“Advanced, yes. Cure, no.” He slanted his head to the side. “How did you find the ice cave?”

“Went for a hike, got lost.” Why even try to explain her connection to GG, and the instinct to reach him? Selective mutism would stop her, guaranteed. “How long were you frozen?”

“Thirteen hundred years.”

Nola floundered. A statement so wild it had to be truth? “Do you happen to know the name of the golden warrior?”

“I do.” Zion’s eyes brightened, as if he knew a secret she did not. “He is Bane of Adwaeweth.”

Bane. The bane of my existence. Add-way-with.

“Adwaewethian warriors are dangerous shape-shifters with an aversion to light.”

“Shape-shifters,” she gasped out.

“Long ago, I heard your people refer to Bane’s beast as a dreki. Or dragon,” he clarified.

What? An even wilder statement. Yet, she could easily imagine Bane transforming I Am Dragon style. But...why had Zion referred to Nola as “little dragon”? Unless he knew Bane and Nola shared a mental connection.

So, why did Bane and Nola share a connection?

Stop focusing on noncritical details. Ticktock. Ticktock. It was time to gain Zion’s cooperation, and make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “Help me find and save Vale,” she announced, “and I will...” What? What could she do, and what did he want? “I know the modern world, you don’t. I can help you win your war. So. What do you say?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Your fantasy man is back. Now what?

ZION ABANDONED HER. Without making any promises or explaining where he was going, what he’d be doing or when he’d return. All he said? “I have a war to win. Stay here, and you’ll stay safe.” Then, he used his Rifters to open a portal and vanished, leaving Nola gaping.

Ticktock. At least the opioid had kicked in, more easily digested thanks to the food. Warmth spilled over her body. She took an experimental step, then another...yes! Using a fallen tree branch as a cane, she trekked through the, uh, dimension, on the hunt for another person, shelter, a vehicle or an exit. What she found? A whole lot of jungle.

The trees were overgrown, the flowers oversize and the lichen plentiful. Birds chirped, frogs croaked and bees buzzed past, providing super fun background music. But, no matter what direction she traveled, she always ended up at the pond. Did the dimension loop?

All the while, the twelve-hour countdown ticked in her mind, every lost minute chiseling away at her calm. Desperate for a distraction, she reworked a mental list of must do’s. Convince Zion to find and save Vale. Stop hoping Bane will send another telepathic message. Escape. Save Vale before withdrawal sets in. Go home. Forget the war and its “combatants.” Forget my golden god’s potential alien status.