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“Not long,” Xero said, rubbing ly “We’ll be there before you know it”

Half an eternity and change later, we finally exited the forest My eyes had been straining for light for so long that the weak starlight in the inky night sky was enough to make me wince I turned led out of his ared in appeared al prairie tucked between tatches of forest—but there was so grass seemed to whisper words I could almost make out, and there was a stench in the air that I couldn’t identify

“Over here,” Kingston called

When we got to the cave he’d spotted, we found it dry and e on us

“Took you ground walkers long enough,” he said with a grin

“So fly us all next tih a yawn

We each took turns keeping watch while the other four cuddled together in a messy pile of limbs and shared body heat My turn was last, in the hours before dawn For the first tiet the full effect of an underworld sunrise I expected it to be similar to earth’s—a drop in te up, and a slow fade to warmth—and ached for that normalcy I stepped outside the cave and sat on a flat stone, waiting

The heat hit first, rushing pastscrea else Soon the whole forest was screa There was no rainbow of color as the sun rose; just black, which slowly faded to a ry red The grass around reen in the dark—ca lared down rass didn’t droop It stood sharply erect, miniature swords at attention

Shuddering, I went back inside I thought I would have to wake the guys up, but they were all fully alert and scras All except for Xero anyway The fire deston off as the ular features tried to wake him up

“What happened?” I asked,in my chest What did I miss?

The three panicking men stopped and stared at me with their mouths open

“You didn’t hear that?” Jayce’s eyes were like dinner plates

“What, the screaured it was just the birds or whatever waking up Like back home”

“I told you,” Xero rumpily

“It sounded like a war,” Kingston argued “Straight-up, flat-out war”