Then she saw a sign that sent her thoughts into chaos: New Orleans Seafood Company.
So Ormlo had opened a portal to New Orleans. Which meant she wasn’t trapped in some Lorean realm.
She slowed as comprehension dawned. To reach Quondam, she and Munro had crossed through a portal located in the Temple of Time. At her wedding, the wolf had said he’d fought his way back to her. At the threshold to New Orleans . . .
“What’s on the other side, wolf?”
“Our future.”
Ren no longer wondered where she was.
But when.
TWENTY
She escaped!
Munro had no chance for relief, because Jels had portaled to another spot in the temple, evading him once more. The archwarlock took aim at him, light boiling up from his palms.
“Father, no!” Ormlo yelled, his own palms glowing, his face sheening with sweat. “I can’t let you!”
The next few moments seemed to pass in slow motion.
Ormlo finally hurled a red beam, tagging his father’s shoulder, just as Jels fired a lethal beam at Munro. The impact from Ormlo’s strike severed Jels’s arm and spun the archwarlock around, at the same instant he released that black beam. It zoomed wild—straight for Ormlo.
Direct hit.
“Father!” Black light spread across Ormlo’s body. “Help me!”
Jels’s eyes went wide. “Ah, Tempus, nooo!” He portaled for his son, falling to his knees beside him.
Ormlo shrieked as his limbs crumbled to ash.
Across the temple, the gateway surged against the statue. The deepest fissure yet snaked up one leg. Munro’s ears rang from the cracking of that ancient stone.
Would it hold . . . ?
The leg toppled, crashing across the length of the temple. The second leg collapsed beside it. When the rest of the statue hit the floor, a cyclone of some kind of energy funneled upward from its chest.
The gateway was no more. One mate. One chance. Yet Kereny was alone and vulnerable in New Orleans. —Reach your female!—
Ormlo’s portal started to shrink. As Munro bolted for that rift, the entire mountain rocked. The floor buckled beneath his feet, the temple beginning to cave in. He chanced a glance back.
Jels knelt by Ormlo’s remains, now only a pile of cinders. “You killed my son!” He screamed, beating an ashy fist against his bald head. “You destroyed our god!”
Munro faced forward, skidding to a stop as Tempus’s head rolled before him. The many eyes flickered before sliding shut. Munro veered around it just as Ormlo’s portal blipped, about to disappear.
Beast in turmoil, he sprinted for his only escape as Jels’s scream carried: “I will never rest till I have my revenge! Your female is doomed!”
Munro dove through the shrinking portal. Eyes closed . . . flying on a prayer . . .
Louisiana asphalt greeted his face. He scrambled around to watch the portal seal shut into nothingness behind him.
Inhaling a breath of clean air, he staggered to his feet. He had no time to waste finding Kereny. Once Jels and his warlocks regrouped, they’d descend on this city like a robed plague.
She would probably head toward people, which meant she’d make for Bourbon Street. He hastened in that direction, pushing his body.
Even in these predawn hours, there’d still be a crowd. Though Quondam had provided no hints that she was in the future, this town would give her the shock of her life.
When he isolated her scent, indeed near Bourbon, he picked up his pace even more. Strange, he didn’t scent his men in the area at all.
The fog thinned, revealing the setting moon. Not quite three weeks till it’d be full. He’d gotten fortunate to avoid the full moon in Kereny’s time, and fortunate now. On that night, the need to claim her would overwhelm him, but his claiming bite would kill a human. Unless he got her changed before then.
Passing a newspaper stand, he scanned the date, and his steps faltered a beat. Almost two months had passed since his capture. He’d suspected that Quondam had a time differential from the mortal realm, but not weeks equaling months.
If Munro had been separated from Kereny for minutes, then she’d been out here alone for far too long. No wonder he didn’t scent his men; they’d probably given up waiting for him after their portal had closed.
What must be going on in her head? A jetliner roared overhead. Tugboats chugged along the river. A bright centipede of cars lined a bridge.
She certainly would have figured out what he’d done by now. But he would help her adjust to this time, and then he would win her forgiveness. If he worked hard enough, she would miss nothing about the past, least of all that husband.
Only one thing mattered: She lives.
The pursuit of his mate sparked every cell in his body. His heart beat stronger, and he drew in deep breaths, each spiced with her enticing scent. He spotted her a block away, wending through the crowd.