Della nervously stared at the door of the classroom, jumping at every imagined noise.
“Can’t you go any faster?” she hissed, impatiently tapping her stiletto on the floor.
“It’s not like I’m hot-wiring a car here, Dellica. Opening portals into other worlds is a bit complicated,” Aiden shot back, raking his hands through his black hair as he studied the tattered scraps of parchment on the desk in the front of the room.
“He’s going to come for her. He interrupted me in the basement. I was in the middle of feeding, too,” Della said, anxiously prodding the jagged, still-bloody wound that marred her left cheek and wincing at the pain. “I made Matt attack him to keep him busy, but it’s not like he’s going to be hard to get past. He’s just a stupid human.”
“Well, if you would shut the hell up and let me do my job,” Aiden yelled, his hands clenched into fists, “we’ll be long gone before Logan shows up.”
That name...that name stirred something in me. Something I needed to hold on to.
Aiden collected the bits of paper and shoved them into the canvas bag slung across his chest, then strode across the room to where I was sitting.
“Get up,” he ordered, taking my hand to roughly pull me into a standing position, and I stumbled forward.
“Repeat after me, do you understand?” he demanded, and I nodded. Aiden extended his other hand, whispering clashing, foreign sounds that my tongue stumbled through pronouncing. But the cadence of the words sounded familiar. I could picture someone holding his hand in front of a door to unlock it. The image of flame-tipped fingers reaching out to me flashed across my mind before disappearing into vapor.
“We’re losing her.” The low, whispered statement came from Della, who stared at me with contempt as I tried to grab these fleeting images that danced across my consciousness.
“She’s fine,” Aiden said, taking my hand to pull me closer to him. I snatched my hand back and shook his touch off. It felt foreign—unnatural. I didn’t understand why, though. Wasn’t I supposed to stay with him and Della?
“I thought your particular set of skills was supposed to make her more docile, Dellica,” Aiden snapped, staring at me in confusion as I instinctively recoiled from him.
“I hate my real name.” She wrinkled her perfect nose in distaste as she flopped onto a stool, swinging her legs. “Why do you insist on using it?”
“Because you hate it. And it amuses me to annoy you.” Aiden smirked, grabbing for my hand again. I pulled it back and stepped away, and his smile faded. “Now tell me why this one isn’t being so agreeable anymore when your little pet Matt is so devoted he’d eat kibble out of your hand.”
“Who cares? Can’t we just kill her and leave before he kills us?” Della begged, stomping her heel on the floor. “Look, we don’t even need to go back! Just kill her and we’ll stay on this side. We could rule over here. Listen to me!” she screeched, but Aiden dismissed her with a curt wave of his hand as he stared ahead, enthralled, a greedy smile slowly spreading on his face.
“What a prize she is for me to bring back,” Aiden whispered in awe. I squinted at the scene. Thin cracks spiraled out of a small, pulsating dark oval that hovered a few feet above the floor.
“She can do it. She really is a Traveler,” Aiden murmured, staring at me in reverence as I slumped against the desk, exhausted. Every impulse to stand up straight faded away as I watched the fragmented scene expand. The larger the portal grew, the more drained I became, overwhelming fatigue settling into every pore. I looked to Della for her approval, but she wasn’t watching me. Her panicked gaze was directed beyond the portal—to the doorway of the classroom, where a shadowed form stood.
Suddenly, I was pressed against Aiden’s chest as he held me close, roughly stroking my hair as this new person ran into the classroom, diving underneath the portal. He hit the floor with his shoulder and rolled forward—coming to crouch before the portal with a sword drawn.
“Sorry, proditori, she’s got a new boyfriend. One that will snap her neck if you come any closer—and she’ll accept it with a smile,” Aiden said with a laugh, running his nose along my jaw as he placed his palm against my throat. I flinched at the sensation—the revulsion I felt when he touched me contradicting the unexplainable loyalty I felt I owed him and Della. I tried to untangle myself from Aiden’s arms, but he only held on to me more tightly, planting a loud, wet kiss on my cheek and announcing in a singsong voice, “He wants to kill you.”
The boy’s eyes narrowed, his face settling into a hard mask—which softened when he met my confused gaze.
“Paige, don’t be scared. You know me. You know I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice, and the familiar, but gentle way he said my name, assaulted my mind with murky images of rooftops and swords and warm eyes and sad smiles.
Logan.
The pictures floated through my mind, anchored by that name.... That name that echoed in my head almost painfully, tearing down the dark filter that had been obscuring my memories. And I began to remember.
“No!” I screamed, pushing Aiden away—but he grabbed my wrist and twisted it painfully, bringing me to my knees. Logan’s face contorted in rage as he raised his sword and rushed closer, poised to attack as the dark portal continued to grow behind him. It was spreading, then retracting, a pulsating vortex that opened a doorway to another dimension. Every time it expanded, I felt weaker, all my strength leaving my body to feed the growing hole in our reality.
“I’ll break her arm off and beat her with it,” Aiden said savagely, pointing at Logan, as he bent my wrist back even farther. I cried out, my body twisting at an unnatural angle as my wrist strained against Aiden’s grip. Logan stopped in his tracks, his sword frozen in its offensive position.
“Aiden, let’s go,” Della urged, her hands balled into fists. “Just leave her here.”
“Hey, Dummica, the portal isn’t completely open yet. But feel free to try to make it out of this room without the proditori slicing you in half,” Aiden snapped at her. I weakly tried to punch him in the back of the knees with my free hand, hoping to knock him off balance while he was distracted, but all I did was cause Aiden to swiftly kick me in the side. Groaning, I clutched at my ribs as a wave of agony washed over me, and I heard Logan shout my name.
“Dellica, watch her, will you?” Aiden said, shaking my wrist and sending spears of pain shooting down my arm. “She’s almost as irritating to me as you are.”
He hauled me to my feet and shoved me at Della, who grabbed me around the waist and quickly held a blade to my throat. I wrapped my fingers around her forearm, pulling at her arm with ineffective, feeble tugs. But I was sapped of strength and couldn’t get a strong grip on Della, my fingers merely slipping from her skin as I tried to wrench the knife from my throat.
“No!” Logan shouted, his eyes wide with fear as Della pressed the blade into my skin.
“Oh, calm down, you big drama queen,” Aiden sighed dramatically. “Della’s not going to hurt her—much. But if you touch a teensy-weensy hair on my head, Paige will lose hers.”
Aiden grinned innocently, batting his eyelashes. The room was bathed in a quick flash of light as the portal shuddered and expanded, and black spots whirled across my vision as I tried to remain conscious. Logan’s eyes—panicked and yet full of rage—met mine, and I focused on him as he stood before Aiden, tall and powerful.
“Oh, let’s have some fun, shall we?” Aiden purred, throwing his arms open and locking them straight at the elbow. The air around his clenched hands crackled, with fiery sparks exploding in a straight line from the center of his knuckles. The sparks fused together, forming a solid, shimmering gold spike rising from curled golden gloves that shielded his fists.