"Is it harmful?" My voice sounds hoarse. I had no idea this would happen.
"The vegetation is a straight loss. Animals and humans tend to clear out-or else they suffer the effects of exposure."
"What effects?"
"Short-term, the effects are headaches, irritability, confusion, nausea. Similar to what you described feeling last night. Long-term, we're still analyzing the data."
"Were you here for that?" I ask Maia, who's standing a few feet away.
"Yeah. I felt awful for about a week. It sucked. We were all here. We all felt it."
I look around me, at Low and the half-dozen people here. Then wander off, feeling dazed. And responsible.
I opened the portal.
Marcus and Jode make their way over and join me.
"How you doing?" Marcus asks. He drops his arm across my shoulders and tucks me against his side, which makes my eyes blur.
"Apart from the fact that I unknowingly made this happen? I'm fantastic."
Jode stuffs his hands in his pockets and bunches his shoulders against the chill morning air. "Mad, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"None of us knew, Daryn."
"I know."
Gideon is with Low and Maia. As he gestures to the Tetons, sunlight flashes on his prosthetic hand. I ache to get a closer look at it. I ache to get a closer look at him. But I don't expect him to come over like Jode and Marcus, so I just say what I need to say.
"I lost the Sight right after this … after we were last here." I swallow the gritty emotion in my voice. "It just stopped and I didn't know if it would be wrong to go after Bas without it. And I didn't want to mess up. I didn't want either of you to get hurt, or Gideon, too. I mean more hurt, in his case. Even though I didn't know about his hand or about Bas in the fall. You know I'd never-I'd never have let that happen … "
I'm rambling. But Marcus saves me. "D, it's all right."
"You have to be so angry at me."
Jode rolls his eyes. "Would we ever hurt you on purpose?"
"Maybe you're not mad, but … Gideon."
They exchange a look. "Talk to him," Jode says.
"I don't see that happening." Regardless, something starts to patch together inside me. This is a good step with Jode and Marcus, at least. Suddenly I feel a rush of optimism. I want to catch up on the past eight months. "You looked handsome, Marcus."
He smiles. "Right now?"
"In your uniform at the ceremony in Georgia."
He laughs. "So not right now?"
"Yes, right now. But especially that day."
"Cease, Daryn, I beg you. Or we'll never hear the end of it." The smile fades from Jode's eyes as he looks past me. "Here come our marching orders."
Natalie Cordero walks across this devastation with a sure stride and sensible heels. She's put on dark sunglasses and it unnerves me to not see her eyes. "It makes an impact, doesn't it?" she says. "I wanted to show you this so you'd have some sense of the effect of going into the Rift."
"The Rift?"
"Last night you used the word a few times when you described crossing over. My team liked it and we needed to call the realm something. They also adopted a variation of your description for the creature. They're calling it a Harrow."
Ugh. Your description. And my team. I hear what she's not saying, loud and clear.
Cordero removes her sunglasses and slips them into the pocket of her jacket. "Daryn, I know you want to go back for Sebastian. We all do. But as you can see, we can't do that here without causing serious damage to the surroundings, not to mention the danger it would mean if some of the Harrows were to escape. We need to move to a safer location where the signature won't be as evident and where I can stage a covert defense force.
"My analysts have recommended a site in the Nevada desert. It's desolate. The terrain won't show the signature, like here. And it's already government property, so it's secure. I have people setting it up. It'll be ready for us when we get there."
I try to wrap my head around what she just said. "You want to relocate everyone to Nevada?"
"I'm going to relocate everyone to Nevada. It's already happening." She checks her watch. "We fly out in two hours."
"Well, have a nice flight. I'm not going anywhere until I find Shadow."
"We found her. Rather, she came back to the ranch and we were able to bring her in. She was trailered to the airport ten minutes ago and loaded onto the plane."