Beyond the Reflection's Edge
Page 36
Mictar dropped the nurse into a heap of limp arms and legs and kicked her body to the side. Tony crouched as if ready to pounce again, but his movements had slowed. Wincing, he picked up an IV stand and drew it back, ready to strike.
Mictar tilted his head up and opened his mouth, but instead of speaking, he began to sing. His voice, a brilliant tenor, grew in volume, crooning a single note that seemed to thicken the air.
Dropping the IV stand, Tony fell to his knees. Kelly stumbled back and pressed her body against the wall. A vase exploded, sending sharp bits of glass flying, and a long crack etched its way from one corner of the outer window to the other.
Fighting the piercing agony, Nathan rolled up to his knees and climbed to his feet, but the latest shock had stiffened his legs, and the noise seemed to be cracking his bones in half. He could barely move at all.
Mictar took a breath and sang again. This time, he belted out what seemed to be a tune, but it carried no real melody just a hodgepodge of unrelated notes that further thickened the air. Red mist formed along the floor, an inch deep and swirling. As Mictar sang on, the fog rose to Nathan’s shins, churning like a cauldron of blood. With the door partially open, the dense mist poured out, but it wasn’t enough to keep the flood from rising.
A security guard yanked the door wide open. With a pistol drawn, he waded into the knee-high wall of red. Dr. Gordon and Clara followed, but when the sonic waves blasted across their bodies, the guard dropped his gun, and all three covered their ears, their faces wrinkling in pain.
The window shattered. Mist crawled up the wall and streamed through the jagged opening. The floor trembled. Cracking sounds popped all around. The entire room seemed to spin in a slow rotation, like the beginning of a carousel ride.
“Nathan!” Dr. Gordon shouted. “He’s creating a dimensional hole! He’ll take us all to his domain!”
“How can he? There’s no mirror!”
“He can stretch one of the wounds that already exists.”
The spin accelerated, drawing Nathan toward the window. “How do we stop him? He’s electrified!”
Dr. Gordon staggered toward Nathan, fighting the centrifugal force, but he managed only two steps. “Neutralize his song!”
Nathan leaned toward the center of the room but kept sliding away “I don’t have my violin!”
The outer wall collapsed. Fog rolled out and tumbled into the expanse, six stories above the ground. The floor buckled and pitched, knocking everyone to their seats. While Nathan pushed to keep from being spun out of the room, the nurse’s body slid across the tile and plunged over the edge with the river of red mist.
Too weak to fight, Nathan slipped toward the precipice. He latched on to the partitioning curtain and hung on with all his strength.
Mictar took a quick breath and sang on.
The bed’s side table bumped against Nathan’s body. The pen fell, bounced off his shoulder, and disappeared in the fog. Still hanging on to the curtain with one hand, he looked up at the wobbling table. The radio! With his free hand, he shook the supporting leg and caught the radio as it fell. With a quick twist, he turned the volume to maximum.
Now playing a Dvořák symphony, the radio blasted measure after measure of deep cellos and kettle drums. Trumpets blared. Cymbals crashed. Violins joined in and created a tsunami of music that swept through the room.
As if squeezed toward him, the mist swirled around Mictar’s body. His song weakened. He coughed and gasped, but he managed to spew a string of obscenities before finally shouting, “You haven’t seen the last of me, son of Solomon!”
The mist covered his head and continued to coil around him until he looked like a tightly wound scarlet cocoon. The room’s spin slowed, and the cocoon seemed to absorb the momentum. Mictar transformed into a red tornado and shrank as if slurped into an invisible void.
Seconds later, he vanished. Everything stopped shaking. Nathan turned off the radio and crawled up the sloping floor to where everyone else crouched. Dr. Gordon latched on to Nathan’s wrist and heaved him up the rest of the way. His voice stayed calm and low. “Well done, Nathan.”
Kelly threw her arms around Nathan from one side and Clara did the same from the other. “Don’t ever leave me alone again,” Kelly said, “not for a single minute.”
Sirens wailed. An amplified voice barked from somewhere below, but Nathan paid no attention to the words. He just pulled his friends closer and enjoyed their embraces.
Tony, sitting on his haunches in front of Nathan, clenched his fist. “Now that’s what I call taking out the trash!”
Forbidden Doors
A Four-Volume Series from
Bestselling Author Bill Myers!
Some doors are better left unopened.
Join teenager Rebecca “Becka” Williams, her brother Scott, and her friend Ryan Riordan as they head for mind-bending clashes between the forces of darkness and the kingdom of God.
Echoes From the Edge
A New Trilogy from
Bestselling Author Bryan Davis!
This fast-paced adventure fantasy trilogy starts with murder and leads teenagers Nathan and Kelly out of their once-familiar world as they struggle to find answers to the tragedy. A mysterious mirror with phantom images, a camera that takes pictures of things they can’t see, and a violin that unlocks unrecognizable voices … each enigma takes the teens further into an alternate universe where nothing is as it seems.
Eternity’s Edge
Book Two
Softcover • ISBN: 978-0-310-71555-9
Nathan Shepherd thought his parents were murdered during an investigation, but it turns out his parents are alive after all! With the imminent collapse of the universe at hand due to a state called Interfinity, Nathan sets out to find them. With Kelly at his side, he must balance his efforts between searching for his parents and saving the world. Will Nathan be reunited with his parents?
Book 3 coming soon!
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Visit www.zondervan.com/teen
The Shadowside Trilogy
by Robert Elmer!
Those who live in lush comfort on the bright side of the small planet Corista have plundered the water resources of Shadowside for centuries, ignoring the existence of Shadowside’s inhabitants, who are nothing more than animals. Or so the Brightsiders have been taught. It will take a special young woman to expose the truth—and to help avert the war that is sure to follow—in the exciting Shadowside Trilogy, the latest sci-fi adventure from Robert Elmer.
Trion Rising
Book One
Softcover • ISBN: 978-0-310-71421-7
When the mysterious Jesmet, whom the authorities brand as a Magician of the Old Order, begins to connect with Oriannon, he is banished forever to the shadow side of their planet Corista.
The Owling
Book Two
Softcover • ISBN: 978-0-310-71422-4
Life is turned upside down on Corista for 15-year-old Oriannon and her friends. The planet’s axis has shifted, bringing chaos to Brightside and Shadowside. And Jesmet, the music mentor who was executed for saving their lives, is alive and promises them a special power called the Numa—if they’ll just wait.
Book 3 coming soon!
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Visit www.zondervan.com/teen
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Other books by Bryan Davis
Dragons in Our Midst® series:
Raising Dragons
The Candlestone
Circles of Seven
Tears of a Dragon
Oracles of Fire® series:
Eye of the Oracle
Enoch’s Ghost
Pronunciation Guide:
Mictar — Mis-tawr’
Patar — Paw-tar’
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Share Your Thoughts
With the Author: Your comments will be forwarded to the author when you send them to zauthor@zondervan.com.
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