A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(52)

I reached out and squeezed Hazel’s hand. She squeezed it back, then released me quickly—I’d forgotten about her hunger.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She smiled. “I’ll get it under control soon, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried.”

She was quiet for a few moments, smiling into my eyes. She looked like Mom in that moment, and for the first time I could really see the resemblance between them. I’d never truly noticed it before. Maybe it was because Hazel seemed a bit older to me now. I felt we were much closer than we ever had been. How could it be any different? We’d been through so much.

“I don’t want you to be here. I want you to be miles from here,” she whispered.

“Tough. I’m sticking it out.”

“You’re stubborn.”

“So are you.”

My grin faded as Tejus beckoned to us—it was time to get moving.

“I love you,” Hazel reminded me.

“I know. I love you too.”

I let her lead the way, and we walked swiftly over to the start of the path. Tejus looked at Hazel, his expression unreadable. Then he turned without saying a word, moving silently between the rocks.

The walk down to the cove was a short one. It got wider as we progressed, and soon I could hear noises up ahead. I almost came to a standstill as I recognized the low, melodic chanting. It was the Acolytes. The words, running together as one low drone, were barely distinguishable, but I had heard that sound night after night in my dreams, echoes of it haunting every waking hour. I felt nausea rise up inside me, and the acidic burn of bile at the back of my throat.

The sentry guard in front of me moved out from the pathway to stand along the back of the short cliff face, and I got my first full glimpse of the cove.

The Acolytes, about thirty in all, were kneeling at the shore, all chanting in the low drone I’d heard from the path. Queen Trina stood in front of them, standing at the edge of the shoreline, arms outstretched, facing the ocean with her back to us.

Hanging in the air above her, further out toward the sea, black rags were suspended in the wind. I watched as they fluttered from side to side — tossed about as the breeze whipped around the walls of the cove and then back again. I squinted, trying to work out what they were. My stomach lurched.

The kids.

The black shapes were children — hanging like rag-dolls in the air, heads bent down to their chests, their arms and legs swaying limply to and fro. They hung in a perfect circle over the water, the formation turning slowly as the ocean roared beneath them.

“They’re above the portal—she’s trying to open it,” Tejus muttered.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the earth started to tremble. The temple, down in the landslide in front of us, cracked, its stone entrance falling with an almighty crash. I thought the Acolytes might turn around, but they stayed in their trance-like state, droning on. The rocks of the pathway we’d just left started to collapse in on one another, making the gap smaller – if it fell any further we’d be trapped.

Behind the kids, I could see more rips starting to appear in the sky—jagged tears that exposed more of the night’s sky, like an endless abyss waited for us on the other side of this dimension.

“We need to stop them. What do you suggest, Tejus?” Ash turned to his commander.

Tejus was silent, looking out to the ocean where the water was being whipped into a frenzy, his face pale. I could see my own fear reflected in his eyes – that we had come too late, that Queen Trina had succeeded in raising the entity.

That we didn’t have a hope in Nevertide of getting out of this thing alive.





Rose





The tar was burping and bubbling, the gap that let in chinks of daylight gradually widening till the tar was drawn back completely, and the bluish, swirling mists of the portal floated upward—the wisps of the portal’s tunnel mingling with the choppy waves.

“Do we have any idea who’s opening it?” I asked Mona.

She shook her head. “No, which is what I’m worried about.”

Maybe it’s one of the kids. Maybe they’d managed to find a witch or jinni to help them on the other side.

“We should still take the advantage,” my father replied. “If there is a threat then we need to contain it…and I want to see my grandchildren.” My mother nodded, her green eyes anxious but resolute.

“Do we have any idea if the power opening it is a benevolent one? Or is this dark magic?” Sherus asked, still uneasy about GASP’s decision to explore the portal.

“I don’t know that either,” Mona replied. “The only way we’ll know is by getting to the other side. The one thing I can tell you is that the magic is powerful…and it feels old.”

“I don’t like this,” Sherus muttered.

“You’re not the only one,” Nuriya muttered. “But what choice do we have? This is family.”

Lidera looked sideways at her brother. “Sherus. If whatever is on the other side of this portal is a threat to the fae, then we need to investigate. Our people are relying on us. We can’t let them down.”

Sherus didn’t reply, but with a small nod of his head he acknowledged his sister’s words.