by Sam Cheever
Fresh tears glistened in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Of course I will. But you’ll be back. Right?”
I never got a chance to answer because the front wall rumbled under a horrendous new attack. One of the barricades exploded inward, sending shards of wood through the room like deadly spears. An enormous, clawed hand shot through the opening and scraped the air.
Alina and Hawk flew to the breach with their weapons, firing thick, golden energy at the beast. It roared in pain, but the claw continued to scrape the air, flinging furniture and chunks of the wall around the room. One enormous eye filled the opening, surrounded by scaly black skin.
Alina flung a knife at the eye and the monster reared back, roaring its rage.
I gave Sissy a quick hug. “Get out of here, Sis. All of you. Now!”
Then I ran toward the basement door and threw it open. Plunging down the steps before I could change my mind.
28
I set a ward on the inside of the door and ran down the stairs. Tears nearly blinded me. The constant explosions and rumbling above my head kept me moving forward. Dirt sifted down from the rafters, the soft whine of latent magic singing through the basement, like the keening of a dying animal. I shoved emotions away, allowing the urgency of the moment to replace my painful thoughts.
Placing a hand on the rock wall hiding the portal, I felt Victoria throb like the beat of a frantic heart against my fingers. “I’m so sorry,” I told her, sadness softening my knees. “I can’t save you too.”
The heartbeat beneath my fingers slowed, softened, and a warm draft slid over me. The breeze was filled with comfort and love, and I knew it was from Grams.
Grams was the heart of Victoria. She was the soul of the big old house, her magic keeping it alive and magical. And she had told me how to do what I needed to do. She had to have known what it would mean.
The loss of everything I loved.
I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
The door at the top of the stairs shuddered under a brutal assault. My fingers started moving of their own volition, forming the spell to open the portal on the air. Black dots and slashes formed on the surface of the wall in front of me, sliding into symbols that claimed their existence in ancient times in another dimension. The spell had been passed down to me through Grams, who’d learned it at the knee of her own grandmother, and back through time. I’d used the spell only once before, when Grams had been teaching me how to protect and manage the portal. She’d drilled it into me relentlessly then, as she’d explained that I would probably only use it in an emergency situation.
Her words had been prescient.
The door quaked under another assault. Dust sifted down onto my head. Whatever was pounding on the door was strong. And determined.
I prayed Sis had gotten everyone out in time. And that they’d made it to safety before the Body gained access to Victoria.
I was a little surprised I hadn’t felt the breach through Victoria’s bones. That was worrying. What if the Body had already figured out how to rip the house’s influence away from me?
The portal began to open beneath the spell, which glowed an eye-searing amber as the magic worked.
The door shuddered.
The floor beneath my feet trembled as something big hit the house.
I was out of time.
I completed the spell just as the door crashed back on its hinges. With one last look around the familiar and comforting room, I stepped through the portal and began crafting the spell to close it again. I worked fast, my fingers flying and my heart pounding against my tonsils.
Still, the portal was only half closed when a large figure jumped off the bottom step and barreled toward me.
My heart stuttered. My fingers stalled. And Hawk threw Boyle at me before diving through the quickly closing portal.
Sobbing in relief, I hugged the baby close. Hawk rolled to his feet. “We have about five minutes before the whole house comes down, and every one of your friends is killed inside.”
As motivational speeches went, it was a good one. Brutal but succinct.
I didn’t stop to ask what he meant. I already knew. They were on the third floor, maybe on the roof. Victoria had barricaded them inside her emergency wards. It would take a massive strike to get through that ward.
The only reason the house was still standing was the portal. The Magistrate wouldn’t deliberately bring the house down as long as the portal existed. Assuming his thugs knew the plan.
From the sounds of the assault, I somehow doubted they did.
Once I’d closed the portal down, maybe Hawk and I could find a way back to help them beat the Body back for good.
It was an impossible situation. I knew that even as I started running down a portal with a grassy floor and bright blue sky above.
I’d learned a little something about portal travel in my vision.
And I was about to shorten the learning curve a bit more.
Because I didn’t have time to run endlessly through a long, long tunnel.
While we ran, I quizzed Hawk. “What’s happening at Victoria?”
“They’re safe for now. Sissy was creating a triple wall of wards that will take the Body some time to break through. Alina is on the roof, doing what she can to keep them at bay.”
His eyes darkened, swung away.
“What?”
“They were trying to burn the house. We need to move fast.”
Son of a bunion! I picked up speed, trying to grab the magic of the portal with my mind. I needed to demand that it shorten. Override its obvious tendency to prolong the passage.
But it wasn’t working.
And panic at the idea of Victoria burning made it hard to think. Hard to imagine…
I slammed to a stop, jerking a short bark of surprise out of Boyle.
“Glynn?” Hawk asked, his handsome face dark with worry. “What is it?”
I shook my head, breathing too hard to speak. Instead, I shoved Boyle at him and dropped to my knees, burying my hands in the thick grass. I closed my eyes and reached for Grams. It was her consciousness that had brought me to Outvald before. Her magic infused into the medallion that allowed me to set the process for closing it.
I was dimly aware of Hawk shouting my name, of Boyle softly crying, but I forced my mind away from them. Into the power infusing the big house I’d left behind. Grams? I queried softly. Help me. Even to me, my voice sounded weak and terrified. I hated being weak. I knew Grams would hate it too. But I was beyond the point where any of that mattered. All that mattered at that moment was saving my friends.
And Victoria.
A soft haze swirled through my mind. It had a calming energy, warm and soothing amid my roiling thoughts. I recognized the signature of the energy and reached for it, digging metaphysical fingers into the mist and letting it infuse everything inside me, bathing me in knowledge.
Grams’s face appeared in the mist─the sharp, knowing gaze I remembered so well, the gentle curve of her smile.
You know what to do, child. Set aside the doubts and embrace your magic. No one controls the portal but you. No one speaks to its energy as you do. You have been chosen to protect it…to mold its power until it serves your unique purposes. You are its mistress. And you have the power you need to inform its actions.
The mist expanded, sliding through me and leaving behind an energy that sparked my own power, drawing it forward like a breeze that fans a flame. Power rose through me, warming and strengthening, and I fed it into the soil beneath my fingers.
It surged deep into the earth, feeding it with the power to accept my commands. I gasped in surprise as my fingers touched the bright spark of the medallion in the soil. Heat flared from its twin around my neck.
The power burned my skin, painful and bright. I shuddered violently as the medallion slipped beneath my skin. Its energy shot away from my core and melded seamlessly with the energy pulsing in the pendant I’d buried in my vision.
P
ower blew upward, blasting into me. My body arced away from it, my eyes snapping open. Heat and energy exploded into a tunnel of pure energy that stretched as far as the eye could see. Hawk gave a sharp cry as he was thrown backward, out of my line of sight.
The power burned into me, through me, searing the air and scorching its way through my lungs, eyes, hands, and heart.
It painted the world in a conflagration that boiled the very air around me, bathing it in light.
As quickly as it erupted, the power sliced off. I slammed forward from the loss of resistance, my face smashing into the deep, soft grass.
A high-pitched, wobbly whistling sound sheered past a few feet in front of me and then cut off with a decisive snap.
My gaze spun toward it, just in time to see the portal snap closed.
I lay there a moment, taking inventory of all my limbs and finding them all in working order. My chest still heaved from the expulsion of so much magic. There was a sooty taste on the back of my tongue and my skin felt as if I had been boiled alive. But I wasn’t burned, just sore.
I was okay. I’d survived.
Boyle and Hawk!
I shoved upward in a full-on panic. My gaze scanned the area around me and I found them. Hawk stood with Boyle still cradled in his arms. The big man’s gaze was focused somewhere behind me, filled with awe.
“Glynnie!” the baby screamed, shoving free of Hawk’s grip and running to me. “Our house!”
I hugged him tightly, tears of relief and sadness filling my eyes. “I’m sorry, sweet boy. I couldn’t save it.”
He bounced in my arms, ripping free before I could stop him and running away.
“No! Boyle, stay close,” I turned. “It’s danger…” My words cut off, astonishment made me step back, away from the sight before me.
Victoria? How was that poss…
The front door opened and Sissy burst through it. “Glynn!” She was smiling, her gaze alight. “Look what you did.”
Art came through next, followed by a slow-moving Micha Blunt and Alina, looking confused.
“What in the goddess’s supreme power just happened?”
The voice came from Victoria’s roof, and it was one I didn’t recognize. We all looked up to find a Body soldier standing just outside my bedroom window, an energy weapon clutched in each hand. His gaze slowly scanned downward, focusing on Hawk. His eyes widened and his hands came up, the weapons focused on Hawk.
“Glynn,” Hawk said.
“Yes,” I whispered back, rage making it hard to breathe.
“Cover Boyle’s eyes,” he said.
I didn’t hesitate. A beat later, energy flared from two weapons, spearing the man on the roof and lifting him into the air. Then Hawk and Alina redirected the energy downward with a quick flick of their wrists, slamming the man to the ground in front of Victoria.
He hit hard enough to break every bone in his body, bounced once, and then lay perfectly still.
I narrowed my gaze on him, and something opened up on the air behind him. I didn’t even have time to panic before the portal sucked the man inside and yanked him away, snapping cleanly closed a heartbeat later.
Alina nodded happily, blew on her gun, and jammed it back into its holster.
Well, I thought. That just happened.
“Where are we?” Art asked, looking around at the arrow-shaped trees and strange vegetation.
I winced. He wasn’t going to like my answer. So I evaded his question like a champ. “I could really use some tea.”
Sissy spun in a slow circle, taking in her new surroundings. Her eyes widened. “Beautiful!” She clapped her hands. “I love it!”
Alina seemed to take it all in stride. “I could use something to eat.”
Art laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulders and leading her into the house. To my vast surprise, the two of them made comfortable small talk on the way. I hadn’t thought the gorgeous Hunter capable of small talk. In my experience she barely spoke at all.
Micah tapped Sissy on the shoulder. “I don’t suppose we could get you to bake some of your righteous brownies?” His eyes were alight as Sissy smiled back at him. “Maybe. If you talk real sweet to me.”
He chuckled, the sound warm and intimate. “I can do that.”
Goddesses galoshes! Why hadn’t I known about that? I made a mental note to verbally flog my friend later for not telling me she had what gave every indication of being a blossoming relationship with her sexy neighbor.
Boyle bounced toward the house. A big, black shape burst through the open front door and bounded across the yard, black tongue lolling happily.
Nicht!
The big hound skidded to a stop in front of Boyle and went into a playful half-crouch, butt up and tail manically wagging.
Boyle shrieked with happiness as Nicht’s big tongue scoured his little face.
I sniffled and scrubbed at happy tears. I’d thought I’d lost all of it. My son, my friends, my…Hawk. I really wasn’t sure how to classify him. But I was willing to put the time into finding out.
Somehow I hadn’t lost any of them.
Eyes moist and heart pounding with happy excitement. I slid my gaze over the old house sitting in the center of a thick copse of vibrant green grass. Even the big old Oak tree had come along on the trip. And as I peered carefully at the tree, I saw a pair of bright blue eyes and a small black form perched on one of the lower branches, tail snapping.
The small black cat.
Hawk came up beside me. We watched in silence as everybody else disappeared into Victoria. He slid an assessing glance around the area, frowning. “I’m guessing this is Outvald?”
I winced again. “Yeah.”
“So, somehow, you managed to bring everybody, including the house and the tree along with us when you closed the portal?”
I nodded, unable to speak and not knowing what I’d say anyway.
He expelled a long breath. “Okay then. Well, I guess that’s that.” I watched him walk away, admiring the view, and felt real happiness for the first time in days.
Yeah. That was that.
Epilogue
I sat on the porch in Grams’s favorite rocking chair, the small black cat nestled happily in my lap. I rocked gently, listening to the silence surrounding the house and enjoying the enormous silver moon high above my head in a clear night sky.
We’d quickly realized the wards Victoria had engaged in Render, were about ten times stronger in Outvald, encompassing the entire house and several acres of ground around it. Despite my initial fear of the monsters I’d seen around the portal and in my visions, none passed by close enough to be a concern. It was as if the house’s protections worked better and spread farther in the new dimension. Which made a twisted kind of sense, since our family had originally come from Outvald, a couple of centuries earlier.
I made a mental note to spend some time in Victoria’s library reading the family histories I’d avoided like the plague to that point.
My mind was brimming with worries and uncertainty as I sat there rocking. I was exhausted, and specters of the past and future had always held sway with my mind when I was tired. I told myself that I’d shove them away for one night. We’d begin working through the logistics of our new home in the morning.
We’d need to figure out a food source, an energy source, and so many other things in the morning. There were the injured, though with Victoria’s enhanced magic and Sissy’s help, I expected we’d get them fixed up pretty quickly.
Then we’d have to figure out how to feed everybody, clothe them, and find them a place to live.
We didn’t even know if there were other people nearby and, if there were, what they were like. Would they be friendly? Or warlike?
Then there were thoughts of what we’d left behind. Della sat high on the list of those thoughts. I worried about her. She was all alone in Render, vulnerable in her spot below the earth. I’d promised myself we’d find a way to help her.
I fully intende
d to keep that promise.
And Mitch. Sadness swamped me. I needed to somehow break him free from the Body’s clutches.
Then there were the people in Magical Indy. They were being preyed upon by the Body. We needed to stop that and save them.
I frowned, having no idea how to do any of it from Outvald.
Somehow, I needed to return us to the Earth dimension.
The thought filled me with fear and worry. Could I do it? And would Victoria come back with me if I did?
The house fit into the Outvald countryside as if it belonged there. It sank deep into the land like it had never left. I’d felt a new peace within Victoria’s walls when I’d gone inside. And I worried she wouldn’t want to return to what was basically a hostile world on Earth.
I sighed, stroking the cat’s silky fur as I pushed my thoughts away, trying to find some calm.
“I’ve missed this beautiful place,” Grams said.
My eyes shot open. My head jerked around. To my surprise, a very solid Grams sat in the other rocking chair. Her head was bent over a soft cloud of yellow and green yarn, her gnarled fingers guiding the needles through it with a dexterity gained from hours and hours of knitting. “Grams!”
Her head came up and she smiled at me. “Don’t look so surprised, child. You’ve always known I was here.”
I half-turned in my chair. “In spirit yes, but…” I reached out and gently squeezed her arm. It felt cool to the touch but solid enough.
Grams chuckled softly. “Still in spirit, child. But Outvald is my home. My spirit is stronger here.”
“Oh. Of course.” Disappointment yanked some of the excitement from my voice when I responded.
The needles ceased their movement. Her smile turned gentle. “Don’t look like that, child.”
“Like what?” I asked, trying to appear happy.
“Like someone kicked your favorite puppy.” She patted my arm. “You don’t need me anymore. You’re fully invested as a portal protector. You’ve finally embraced your destiny.”
I frowned. “I embraced that years ago. When you died.”