1

Ethan opened his eyes and realized he was the first one awake. Angie and Harper appeared to be in a deep sleep, and Damon was snoring away on the canvas bags he had arranged on the dirt floor. Ethan got up and walked stealthily to the door, shoving it aside by an inch. Looking out through the opening, he could see it was still dark.

He eased the door back into place and leaned against the cabin wall, wondering what he should do. They agreed whoever woke up first would wake the team, but he had no idea what time it was. For all he knew, it was two a.m. He rubbed his hand through the Brillo pad that was his growing beard and tried to make up his mind. It was a difficult decision. Damon, Angie, and Harper looked so peaceful, and they had been through an extremely rough thirty-six hours.

Are you awake? Jordan’s thought came to him, interrupting his deliberations.

Ethan grinned. Man, am I glad to hear from you. Did you just wake up?

Yep. You too?

Ethan confirmed it by sending, I’ve been standing here, trying to figure out if I should wake the crew. Jordan, do you still wake up at five a.m. all the time? His brother had always woken up at five, give or take a half-hour. It had been that way since they were teenagers. You could set your watch by it.

Jordan confirmed his body clock hadn’t changed.

Good, so we can wake them, Ethan replied. He moved toward the sleepers.

Hang on a sec, Ethan.

Hmmm?

We need to discuss what happened between Emma and me. More specifically, I want to know if things are ok between you and me.

Ethan groaned. Well, I’m not impressed with either of you right now, but you’re still my brother. I don’t think your little tryst should undo the progress we’ve made. So, yes, things are okay with us.

Jordan breathed a sigh of relief, and it amused Ethan that he could hear it telepathically. Okay, one more thing. Go easy on Emma. She’s taking this all very hard. Janna and Zack hardly spoke to her when we got back to the cabin last night.

That was a tougher ask. Jordan had the latitude of being his brother, but Emma didn’t. Anger burned in Ethan’s chest at the mere mention of her name. He held her responsible for Miguel’s death. She was at the highest level, by far, of the members, had good offensive spells, and was the quickest member of the team. If anyone had been in a position to save Miguel, it was Emma. But instead…

I’ll try, Ethan sent.

Do more than try, Jordan countered firmly.

Okay, okay. Can we wake these guys up now? he replied, frustrated.

Yeah… and thanks, brother.

Ethan was touched. Jordan hardly ever called him “brother” without adding “little” in front of it, a reference Jordan knew he hated. That alone confirmed the progress they had made.

Ethan walked to the three members in his room and gently woke them up while Jordan, irrepressibly mischievous, sang at the top of his telepathic lungs into the minds of his cabin-mates.

I’m a star in New York, I’m a star in LA! Emma, Janna, and Zack jumped out of their beds, alarmed, and threw their bedding at him.

2

Ethan’s crew exited their cabin first. They sauntered to the other cabin and knocked on the door, which was quickly shoved aside. Zack stood grinning at them. “Man! You guys have a severe case of morning breath,” he exclaimed.

“Speak for yourself, halitosis,” Harper quipped, surprisingly. Ethan, Angie, and Damon gaped at her, stunned but pleased at her lightened mood.

Meanwhile, Zack’s grin widened. “Does anybody know where I can get a decent cup of coffee in this jerk-water town?”

“No. But fill me in if you find a place,” Damon said, smiling.

Emma, Jordan, and Janna slipped out through the doorway, steering around the big orc.

“Come on, beefcake,” Harper said, “you’re holding up the line.”

Zack stepped out and slid the door shut. They slipped into their formation; the orcs at the front and the hunters, including Emma, behind them. Harper and Janna brought up the rear. Each member equipped their weapons. As they marched east on the village road, the first traces of light appeared on the horizon, splashing blues and violets across the sky. The terrain became more visible as they turned and headed north toward the water.

As they walked, they scanned the trees, watching out for Brett or any other signs of trouble. At one point, Damon stopped them, sure that he could hear canine growling coming from the woods, but they couldn’t see the animals.

They continued forward as the sun’s orange and yellow tones illuminated the land. When they got to the water, they saw that a mist had formed over the churning waves. In the mist, a rainbow was forming, beaming all the colors of the spectrum.

“Hopefully that’s an omen,” Angie muttered.

As full daylight embraced the countryside, they progressed to the tower, their heads craning up. The closer they got, the more their heads arched back. As they scrutinized the height of the structure, each member wondered how many floors the tower had and if they could ever get through it.

3

At the tower’s base were a series of massive, moss-covered stone slabs that formed rudimentary steps leading up to the entrance. The slabs were five feet tall, and the smaller members of the team stretched their legs at obscene angles just to climb the steps. Emma and Jordan had no such difficulty, leaping over the stones like cats. The orcs started lifting Janna, Harper, and Angie onto the steps. When they arrived at the top, they gathered around the entrance, staring at the green portal that filled the doorway.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if that thing transported us all the way back to the beginning?” Jordan mused.

No one laughed.

They saw the massive sculpture that stretched above the entrance in fine detail. Chiseled out of the dark gray rock was the face of a beautiful woman. She glared down at them menacingly. Strands of stone hair hung from the carving’s head. Etched into its face was a gaping mouth rimmed with sharp teeth. Two long fangs protruded from the top and bottom of its mouth. The face had three eyes. Two squinted ferociously at its would-be intruders, while the third appeared through a vertical slit in its forehead.

Positioned a few feet away from the head, two hands reached down toward them. Its fingers were unusually long, with sharp nails growing out of their tips. One finger on the right hand had broken off over time and lay like a dead soldier on the stone slab below it.

“Any idea what that thing is?” Damon asked.

No one replied initially, then Harper answered, “It’s probably the boss we’ll encounter at the end, but I don’t know what it is. The third eye makes me think it’s rooted in Indian or Middle Eastern mythology.”

Emma pointed at the black glitches, which were pressing into the surrounding landscape. She gazed from the black spots to the green portal in front of them. “How do we know it’s safe to go through that thing, that it hasn’t been corrupted?”

“We don’t,” Damon responded. He stepped forward, prepared to walk through the portal, then stopped. He looked around the tower’s base, searching for a suitable object. Eventually, he walked to a corner and picked up a stone the size of a fist. “This might tell us something,” he said. He threw the stone through the portal, where it vanished into the green waves. Damon hoped they would hear the rock clunking on the other side, but there wasn’t a sound.

He faced his crew. “If I make it through safely, I’ll toss the rock back out to you. If the rock doesn’t come back”—he shrugged and shook his head—"then I don’t know what to suggest.”

Angie looked worried but said nothing.

“In any case,” he continued, “if it does come back, don’t waste time getting in there. God knows what’s waiting for me on the other side.”

With that, Damon turned and walked through the portal.