The Breeze Trials

Chapter 14

It was less than an hour before my adrenaline and mind calmed enough for my body to feel the tax of what happened. I fell asleep easily against the seat belt. The sun hadn't seemed to have moved much by the time I was woken up gently. My eyes fluttered and my brain silently begged for more rest until I saw the scenery outside of the car window.

Wherever we were, it didn't look like it could be real. Somehow, mountains were so near in the distance that you could make out the many peaks, when seconds before it was mostly empty terrain. The grass here looked different. I pushed the button to roll down the window to let the air in. It smelled...magical.

"Where are we?" My voice was full of amazement. I couldn't see Jace, but I felt the big smile he wore in driver's seat. "We are where I came from. I took us through a portal that the mages always keep open."

"Why are we here?" Did Karina know about this place? Had Jay seen this? A bit of jealously clouded over me, it wasn't fair that I was the last to see these colors, to breathe in the magic.
"This is the first place we're going to look." I nodded at his words and stuffed down the negativity. It's too beautiful here, I shouldn't be tainting it with my selfishness. Knowing that there was some sort of shadow trying to ruin this place made me want to move even faster, to get eight steps ahead of whatever was coming. We needed Aaron to do that. I choked at the memory of his lies.

Jace slowed and parked the car. "Are you ready?" Biting my lip nervously, I nodded. Before long, we were walking away from Miranda's car along a large path. It vaguely reminded me of a movie that was once on TV, only this stone path wasn't yellow, and there wasn't any singing to guide me, just a guy I somehow got entangled with.

I remembered the book I read for 'tips' and it really stuck to me just how well I was taking in all the crazy as opposed to that character. Not too long ago, I was a cat. Taking care of my tribe was priority and there wasn't any sort of mention of magic, but now my life has been entirely reshaped. Even my forced transformation seemed so long ago. I was sure; there could be no doubting that the very moment I met that mysterious cat, my fate changed entirely. I had to wonder if there even was a wish at the end of it, or what those 'trials' even were. Jace hadn't seemed to have heard of anything similar, so had that meant Aaron only said those things to trick me? I opened my mouth to ask my companion just as a faint blue glow lit up my face. "Jace."

"What?" He turned around, taking only a second to notice before his eyes lit up. "I wonder if that's a clue that we're close."

"Wait, are you saying we've been blindly walking?" Did he have even the slightest clue of where we were going? My question didn't seem to faze him, though. "We're on a path." I narrowed my eyes. He really didn't have a clue. I sighed. "Should I try to navigate yet?"
Jace shook his head. "Not quite, just remember this spot, I actually want to go to the temple first and get some preparation. We can't keep chasing this girl around alone. Not to mention, if... Karen? Karlina? If that girl is part of the coming threat, the world, especially this part of it, needs to be aware." He turned his gaze back forward. "I should've made a report the moment I saw the darkened stone." A wave of nerves hit me, his tone was so ominous and worried. The prospect of the situation becoming even more real scared me, but I continued to follow nonetheless.

It then occurred to me that I was soon to be surrounded by regular magic users as well as the people who run this version of the world. I tucked my stone under my shirt just in case it would get me in trouble. Jace noticed and smiled back at me in support.

Jace led us up to a large building, one that very clearly looked like, just as he'd said, a temple. The building was enormous, but by some sort of magic, I hadn't spotted it until we were close enough to discern the details on the windows. It was almost too bright to look at, protruding high above the trees and taking up leagues of land.