Page 111 of Shadows of Light
Then she pictured the crone realm as her hand waved and… nothing. She moved on toanyother realm she could think of, but still, no portal materialized.
“You’re wasting your energy and time; believe me, I get why you’re doing it, but I’m telling you, it’s pointless,” Orin said. “I did the same thing when I learned I couldn’t leave, even after the others trapped here told me it was useless.
“I’ve learned it’s pointless since then, but, I will admit, I still try it every day. We’re trapped here, Sahira. There is no escaping the Cursed Realm.”
Sahira’s blood ran cold as she spun back to Orin. “You could have stopped this!”
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “How?”
“You could have found some way to warn me or anyone else against coming here! You could have run into my portal if you weren’t so busy getting your rocks off!”
His harsh bark of laughter sent ice through her blood as that steely glint returned to his eyes. “There is nothingIcould have done, but there is somethingyoucould have done… if you’d broken your tracking spell, you wouldn’t be here. You doomed yourself, witch.
“As for running into your portal, it’s been tried. No one here can enter a portal created by another. Now, like the rest of us, you’re trapped here. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy your stay. I suppose it’s not too bad, once you get used to being unable to leave.”
A thousand questions pummeled her, but she didn’t utter them. She tried to reject his words and that this was partiallyherfault, but she couldn’t.
Shecouldhave taken the spell from him. Sahira told him she would wait for Cole’s approval before doing so because she enjoyed irritating him by keeping it in place.
And now, she was paying dearly for it.
But they couldn’t bestuckhere.
She tried to deny it, but the truth was slapping her in the face. She couldn’t open a portal, and Orin, the biggest asshole she knew but who also loved his family, had been gone, with no sign of him, for weeks. He would have returned to check in, or someone would have reported seeing him in an outer realm if he could leave here, but he couldn’t.
Her heart fell as reality sank in. She was trapped here too.
CHAPTEREIGHTY-SIX
The blood drainedfrom her face, and she rested her hand against the wall to keep from swaying. “How is this possible?”
Orin shrugged. “You tell me, little witch, because I have no idea.”
“I’ve never heard of magic like this before.”
“Maybe it’s another little trap the arachs designed before slaughtering each other.”
“Maybe, but…”
“But what?”
Sahira bit her bottom lip as she looked around. “Why would they do this? They had a reason for hiding their magic in the trials, but what reason would they have for this? But I don’t know; I can’t think of any other way a place like this would exist.”
Maybe she could figure it out when she wasn’t so confused and panicked, but right now, she wanted to run screaming from this realm. And she couldn’t.
“You’ve tried everything to escape?” she croaked.
“As have all the other immortals trapped here.”
“How many are here?”
“I didn’t bother to count them, but quite a few. Now”—Orin patted the mattress beside him—“I’ve had enough of this depressing talk. You can either call them back in or join me yourself. There were three of them, but I think you’ve got enough pent-up sexual energy to equate to three, and you’d be a fun enough ride to satisfy me.”
Sahira gawked at him. “How can you think about sex at a time like this?”
“What else am I going to do to pass the days? They get a little tedious around here.”
She was sure they did, but still… “I’d die before Ieverfucked you.”
