Chapter Twenty-Six
Arach closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. Great gads. He shifted six of his feet farther apart and steadied his stance on the rock. How damned long had it been? Ages. That’s how long it had been since he’d bothered to shift into the In-Between. He squinted his eye slits tighter shut and exhaled. He hated the vile peacefulness of the In-Between but it couldn’t be helped. No amount of subtle cloaking in the human’s reality would shield him from Torin’s senses. Only by hiding in the void between the planes could he close in on the crafty stone guardian without revealing himself until he was absolutely ready.
A sizzling hiss crackled through the air and flickered all around his body. Stinging electricity shook through his scales and sparked blue lines of popping lasers between his horns.
Dammit! He’d forgotten to lower the temperature of the inferno simmering deep within his gullet. The delicate aura of the In-Between barricaded itself against any type of weapon. As long as the molten embers glowed hot in his belly, he’d never achieve passage into the peaceful realm.
He submerged his snout deep in the icy waters of the cove and sucked in a great gulp of the sea. He forced down gallons of seaweed-laced water into the pouch of simmering coals located just above his first stomach.
Steam roiled in great white billows out his nose and mouth. The stinging heat of the vaporized saltwater threw him into a sneezing fit. Bits of algae and hordes of silver wriggling fish blasted out of each nostril. Lore, he hated the feel of cold seawater bubbling in his nose. Damn the rules of the In-Between.
Shaking his head as he snorted out the remaining muck, Arach raked his paws against the sides of his muzzle and wiped the condensation from his eyes. With a great smacking of his lips, he huffed out an irritated growl as he spat a tangled glob of seaweed and shells on the ground. Hell’s bane! It’d take him a week to get that taste out of his mouth.
Still hacking and spitting, he inhaled a steadying breath. Concentrate. A gullet full of foul seawater was small price to pay for a bit of playtime with Torin. Arach closed his eyes again, held his breath and concentrated on his destination. This time, the air only stung a bit and constricted a little tight against his scales as he slipped into the In-Between.
There. Arach exhaled a slow controlled breath. Rolling the tension out of his shoulders, he resettled his tattered wings down the ridges of his back. The one other advantage of the In-Between was the fact that it would be unnecessary for him to fly. Sifting his form would carry him wherever he wished to go.
He raised his snout into the air, closed his eyes and soaked in the mystical elements floating through the air. There. Torin’s marker twinkled like a heartbeat, steady as a beacon shining through the darkness to lead lost souls to shore.
A shiver of anticipation tickled up from the tip of his tail to the end of his curved horns. Finally. A bit of excitement. He folded his form through the dimension toward Torin’s shining aura. Arach came up short and paused within a few yards of the wooden bench where Torin sat.
Cu Sith. Arach curled his lips back from his fangs. He thought he’d recognized the stench of the fairy hound. Arach sifted closer, angling his scaled head to the side. Damn. He wished they’d speak louder. He must still have a bit of seawater in his ear slits. No matter. He’d caught the gist of most of their conversation and it told him everything he needed to know. Arach chuckled as he rubbed his front paws together in satisfied anticipation. Now he knew exactly what to do to start the game.