Once Bitten (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 1)

In my pocket, my mobile vibrated. Dread unfurled in my stomach as I pulled it out and looked at the screen. A text from Corrigan.

Turn yourself in, Carrow Burton. If the city finds you through a manhunt, the judge will be less lenient.

I swallowed hard, ice chilling my skin. The city was gearing up for a manhunt.

“You okay?” Mac asked.

I jerked my head up, startled. “Yeah, yeah.” I shoved the mobile into my pocket. “Just nervous.”

“Don’t worry, it’s cool. You’ll see.”

She could sense my unease. Because she was a…seer?

Did I even believe this?

“Okay, we’re going to see if you can get in on your own,” Mac said. “I feel your magic, so it should be possible.”

“What do you mean?”

“Press your hands against the wall.” She grabbed both my hands and moved them into place. “The ether will pull you in, but you’ll be okay.”

“What’s the ether?”

“It’s the stuff that’s between everything. Like air, but magic. You can’t see it, but you can feel it.”

The plaster was cool under my palms, and then there was a fizzing feeling.

My hands sunk into the wall before my eyes. Shock made my stomach drop, but then the air pulled at me. It sucked me into the darkness, and then I was spinning. Spinning and spinning in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to scream, to run.

But I was trapped.

In the flash of a second, I felt my feet hit solid ground, and I stopped spinning.

Holy crap, the ether was strong.

I blinked into the daylight, shocked by my change of location. I stood in front of a massive wooden gate. A huge stone building was built over it, the glass windows winking in the pale sunlight. Two conical towers extended up from the building, flanked by stone walls on either side.

A freaking castle?

I spun to look behind and saw nothing but thick mist.

What the hell?

Mac appeared next to me half a second later, a big grin on her face. “Looks like you're as magical as I thought.”

“What?” I gasped, my mind still doing an insane tornado thing inside my head.

She gestured to the wall in front of me. “You crossed over into Guild City on your own. Only people with magic can do that.”

“We’re…where?”

“We’re in another realm, but we’re still on earth. Magic created this place hundreds of years ago within the city of London, a place for supernaturals to live where humans wouldn’t find them, and voila!” She gestured to the city wall. “Some say that the Devil of Darkvale himself created it, but I don’t know if that’s true.”

“The suspect?”

She nodded. “One and the same.”

I tilted my head back to inspect the enormous gate. This was not happening.