"The one from the farm. The three-legged one. He's waiting for you at the gate."
Jace's words were still ringing in my ears when the golden light of the portal swallowed us whole. This time, the transition didn't feel like being pulled through a straw or falling through a vacuum. It felt like waking up from a long, heavy nap in the back of a wagon. There was a sudden rush of warmth, the kind of heat that doesn't come from a heater or a magic spell, but from a sun that actually has some weight behind it.
I hit the ground with a soft thud, my boots sinking into something that wasn't glass, metal, or salt.
It was dirt. Real, honest-to-god, smells-like-manure-and-rain dirt.
