Iridescent Chaos (Enchanted Chaos 3)

Fearing the worst, I glance over my shoulder and spot a tendril of darkness snaking toward us. My instinct is to smack it away, but if I move my hands away from East’s the wave could melt, and Sky being in her unconscious state, will more than likely fall through the bottom of the portal.

So instead, I lift my foot and give a lame ass attempt at kicking it, but fail. I look to Easton for help, but he just quickens his pace. I do the same, but the tendril chases after us, slithering and reaching for Sky. The tip of it brushes against her head and fear lashes through me. If it gets a hold of her, he could pull her back to him.

T

aking a deep breath, I prepare to do something that will forever change me. “I’m going to grab Sky and make a run for it,” I tell East.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he bites out, shaking his head. “If you do, darkness will get you too.”

“Maybe, but with how short of a distance we have left, I should be able to get her out of here before it takes me over completely.”

“Fost,” he warns. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. We can get her out of here. Just keep moving.”

Ignoring him, I start to pull my hands away from his, but then horror lashes through me as the tendril slips into the strands of Sky’s hair.

“No!” I shout, starting to pull my hands away from East so I can grab her.

But then the tendril lets out a hiss and withers back, as if it’s been burned.

The god of darkness releases a bellowing scream. “Give me my queen or else you’ll be punished! She’s mine! She belongs to me!”

“For some reason, I don’t think he can touch her,” East mumbles, glancing at me with his head angled to the side.

I think he might be right. And while I’m not sure why, I don’t have time to mull it over.

I pick up my pace, more than eager to get the hell out of this portal. East matches my long strides, seeming just as eager. We keep moving until we near the end of the portal. Before we exit, I flick one final glance over my shoulder at the god of darkness. He’s looming in the distance, watching us, his cloudy eyes storming with fury.

“I will get my queen back,” he promises, smoke curling from his flesh. “She belongs to me. Always has. I’ll find you again and this time I won’t be alone.” With one parting look at Sky, he dives out of the side of the portal, taking his tendrils of darkness with him.

His words confuse the hell out of me along with his decision to bail.

“What the hell?” I mutter with a shake of my head.

Easton shakes his head from side to side. “I have no damn idea.”

My thoughts drift back to that day at the school when darkness tried to attack Sky, and we ended up opening the portal to Enchantment. I’d been so relieved that we managed to escape that I hadn’t thought too much about how easy it was for us to get away.

Sure, darkness had been swarming my car, but when a tendril had slipped through the vents and tried to grab Sky, I’d simply been able to swat it away. With how powerful the god of darkness is supposed to be, it seems like he should’ve been able to get a hold of Sky that day if he really wanted to. Not to mention he probably could’ve a few times before that, seeing as how no one had a clue what Sky was until a couple of weeks ago.

“I think you’re right,” I tell East as we stop in front of the circular exit of the portal. “For some reason, he can’t touch her.”

“Why, though?” Easton questions. “I mean, darkness is all over her right now, so why can’t the god of darkness touch her? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“The darkness on her right now is created by her power of darkness,” I point out. “It’s not his power.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” A pucker forms at his brow as he assesses Sky. “We need to find out what’s keeping him from being able to touch her. It might help us find a long-term solution to getting darkness completely out of her.”

I nod in agreement. “I know.”

But it makes me a bit unsettled that we’re pretty much clueless as to why the god of darkness can’t touch her. Not that it’s a bad thing, but if we know more about it, we could maybe use that to our advantage.

Pressing my lips together, I start to move out of the exit, gradually inching the wave of ice with me.

“Why do you think he called Sky his queen?” East asks as he matches my steps.

“I have no idea. The god of darkness isn’t even a king, so why the hell would he think Sky is his queen?”

“Maybe he’s going crazy,” East suggests. “Elemental protectors of darkness are known for that.”