As he stood by the fountain, Charlie saw that the light of the full moon had cast the three life-size statues carved into the fountain’s pedestal into ghostly relief. The statues looked ready to leap naked from the marble.
Charlie settled his flamethrower securely in both hands. Adrenaline pumped through his veins like rocket fuel. Within the next sixty minutes, he’d be walking through that gate himself. But first, he had to help make sure no Esri jumped out.
A chill breeze molded the silk pants against Charlie’s legs and lifted the hem of his borrowed cloak. He was wearing Kade’s uniform from the Esrian Royal Guard. The uniform had been hastily altered to fit his more normal, six-one frame. With any luck, if he did run into Esri he could pass himself off as a mixed blood immortal, like Kade. If they figured out he was mortal, he was dead.
Charlie glanced at the giant. “Any last-minute advice before I go through?”
“Stay away from the Esri,” Kade advised.
Charlie laughed. “Yeah, I figured that much. Anything else?”
“No. Nothing that I haven’t already told you. Other than the Esri, the biggest threat to you are the black trimors, but there’s not a lot you can do about them except hope you don’t cross their paths. You’ll never see them coming.”
“Great.” If there wasn’t anything he could do about them, he wasn’t going to worry about them.
He’d spent all morning with Kade, learning as much as he could about the place—what to eat, what to avoid, like the deadly, cat-like black trimors that remained invisible until the moment of attack. And how to reach the Forest of Nightmares where Princess Ilaria had been held captive for more than three hundred years. Kade knew she was alive. Linked by the magic of their world, all Esri knew the moment one of their own died … and at whose hands. Princess Ilaria still lived.
But rescuing her was going to be a feat of gigantic proportions and Kade could offer no advice. He’d never been in the Forest of Nightmares. No Esri entered those dark woods willingly.
“I wish I could go with you,” Kade said, sounding frustrated.
Charlie couldn’t imagine what the man was feeling. Just last night Kade had killed one of his own men as that Esri forced open the gate a day early and tried to abscond with the seven stones of power that were the keys to the gates … and so much more. Kade had stopped him but at a terrible cost. It was forbidden to end an immortal life, and Kade was now marked for death should he ever return to Esria. The moment he stepped through one of the gates, every Esri would know and be able to track him. They would terminate his existence long before he got anywhere near the Forest of Nightmares.
Now Kade was stuck here and Charlie was going into Esria alone.
Silence settled over the small group as they watched the fountain, waiting. The tension in Charlie’s gut twisted even as adrenaline simmered in his veins. Fifteen minutes. Thirty. Forty-five. Enough.
He stepped forward, breaking the circle. “If they were coming through, they’d have done it by now. I can’t wait any longer.”
One by one, the others left their positions to shake his hand and wish him luck.
Finally, Harrison stepped up to him. Charlie had never gotten along well with his too-serious older brother. But this wasn’t the time for old fights. And he had a sense of what it was costing Harrison to watch him enter the Esrian world. Harrison’s first experience with the Esri had been a nightmare. He’d taken his young kids to the Kennedy Center to see The Lion King and fallen victim to Baleris instead. Baleris had done no more than touch Harrison’s six-year-old daughter, Stephie, for an instant, but the pain he’d launched into her small body had damaged her in ways no doctor could repair. Even Aunt Myrtle, with her gift for healing, hadn’t been able to help her. Months later, the child still remained catatonic and might stay that way for the rest of her life.
Anger flared every time he thought of his little niece, but Charlie knew his anger was nothing compared to his brother’s. Harrison hated the Esri with a depth that was chilling. He wouldn’t deal well with the loss of a second family member to that evil.
But Charlie had every intention of making it back alive. He grinned to lighten the mood. “Cheer up, Harrison. I’m going to kick some major Esri butt.”
Harrison’s cool expression never wavered. “If I don’t hear from you in a month, I’m coming in after you.”
Charlie scowled. “Stay the hell away, Harrison, I mean it.” If he, a trained special operative, couldn’t handle Esria, what chance did his white-collar CEO of a brother stand? “I’ll try to make it back in a month, but it might take longer and I can’t exactly call to give you an update. I’ve got at least several weeks of walking ahead of me just to reach the freakin’ forest. After that, who knows how long it’ll take to free the princess and find another gate out of there. Just stay put until I get back.”
Charlie clasped his brother’s shoulder. “I will come back, Harrison. I promise.” He forced himself to smile again. “With a fairy princess on my arm.”
Harrison snorted, the faintest hint of a smile twitching his lips. “Get your cocky ass through that gate, little brother.”
Their gazes held as something heavy passed between them. The knowledge that this might be goodbye.
Charlie refused to accept that. “Keep an eye on the apartment for me.” He turned to look for Tarrys and found her waiting quietly behind him. “You ready, eaglet?”
She nodded and held out her hand to him.
“Be careful, both of you,” Larsen called as Charlie’s fingers closed around the surprising warmth of Tarrys’s fine-boned hand. Excitement sparked inside him, adrenaline charging through his system as it always did at the start of an op.
Charlie glanced down at the delicate profile of his pretty companion. “Let’s do this.”
Her face lifted and she met his gaze, her eyes shining like violet-hued silver in the moonlight, piercing him with their intensity, stirring that excitement.
“Be safe, Charlie Rand.”
His gaze dropped to that intriguing mouth of hers and for half a second he thought about kissing her. And wouldn’t that give the others something to talk about when he was gone?
But before he could give it another thought, Tarrys turned and tugged him with her as she stepped onto the fountain’s rim and down into the dry well. When they reached the thick marble pedestal, Charlie hesitated. Tarrys didn’t. Inch by inch, she disappeared until all but her hand was gone … the hand caught tight in his.
Then she gave a tug and pulled him into chaos.
Charlie opened his eyes to a canopy of spinning, glowing orange, confusion clouding his mind.
Where was he? What had happened? His mind scrambled for an answer as he quickly took stock of the situation. He was on his back, something hard pinned beneath him. No pain. So he was either unhurt or so close to dead nothing mattered.
Something entered his line of vision, flying about twenty feet above him. What the …?
A snake. A green-and-white-striped snake with long black wings.
In a dizzying rush, it all came back.
Esria. Chills raced across his flesh.
Charlie blinked, stayed where he was a moment longer, listening for sound. When none met his ears, he slowly glanced in every direction, wanting to make sure there was no obvious reason to stay down. The familiar smells of loam and pine mixed with a flowery-metallic scent that burned his nostrils.
The alien landscape that caught his gaze made his heart stutter. It was as