When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(73)

“Magnus was here,” she said, baffled by the strange prickle of magic that she could feel even without leaving the protection of the portal. “But I still can’t sense him.”

Cyn studied the mansion before his attention shifted to the placid, bucolic countryside.

“Here?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?” she asked.

“I recognize that scent,” he muttered.

She frowned. “Magnus?”

“No.” He shook his head, his expression distracted as if he was lost in some deep thought. “But there’s no longer any doubt this is connected to the Oracles.”

“Then we should have a look around,” she said. If there was something out there that could help them locate the magic-user then they had to track it down.

Cyn was jerked out of his preoccupation, his brows snapping together.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Her lips parted, but before she could remind him that she didn’t take orders from him, Levet was lightly tugging on her hand.

“He is right, ma belle. We do not know the danger.”

With a sigh of frustration she bent down to speak directly to the demon who looked too small to be a Knight in Shining Armor.

“You’ll be careful?”

“Do not concern yourself.” The gargoyle lightly patted her cheek. “I am quite accustomed to risking my life to—”

“Would you just get on with it?” Cyn snapped.

“Leeches,” Levet muttered, sending a sour glance toward the hovering vampire before planting a kiss on the back of Fallon’s hand. “Au revoir, ma belle. We shall soon be reunited.”

“Just go,” Cyn growled.

“Hey,” Levet squeaked as the ground beneath their feet gave a violent shudder, sending the gargoyle tumbling out of the portal.

“Bloody hell.” Cyn grabbed Fallon as the ground continued to quake. “What did the idiot do?”

Fallon allowed Cyn to hold her upright, her energy entirely focused on keeping them from being squashed.

“It wasn’t Levet,” she said between clenched teeth.

Struggling to keep the bubble of protection around them, Fallon lifted her hand. She didn’t have time to form a proper opening so she sliced a small rift, hoping they could escape. But whatever was forcing the portal to collapse slammed shut the fissure before it could properly form.

Cyn growled as the air was suddenly filled with painful pricks of electricity.

“What’s happening?”

“The portal is collapsing,” she rasped, her strength rapidly draining. Damn. She had to get them out before they were crushed between dimensions.

“How?”

She shook her head, giving another slash of her hand as she tried to find a way out.

“I don’t know.”

Perhaps sensing her growing weakness, Cyn wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back flat against his chest.

“Can we get out?”

“I don’t know.” She was trembling, feeling the darkness squeezing ever tighter. “Every time I open a rift it closes before we can get out,” she rasped.

His arm tightened around her. “Shit.”

She grimaced. “Shit” just about summed it up.

She was coming close to burning out. She would have one last chance to get them out before bad, bad things happened.

“Brace yourself,” she muttered, gathering the last of her strength.

Caution wasn’t cutting it. She could only hope that she could blast their way out before her bubble of protection was shattered.

She felt him go rigid. “For what?”

She didn’t bother to answer him. Instead she closed her eyes, sending the last of her powers zinging toward the side of the portal.

There was a loud sizzle as her magic hit another magic and for a horrified minute Fallon feared that it might boomerang back toward them. What had she done?

Then, just as she braced herself for the impact, there was a sudden shift in the air pressure and without warning an explosion sent both of them hurtling out the side of the portal.

Cyn gave a shout of surprise, squeezing her tight against him as they were thrown forward. Fallon grimly held on as she tried to control their plunge through space. The last thing she wanted was to survive the catapult from the portal only to fry Cyn by landing someplace where it was daylight.

Of course, it was impossible.

She was still trying to lock on to Cyn’s lair when they were out of the portal and making a painful landing onto a rough, stone floor.

Her first thought was that it was dark. Really dark.

Hooray.

Her second thought was that it wasn’t much fun to be squashed between a massive vampire and sharp-edged rocks.

Cyn rolled to the side, a low groan wrenched from his throat as he forced himself to his feet.

“Where are we?”

Fallon shoved her tangled hair out of her face, managing to get to her knees as she peered through the murky darkness.

They were in a cave of some sort, but it wasn’t like the one beneath Cyn’s lair. She could sense the heavy weight of earth that extended well above them. As if they were deep in the bowels of a mountain.

Had her fear of the sun led them to a place where light never, ever penetrated?

Hard to say.