“So, this is about my dad? There isn’t any choice when it comes to what I want?”
Miguel smiled again. “Are you trying to say that you think I’m good enough?”
Raegan shrugged, suddenly too shy to say those words aloud.
“Well, if you think it’s right, and I still keep wanting you no matter how much I don’t think it’s a good idea, then why should we keep fighting it? Maybe we were meant to meet. This was destiny.”
He leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers. The iciness that had consumed her before, melted away. Hali couldn’t break this bond, no matter what she did. This was so much deeper.
“She’s putting you under a spell,” Raegan warned. “I saw it. Plus, she told me that she wants you.”
“Hali?” he asked, stunned. “Really? I can’t see it.”
“I saw it, Miguel. She’s more dangerous than she seems. We need to be careful; we need to get rid…”
“She saved us.” He stepped back, moving his body away from her. “She’s been good to us. Please tell me this isn’t jealousy, because I just told you that I want you…”
“No!” Raegan shouted, anger boiling away in her stomach, returning with a vengeance. How dare he think that he was so perfect she had a reason to be jealous? She had saved him too, or had he just forgotten that?
“Okay, look…”
“Hey, guys!” Hali burst back through the scenery and over to them. Almost as if she knew it was the worst possible moment for her presence. “I think I’ve found the exit hole.”
“Why do you care? Why don’t you just stay here?” Raegan snapped, speaking out of rage.
“On this planet? Where there’s nothing? I don’t think so!” Her voice was sing-song like she was mocking Raegan. “Come on, let’s just go!”
They followed Hali to where she thought she’d seen the exit hole. Raegan felt like they were walking into a trap, but she couldn’t be sure. She wanted to check out this exit hole, just in case, she could escape this nightmare.
“Did you actually see one, or is this just some stupid game?” She finally caved and snapped.
“Game?” Hali faced her love rival. “What do you mean by that?”
Hali knew that Miguel hadn’t heard her thinly-veiled threat. She knew she could make Raegan look crazy if she tried hard enough. The witches might’ve done things differently to humans, but the manipulation rules still worked the same. And Hali was one of the best. The real reason she’d wanted to move on from her planet was because she wanted somewhere of her own to rule, and she saw these two as the perfect way to follow through with that.
This was it, Hali’s chance to get the life she wanted at last!
It hadn’t taken her long to figure out that Miguel was the weak one of the pair, Raegan was another tough female rival, just like the ruler of her own home planet, but she had a weakness in her feelings. All Hali had to do was divide and conquer. It may be taking longer than she’d originally planned, but she’d get there. No doubt about that.
Then Miguel would help her until he was no longer useful. Then she’d kill him. Once she had her own world, he would go. Until then, she had to act like she was attracted to him, just to get him onside. Just to trick him into following her every whim.
“Look, here it is.” She smiled sweetly. “The exit hole.”
Then she shoved Raegan down.
Sixteen
Everything burned as Raegan tore through the exit hole. She attempted to grasp something to stop the inevitable from happening, but of course, there wasn’t. Hali shoved her to separate her from Miguel and she’d succeeded.
She did warn me, Raegan thought sadly. She said she always gets what she wants.
She just assumed that meant magic rather than manipulation, and she’d been naïve to believe that what they shared could overpower that.
I’m without him now. How am I supposed to survive without him?
Every time she was led to believe that Miguel was her destiny, that she was supposed to meet him, he tore from her life once more. Only this time it may be for good…
“Argh!”
Someone, or something, screamed so loudly it seemed to shake the entire time and space traveling vortex. It raced passed Raegan, hurting her somehow as it went, but she didn’t get a chance to glance at what it could be. Probably some horrible spell Hali had sent after her. At least it’d missed. Of course, it did make her dread what she’d find at the other side… perhaps there’d be something waiting for her.
She hit the ground hard, landing far too much on her head for her liking, causing her vision to blur for a few moments too long. She grappled around, needing a weapon to protect her from whatever she might be about to face here. Being at a disadvantage already wasn’t what she wanted.
A guttural yelling sound exploded, so loudly Raegan had to block her ears from it. It was too much for her, especially with this headache she’d started to develop.
“Hali!” That name made her blood run cold; her body turn to ice. “Hali, no…!”
Finally, she could see, and what she found was too hard to process. A creature, a bit like the demons drawn on Earth, with their snarly faces, horns, and extremely ugly appearances, had a fire tearing from his fingers and he was burning the witch to pieces.
Raegan wasn’t sure if she should be grateful since Hali had tried to destroy her to keep Miguel, or sad because despite all of her bad points, she had saved their lives…
Or perhaps she was meant to be afraid since those flickering flames were undoubtedly coming her way next.
Instead, she felt nothing. She was just… empty.
“She will not be in pain for long.”
Raegan jumped as the wispy voice tickled her ear. “Huh?”
“She is a witch, and one with evil intentions. We cannot have beings with evil intentions here.”
The voice came from a beautiful, ethereal, angel-type being. The complete opposite to the beast with the fire. If Raegan had to define this place, it’d be like Heaven and Hell all in one.
“What… what do you mean?”
The smell was becoming unbearable as Hali burned to a crisp. It took all that Raegan had not to vomit everywhere.
“You are safe, as is your friend. There are no evil intentions within you.”
She gulped and nodded; silence overcame her.
“You are uncomfortable, I can see that. I will take you with me.”
Her feet lifted from the ground before she could argue—not that she intended to. She believed what this angelic creature was telling her, but she still feared that demon coming after her next.
“What’s going on?” Miguel whispered with an obvious tremor in his voice.
“I don’t know.”
Raegan held out her hand to him and he took it. As their fingers interlaced, an intense warmth filled her body. Of everything that scared her, all she couldn’t trust, she had one person here who she could put her full faith in.
How he ended here with her didn’t matter, she’d never allow him to go again.
Eventually, they landed in a cloud-like spot with angelic presences surrounding them. No demons, thank goodness.
“Why have you come to this plane?” the presence who’d rescued them asked.
“We came through the exit hole of another planet. We didn’t know this was where we’d end up.”