Unsaid: Midlife Mage, #3

By L.A. Boruff

Ceridwen Gault—disaster witch extraordinaire.
And right now, an involuntary guest in another dimension.

Offering herself as a sacrifice to free her daughter from a kidnapping should have been a no-brainer, and it was. Only now Ceri finds herself trapped in a prison dimension, trapped with a magical asshat who is just as desperate to free himself as she is to be out of there. One problem: he actually deserves to be there. Second? There's a bunch of other people trapped there who don't deserve to be.

Ceri doesn't want to free he-who-definitely-should-not-be-her-problem. He thinks she's capable of breaking the magic keeping him there, which should make her feel special but really only makes her feel even more trapped. Now her choice is simple: will she do whatever it takes to save herself and the innocents in this place, or will she choose the greater good by not unleashing an ancient power that could destroy everything she loves in her world?

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Phantom Pen
• Release date: Apr 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223087342

L.A. Boruff

L.A. Boruff lives in East Tennessee with her husband, three children, and an ever growing number of cats. She loves reading, watching TV, and procrastinating by browsing Facebook. L.A.’s passions include vampires, food, and listening to heavy metal music. She once won a Harry Potter trivia contest based on the books, and lost one based on the movies. She has two bands on her bucket list that she still hasn’t seen: AC/DC and Alice Cooper. Feel free to send tickets.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

A year away from Nick and my children, my job, everything. My whole life. I blinked rapidly and took a deep breath to compose myself, fighting back the terror. I missed it all already, not five seconds into my sentence.

And, frankly, this dominion was anything but a vacation spot. I couldn't even look forward to the amenities.

I stared at the spot where the gateway had faded away, turning back into the twining vines of an old, untended rose bush, taller than I was, with no flowers, only thorns and sharp-edged leaves.

There was probably a visual joke there if I could find my sense of humor. Too bad it was on the other side of the gateway with Nick.

Another swallow and I smoothed my work expression on, one that yielded no points and took no prisoners. It wouldn't do to show weakness to the monster at my back.

I needed to keep telling myself that, keep it on repeat, even though all I wanted to do was start screaming and never stop. Or start throwing punches, and ditto on the never stopping part.

Focusing on details helped me control those impulses. I grounded myself with the chilly embrace of the fog rolling in, the dark green of the uneven tufts of grass I stood on. The slate gray of the sky, evenly illuminated by some unknown light source, with no hint of an actual sun.

This dominion must have very different physical rules than Earth. I was in no mood to ask at the moment.

And thus is the bargain sealed. Raphael's words came from behind me, but the intonation lacked all the creepy weirdness and malice I’d come to expect. A smooth baritone, his voice was pleasant on the ear, as much as I hated to admit it.

I didn’t answer.

Witnessed. The gatekeeper, Diego, answered him. His voice was completely flat, without inflection. Oddly similar to Raphael’s, though, if I listened closely. And why should he care? Why should it matter to him that I’d just signed away my soul?

Well, not really, but certainly not far off. For a freaking year.

I’d just traded myself for a prisoner in this dominion. I’d done it to save my daughter. That was the important part.

The House of Mists had a foul reputation. That’s what Nick had said.

My interactions with Raphael, the leader or owner or prisoner, whatever he was, whoever he was, hadn’t changed that assessment. The enkimmu was creepy and lecherous and the embodiment of all negative characteristics associated with men, so far as I could tell. If the land that he controlled was anything like the man himself, then I’d just signed myself up for a year of hell here, but what choice had I had? He’d wanted payment for the prisoner.

Whom I’d found surprisingly easily… Now I was suspicious about that on top of everything else.

My daughter’s life had been on the line, and I’d do anything I had to in order to make sure that she was safe. No matter the cost to myself or Nick or our relationship. We could afford to pay the price far better than she.

Arriving here, I’d discovered this dominion’s mists tried to consume those who traveled to it… I still had a shield up to keep it from sucking all my blood out. Cross a vampire’s lair with another dimension, and this dimension was born. All kinds of Outer Limits nastiness that really wanted a piece of me. And if I wasn’t careful, it was going to get some, too. It wasn’t going to be easy, keeping my guard up all the time.

One year. It was just one year. I could do it…I could do it!

Ugh, I didn’t know if I could do it.

As if Raphael read my mind, and oh, I hoped he couldn’t, a pulse of magic shivered through the air behind me. It swirled around me, all in ribbons of gray, ranging from silver to slate. They wrapped around me, brushing against my body gently, and I stiffened. Then the constant assault that had latched on to me when I arrived, trying to consume me, which I'd been repelling with my magic, stopped.

Whatever Raphael had done to make his realm stop trying to kill me, I breathed a sigh of relief. Being constantly vigilant to keep from being killed was not a state that I wanted to try to spend the next year in. Not being superhuman, there was no way that I could keep my magical guard up constantly.

On the other hand, should I trust it would stay stopped? What if I was deeply asleep and Raphael revoked this magical protection?

I couldn’t risk that. Wherever I ended up sleeping, I needed to set up personal wards, just in case. Around my bed or bedroom, wherever it was. And I’d need to craft something to counter it unconsciously, for the times I left my wards. That would take time and concentration, even though I was well practiced at creating and maintaining them at my home and the school. I put it on the old mental to-do list, just below keeping myself alive and whole.

My forehead tingled warmly where Johann had kissed my brow earlier. I assumed he’d left some type of protective standing magic on me, but there was no way to examine that right now either.

The jury was out on whether I was annoyed at him for doing it without my permission, too. Being annoyed with Johann could wait a year, though.

I turned around and blinked. Viewing Raphael now was a strange experience. It was like looking at someone's twin where all of the body language you were expecting was completely different. His wasn't a friendly body language, but at the same time, it wasn't the full-on psycho creep that he’d been just moments before. Not a good sign that he could flip his switch so easily.

He gazed at me, brilliant blue eyes not unsympathetic, and said, You're a fool, you know.

Rude, but not so much untrue. I lifted my chin. Be that as it may. Do you have a hotel here? Or should I just find material to make a tent? I was trying to keep my sarcasm to a minimum, even though what I wanted was to unleash the full force of my frustration on him.

A smile flickered on the gatekeeper's lined face. Nearby, one of the shrubs that covered the tumbledown building closest to the gate rustled out of time with the breeze. I twitched briefly, startled by the sudden movement. Not to mention confused by the fact that it hadn’t rustled with the breeze, as physics said it should have, but this was not my world. For all I knew, it rained upside down and bushes and grass moved however the hell they wanted to, thank you very much.

Raphael shifted his attention in that direction, following my gaze, then sighed. Out. Now.

The tone of weary command in his voice was different from how he’d spoken to me before, too. A man of many facets.

The bush went very still before rising a little less than a foot in height, but it grew on top of a tumbled wall from the nearby ruin. Its body was comprised of thickly intertwined branches and full foliage, dark green and red, contrasting with the fog.

Now. The way Raphael spoke left no room for argument. But who was he talking to? The bush? It certainly wasn’t me. I was standing right here.

Two people slithered out from behind the shrubbery. A boy and a girl, teenagers, best I could tell. The boy, with dark skin and pale hair, was obviously of svartalfar heritage. The girl… I couldn't tell. Her long, dark hair lay in twin braids, her eyes a strange shade of violet, with no other unusual characteristics that could make me surmise her kin. Or possibly she was human? Who knew? Especially in a place like this. They could’ve been bush spirits, and I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised.

Albrecht. Ilani. What did I warn you would happen the next time you eavesdropped on matters that were not your concern? Raphael's voice was calm, the undercurrent of menace plain. But a different kind of menace than he’d directed at me earlier. It sounded more like a principal’s ‘I'm going to give you detention’ speech rather than ‘I'm going to flay you alive’. Maybe he liked them better than me, which wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest.

On the other hand, both teens attended to him closely, indicating that possibly flaying alive was still on the table. Clearly, they knew him better than I did, and the fact that they seemed to view him with the same caution and concern that I did only confirmed that I should still watch my back even if the land wasn’t actively trying to eat me at the moment.

After a long pause, the boy glanced at the girl.

She stepped forward, smiling brightly. You said that we would be punished appropriately. And I think that the very best punishment for us would be helping the new woman. The newest person in our land. It would be very inconvenient and difficult to acclimate someone who does not know this place to your magnificence and the wonders of the land you rule.

I caught the underlying sarcasm and didn't quite know how she could be that smartass to Raphael, who was in the top three most frightening people I’d ever met. Actually, he might be the worst, at least from what I’d seen so far. But if she was that much of a smartass and managed to get away with it, there was hope for me. I did have a hard time suppressing my attitude… pretty much all the time.

The gatekeeper snorted. Oh, good. He had an attitude as well.

Raphael tilted his head, regarding them both. Since you volunteered, Ilani, the task is yours. This woman's name is Ceri. She comes from… I have no idea, but presumably, she'll tell you. I've other business to attend to for the rest of the day, so make sure she doesn't get herself killed. Return her to the house this evening.

A dark smile crossed his face as he turned to me. Despite everything, he was terribly attractive, if I could manage to ignore the psychotically dangerous and cruel parts. "Enjoy. These two are among the best my magnificent land has to offer."

Nope, no sarcasm there either. And strange that he’d given me free rein to roam his dominion. What was he up to?

Raphael strode away, the thick silver-gray mist closing around him. Not even his outline could be seen after two steps.

When I looked back toward the gate, the gatekeeper had resumed his seat and was ignoring the three of us. Apparently, he only needed to pay attention to us when Raphael was present, which was fine by me.

Turning my attention to the pair standing near me, I might’ve over guessed their age. They could’ve been somewhere in their early teens, perhaps thirteen or fourteen. Perceiving them magically, the boy had a good measure of magic similar to Nick’s, while the girl was wrapped in a never-ending flow of magic unlike any I’d ever seen. It enveloped her, and she seemed not to tap into it at all.

In the moment’s pause it took me to perceive them, the boy eyed me warily and the girl smiled at me in the same sunny fashion that she had with Raphael. Given that that sweet expression had overlaid a great deal of sarcasm, I waited expectantly. A little snark would be refreshing after the day I’d had. Plus, I was more than used to teenage mockery.

What do you want to see? Ilani asked. Her voice was as bright as her smile.

Other than the house where Raphael lives and a few ruins between here and there, I haven't seen anything here. Is there any pleasant place? Is there anywhere where the sun shines? Without the fog? I waved my hand toward a patch lingering nearby.

Albrecht snorted. No.

Ilani shrugged. "It all depends on what you mean by pleasant. This isn’t a bad place. If you're going to be staying at the big house, that's where Albrecht and I live, and it has a lot of interesting stuff in it, but not many people. Albrecht and I can show you around, where people live, and also the mourning swamp, and the devouring forest, and…"

I raised my brows. Great names. You must get a lot of tourists.

Her smile went wry and more real. "New people do come here. Not often, but they do. The mist brings them here. It brings a lot of humans, sometimes some of the other kins. Nobody knows if it’s random or if the mists somehow pick people.

The only thing is, the mists can only bring people here, not take them away, as far as anyone says.