The Terror Gaze: Book 2 of The Mortal Guard Series

Chapter 28 - Nick: Behind the Curtain

Chapter 28 - Nick: "Behind the Curtain"

Nick felt Richard's warm chest against his face as he slowly regained consciousness. The hyena immediately remembered the situation they were in and raised his head quickly, yelping when he saw a dark figure in the room, waiting in the corner. "RICHARD! RICHARD!" He shook the raccoon fiercely. He didn't want to be caught off guard yet again.

Richard came up, looking around. "What?! What?! What is it?! What's going on?!"

The dark figure stood up, and Nick could see was a mouse, which held his hands up. "Woah, Nicky! Calm down! It's Adrian! It's Adrian!"

All at once, Nick's fright dissipated. "Oh. What the hell are you doing here? You scared the fuck out of me!"

"Sorry! I didn't know when you two were gonna wake up!"

"How did you even get inside of my residence?" Richard queried, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Wait, Adrian?! The raccoon looked around and found the nightstand by the bed, along with the wooden dresser on the left side of the room. "Nick! Everything's back to normal!"

Now Nick did a once-over of the room. "Woah, yeah. OH THANK GODS! It wasn't forever!"

"What wasn't?" The magician asked. "You guys were acting absolutely insane. That's why I'm here. They asked me to watch you. Rich, that's how I got in."

"Wait, we were? You mean you saw everything?!"

Adrian shook his head. "Not everything. When you guys got intimate, I waited in the living room. When it sounded like you calmed down, I kept back in."

"So we were visible?!" Richard asked, remembering how he had run through Prostasia in nothing but his boxers. He felt a wave of embarrassment fill him up.

"It was insane. You wouldn't respond to anyone and, what's even crazier, you could walk through things!"

"What the hell happened . . . ?" Nick blinked in confusion. "We chalked it up to the fact that we were Virtues, but we still don't know why that happened."

Richard yawned. "None of this makes any sense."

"What was going on from your side? What did you see?" Adrian interrogated, fixing his dark blue tie.

"Nothing," Nick explained. "Everything and everyone in the world disappeared minus the bed and walls. Oh, and the lights. Elevators didn't work though. It was terrifying."

"The water was still there too, but any semblance of furniture or appliances was absent. Have you ever heard of a spell that can do this?"

Adrian shook his head. "Nope. I'm honestly bewildered. We're lucky it didn't last more than a day. Or, like, forever. No one could even touch you . . . ."

"I don't wanna imagine that." Nick held up his hand. "God damn, it's good to see you. It's good to fucking be alive after what happened to me."

Adrian gasped. "That's right. You survived a Liar attack?!"

"And then I was burned alive!"

"Yeah, what was that about anyway?"

"Beats me!" Nick huffed. "Shit just happens these days. It's terrifying!"

"Well, hold up," Adrian told him. "I've actually heard of something like this before."

Nick's ears perked. "You have?"

"It's a spell of biding. It lets you sustain an injury but you eventually have to receive it later. Useful for battles. Can you think of any time you were burned alive?"