“Steady there, Allie.” Ryker’s voice came from below me. A warm hand encircled my ankle and placed my foot on a rung of the ladder. “Nice and slow. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

Slowly, I lowered myself deeper into the cistern, gripping the ladder so tightly, my arms shook with the effort. “Where’s the portal? Do we have to go all the way to the bottom?”

“Take four steps down and you’ll find out.”

I wanted out of this pitch black, scary place and I wanted out now! I practically tumbled down the next four rungs. When I hit the last step, I found I was pressed between Ryker’s body and the side of the cistern. One of his arms snaked around my waist. Whoa! Was this some sort of weird faery seduction move? But then, reason set in. If Ryker was trying to get lucky, he’d pick a better place than a spooky underground tank that smelled like mold.

“Um, what are you doing?”

I felt the rumble of laughter in his chest. “I’m taking you to Boundless. Isn’t that where you wanted to go? Hold tight.”

I clung to the ladder as he released me. I felt him reach out with his free hand and then heard a scrabbling sound, followed by three knocks. Suddenly—so suddenly that I yipped in surprise—an oaken door outlined in flickering golden light appeared in the side of the cistern.

“To answer your question, the portal is here.” He reached around me and opened the door.

Another panic attack moment for Allie. “Wait! Wait! The nail. You forgot to pound in the nail.”

Ryker sighed. “It goes on the other side of the door, so you can get back into your world.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said in a small voice. “Makes sense.”

Ryker pushed the door open and nudged me through. I stood in what looked to be a long glass tunnel glowing with a kaleidoscope of dancing light. After the inky darkness of the cistern, the brilliant colors made me blink and rub my eyes. I gazed around, trying to make out the blurred images on the other side of the glass. The tunnel looked like it was made of the glass block walls used in bathrooms so people can’t see in.

“This is it? Are we in Boundless?”

“Not just yet. We’ll be there soon. But first, the iron nail.”

I watched carefully as Ryker took a flat rock from his back pocket and tapped a long iron nail into the oaken door.

“Give me the other nail.”

“Why?” Ryker said.

“Just give it to me.”

He handed me the second iron nail.

“Take off the human hair chain you wear, the one that protects you from iron.”

I thought he would flat-out refuse, or at least try to talk me out of it. But, without a moment’s hesitation, he slipped it over his head and handed it to me. I put the nail in one pocket of my jeans and the braided chain in the other. Ryker observed my actions with an indulgent smile, like parents do when their kids are being unreasonable.

“So, this is your protection? I’ve told you time and again I will keep you safe, yet, you plan to force me to do your bidding by threatening me with iron?”

Even though I felt a little pang of guilt, I said, “Makes sense to me.”

Ryker studied me for a moment. He reached for my hand, then thought better of it and backed away. “You are in my world now, and in this world you are known as Princess Avalon. Do not forget it. And, furthermore, you will soon find out the error of your ways. Are you ready?”

His words made me even more apprehensive. I almost climbed back into the cistern, but it was too late to chicken out. Instead, I checked the door to make sure it would open. It did. I glanced over my shoulder at Ryker. He was watching me with the intense gaze of a hawk. I shivered, wondering how he would look when we stepped into his world.

“Do you wish to go back?”

I looked at the oaken door, then back at Ryker. “No, I’m just thinking about my mother, wondering what she was doing when I stopped time.”

Ryker smiled. “Would you like to see for yourself?”

I felt a strong need to check on Faye. “Can you do that?”

Ryker pulled the hawk feather out of his pocket. “Close your eyes.” I did as he asked, or at least pretended to. Through one half-closed eye, I saw him using the feather to draw a large rectangle in the air over the top of my head. He spoke a few words in a language I’m sure did not exist in my world. Finally, he said, “Open your eyes and look through the window.”

I turned and gasped in disbelief. Framed in the window was the interior of our trailer. Faye, unmoving and cast in silver, sat on the couch, the phone to her ear. She was smiling, one hand in her hair, frozen in time as it twisted a curl, her unconscious habit while talking on the phone. When the image faded, I smiled and fought back an urge to wave goodbye.

I turned to Ryker. “Thanks, I’m ready now.”

“Follow me.” He began striding down the tunnel, moving so fast I had to run to keep up. A couple of minutes later, the images outside the glass walls of the tunnel came into sharper focus. Was that a palm tree? A waterfall?

“Hey, Ryker, hold up a minute.”

Ryker stopped and turned to face me. I bit back a cry of surprise. His spiky black hair was long and curly, tipped with golden feathers. His eyes were still the same shade of pale blue with black centers, but they were bigger and filled the eye sockets, with no trace of white showing around the edges. And, he was taller by at least a couple of inches. “Wow, you look different.”

He bobbed his head. “Yes, I have shed some of my glamour. Does it frighten you?”

I waved a hand. “No, no, I’m good. Can I take a sec to look around?”

“As you wish.”

I approached the right side of the tunnel and clapped my hands in delight. A sparkling waterfall tumbling into a deep, blue pool surrounded by clusters of gigantic red flowers, broad-leafed purple and pink plants the size of apple trees and lush ferns in shades of green that didn’t exist in my world. Flitting from flower to flower, I saw what looked like large dragonflies.

“Look through the other side,” Ryker said.

The view through the left side of the tunnel was equally as stunning, yet entirely different. Rolling sand dunes stretched out endlessly beneath a bright blue sky. No trees. No flowers. Nothing but sand, sky and sun. Make that two suns. I stepped closer and pressed my nose against the glass. As I did so, the image changed. “Is that the ocean?”

“If you see it, then it must be.”

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I could see land’s end and beyond it, a wide blue ocean. Huge waves crashed onto the beach and retreated, leaving a path of white foam. Gulls circled low over a choppy sea.

I whirled and looked at Ryker. “How do you do that?

He smiled. “I’m not doing it. You are.”

I guess Ryker was being enigmatic, as my English teacher, Mrs. Burke would say. Clearly, he wasn’t interested in answering my questions, because he turned and started toward the end of tunnel. I hurried after him. Then, in what seemed like the very next moment, we weren’t inside the tunnel at all. It happened that fast. I’d seen no door, no opening. We’d simply stepped from one world into another.

I gazed around in wonder. The beach was still to my left, the jungle to my right. I turned and looked behind me. The tunnel was gone. My heart fluttered in fear. What if I couldn’t find it when it was time to go home?

“Don’t worry, Ava. The tunnel will be there when you need it.”

Before I could respond, the ground beneath us began to shake, and a voice that sounded like living thunder boomed, “The mortal dares to bring iron into our world?”

I clapped my hands over my ears, frantically looking around for the source of the fearsome noise. Oh, this can’t be good, Allie. I made a move toward Ryker. Still cautious of the iron nail in my pocket, he backed away from me. Strangely, he was grinning like crazy and pointed to the pool and waterfall. “Over there.”

I took a cautious step toward the water, vaguely aware of a high-pitched chittering sound, so piercing, so shrill, it made my teeth ache and my hair hurt. All at once, something burst from the water, reared back and let loose with an ear-splitting bellow so frightening, I screamed in terror. The ground shook harder. Or maybe it was my legs. I froze in my tracks, even though my brain said, “Run, Allie, Run!”

The creature looked like a humongous black horse with moss-covered green scales growing out of its back, flaring nostrils and water weeds tangled in its flowing mane. Its mouth was open, exposing large, slime- green teeth.

“What . . .is . . . that . . . thing?” I gasped.

“Avalon, meet Uncle Davey. Uncle Davey, this is Avalon,” Ryker said calmly, as if I’d been invited for Sunday dinner to meet and greet the family. “Remember, I said you’d see the error of your ways. You may not enter our world with iron. Get rid of it or Uncle Davey will have you for dinner, even if you are Melia’s kin.”

Excerpted from MOON SPUN: Book Three of Unbidden Magic © Copyright 2011 by Marilee Brothers. Reprinted with permission by Bell Bridge Books

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