The Gateway Trilogy: Complete Series: (Books 1-3)

by Christina Garner

  “My fellow Elders,” he said, rising. “There is clearly plenty for you to discuss with regard to the information Ember has already provided, and Ember herself has just undergone a very trying ordeal and is understandably exhausted. I must insist she be allowed to rest before continuing.”

  “Master Dogan,” Nicholas said, his face stern, “may I remind you that you are not the authority here? An honored guest to be sure, but a guest only.”

  “Of course,” Master Dogan said graciously, then turned to me. “If I might make a suggestion, in strictly my capacity as your mentor, with no authority at all?”

  “Of course,” I said, unsure what was happening.

  “For once, do not sacrifice your own well-being for the perceived well-being of others,” he said, his tone a shade hotter than I’d ever heard it. “And kindly tell anyone who would deny you the rest you need, to...to...bugger off!”

  I bit my lip to stifle the laughter that threatened to burst forth, while Taren studied his shoes. Master Dogan’s cheeks colored and he cleared his throat, surreptitiously brushing non-existent lint from his robes. A moment later his face returned to its usual state of calm.

  “Yes, well, you make an excellent point,” I said, doing my best to keep my expression neutral. “I will take your advice, as non-authoritative as it is, and ask that I be shown to my room.”

  Nicholas’s face bordered on apoplectic and his mouth worked silently. Maria, the youngest of the Elders—which is to say she looked to be in her late forties—rose from her seat.

  “Very well,” she said, and came down to meet us. “I will take you to your quarters.”

  27

  Before the other Elders could demand I stay, Master Dogan, Taren, and I followed her out of the hall and across the piazza. We were headed toward a small row of cottages when someone called out to me.

  “Em!”

  I turned to see Kat, vibrant as ever, barreling toward me. She lifted me in a bear hug and spun me once around.

  “If you’re gonna keep getting yourself into this much trouble, we better switch names,” she said. “Cos you’re the one who needs nine lives!”

  Her words were light-hearted, but I could tell by the genuine relief on her face and the tightness of her embrace that she’d been almost as worried as Taren.

  “What did you find?” Taren asked, ever the pragmatist.

  Kat shifted her focus from me to Taren and her face took on a look of frustration. “Nothing but dead bodies,” she said. “We’ve got his computer, but it wasn’t encrypted and so far there’s been nothing useful. A second team is doing a sweep just to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

  “I doubt you did. Alexander—” I paused, his name tasting like poison in my mouth. “He was smart. And other than the moles we need to find, he seemed to be working alone. That’s why he needed me.”

  Once again, Taren’s hands twitched at the mention of Alexander and his vile plans for me. For my part, I was using the technique he’d shown me, Partitioning off the portion of my mind that wanted to scream in outrage and terror. It was part of the abyss now. Something in my gut told me I’d have to dive into that abyss sooner or later, but I was choosing later. There was too much else to do.

  Kat joined us as Maria ushered us into one of the small cottages. She flipped a switch, illuminating what was basically a studio apartment. In one corner was a double bed, in the other a small sitting area, with the rest of the room taken up by a small kitchenette and dining table.

  Once she’d established we didn’t need anything else, Maria excused herself, no doubt to rejoin what was sure to be a lengthy discussion about what I’d revealed thus far.

  I sank into the sofa, exhaustion pushing me deeper into the cushions.

  Once again Master Dogan expressed how glad he was that I was safe and how sorry he was that I’d gone through such an ordeal. When he asked if I’d like to speak with my mother, I surprised myself by saying no.

  “I just don’t think I could handle it,” I said. “Not yet. I don’t have the strength to pretend that none of this happened.”

  “Perfectly understandable,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow when you’ve had some rest.”

  I nodded, and Master Dogan excused himself so that he could observe the Elders’ meeting.

  Taren sat next to me, draping his arm across my shoulders while Kat took a chair opposite us.

  “So, how are you really?” she said, resting her elbows on her knees.

  I shrugged and said, “Who knows? I’m alive. I’m trying to focus on that for now.”

  Kat gave a nod of approval; Guardians, at least, could respect my need to just keep moving forward no matter the circumstances.

  “Does it make you feel any better that Taren killed the bastard?” she asked, her expression telling me it made her feel better.

  “Kat, enough,” Taren said before I could answer. “Let’s give her a little time to breathe.”

  “OK, OK, you’re right,” Kat said, leaning back in her chair. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

  I knew I should speak up then, while we were alone, about Cole but I couldn’t find the words. While I’d been grateful for his silence at first, it had stretched so long that I began to wonder if he’d been a figment of my imagination. Had I made him up? An imaginary friend to help me access my powers and make my escape? I wasn’t sure which was the more preferable answer.

  Cole? Are you there?

  The silence troubled me, but instead of talking about it, I asked about Taren’s mother, surprised she hadn’t come to see me. He told me she was pulling duty at the Gateway, so strapped for competent help was this Institute. The taint of the demons was growing, he said, as were the number of Retrievals.

  My brain once again tingled with a thought I was unable to catch, but weariness won out and I tucked myself deeper into Taren’s arms, falling into a deep sleep while he and Kat spoke.

  28

  I’m playing with blocks.

  They’re slightly porous and I’m aware they’re made of animal bone. This doesn’t scare me though, I’m delighted, I feel myself smile as I stack them one atop the other.

  My mother comes over to me, carrying my younger brother in her arms. It’s not the mother I know, but I know for sure that she is my mother in that way that only happens in dreams.

  I run my hand along the carpet. No, not a carpet, a rug. A rug to cover the earthen floor of our small stone dwelling.

  She sets the toddler down beside me.

  “Watch Aaron for a few minutes, Luke. Mommy has to speak with some men.”

  I look up and see the same men that have come every day for the past week. They scare Mommy, I can tell by the way she crosses her arms in front of herself, and shifts from foot to foot as they talk to her.

  “Your husband was one of the biggest supporters of our cause,” one of the men says. He’s tall. As tall as Daddy was when he was alive.

  “And look where that got him,” Mommy says, forcing her arms to her sides. She’s less afraid now, more angry.

  “His sacrifice was not in vain,” man number two says.

  His tone is soothing, less challenging than the first man.

  “Of course it was in vain,” Mommy hisses beneath her breath, eyes darting in my direction. I duck my head and pretend to be intent on stacking the next block.

  “We cannot allow them to continue—”

  “Why can’t we?” she says, cutting off man one. “Who cares? Who are they hurting by—”

  The earth is shaking. I’m not scared, not like I used to be, but Aaron begins to cry. Mommy stumbles toward us.

  “It’s alright, sweetling. It will stop in a minute,” she says.

  The men are bracing themselves against the wall as the shaking continues. My older cousin once told me a story about an earthquake that had been caused by the top of a mountain exploding. Was that why the shaking wasn’t stopping? Had a mountaintop exploded?

  My teeth rattled against each other
and I began seeing double. I was being pulled, and I squirmed, trying to shake off whoever it was, but no one was touching me.

  The pulling intensified, and I was sure we all felt the same thing, for even the men seemed afraid. Mommy called out to the men, no longer able to steady themselves.

  “What is this? Some kind of attack?”

  Before they can answer, everything goes still. Eerily still.

  Mother scoops us up in her arms, while one of the men inspects the building. The other walks outside.

  “No damage,” he says when he returns.

  “Here either,” says the one who’d given our home a once-over.

  Aaron still mewls, but softer now. I wipe the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand. I hadn’t been scared. Not really.

  Now we’re high atop a hill, looking down on what had been a village of humans and Daemons. But it’s empty, now. Completely empty. They all are. There hadn’t been a human sighting in weeks, and even more frightening, no sightings of human sympathizers, as the two men called them.

  “Where did they go?” I ask, trying not to sound as scared as I am.

  She just shakes her head and says, “My sister...”

  My aunt had married a human, much to my father’s disgust. He’d insisted my mother cut off all communication with her, and she had, that he knew. But I knew she still shared the mind talk with her. Aunt Cassie just had a baby. Mother had been planning to sneak out and see them both. Until... Until they’d vanished. Mother kept reaching out for her, but Aunt Cassie was gone.

  29

  I woke with a start, causing Taren to stir on the sofa next to me. Kat was nowhere to be found.

  The dream had to have come from Cole. I wasn’t psychic—didn’t even know if I believed in psychics. But in the same way I knew my dreams of the Chasm weren’t really dreams, I knew this wasn’t either. A thought formed in my mind and I sprang up, racing for the door.

  “Ember, what is it?” Taren was on his feet now, but I didn’t slow.

  I bolted outside, the sky streaked with the colors of dawn, and ran barefoot across the cobblestones, headless of the pain.

  Which way? Where was the boundary?

  I broke right, running down the narrow path that divided two cottages.

  It couldn’t be much farther, I had to almost be—

  I was assaulted by a wave of nausea and I knew I’d reached it.

  Cole!

  I didn’t wait for him to answer.

  Cole, where are you? Where are you really?

  An image bloomed in my mind and I had my answer: a ragged bunch of people, some young, some old, all malnourished, some with angry boils erupting from their skin. But that wasn’t what made me shudder. It was the sky. There was only one place I’d ever seen a red sky with swirling black clouds, and it wasn’t during a rare thunderstorm in Los Angeles.

  Cole and his people were in the demon dimension.

  30

  On unsteady legs I crossed back into the Sanctuary. My connection with Cole winked out and the nausea receded.

  Taren reached me then, and gripped me by the shoulders.

  “What were you doing?” he said, searching my eyes, looking for a hint of possession, for anything that would suggest I was now under the power of the Root. “The Gateway is weakened, you know it’s too dangerous for you to go beyond the boundary.”

  “It’s not what you think,” I said. “It’s... We need Master Dogan.”

  Both Taren and Master Dogan sat in stunned silence while I spoke.

  When I finished, Master Dogan opened his mouth, then closed it again. Finally he gathered himself and said, “It’s not that I don’t want to believe you, it’s just not possible.”

  “Why not?” I said. “It stands to reason—not everyone caught on the now-demon side would have been against humans and Daemons mingling. Hundreds if not thousands could have been caught up on a side in a war they wanted no part of.”

  “Yes, of course, you’re right about that,” he said, “and what an injustice. But the idea that those innocents have remained sane while the rest of that world twisted in upon itself, becoming shadows of their former greatness? There would be no way—”

  “How can you say that?” I said. “How can you say what is possible or impossible when there was a time you thought my existence—and Gretchen’s—was impossible.”

  “It’s not the same,” Taren said gently.

  Though his expression told me it pained him to side against me, I felt betrayed all the same.

  “Then what? What is it I’m hearing in my head? How did I manage to escape if he’s not real?”

  Taren stared at the floor and Master Dogan cleared his throat.

  “You need to consider the possibility,” he said, “that this is the Root—”

  “No!” I said, my eyes stinging with angry tears. “I wouldn’t let that happen again. I wouldn’t!”

  Cole’s voice was different than that of the Root. Its voice had had no discernible gender, and it had a persuasive quality I found near impossible to resist, even once I knew what It was. Cole hadn’t tried to force me to do anything, he asked my permission…

  But something crumpled inside of me, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure. What if the Italian Root had realized Alexander wasn’t planning to open the Gateway? What better way to earn my trust than to help me escape, putting me right where It would want me—at the Gate?

  I went to the door, and when Taren made a move to follow, I held up my hand without looking back.

  I didn’t know what to believe anymore, but I knew what I needed.

  31

  “Mom?” The call was connected, but the screen still black. “Are you there?”

  I was huddled on the bed in my studio, knees hugged tightly to my chest. Whether by comparison or due to her understanding nature, I always felt less crazy when I talked with my mother. If there was ever a time when I needed a clear head…

  “I’m here,” she said, just as her face popped onto the tiny screen of my phone. Her eyes were clear, her smile broad.

  “It’s really good to see you, Mom,” I said, and fighting back tears.

  “Aw, babe, what’s wrong?” she said. “You still feeling homesick?”

  I nodded, unable to speak for fear I’d blurt out everything.

  “Yeah,” I said finally, wiping my eyes.

  “Well, I miss you too,” she said. “But don’t worry, nothing’s changed. It’ll be the same old L.A. when you get back.”

  “Yeah,” I said again, knowing I wouldn’t be the same.

  “Is there something else?” she said her eyebrows knitting together. “Did you have a fight with Taren or something?”

  Shocked at the accuracy of her intuition, I blurted out, “Kinda. I mean, we didn’t fight, but… he took someone else’s side in an argument.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Taren,” she said. “He’s usually so loyal. What was the argument about?”

  “I—I shouldn’t say…”

  “Institute stuff?”

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said running my hands through my hair. “I’m probably overreacting, anyway.”

  “Maybe,” she said, “but I wouldn’t be so sure. You have an annoying habit of being right.”

  I barked a laugh. If only she knew how inaccurate that statement was as of late.

  “I’m being serious, Em. You need to trust your gut.”

  How could I trust my gut when it was my gut that told me Alexander was a good guy who wanted to save the world?

  There was knock at the door and I knew it must be Taren, collecting me for the continuation of last night’s debriefing.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve got to go.”

  “That’s OK, babe. I had to leave soon anyway; I’m pulling a double shift today.”

  A double shift? Had those words ever even passed her lips before?

  I was struck by the irony of Mom being on an even keel while I was so off kilter.

  Another knock,
and Taren’s voice saying, “Em, you in there?”

  “I love you, Mom. Can’t wait to see you again,” I said, fighting to keep my emotions in check.

  “You, too, Em. Try to have a good time,” she said. “You know, when you aren’t saving the world.”

  I forced myself to match her smile and told her I’d try, then disconnected the call.

  When I opened the door, Taren was waiting, fist raised, ready to knock again.

  “Oh, sorry,” he said, “I was just… worried.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We’d only gone a few steps when he stopped and said, “Are you OK? Are you still mad?”

  “No… I mean, maybe. I don’t know,” I said, flustered. “But if I am I’ll get over it. It’s not what’s important now.”

  “Right, OK,” he said, and resumed walking.

  If there was one thing Taren understood, it was prioritizing.

  “Please,” I said. “You have to at least look into it.”

  Against Master Dogan’s whispered advice upon my arrival at the hall, I’d told the Elders about Cole. If there was a chance that Cole and his people really were trapped, that they were full-blooded Daemons who could be recruited to our cause, I had to take the chance.

  They looked at me as though I’d sprouted a second head.

  Nicholas didn’t respond, choosing instead to address Master Dogan. “And you? How do you feel about what your student claims?”

  I held my breath and braced for him to say I was mistaken.

  “I believe it’s possible,” he said, to my surprise. “And worth investigating.”

  “And how would you propose we investigate such a claim?” Nicholas said. “She has admitted that she cannot speak with this Cole unless she is past the boundary of the Sanctuary, which by itself is indicative of his true nature. Should we allow her to go beyond the boundary where the risk is very great that she will come under the influence of what she herself has admitted is a Root far more powerful than the one she succumbed to previously?”