But Atlas isn’t ready to let it go that easily. “We might have gotten our cards back, but she still got nearly four hundred bucks between the three of us! It’s bullshit they keep an employee that can pull shit like this.”
“Just drop it, Atlas,” I sigh. “Lucien is right.”
Her vivid splash of hair going into the woods catches his eye and he breaks into a run without pausing for debate. Lucien and I share a look, groan, and start jogging to catch up with him.
“He never thinks things through,” Lucien adds, his tone brokering a warning that he’s reaching the end of his patience. Atlas owes Lucien a great debt and should know better than to push his limits as much as he has been lately. “She likely has men hidden in the woods that are going to kick Atlas’ ass and sell him to a brothel.”
I snicker. “Nobody calls them brothels anymore. Just how old do you think you are, Luce?” He narrows his eyes at me challengingly and I push myself just a little harder to put distance between us before I add cautiously, “Atlas is right though. You need to loosen up.”
“No, I need you two to quit deciding I need to live my life like you do. I’m perfectly content with the way things are. I worked far too hard to get where I am to go mucking it up by thinking with my dick and getting distracted,” he counters.
I sigh, but drop it for now. All work and no play makes Lucien a pent up, sexually repressed asshole. He never sees it. But that’s what friends do; look out for each other when one of us has our heads too far up our own ass to see it ourselves.
We have to slow our pace dramatically to work our way through the thick foliage and tightly knit trees, but so far there’s been no cloaked, evil villains waiting in the shadows to ambush us. No werewolves or vampires, not so much as a mosquito. Just three guys, chasing a woman through the woods.
Oh fuck, that sounds really bad. We’re going to end up in jail tonight, I just know it.
The trees start to thin out and I just barely keep from crashing into Atlas’ back. When I start to speak, he claps a hand over my mouth.
“What is she doing?” he mumbles quietly as Lucien draws up on his other side.
The woman looks in either direction before sighing and stepping forward before she’s just...gone.
“What the hell just happened?” Atlas shouts, gesticulating wildly towards where Cambria just vanished into thin air.
Lucien shakes his head before walking out into the clearing to get a better look and Atlas quickly follows him. I catch up after I pick my slack jaw off of the floor, eyes wide and racing over everything around us in fascination.
Just before Luce takes another step, I grab his arm and jerk him back. “Don’t step there! It looks like a fairy ring.” I frown, crouching down to brush my fingers across the outer edge.
Atlas snorts. “A fairy ring? Man, you’re no better than Luce. You spend too much time at work; all those comic books are going to your head.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Manga. If you’re going to insult me, at least get your facts right so you don’t sound ignorant. And laugh all you will, but you saw as clearly as I did that she disappeared as soon as stepping into it.”
Atlas rolls his eyes. “For all I know, it was a projection to lure us out here to rob our dumbasses a second time. Or quicksand.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “And you say I have an overactive imagination.”
Atlas holds my stare challengingly as he slowly and dramatically steps into the circle. While holding my breath, he smirks and flips me off.
“See? What did I tell you?” he gloats, but when he tries to step back out of it, the charred circle on the ground pulsates and throws him to his ass in the center.
“What the hell?” Lucien murmurs.
Without stepping over, he reaches his hand across to grab Atlas’ and tug him back towards us. Not only does the same thing happen, but the next pulse knocks Lucien off his feet and sends him stumbling inside right next to Atlas.
They curse, and I don’t think they even have noticed yet that their skin is developing a translucent quality to it. I’m not really sure what the fuck is happening, but I do know one thing for sure.
Like hell I’m getting left behind.
Stepping into the ring, I try to help Lucien to his feet, but my hand passes right through his. He looks down wide eyed and back up to me before steeling himself and hiding any trace of emotion in his eyes. As if the human robot could even feel fear; more likely he’s tempering down his rage before he murders Atlas.
I, instead, close my eyes. And while the two of them start arguing heatedly, think of the vibrant haired vixen that led us here. Not only her splash of multicolored hair or striking silver eyes, but the way she smiled as she lost herself to the music, that defiant smirk of hers as she unrepentantly returned our credit cards and slipped away.
Just what the hell are you, Cambria?
Chapter 4
Atlas
Patting my hands down my body, I huff out a relieved breath to feel how solid I am again, all while fighting the urge to throw up.
What the flying fuck just happened?
Lucien tentatively steps out of the ring, and when he isn’t thrown back, passing unscathed, I’m jumping to my feet and out like my ass is on fire. Dorian isn’t in nearly as much of a rush, looking way more thrilled with this than any sane man should be.
His geeky little heart is probably exploding right about now.
I bite back any snide remarks when I get a solid look around us, though. It’s a near replica of the clearing we just left, yet somehow more. The colors are more vivid and it’s like the place practically glows with life.
But as opposed to before, there is nowhere to go but forward. Here, the trees are so close together that there’s no way we can pass through them except for the clear path in front of us.
“Should we... should we step back in and see what happens?”
Lucien looks torn while Dorian on the other hand is brimming with indignation. “Are you kidding me?! You cannot possibly tell me you don’t want to look around. You only get one chance at something like this and if we turn back, we’ll miss out on all of the magic and adventure.”
Lucien sighs. “This isn’t like one of your cartoons, Dorian.”
Dorian doesn’t even miss a beat. “Anime.”
He starts walking down the dirt path away from the circle of death and I share a look with Lucien. Just like he and Dorian chased after me without a thought, we are both well aware we can’t let our friend walk off to god knows where alone. I may not have a damn clue what is happening, but I’m not so much of a bastard as to let him get himself killed. And truth be told, if it came down to Dorian or me, Luce would choose to save Dorian in a heartbeat with their history, so I’m better off sticking close to the nerd.
The path twists and the trees are just as dense as back by the ring, so there’s no possible way to deviate or wander off. Even breathing feels different, as if the air is laced with something.
Of course. Someone probably slipped something in my drink at the club and I’m hallucinating this whole thing.
It’s a short path and soon there’s an opening out of the woods, clear like a light at the end of the tunnel. When we step through, I have to blink rapidly several times for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. Compared to how shadowed it was within the forest, it’s like stepping from one world into another, and it’s suddenly very clear that I’m not imagining things.