Chapter 2

With the force of Rage’s body, I stumbled through the portal and tripped over my feet, but my mate held me upright, standing on solid ground.

“Nai.” He pressed his hands to my back as his breath feathered over me.

I sucked in a sharp breath, but not even a heartbeat later, my legs trembled, and the air whooshed out of me. The tethering sensation, tying me to the ghost, snapped, and the spirit flew off over the rolling hills toward a white castle in the distance.

“Rage!” I gasped, looking up at my mate in shock.

He panted but met my gaze with a grin. “You didn’t think I’d let you come here alone, did you?”

His black hair was disheveled, and dark soot still smudged his face from the mid-year games. His green eyes were bright and filled with emotion as he stared down at me.

“Our first date. In the underworld. Very … romantic.” I quirked an eyebrow but couldn’t completely stop the smile of relief. The Realm of the Dead wasn’t the kind of place I wanted to visit alone.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead before releasing me. “Only the best for you.”

“Har-har.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants and then looked around at the beautiful land. The longer I stared, the more surprised I felt. It was so … pretty. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. We’d dropped into an orchard of some kind. Silvery fruit I didn’t recognize hung from the branches of the nearby trees, their neon-green leaves so vibrant they didn’t seem real. I moved down the row, brushing my fingertips along the golden bark.

“Maybe we should go to the castle,” Rage said, pointing to the stone structure on a large hill overlooking the valley where we stood. His forehead beaded with sweat, and he winced with each step.

“You okay?” I hurried back to him. “Are you hurt?”

“You shouldn’t have come here,” a man’s familiar voice sounded from behind me. I yelped and spun. “I told you to go to the mortal world and wait for me.”

“Holy Mother Mage. What are you doing here?” I gasped, pressing my hand to my chest where my heart was racing to escape. The kindly old high mage in the silver robes, who’d repeatedly helped me now stood before me in spectral form, and my eyes widened in horror. “Are you dead?”

“No, I’m not dead,” he said, stepping closer to me. He chuckled, as if the prospect of death amused him somehow, and then added, “At least, not yet.”

Okaaay.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever been officially introduced, for which I must apologize.” He offered me a tight smile. “I’m Geoff Drudner the Fifth, the Mage Master of Spirit. I can walk between both worlds … and so can you.”

No. Way.

First of all, Geoff Drudner the Fifth was a legit name. A fancy name to go along with his fancy title, Mage Master of Spirit. Second, I could … what the what?

I just stared at him, my jaw agape.

“You didn’t need to come here in your live form,” he continued, and his brow furrowed. “The dark mage tricked you.”

“What?” I gasped. That dirty Surlama! How did he know we were working with the dark mage?

Rage growled and then clutched his side. I stepped closer to him and wrapped my arm around his waist.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I feel achy, dizzy.” Rage offered.

Crap.

I turned my attention back to the Mage Master of Spirit. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He lacks any power over spirit, and this is the Realm of the Dead. With no magic to keep his body and soul together, his body will decompose, and his soul will be trapped here forever.”

What!?

No, no, no!

I shook my head. “But Madame Surlama said she would help me get out. She said—”

“She’s a liar and a trickster!” he shouted, causing me to flinch. “She’s trapped you here. Both of you now. She can’t get you out—she’s never had the ability.”

Dammit. That’s why she had that wild look. Note to self: don’t ever trust Surlama again.

Time to eat humble pie. “Can you help us?”

Please tell me that’s why you’re here. Because having my mate’s soul ripped from his decomposing body didn’t sound like a fun first date.

He pursed his lips and then nodded. “If you do exactly as I say, you can both leave with your life, but you’ll have to hurry.”

Right. Somehow, I needed to find Honor and get Rage out of here ASAP.

No pressure.

“How long do we have before Rage…?” I didn’t dare say the word decomposes, let alone dies, but I needed a timeline to work with.

“I don’t know. If he were human, he’d already be dead. I’ve never been here with an alpha heir. An hour? Maybe two. At most.” He frowned and flicked his fingers toward Rage. “Your mate’s body is already weakening.”

An hour!

My stomach turned to stone as I squeezed Rage’s shoulder and gritted my teeth. I could do this. “And what about Honor? We came to get him back.”

Unease flickered across the old man’s face. “Sometimes the dead are better left that way.”

I shook my head. “Not this one.”

“What you’re proposing is close to impossible, and if you do manage to pull it off, it will only come at great sacrifice.”

“Honor is family. He’s my mate’s brother, and what happened to him—” My body trembled as I remembered the horrific scene of the mid-year games. Honor burning. The high mages screaming “high crime.” Pretty much it was the most horrifying moment of my life.

Why did this old dude care about me anyway? And how did he know I could walk between worlds like him, unless…

“How do you know I have this spirit gift?” I asked.

He swallowed hard and held out his hands in supplication. “At first, I was too hurt at her passing and then too afraid to hope. I told myself I wasn’t completely sure although you look just like her…”

His cryptic words made my head spin, and I frowned. Was he saying … he knew my mother?

“When I discovered you’d survived your mother’s death, I decided to move up your training. I should’ve told you sooner.”

“What are you talking abo—Wait … you sent the forged summons?” My eyes widened, and I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly filled with sawdust. He nodded, but his tight expression made me 85.8% sure there was a bigger surprise coming.

“What else aren’t you telling me…?”

“You’re my granddaughter.” He reached out as if to touch my face and then retracted his hand. “You’ve inherited all of my high mage power, including the mage master power of spirit.”

The world spun. I blinked and shook my head, certain I’d heard wrong. Because if I was his granddaughter … that meant… “My mother…”

He nodded as if he knew what I was thinking. “Elia was my second born. A high mage in training.”

Holy mage.

A million questions raced through my mind, but all of them evaporated when Rage doubled over, grabbing his stomach.