“Hey!” Heath called.
They whirled around and gaped. “You’re back!” Corrine gushed, racing to us with Arwen. “Arwen and I just finished securing the area with Brock, Mona and Ibrahim. We managed to drive out the mutants—thankfully there were only a few—and put up a temporary barrier extending from this portal to Nightshade… What happened to you? Wh-Where is Vicky?”
I exchanged a pained glance with Heath. Before either of us could answer, the rest of the League came rushing into the clearing. My mother reached me, her turquoise eyes wide and petrified. My father took me from Heath’s arms.
“Grace!” my mother breathed, her eyes roaming the length of me. She gasped as she spotted the wound in my shoulder. I hadn’t even seen it myself yet. “Corrine,” she called.
My mother showed the witch my injury. “What happened to you?” Corrine asked again.
My heart tore as Xavier and Vivienne approached. “Where is Victoria?” they and several others asked at once. “Tell us what happened!”
“We leapt through that portal,” I began, though I was finding it hard to form a sentence. My words slurred into one another.
Thankfully Heath—who had been preoccupied by a strong embrace from his father Jeriad—took over.
“As Grace said, we had to leap through the portal. We found hunters on the other side. They’ve established a base. A gated compound with buildings, mutants, everything.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped, stunned speechless. I was still grappling with the concept myself.
“Grace and I managed to fend off the mutants, but we got separated from Vicky,” Heath went on. “As we raced back to the portal, they shot Grace with some kind of drugged dart.”
“And they took Victoria?” Vivienne breathed, her face paler than my knuckles.
“We did not see them take her,” Heath replied, “but they must have taken her inside. She hurt her ankle while running and we got separated by one of the mutants. By the time we could look for her again, she was nowhere to be seen.”
“What realm is on the other side?” my grandfather Derek asked, eyeing my shoulder with concern, which Corrine was beginning to treat with the assistance of Arwen.
“No idea,” Heath replied. “We just arrived in a compound surrounded by trees. There was no way we could have guessed in such a short amount of time.”
“Right,” my grandfather said, gritting his teeth. He took Vivienne’s hand and squeezed it, then gripped Xavier’s shoulder. “We are going to return and retrieve her from those bastards.” His eyes traversed our group. “We have enough people with us.”
We didn’t have all members of the League present, but we did have a fair number. Aside from Victoria’s parents, there were my parents and grandparents, my great-grandfather Aiden and his wife Kailyn, Rose and Caleb, as well as five witches: Corrine, Ibrahim, Arwen, Mona and Brock. We also had Kiev, Micah and Jeriad… and, of course, Heath. Then there was Kyle, whom I guessed was still in the chopper.
My grandfather voiced aloud my thoughts a moment later. “Kyle will remain in the helicopter while the rest of us go through. But first, let us return to the aircraft to stock up on weapons.” His focus fell on me. “You, Grace, must stay with Kyle until you feel fully recovered.”
I wasn’t sure what Corrine and Arwen were doing, but I realized that the pain had all but gone. My dizziness was also clearing.
“Wait,” I said, wrapping my arms around my father’s neck for support. “Let me try to stand up.”
My father lowered my feet to the ground. I felt much steadier than before. I dared reach a hand behind my shoulder and I felt smooth skin. I realized that I also no longer felt so dizzy.
“The bleeding has stopped,” Corrine said. “But I think you should return to The Shade all the same. We don’t know what drug they injected into you.”
“My head feels much less light now,” I said quickly. “I wonder why that is.”
“Maybe the dart wasn’t meant to paralyze you completely,” my mother suggested. “Perhaps they spiked it with just enough sedative to stall you so they could swoop down and catch you… Either that, or your fae genes are equipped to fight off its influence.”
“Maybe,” I muttered, even as I felt a surge of gratitude toward Heath. If he hadn’t scooped me up and rushed me the rest of the way, they would’ve gotten me, just like they had gotten Victoria.
“I’m still not sure that you should be coming with us though,” my father said, eyeing me sternly.
“Let me see how I feel after we’ve gathered the weapons,” I countered.
“All right,” he murmured.
With that, we all made our way through the jungle swiftly, back to our aircraft. Kyle was waiting tensely in the cockpit as we climbed aboard.