Aidan

The undertow feeling of teleporting was more forceful this time and my landing was utter crap. The four of us came slamming down onto the ground.

Chris was the first one up off the grassy clearing we had landed on. “Aidan, I know you’re upset with me, but that was not necessary.”

I ignored Chris and stood up to find Nadia already facing me.

Her arms were crossed and her eyes were becoming more volatile. "Well, Aidan? I don't see my sister anywhere."

I was just as concerned as she was, but her impatience was starting to grate. “I really need you to calm down because you are not helping. I did exactly what Mr. Serious said."

Her head cocked back like she was getting ready to lose it. "Calm down? What part of anything that has happened in the past week is supposed to help me calm down? Maybe if you--."

Chris jumped in the middle of us. "Hey, now, guys. This ain't helping nothing. We should be trusting and supporting each other."

I took a deep breath and shook my head. "Honestly, Chris, you're probably the last person to be talking about trust right now."

Lana cut in with a strong yet low voice. "She's here."

The three of us turned to her before surveying the area. There was nothing except open greenery as far as we could see.

Nadia turned to Lana, fully annoyed. "Ain't nothing but our ass and grass."

Lana raised her hands up, palms out as if to feel the air. "She's here, but on a different plane.” After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and dropped her hands. “Noelle’s in The Fae dimension."

My eyes were wide enough to pop out of my skull. "What? Like one of the dimensions that run parallel to our own?" I shook my head to clear it. "How do you know that?"

Lana turned around and pointed to her tattoo. It had changed to an outline of the eye, again, and was blinking. The sight of it made me shiver and Chris grimaced.

Nadia was the only one unfazed. "Okay, and? How we suppose to get there?"

Lana looked down for a second as her tattoo blinked in rapid progression. "I can unlock the dimension and get us there. Everybody, circle up."

We quickly followed Lana's lead and held hands in a circle. Nadia wouldn't meet anyone's gaze as she was wholly focused on Lana. After taking a few deep breaths, Lana dropped her head back. Her tattoo spread all along her skin. It moved over her arms and when it reached her hands, the tattoo continued to spread over our bodies. It only covered a fraction of me, but it felt as though I was being taken over. The black ink moved up my neck and onto my face before moving over my eyes. Everything went black.

Just as fast as it had started, the whole thing was over. The blackness cleared from my eyes to reveal our new surroundings of a beautifully overgrown jungle. I was in disbelief as my head spun in every direction to look over the beautiful floral colors covering every inch. The splendor of our surroundings was quickly forgotten as everything in my stomach decided to vacate my body. I keeled over and vomited so hard, it felt like I was being turned inside out. It was a good thing I didn't need to breathe because it was nonstop. After five very intense minutes, I was able to lift my head to see Nadia and Lana disturbed by my actions.

At least I wasn’t alone in the weirdness. Chris was flailing around as if his legs didn't work. "Y'all, my eyes. Something’s wrong with my eyes. That black goo gave me glaucoma."

After a few more minutes of dry heaving, I was able to get myself together. "What in the fiery hell was that, Lana?"

She actually had her phone out and was checking for a signal. "Effects side some have can dimensions to traveling apparently." Her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

Nadia was the only one who didn't seem affected. "I think this crazy bitch said coming here messed you hoes up. It’s probably cause ain't none of y'all Fae." She rolled her eyes but managed to patiently wait till everyone was back to normal. “Y’all, I can't see a thing past all this green."

Chris looked bewildered. "Is it me or is it unnaturally quiet? Aren't jungles usually bustling with the sounds of nature?"

My head tilted to the side contemplatively before taking a closer look around. I even bent down to the ground to try to find any form of animal or insect. Then something dawned on me. "Wait a minute, guys,” I said before pausing to let all of my thoughts fall into place. “Guys, we're in The Fae Kingdom. So, if Sophia and the other douchebags kidnapped Noelle, why would they bring her here?"

For the first time since getting home, Nadia looked lost for words.

Chris put a finger up to carefully grab everyone's attention. "Just so we are all on the same page, y'all are talking about Amon’s generals, right?"

I quickly looked at Nadia to make sure she wasn't losing it again, but she was deep in thought staring at her hands. "Yeah, they've been trying to kill us for a week now. I had assumed they were the ones that took Noelle, but it doesn't make sense for them to bring her here.” Just the thought of them was making me angry. “I can't believe you already knew about all of this and haven't said anything." My eyes kept shifting back to Nadia still staring at her hands. "Are you okay over there? Something wrong?"

Nadia's head shot up like she was startled. "I'm fine. Actually, I'm better than fine. Something about this place is making me feel, I don’t know. Stronger?”

Lana was having a hard time adjusting her high heels to the greenery. "That makes sense if you think about it. I mean, isn't this technically your kingdom?"

Nadia looked at Lana like she was stupid. "Girl, ain't no kingdom no more. Amon busted in and murdered everyone. Ain't a god da-."

The ground under us began to quake before what looked like armored soldiers sprang up out of the ground. There were four of them, each humanoid in shape but lacking any facial features. Even weirder, they seemed to represent one of the four elements, comprised completely of either fire, earth, water, or air. By the way they produced elemental weapons and moved toward us, it was clear this was not a welcoming committee. I looked at Chris, who already had his flaming sword at the ready. "Chris, you take the earth looking, uh, thing."

Across from me, Lana briefly glowed with a silver light before her Valkyrie armor manifested, along with her glimmering spear. "Water."

I nodded my head at her while producing my claws. "Then I'll take fir--"

Nadia cut me off as she summoned lightning down from the skies onto the humanoid comprised of flames.

I blinked for a moment. "Uh, I mean, air, I guess." I turned to the air elemental and received a blast of wind that knocked me into a tree. Yeah. Not a good start. I locked onto its form with my mind, but couldn't get a hold of its wispy and ever-changing body. It raised its barely-visible hands before a cyclone of wind sent me up. The air soldier flew up and slammed me back down to the ground. After recovering from my disorientation in a matter of seconds, I quickly stood up, but it was gone, having literally vanished into thin air.

“Jesus, I just want to go one day without getting slammed into something.” I rushed back to where everyone else was, but the other soldiers were gone. "What was that ab--." My head spun around. "Where’s Nadia?!"

Both Lana and Chris looked at a loss, but Chris spoke first. "The things!” He used his hands to point at different spots on the ground as if I was supposed to know what that meant. “Whatever those things were grabbed her and took off."

My mouth was hanging open. "How is that even possible? She's supposed to be stronger here!"

Lana quickly shook her head at me. "Her powers didn't work on them. After the lightning hit the fire one, it just reformed and grabbed her from behind."

I placed my hands on my head and took a deep breath. "Oh, my god. She’s gonna be so pissed. We have to go get her. Which way did they go?"

Lana and Chris both looked at each other for a moment and then pointed down.

I rubbed my temples and tried not to lose my cool. "So, in the past four hours, Lance has been killed, Noelle has been taken, and now Nadia has been straight up elemental-napped. Not to mention, I was completely useless against the air soldier-thing." I took a deep breath and centered myself because I could feel my fangs poking through my gums.

"If it makes you feel better," Chris started, but I raised a hand to stop him.

My head slowly shook in response. “What are we supposed to do now? Nadia is gone and I have no way of contacting Mr. Serio—oh, my god!” I locked eyes with Lana. “Our link!"

She looked at me startled for a second. "Our what?"

I tried to wave her along to get to what I was trying to say. "The link the three of us made so I'd be able to find y'all no matter where y'all were."

The little bit of relief I had was mirrored on Lana’s face. I closed my eyes and focused on Nadia. I could sense her but it was like I couldn't make the connection to her mind. There was just blackness. I furrowed my brow and tried harder until I realized what the problem was. "They must've knocked her out."

Lana shook her head at me. “That shouldn't matter. Even unconscious, her mind would still be active."

I threw my hands up at her. "They probably gave her something to knock her out. You know she didn’t go down easy.”

Lana let out a groan. "Yeah. If they gave her some sort of anesthetic, it would shut down certain parts of her brain."

I paced around for a moment as I came up with a plan. "Okay, well, if they wanted her dead, they probably wouldn't have taken her. So, the best thing we can do right now is chill here and wait for her to wake up. As soon as she's conscious again, I can find her. Even if it's just for a second."

Chris, with his sword still in hand, moved to the center of the area we were in and stabbed the earth. A shudder of light expanded from the blade and created a dome around us. It flickered for a moment before becoming invisible. "Alright. At least now we don't have to worry about any more of those element thingies." His voice was chipper, more than likely, in the hopes that it would ease the tension, but it was having the opposite effect on me. "You know, Aidan. Since we have some time, maybe we could talk about things and clear the air? Whaddya sa--."

I put a hand up and closed my eyes. "Now is not the time. I'm gonna lay here on this over-grown jungle floor and concentrate on Nadia. You guys need to rest, because as soon as I have a lock on her, we are out." Without waiting for a response, I lied down and stared up at the sky as the sun set.