Passing Through the Portal (Fading Into the Shadows Book 0) Read online

  And I’d get to go back home. But what would my parents think happened to me? “I should have left a note or something for my parents. They’re going to worry.”

  “You can’t tell anyone about Stellaris. Ever,” he said.

  Not even Ella? I didn’t keep anything from her. Well, other than how I...

  “You’ll have to make up a story about where you ran off to,” he said.

  My parents would never believe I ran away, and Ella wouldn’t either. I’d never go anywhere without her. Except, that wasn’t true anymore. I’d come here without her. She was never going to forgive me for this.

  A screeching outside drew our attention to the boarded window. We watched as Draco flew through the air, most likely looking for us. He swooped down at the edge of the tree line, burning more trees in hopes of finding us. He hovered above a group at a time, searching for us. When he realized we weren’t there, he let out an ear-piercing shriek.

  “We can’t stay here,” the guy said. “He’ll be sure to look here at some point.”

  “So where do we go?” I asked. The sooner I was trained, the sooner I’d get back home. And that meant the less Ella and my parents would worry.

  “The castle,” he said. “That’s where we’ll train. We have all sorts of weapons.” He gestured to the knife still clutched in my hand. “Weapons a lot better than that knife, though you’d be surprised by how powerful even the smallest of weapons is here. They’re all enhanced with magic.”

  Magic? I’d be in awe, but little would surprise me at this point.

  “The castle is also where Melanie is.” He faced me. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  I held up my dagger, my magically enhanced dagger, and suddenly I wasn’t as afraid of Draco as I had been. Or maybe I was just determined to save this place. Either way, I nodded and said, “Let’s do this.”

  4

  Excitement coursed through my veins as the guy opened the door to the house and peered up at the sky. I stood close enough to see over his shoulder. The sky was still a sight to see. The constellations continued to move and hover in their positions—all but the ones that were objects instead of living beings. Draco didn’t seem to be nearby, though. Maybe he’d given up on making us his next meal. I could only hope.

  The guy—whose name was still a mystery to me, even though I knew they had names here since he’d mentioned someone named Melanie—waved me on, indicating he wanted me to follow him. I had no plans to let him get more than a step ahead of me. Who knew what else lurked nearby, waiting to snatch us up? I still didn’t know how Draco had managed to get out of the sky. Was it because he could fly? I doubted it was that simple.

  We trekked across the grass, crouching low. I noticed a beach up ahead with the same sandy shore and tide I was accustomed to. So much of this world looked just like my own. If not for the constellations above me, and the one flying around somewhere most likely still searching for me, I would have thought I was somewhere else in the United States. The familiar surroundings made me feel slightly better about being in a different world all together. Maybe Stellaris was a sister planet to Earth. At this point, not much would surprise me.

  We came to a hill with a castle perched on top. The castle looked huge, even from this distance. I could see it had a tower on one side. I stopped, completely in awe of it. The guy with me also stopped—but for a different reason. He raised his bow and arrow, drawing my attention to what was coming around the corner of the hill from the other side of the beach.

  At first, I didn’t know what I was seeing. It looked like a huge, armor-like creature with giant pinchers. Then, as it stepped fully into view, and I saw the stinger on the end of its enormous tail, I realized I was staring down another constellation. Scorpius, if my memory of previous mythology lessons was correct. Just what we needed, a larger than life scorpion.

  “Don’t get within striking distance,” the guy with me said before letting loose an arrow. “His tail is wicked fast.” He dodged to the left, toward the land and not the water. Scorpius didn’t even flinch as the arrow bounced off the hard outer shell of his body. I doubted the guy with me would miss hitting one of the more vulnerable places on the creature’s body. He must have been sending a warning shot. But why? Was it possible this constellation wasn’t as eager to fight as Draco had been?

  No such luck. Scorpius continued to stalk toward us, and I swear he smiled, too. What was with these constellations? Why were they so happy about the prospect of a meal? Didn’t they have another food source here? Or was that the real reason I hadn’t seen anyone else here? Had they already become food for these beasts?

  I backed up, dagger still in hand. Could I throw it at the constellation? I didn’t think that would do much good unless I managed to hit Scorpius in one of his gigantic eyes. Blinding him seemed like as good a plan as any, but as I raised my arm to throw the dagger, the guy with me yelled, “No! Never give up your only weapon.”

  He was right. If I missed, I’d be completely defenseless.

  “Ah,” Scorpius said, and somehow his voice grated on my nerves even more than Draco’s had. “A new one. One who hasn’t been trained yet. This is going to be too easy. Almost no fun at all.” He walked around us, forcing us to turn to keep him, and especially his tail, in our sights at all times.

  “Get out of here, Scorpius,” the guy said. “You’re too close to the castle to think we don’t have men stationed and ready to take you out.”

  I hoped that wasn’t an empty threat. Knowing there really were men stationed, possibly in that tower, with weapons trained on Scorpius, would really help ease my nerves a little right about now.

  Scorpius’s gaze rose to the castle on the hill, and the guy let loose another arrow, this time hitting Scorpius in the flesh of his belly. The creature let out a hissing sound that was a combination of anger and pain.

  “Move!” the guy yelled to me as he shot another arrow. The fact that he was still firing arrows meant he’d been bluffing about the men stationed as lookouts at the castle.

  I ran for the trees on the other side of the hill. We had to get to the castle and out of the open. And I needed a better weapon. Maybe a bow and arrow like this guy’s. Scorpius’s tail lashed out, hitting a spot to my right. I doubted he’d actually missed me. He was toying with me. Making a game of running us down. He could cover more ground in one step than we could in several. His size gave him a definite advantage.

  I ran between the trees, bobbing left and right to hopefully confuse Scorpius. I couldn’t let him predict where I’d go next. But he didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all. In fact, he let out a laugh.

  “Thank you for attempting to make this interesting. It makes the kill more fulfilling when I have to at least pretend to work for it.”

  “Damn constellations and their sick humor,” the guy said, turning and firing another arrow without even breaking his pace. I couldn’t help being impressed with him. He was a great fighter. I could only imagine all that he could teach me.

  Instead of heading up the hill toward the castle, he surprised me by bringing us farther into the trees. Scorpius lashed out again, but he wasn’t able to follow us through the thick of the trees. The guy shot off one last arrow and laughed. “Good luck getting in here,” he said.

  “Good thing he’s not friends with Draco,” I said. “Together they could torch the trees and come pick us off in here.”

  The guy slowed to a stop and turned to me. I stopped, too.

  He slung the bow over his shoulder. “The bad news is that the constellations are working together to destroy Stellaris. Scorpius very well could be going to get Draco right now.”

  That was not what I wanted to hear. “Then I guess we better get to the castle before they make it back here.”

  “Actually, we’re going to create a distraction. Something to keep them busy while we train.” He looked around as if assessing the area. But all I saw were trees.

  I wanted to be of some help, but I had no id
ea what to suggest. I wasn’t even wearing shoes since he’d literally pulled me out of bed to come here. All I had was my clothing. An idea popped into my head. “What if we hang my shirt in one of the trees? It’s red, so it will probably draw their attention.” As long as the constellations weren’t color blind.

  He bobbed his head. “That could work. If we place the shirt farther away, they might think we decided to go somewhere other than the castle. It could keep them occupied for a little while looking for us.” He pursed his lips in thought. “At the very least, Draco will torch the trees and then come down to investigate. That will buy us a little time.”

  I looked around for a tree with a branch that wasn’t too high up to be unbelievable as a person. I spotted one a little ways ahead of us. “How about that one?” I asked, pointing and walking in the direction of the tree.

  The guy looked around in every direction, assessing the area. “We’re still too close to the castle. We should keep going.”

  He was the boss in this world, so I followed him past the tree I’d found until he stopped at another one. It was large to say the least. I peered up through the branches. There were several of them and the leaf coverage was pretty good, but I could still see bits of the sky. That meant that Draco would be able to see down through the branches as well. His gigantic eyes would have no trouble spotting my red shirt.

  Without a word, I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and lifted it over my head. The guy took it from me and hung it in the tree. Then he stepped back to look at it. It didn’t look like there was a person inside the shirt at all. It looked more like exactly what it was—my shirt draped on a tree.

  I reached up to a branch above me and grabbed a handful of leaves. “Let’s stuff the shirt so it’s not so flat,” I said.

  He nodded but didn’t move to help me. I guess I was doing this part on my own. I shoved the leaves into the shirt, but they fell right out, so I grabbed the bottom and tied the fabric in a knot. Then I ripped more leaves from the tree and stuffed the shirt from the neck hole. Once it was puffed up a bit, I stared at the “Seasons Greeting” message now sticking out at me. Ella’s face popped into my head. Would I make it out of this world alive and get to see her in person again? Would I ever get to hold her hand?

  I had to. I couldn’t die here. I’d train with this guy. I’d find a way to get rid of these constellations, and then I’d return to Ella. And maybe then I’d man up and tell her how I really felt about her. Maybe Stellaris would teach me more than how to fight.

  A screech rang through the air.

  The guy’s head jerked up. “Let’s go. If we don’t make it to the castle before they spot your shirt...” He didn’t need to finish his sentence.

  As we sprinted back through the trees to the hill, I hoped his army was huge. I hoped he was right about just needing a leader the men would listen to. More so, I hoped I really was that leader.

  The castle was even more impressive up close. The entire thing was made of stone with the exception of the front door at the top of the steps. We climbed them, and I looked out over the trees where we’d left my shirt as a decoy. I could spot Draco off in the distance. He was searching for us. I couldn’t see Scorpius, but I had no doubt he was searching on the ground.

  Without a word, the guy took me inside the castle and down to the basement, which had been converted into an enormous training room. It would have made me excited to know we had this much space to train and work with countless weapons, but my eyes focused in on the army. I’d been expecting grown men, like the guy who’d brought me here. But the only people in this room where teenagers, no older than I was. Each of the boys was working with a double-sided axe. It seemed like they were attempting to repeat a training routine, but several were struggling to maneuver the weapons. If this was the army that was supposed to save this world, we had a lot of work to do.

  I turned to face the guy. “This is the army?”

  He put his hands on his hips and looked out across the room. “I know it’s probably not what you were expecting. Now you see why I need you. They don’t want to follow someone my age, even if I know more about Stellaris than they could ever hope to. To them, I’m some old guy saying they aren’t tough enough.” He turned his head toward me. “Are you up for the challenge?”

  This guy was insistent that Stellaris didn’t have much time on its side, yet he’d spent the evening watching me, recruiting me. He thought I could do this, which meant I had to. For Stellaris. For me. And for the safety of my world, because if this guy could use a portal to get to my world, these constellations might be able to as well. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let anything harm Ella. Somehow the fate of my world was now on my shoulders.

  “Let’s get training,” I said.

  Find out how Avery and the army fair in Stellaris in the full-length novel, Fading Into the Shadows, available now.

  And stay up-to-date with Kelly’s releases by subscribing to her newsletter: http://bit.ly/2pvYT07

  Also by Kelly Hashway

  Lies We Tell (Lies We Tell #1)

  Secrets We Keep (Lies We Tell #2)

  Fading Into the Shadows

  Touch of Death (Touch of Death #1)

  Stalked by Death (Touch of Death #2)

  Face of Death (Touch of Death #3)

  The Monster Within (The Monster Within #1)

  The Darkness Within (The Monster Within #2)

  Into the Fire (Into the Fire #1)

  Out of the Ashes (Into the Fire #2)

  Up In Flames (Into the Fire #3)

  Writing as Ashelyn Drake

  It Was Always You (Love Chronicles #1)

  Reignited (adult romance)

  After Loving You (New Adult romance)

  Campus Crush (New Adult romance)

  Falling For You (Young Adult contemporary romance)

  Perfect For You (Young Adult contemporary romance)

  Our Little Secret (Young Adult contemporary romance)

  About the Author

  Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn’t stop her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween. Maybe it was growing up reading R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books that instilled a love of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction. Kelly’s also a sucker for first love, which is why she writes romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.

  For more information:

  www.kellyhashway.com