A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(56)

“Get back to the palace, NOW!” Tejus roared. The intervals between the cracking of the stones was starting to decrease—more were opening.

I turned to look in Hazel’s direction; I wasn’t willing to make a decision that would affect all of us without her. We had to end this together, that had been the plan. She met my gaze. After a split-second pause she nodded, swiftly. We needed to leave. Now.

“Back to the palace,” I reiterated to the boys.

“Okay,” Julian replied.

“Benedict?” I asked.

“Okay,” he replied, glancing at the portal one last time before he turned on his heel, stumbling back toward the departing army.

Ash was waiting for me at the entrance to the path. His hand clasped around my wrist, tightly, without letting me break my stride. Together we ran from the cove.





Derek





Whizzing through the portal’s exit, I landed on a hard, stony surface. I leapt to my feet immediately and looked to see if the rest of my family and the GASP team were through all right. Sofia had landed nearby, and my daughter, son and their partners were only a few yards away.

“What is this place?” my wife breathed.

I had been momentarily distracted by the sounds of a large group of…humans? Supernaturals? I didn’t know, but they were heading off in the distance. I could hear the distinct clatter of horses’ hooves, and up ahead in the distance, huge birds in flight.

Sofia’s voice brought me back to our immediate surroundings. I looked down at the ground we had landed on, noticing with unease that we seemed to be standing on millions of stones—the same stone that Rose and her team had seen appear out of the portal, containing the soul of our unknown enemy. Further up the shore line, I could see the remains of shipwrecks, looking vaguely like Viking artifacts…was that a longboat I could see?

“Derek, look.” Sofia yanked at my sleeve. She was looking in the direction of the portal, her gaze fixed on an absolutely gigantic wave—frozen behind us.

“Everyone, toward the cove!” I yelled out the order, dragging Sofia back with me. I didn’t know how long the wave would be suspended like that. If it came crashing down, we’d be dragged out with the tide.

En masse, we hurried to the back of the cove—the only way out was a small pathway between the rocks that looked like it had recently collapsed in on itself. There was still just enough space to get through, but if it sustained more damage we’d be trapped.

“Oh, my God—look up!” River exclaimed, breaking our bewildered silence. Following her awestruck gaze, I stared once again in baffled disbelief. Across the hazy, nicotine yellow of the afternoon sky, there seemed to be rips and tears running through it, breaking up the very fabric of the dimension’s reality. A vast, black night’s sky could be seen through the shredding…

What is this place?

“Ibrahim,” I said quietly to the witches closest to me, “have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Never,” replied Ibrahim. Corrine and Mona also shook their heads, not glancing away from the sight before us.

“Dad?” Rose moved toward me. “Can you hear that?”

I fell silent, waiting to be enlightened. I heard nothing for a while, but just as I was about to turn back to Rose and question her, I heard a sound. It was a resounding crack—like an egg splitting open.

“I think it’s coming from the stones,” Sofia murmured.

“They’re opening,” Nuriya asserted, her face paling.

Sherus stepped forward, moving through the group to stand in front of me.

“Derek, we need to depart from this place! If the stones are breaking, then we are all doomed. You heard the voice in the portal—there’s no hope for us if we remain here! We need to leave and close it off again before this power can get out.”

I understood the fae’s concern, but I would not leave my grandchildren, Ruby or Julian behind. I could not and would not ask that of their parents. Neither was I willing to let the malevolent power remain in this dimension. Evidently it had opened the portal once, and there would be no reason why it wouldn’t do so again. No, we couldn’t risk it. We would stay here and fight the danger.

“Sherus, I understand if you want to leave. It is probably a good idea to warn the rest of the fae kingdoms of what you have seen here, but I will not be leaving this dimension without our children.”

“Derek, this is madness!” Sherus exploded.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Nuriya snapped at the fae king.

“She’s right,” I interjected, “we need to get inland as soon as possible. Nuriya, are you able to stop the stones from breaking for a while, delay them somehow?” I asked, willing the jinni to come up with a way to postpone the danger.

Nuriya looked doubtfully at the mass of stones beyond the shore.

“It’s such old, ancient magic…I couldn’t be sure. I think it is too great a risk right now—we should leave here, find safety first.”

I nodded. It was a good plan in theory, but the chances of us finding a safe haven in this unknown land seemed small at best. The best idea was probably to follow the creatures that I had heard riding off into the distance—from the look of the cove there had been a struggle. Bodies lay strewn about, their appearance human, but strange. Taller and larger than most. They had been killed by swords – that much was obvious. Kiev’s team started to check the bodies, while my family inspected the footprints that haphazardly marked the sand. Everywhere we looked, the ground was stained with blood, filling my nostrils with its distinct metallic aroma. If the creatures, whoever they were, were fleeing this place in a hurry, then perhaps they feared the stones as much as we did. At least we would have a common enemy.