Chapter 18

 

“Okay, so I just take a deep breath, close my eyes and picture stepping, inside my mind only, to the place I want to go on the other side?”

Rafael nodded. “That’s it.”

I rolled my shoulders to relax. “Right.” I started to take a deep breath and then stopped and looked at Troy, “and if nothing happens?”

Shrugging, Troy looked at Rafael and then back down at me. “If your tattoo is in fact the real sundial, it will work.”

“If I’ve gone through all this shit for nothing it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Troy placed a hand on my shoulder. “You wouldn’t have survived this long if you weren’t the

Huntress, trust me.”

“Okay.” I rolled my shoulders again and huffed out a breath. “Okay, here goes nothing.” Closing my eyes, I thought of the first place that was close to my apartment, but not right in the middle of the street. Taking a deep breath, I pictured stepping from where we stood to there.

Grabbing Troy’s arm, I steadied myself when my knees did that jello thing like when you ride an elevator. Opening my eyes to tell him it wasn’t working, my mouth dropped open. I was home again.

“You get used to it,” he whispered.

“I did it.” I looked around at the trees. “I knew this place was here, how do you guys do it so you don’t land in the middle of a crowd?”

He grinned and shook his head. “I’ve never in all the years wondered that. We can transport right to another Alterealm resident, if we have some sort of connection with them, but I’ve never come out near anyone from this side.”

“You know with some of the weird shit that happens around here, I doubt most would even notice if you did.” I looked around behind us. “Rafael didn’t come?”

Moving toward the edge of the trees, he shook his head. “No. He will if we need him, but you said you wanted to blend, so I thought perhaps it would be easier with just one of us.”

I looked him up and down. Even in regular jeans that fit him very nicely in all the right places and a normal t-shirt that hugged his buff physique, he looked larger than life. “How tall are you?”

“Six five, what does that have to do with it?”

I shrugged. “Nothing, it’s just at your height you don’t really blend anywhere.”

Grinning, he continued until he was out of the trees. Stopping he looked around us. “Where have you brought us?”

I stood behind him and looked around my neighborhood. It was just before dusk and still fairly quiet at this point. The good ones were smart enough to be at home and the troublemakers hadn’t come out yet. Overall this neighborhood had seen better days. We were at least at the end where most of the buildings were still whole, well for the most part anyway. “This used to be a big park near my place.” I glanced over my shoulder at the ground with sparse patches of grass and only a half a dozen trees left standing in the middle. “It used to be much bigger.”

“You live here?” There was a note of surprise in his voice.

“Yeah, it’s not much to look at, but I know all the players well enough to know where you can and shouldn’t go.”

“It’s like the wasteland, only with buildings.”

Glancing around again, I shrugged. “I suppose it does resemble it, except for the orange part.” Patting his arm, I grinned up at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” I walked out to the sidewalk.

Snorting, he strode after me. “Where are we going first?”

“I’m going to go see Frank, see if he’s heard anything further on Wanda, he keeps his nose in on anything going on at the police station.”