Bound to Earth

46: The End

I dropped the gun, clutching to Alistar's body as we sagged to the floor. 

Valentino was next to me a second later, grabbing the gun and shooting the witch. Brynjar's flame already wrapped around the witch. The bullet was more from frustration, spite.

Valentino scouted the area, searching for any more witches while Brynjar knelt next to me. He tugged Alistar's shirt away to reveal the injury. The bullet hadn't gone straight through, still lodged in his skin. Alistar's veins darkened and webbed away from the wound.

Poison. The bullet had been enchanted with poison.

My chin was jerked up, Malachi catching my attention. His face was blurred in my narrowed vision. "It's going to be okay. Breathe."

It wasn't going to be okay.

"It's not a poison we can cure here." Brynjar pressed his thumb, licked with fire, to the wound, cauterizing it shut. The bullet was still lodged in. Pulling it out now might do more damage, especially when the poison was unknown. "We have to get him to the Fae realm. They'll have what's needed there for this kind of wound."

The Fae realm. We'd have to go to the Fae realm. An entirely different world.

My heart beat increased, hands shook. My blood only took anyone in and out of Hell, not the Fae lands.

We'd have to find a portal first. That itself could take an eternity. Portals between realms were shut down centuries ago. 

The only way through realms were temporary rips between the fabric of space and magic. Those were the only portals left, accidental ones. Ones that could appear and disappear at any given time.

Malachi ran a hand over his dreadlocks. "Your family—"

"I can guarantee my family won't have the right equipment. The Forest of Unbinding has the Fire Falls, waters gifted with the ability to heal. If we can get there, we can heal him. We have maybe a week with the way he is now." Brynjar tore his shirt, wrapping what he could of Alistar's shoulder.

The color had already drained from Alistar's face. Sweat beaded across the top of his lip. There wasn't enough strength in him left to grasp my hands as I held his.

"We don't have time to find a portal. And even if we do, we don't know what creatures or traps guard it . . . " Malachi continued but I couldn't hear him.

The world stilled. My mind spun, small threads of information weaving together.

"Fine, we can go to my family's—"

"No." I yelled a little too loud, shocking everyone. "We go to the Fae lands. There's a portal nearby." I turned to Valentino. "Don't you remember? The monster that dragged us down. He said he was one of the few guardians left. I was wondering what he was guarding, but what if it was the portal?"

Valentino nodded. "It's worth a shot to try. Only a 40 minute drive, 10 minute flight. It'd be a quick pit stop on the way to your family's place, Rune, if it wasn't a portal."

"It'll be longer with all our stuff and people I'll have to carry. Malachi can't fly for as long as I can." Brynjar pulled down his cotton pants, shirt already wrapped around Alistar.

"Fuck our shit. I can have Diane deal with it." We just needed to get to the cliff I fell off of, from the other day. I was certain there'd be a portal. 

"Mirai." I looked to her, panicked.

Her body was turned away from us, a hand over her eyes. But she nodded in understanding. "I can fly too." She shucked off her sweater and pulled out a knife, handing the hilt to Malachi. "Can you cut two holes in the back of my shirt."