The Moon's Heir - Book 1

Chapter 3

The first thing Ria did once the door closed was pinch herself — hard.

She winced and rubbed the now red spot on her arm. 'Definitely not dreaming,' she decided, feeling oddly indifferent. Or maybe she was just in shock, she considered clinically.

She slowly slid against the wall and down to the floor.

Ria thought of his expression as he had left. How his expression had seemed to shift from indifferent to shocked to upset . . . but every expression had shifted back to indifference almost immediately.  She pushed her fingers through the bangs over her forehead, tugging her chipped and faded dolphin pendant nervously. 'Who . ..? Where is this anyway?'

She looked around the room and only then realized that she was in a bedroom. The floor was polished wood. And there was a small bed, barely five centimeters off the ground, near a low open window.

Her backpack was in a heap next to her, from when she'd slipped it off after she'd backed against the wall. She looked at it now, remembering that she had just been on her way to spend the night — and maybe even a week or so — with Erin. They never planned how long she would stay. There was no limit to that.

She looked at the door and slipped out her cell phone from the side pocket of her bag. But even as she held it, she realized that it was not an option to call for help. 'I can't call home,' she realized in a hollow way. 'And if I call Erin . . . she might get into this mess as well . . . And I don't even know where I am . . .' She remembered how he'd flown up into the air with her. At how they'd apparently changed locations in mid-air.

No, calling for help was out.

(What would she even say? 'Help, I got kidnapped and he flew up into the air with me and took me through a magic portal'?)

She looked at the door again and stood up slowly. Her shoes scraped against the floor and she suddenly became aware that it was unnaturally quiet. She removed her shoes and crept towards the door. She then placed her hand on the handle and turned it as carefully and silently as possible.

It was locked — not unsurprisingly.

She sighed and crept back towards the wall. 'It was worth a try though,' she thought shrugging. 'Even if it was stupid.'

She put her shoes back on and looked down at her phone again, thinking of Erin. And almost eerily, her cell phone unexpectedly started ringing right that second.

Ria jumped and fumbled with the phone, frantically trying to turn off the ring-tone. It seemed to scream throughthe quiet!

She pressed the answer button.

"Hey,where are you girl?!" came Erin's loud demand over the phone.

"Erin, be quiet!" Ria pleaded to her in a hushed, anxious voice. She glanced at the door.

Zeraverto had changed back into his Camean clothes and came back to check on Ria. He was going to knock to give her warning, but he lowered his hand when he heard her voice murmur, "Erin, be quiet!" from inside the room. It didn't matter that she was whispering. He could easily and clearly hear not only Ria's voice, but her friend's as well.

He didn't interrupt. 'If she thinks her friend can help her, let her try. But it's ridiculous. I'd like to know what she would say to explain her situation,' he thought cynically. 

He knew enough about Ada to know that there was no way anyone would believe a situation like this. Cameans were nothing more than forgotten myths to them. The maximum she could believably explain was that she had been kidnapped. But there was no way anyone would be able to find her here unless they were a Camean. Besides, he would send her back in two days like he'd promised anyway.