I knew I should sit back down, should smooth the fur over my knees, should try to act normal. But my blonde updo had taken a beating in the wind and was coming down around my cold-reddened and probably terrified face, so I doubted it would help. Plus, I couldn’t reach the guys that way.

And I had the feeling that I was going to need to reach the guys.

My hands tightened on Mircea’s arm and Pritkin’s leg, as I stared up at the portcullis some more. I probably looked like I was mesmerized by it, and I almost was, although not for its fearsome appearance. But for what was swirling around it.

It was panting like a great beast, but the steady in- and exhales weren’t of air but of time. Time was the realm of the Pythias, the medium through which all our magic was done. Time usually soothed and comforted me, wrapping me in a warmer embrace than my fur, a sweet reassurance that my power glimmered at my fingertips, ready for use.

It wasn’t glimmering now. It was stuttering, upset and worried, because it could only feel me intermittently. Because the castle… wasn’t really there.

Well, part of it was. The outside part, to be exact, where the portcullis was, and which had been carved from the same dull gray stone as the surrounding mountains. It was old and weathered and half tumbled down, but it was real enough. But the inside… well, who knew where that was.

What I did know was that I’d seen this trick before.

In the supernatural world, when you absolutely, positively didn’t want interruptions from nosy parkers like me, you had an option. You could park yourself outside of Earth, outside of time, outside of everything, smack in the middle of a ley line, one of the rivers of metaphysical energy that flowed between our planet and the realms beyond. Because, while you traversed the space between worlds, you weren’t really anywhere—or anywhen.

You could fix yourself there, like a ship dropping anchor on storm tossed seas, and provide your guests a single doorway into your temporary oasis. Once they stepped through, they were somewhere that you controlled absolutely. And if you later shut that door?

Well, then even time itself couldn’t reach you.

Despite the weather, I felt my palms start to sweat.

That was why I hadn’t just shifted us inside to begin with. I couldn’t risk it when my power was stuttering like a candle in a high breeze. Especially not while carrying three. And three it had to be, because my two companions were both Alpha males determined to help me, but who instead were giving me cancer. Pure cancer, just any time now.

“—know who I am?”