Word Count: 1701

An overwhelming feeling encompasses me.

A feeling of falling has my eyes squeezing shut tighter, my heart nearly stopping as a sense of tension wraps around me, pushing my limbs closer to my body as I fall through a tunnel of darkness. Not once do I feel Eryk's grasp leave my body, his finger's only tightening on me as terrifying silence builds in my ears.

And then, the tension releases, and my feet are touching the hard ground. I stumble forward a step, but Eryk pulls me back up against him, stopping me from hurtling face first into the ground.

Rubbing my eyes, I push off him, looking around.

I'm not sure what I expected - perhaps a world full of features I've never seen before - but this looks completely normal. A warm breeze sifts through my clothes, a saltiness to it. Around me, near white dunes stretch, littered with sage green and silver plants. I can hear the sea nearby, waves washing up against the shore in a distinctive, beautiful way.

"What is this place?" I ask, looking at Eryk, who is ruffling a hand through his dark hair.

We stand on some kind of wooden walkway, smooth, dark wood littered with golden sand leading up to a small home that sits amongst the dunes.

"My home," he responds, walking toward it. I glance at my mother, at Lei, trying to make sense of where we have been taken. Mother is calm, a sense of determination written across her face, whereas Lei looks stunned, mouth slightly agape as she takes in the sights around her, trying to understand how we went from a snowy labrinth in the middle of the night, to a warm, sunny environment surrounded by sand.

"Where is it?," I question, chasing after him, careful across the haphazard placement of the wooden planks beneath me. "Passion Pack?"

"No. We aren't in that realm anymore." He sounds bored, tired almost. I follow him into his home, looking around for any evidence I may see something familiar to tell me where I am. But everything, the furnishings, the artwork on the walls are all strange and nonsensical, depicting patterns, places and people I've never seen before in my life. My head spins just looking at it.

"Okay...What realm is this then?" I ask.

"A faraway one," he responds, shrugging his jacket off to leave it on the couch in front of him. "Here, you will be safer, I hope."

He doesn't sound so sure of himself, that I could be safe here. Even so, I have to admit that I clearly had enough people coming for me in the other realm for it to be too dangerous for me to to stay there.

I turn to my mother. "I was born here?"

"Yes, sweetheart. You are from this Territory as well. Territory Two," she explains, as if any of that should make sense to me. Territories? I've never heard of anything like that.

"How many Territories are there?" I question, looking back at Eryk. He's opening windows, brushing dust off a few things. How long has he been in the other realm, with me? This place looks clean, but not very well lived in. There are no signs of any personal belongings strewn about, making me wonder if he really does live here, or if he is just telling me that.

"A lot." He shrugs, clearly not in the mood to explain it all to me right now. "You bleed purple, which means your ancestry can be tracked to this Territory. This is where you belong."

"Are you from here?" I ask softly.

He nods. "Yes."

He's shown me he has bled my colour before, which should have made me realise he's from this territory too. What other colours can people bleed? Does everyone from every territory bleed a different colour? I'm both curious and terrified of that notion.

"And why do I have a protector?" I sit down on a nearby couch, Lei and my mother joining me. I let mother clasp my hand, my skin cold despite the sudden change to warm weather.

"That you will find out in time," Eryk explains. "For now we have to wait here until he arrives."

I shiver, not sure if I want to just sit here and wait for an unknown man with unknown intentions to show up here. "Who is he?"

"The man who hired me to protect you." Eryk focuses his gaze on me, so intense I nearly look away, but force myself to not back down. They may not be willing to be honest with me right now, but soon I'm going to find out all there is to know, and Eryk isn't going to have an upperhand over me anymore. I still can't decide whether I should trust him right now, but because mother is encouraging me to, I'll comply for now.

"You can trust him, okay? Promise me you will trust him, Aven," mother basically pleads. My throat is dry as I nod at her, not wanting her to worry. The slightly raw, red marks at the corners of her mouth from where those people bound her remind me of what she went through to ensure my safety.

I turn my attention back to Eryk, who now sits in a single chair a few feet from me. "Does everyone here have magical powers like you?"

"No, not exactly." He tilts his head back and forth, considering the best way to answer me. "In fact, magic is only granted to those with both Angel and Demon blood in them."

This place is getting stranger the more he speaks. "That doesn't make any sense..."

"It's the history of this realm....Our ancestors-"

Eryk drifts off, looking at my mother. She shakes her head at him, looking worried. She knows more about this then she is letting on, only making me feel more alone in this. At least I have Lei, who sits beside me shaking, still starting wordlessly at Eryk.

"It's too much for her to take right now," mother comments quietly, making Eryk roll his eyes. By the sounds of it, he hates how ignorant I am about this all, which means any past job he has done for this man hasn't included dealing with someone who isn't familiar with this realm. "Why don't you rest for a moment, sweetheart. I'm sure he will be here as soon as he can."

"I can't relax until I know what is going on," I exclaim. They can't expect me to be calm sitting here waiting for a fate I know nothing about yet.

"I'm here with you Aven, and so is Leiria. You have nothing to fear by being here," mother soothes.

"Lei...What do you think?" I question, turning to my best friend. She still looks stunned, but her shaking has stopped, and she looks reasonably calm.

"I had no idea a place like this existed," she comments. "It's beautiful, I mean look out the windows."

I follow her gaze past Eryk, and out the windows. I hadn't even been paying attention, but she is right. The sea stretches out toward the horizon, a mesmerising blue that's so bright it almost hurts my eyes to look at. This is what Lei and I were meant to see when we tried going to the Passion Pack.

"I'm glad you're taking this so well," I mutter, to which she only smiles meekly. Lei is better at being brave than me. If she was in my position, she would be taking it far better than me.

"She can't stay. People here will know she is not from this realm," Eryk cuts in.

My stomach turns over, but I try to shut the panic down. "What about my mother?"

"She will also have to return home," he notes grimly.

"No...Then I'm not staying." I go to stand up, but mother grabs my arm, pulling me back down. I can't be here alone, without anyone I know I care about. Maybe I could face this man if it meant mother and Lei by my side, but without them...I don't even want to think about it.

"It's my job to protect you, okay?" Eryk leans forward in his seat, his expression stern. "Right now, you need to cooperate with me, so that I can ensure your safety."

I narrow my eyes. "Don't even get me started...How long have you been stalking me?"

"I took over the job when you were sixteen," he admits. My eyes widen, not expecting that. I thought he would admit to watching me for a month, since it feels as though he has only been in my life for that long, even if I have felt my entire life like I've been watched.

"How would you feel if I stalked through your entire life, huh?" I get to my feet, so overwhelmed by his admittance that I don't know what to do with all these feelings. Eryk flinches as I stalk around the couch, looking around at all his furnishings. "Should I just go through all your belongings."

"Aven..." he murmurs calmly, getting to his feet also. There are no personal belongings for me to go through, but Eryk grabs my arm regardless. "Hey, Aven...I know this is a lot to take in now, but you have to trust me.."

He turns me toward him, so I have no other choice but to be captured in his gaze. "I can't..."

Suddenly he freezes, tilting his head as his gaze drifts over my shoulder. My blood goes cold, a chill running down my back as if I can sense the same thing he does. There is someone else here...

"Quiet. He's here now," Eryk murmurs, motioning for me to sit back down on the couch. For once, I oblige him, nustling back in between my mother and Lei.

"Who, Eryk?" I question as he approaches the front door.

He turns back to look at me, voice low. "Stace."

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