to answer her.

She fisted her hand around her wand and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m running out of patience.” The soft caress of Imani’s dark magic tainted the air again. It was like a constant halo around her. Even as she tried to pull it back, dissipating wisps of dark vapors surrounded her, ever-present. Her magic was far more potent here than at home, especially with the extra power coursing through her.

Looking around, Imani realized he’d frozen time. Esa and Zadie stood in mid-conversation, their mouths gaping open.

“Let them go,” she demanded.

Through the strands of his curled locks that rested messily on his forehead, that flash of startling black hit Imani, darkening his eyes further. Widening them. His chilled stare carved down Imani in a way that almost frayed her vicious intentions down to nothing.

He didn’t like being told what to do, but she held firm.

“Let. Them. Go.” Her voice was like a whip across his face.

CHAPTER 35

Rolling his eyes, and with a predatory tilt of his head, Kiran obeyed. He pointed his wand lazily at them, and a female voice flitted into one of her ears. But Imani couldn’t turn to see who it belonged to. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the prince’s.

“… the doraca are the voices of the dead from the Under.”

“Yes, but they didn’t attack her.”

“Then what do you call her almost dying?”

“Setting them free.” It was Zadie who answered, her voice grim.

With that, Kiran broke Imani’s stare to look at the nymph witch, suspicion marring his brows.

“You look like you died,” Esa said, observing Imani from a few feet back.

“That’s a comforting thought.” Imani pushed herself to her knees and grabbed her cloak from the ground next to her. “What are you doing here?”

“I have business in the Under with a death angel,” was all she muttered.

Imani didn’t question it, but so many filtered through her mind. Why? With a death angel? Imani had only read about death angels in stories to scare children. Unlike the beautiful, kind angels of the Upper, they were terrifying creatures that maintained order in the chaos that was the Under.

She shuddered, but locked her fear down tight.

While it was no longer winter here, Imani realized it was eerily similar to the area around the other slip. A religious altar for the Fabric was here, surrounded by trees, but it was in much better repair than the other.

Kiran stepped up to the altar in the center of the two dozen monolithic stone archways. The moon was high in the sky, and Imani took in the vast array of lights on display above. They were no longer in their realm, and the magic here didn’t seem as broken as theirs.

Wand tapping against the stone, Kiran began muttering a spell to himself. With his other hand, he started drawing shapes into the air … and his fingers began to illuminate. Imani watched him quickly trace a series of straight and curved lines into the empty space in front of him then watched as they began to light up and glow, soft and green. Finally, the prince drew a circle around the area of shapes he had just finished, and he pressed the palm of his hand against it.

It was incredible to watch him perform such unique, unheard of magic.