Portal traveling? Yeah, if you’d asked me a few days ago if I thought stuff like that existed, I’d have gone with a um… are you crazy? Yeah, I may have powers, but I’ve also spent most of my life believing I was the only one who did. Turns out, I was wrong.

Way, way wrong…

Entering the portal is a lot like stepping into a hot tub. Bubbly warmth immediately engulfs me, and I swear water seeps through my clothes. Yet, when I stumble out of the rainbow light, my jeans and shirt are dry. Apparently, though, my feet have forgotten how to work, and I end up losing my hold of Max’s hand as I trip forward. But arms enclose around me and stop me from falling to the ground.

Whoever is touching me, their nearness causes a jolt of electricity to zap through my body.

“Gods, do you have two left feet or something?” Foster grumbles as he wraps his arm around my waist.

Grimacing, I shove him away. Out of all the Everettsons to catch me, why did it have to be him?

“Your klutziness is going to get you hurt here,” Foster continues, crossing his lean arms and glaring at me.

“I’m not that klutzy,” I argue. “And even if I am, there’re six of you to keep me from getting hurt, so I guess I don’t have too much to worry about, do I?” I smirk but, deep down, I’m a bit surprised.

I’ve never been one for smarting off to people I don’t know, but I’ve done it a couple of times since I’ve been with the Everettsons. Is it the stress of the situation making me do it? Or are the Everettson brothers bringing out a different side of me? A side I’m not sure I hate or like. Maybe a bit of both.

“You really trust us to protect you?” Foster questions with a raise of his brow.

I shrug. “Sure.”

He leans in, his eyes darkening. “Then you’re stupider than I thought.”

“And you’re a bigger asshole than I thought,” I quip, curling my fingers into fists.

He smirks. “I thought you would’ve figured that out after you tried to hit on me back in Honeyton.”

My face stupidly floods with heat.

Since he hadn’t mentioned the incident before, I assumed he either forgot about it or was just going to pretend it never happened. That was probably pretty damn stupid of me.

“I wasn’t hitting on you.” Not a total lie. I was planning to hit on him that day, but his immediate rejection put an end to it before it even started. “I was just being friendly.”

“Liar.” His smirk magnifies as he slants closer, the rainbow portal reflecting in his eyes. “I could tell you wanted me. You still do.”

“Actually, I don’t.” That part is true. Do I think Foster is hot? Absolutely. But I’m in no way attracted to a guy who has called me stupid and treats me like shit. “The second you opened your mouth, any attraction went poof.” I make a poofing gesture with my hand right in his face.

His grin remains. “You do realize you just admitted you were attracted to me, right?”

I lower my hand to my side, my blood boiling. “Yeah? So what? I’m sure you’ve had a lot of girls attracted to you, but I doubt you’ve ever had any of them like you for your awesome personality. In fact, I bet most girls lost their attraction to you the second you opened your mouth.”

I must have struck a nerve because his smile fades.

I should feel good about pissing him off, but I don’t. Nina calls my inability to be a straight-up bitch my weakness, but I’m glad I’m capable of feeling bad. Well, most of the time. Right now, I wish I could hang on to my vindictiveness for a bit longer, but unfortunately, that’s not my MO.

I’m about to apologize when Easton appears out of nowhere. “You know, when I first met you, I thought you were sweet. Now I’m wondering if you were just hiding your claws.”

“I’m not usually this mean. You guys just bring it out of me.” I turn away from them, and my jaw drops. “What the hell?” My eyes widen as I take in the scene before me: the trees that are so tall they appear to touch the sky, the giant mushrooms covering the grassland, the kaleidoscopic sky, and the hundreds of light orbs dancing through the air.

We appear to be standing on a podium with a pearl-like texture. On one side of me is the rainbow portal and standing on my other side is Holden, Hunter, Max, Easton, and Foster. Porter, Emaline, and Gabe are nowhere to be seen.

As I start to ask where the missing three are, Emaline and Gabe leap from the portal and onto the podium.

“Are you okay?” Emaline promptly surveys me over. “Sometimes portal traveling can do … weird things to your body.”

“What sort of weird things?” I ask worriedly.

Emaline gives a wary glance at Gabe, who shrugs.

“We might as well tell her,” he says. “Things are only going to get stranger from here on out.”

Emaline directs her focus back to me. “Sometimes portal traveling can alter the construction of a human body. Like, for instance, your legs could end up where your arms are and vice versa. You seem fine, though, since you walked through with Max. But if something did get messed up, we can fix it.”

“Why would walking through the portal with Max make it so I’m fine?” I wonder. “Because of his power?”

She nods. “The side effects of portal traveling are less severe if a human walks through with an elemental protector. Or any paranormal, I guess.”

Hearing her so casually say the word paranormal wigs me out, but something else she says distracts me.

“So, only humans get side effects from portal traveling?” I ask.

“Humans get side effects from most things in our world.” Foster is the one to answer, his cold gaze burrowing into me. “Which is why they shouldn’t be a part of our world.”

“Foster,” Gabe reprimands. “You need to lose the attitude.”

Foster rolls his eyes. “And we need to lose the human. But no one seems to want to listen to me, so why should I listen to you?”

“Foster!” Emaline gasps in horror.

She’s acting as if Foster has never acted so rude in his life, but my bet is he’s an asshole most of the time, except for when he’s around her.

Foster shrugs her off. “What? It’s the truth.”

“Young man,” Gabe warns, scowling at him. “You will lose the attitude right now and apologize to Sky, or else you’ll be grounded for the next two weeks.”

“Go ahead and ground me. I’m not going to apologize for something I’m not sorry for.” Tossing one final icy look at me, he hops off the podium and drops into the grass. Then he hikes off across the field where the shimmering light orbs are dancing.

“I’ll go check on him,” Easton says then leaps down into the grass.

“I’m so sorry about that,” Emaline apologizes to me. “He’s not usually like this.”

I catch Hunter and Max rolling their eyes, so I’m betting my early assumption of Foster is correct.

Emaline doesn’t notice her sons’ eye rolls, though, as she turns away from me to Gabe. “Do you want to take the long way or the short way?”

Gabe’s gaze flicks to me then back to her. “With how busy the city is and how unfriendly everyone is getting toward humans, we better go the long way, just to be safe.”

“Am I safe here?” I question nervously, glancing upward as a bolt of lightning blazes across the glittery-blue sky.

“As long as you stay with us, you are,” Emaline assures me, but a drop of hesitancy rings in her tone. Then her attention drifts upward. “Is Foster really this upset?”

Again, my lips part to tell them about my powers, to explain that I’m fairly positive Foster isn’t causing the lightning storm. But, like before, no words pass my lips.

What is wrong with me? Why can’t I just say the damn words aloud?

“I’m not sure Foster’s doing it,” Hunter mutters, silvery-blue flashes of lightning reflecting in his eyes.

Max glances at him with his head cocked. “Why would you say that?”

Holden lowers his gaze from the sky. “I’m not positive, but it feels like there might be another energy nearby.”

They all stiffen, darting their gazes to the trees, their hands crackling with the same light that I saw earlier when I snuck into the woods. Only, up close, I can see it’s not just light radiating from their hands. Holden’s and Hunter’s palms are actually on fire, golden flames emitting from their flesh. Emaline has flakes of ice twirling in the center of her palms that mixes with the light, and Gabe has droplets of water dewing on his skin, while a small, funneling tornado is twirling around Max’s arms.

As the air crackles with heat and the wind howls, the atmosphere grows humid yet somehow chills. I anxiously step away from them, getting sensory overload.

The movement catches Gabe’s attention. Frowning, he curls his fingers inward and the light and water dissipate. “Easy, everyone. I think we’re making Sky nervous.”

“You’re fine.” But I’m far from fine. Seeing them on edge is making me aware that danger is likely lurking out in … well, wherever the hell we are.

“How could another energy cause lightning?” Max asks, turning his back toward the trees, the light and wind around him dimming as he looks questioningly at Holden. “Only an elemental enchanter can do that.”

So, elemental enchanters are the only ones who can create lightning?

I gulp at the realization.

“You guys said that Foster is the only elemental enchanter, right?” If my mouth would’ve allowed me to, I may have asked if I could be one.

They grow extremely uneasy, shifting their weight and scratching their arms and brows.

“Yeah, he is,” Max finally answers, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Great, if I am like Foster, then that means we’re the only two of our kind. I don’t want that at all. I don’t want to be stuck in a rare category with a guy who’s a fucking jerk.

Max glances at Emaline, who chews on her bottom lip worriedly.

“Elemental enchanters have every elemental power inside their veins, which means they’re very powerful.” She takes both my hands in hers, nervousness emitting from her. “And in our world, the more powerful you are, the more in danger you are of either someone trying to manipulate your powers or being eliminated because of them. It’s why no one can know about Foster’s powers. The only elemental protectors who do know about him are us and a few others we trust. Well, and Kash.” She must note the puzzlement on my face because she adds, “He’s the faerie you saw in my room.”

“Is that why you have him locked up?” I ask. “Because he found out about Foster?”

She nods. “He found out during one of our missions to the fey realm. So, I bound him to me with a binding spell, then locked him in my room.” She lets go of my hands with an exhausted sigh. “But it’s not a long-term solution.”

Gabe places a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, we’ll figure something out.”

“I know,” Emaline whispers. “I’m just worried; that’s all.” She lowers her hands. “You know as well as I do that Kash will use Foster’s powers to benefit him. And anything that benefits Kash will cause harm to our world.”

“I promise everything will be fine.” Gabe pulls her against his chest and hugs her.

Emaline clutches him, her eyes glazing over with ice. The temperature begins to drop, causing goosebumps to sprout on my arms.

“Come on.” Max takes ahold of my hand. “Let’s give my parents a moment, okay?”

I let Max lead me to the ledge of the podium. Then Holden moves up beside me and threads his fingers through my other hand while Hunter stands behind me.

Crowded. That’s the word that comes to mine as I peer left to right then over my shoulder. When my gaze collides with Hunter’s, a smirk plays at his lips.

“There’s no need to be nervous, little human.” He winks at me. “We’ll take good, good care of you.”

I blink at him. Did he just call me little human?

“Good gods, Hunter,” Holden mumbles. “You don’t need to hit on everyone.”

“I don’t,” Hunter replies without taking his eyes off me. “I only hit on the pretty ones.”

I roll my eyes.

Hunter’s smirk widens. “You know, I think you have some very fun potential in you, if we could just get you to let it out a bit more.” He twirls a strand of my hair around his fingertip. “I bet it’d help if we cracked through that invisible wall you have around you. Or well, break open that tiny crack in it.”

My brows pull together. “What wall?”

He lifts his free hand and traces his palm in a circular motion in front of my face. “A few humans have invisible walls around them, or barriers, as I like to call them. But they’re basically invisible walls that protect creatures like me from seeing someone’s true self. A lot of creatures have them, but they’ve had them put around them purposefully and by magic, while human walls are usually created by traumatic, emotional experiences. It’s a defense mechanism that few possess. And I’d say you should be proud to have a wall around you, but I’m concerned about what experiences created it and what caused the crack in it.”

“I really don’t know.” Sure, my life hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows, but nothing traumatic happened to me. Well, except for … “Maybe it’s because my parents disappeared.”

He shakes his head, his gaze scrolling from my feet to the top of my head. “The wall around you is very old. Maybe even as old as you are.”

Confusion webs through me. “As far as I know, the only traumatic thing that’s happened to me is my parents disappearing.” Well, and the day I became aware that I had powers, but that part won’t pass my lips.

Dammit, this is so frustrating! Why can’t I say anything about my powers?

Hunter studies me closely, which causes heat to sprinkle across my skin. “Maybe you’ve forgotten what happened to you.”

“How could I forget something traumatic?” I point out. “Those types of things usually stick with you.”

“Not necessarily.” He contemplates something before stepping back and launching himself over the edge of the podium, landing gracefully in the grass.

I glance between Max and Holden, who are looking at me with a hint of perplexity. “So, if Hunter can see this invisible wall around me, then I’m assuming you guys have some sort of powers not related to your elements.”

Max and Holden trade a look then chuckle.

Heat creeps across my cheeks. Are they making fun of me?

“Don’t worry; we’re not making fun of you,” Max says, as if reading my mind. “We’ve just never been around a human who knows about our world, so we didn’t realize how entertaining these sorts of questions could be.” He tugs on a strand of my hair. “Don’t worry; we think it’s cute.”

“And to answer your question,” Holden says. “Yes, we do have powers that aren’t related to our elements. We actually have a lot of different powers.”

“Like what?” I cross my fingers, hoping they can’t actually read minds. Although, there have been a couple of times when I wondered that, so …

Shit. What if they can?

“Like being able to create portals.” Holden hitches his thumb at the rainbow portal.

“Or like being extremely graceful and strong.” To prove his point, Max picks me up and leaps off the edge of the podium before I can even take my next breath.

I barely feel the impact as he lands weightlessly in the grass.

“Wow,” I breathe out, clutching the front of his shirt.

Grinning, he lowers my feet to the ground. “And there’s plenty more where that came from.” He spins on his heels and starts across the field in the direction Easton, Foster, and Hunter took off in, light orbs twirling around him.

I start to follow him when Holden drops down beside me.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

I nod, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“Because this—this world, our powers—it can be a lot to take in.”

“I’m fine,” I assure him. But, am I? I’m not sure I know the answer to that.

Offering me a small smile, he entwines his fingers through mine and pulls me with him as he starts across the field. “My brothers and I haven’t ever been around a human who knows about our powers, so I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot of showing off.” The orbs of light magnetize toward him, but he doesn’t seem to notice, his gaze welded to mine. “If you get uncomfortable at any time, just say so, okay? Don’t let them do things to you that make you uncomfortable.”

Worry crawls through me. Just what sort of things does he think they’re going to do to me?

“They’d never hurt you,” he promises, as if sensing my dread. “That I can promise you.”

I hate to ask, but I need to know. “Does that statement apply to Foster, too?”

He nods with zero hesitation. “Foster is complicated, but he’d never hurt you. In fact, I think if he could, he’d like you.”

“You make it sound like he has to hate me.”

“He doesn’t have to, but it’s probably for the better. It always is.” He doesn’t elaborate, leaving me to wonder what he meant.

Leaving me to wonder a lot of things.