The kids.
The black shapes were children — hanging like rag-dolls in the air, heads bent down to their chests, their arms and legs swaying limply to and fro. They hung in a perfect circle over the water, the formation turning slowly as the ocean roared beneath them.
“They’re above the portal—she’s trying to open it,” Tejus muttered.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the earth started to tremble. The temple, down in the landslide in front of us, cracked, its stone entrance falling with an almighty crash. I thought the Acolytes might turn around, but they stayed in their trance-like state, droning on. The rocks of the pathway we’d just left started to collapse in on one another, making the gap smaller – if it fell any further we’d be trapped.
Behind the kids, I could see more rips starting to appear in the sky—jagged tears that exposed more of the night’s sky, like an endless abyss waited for us on the other side of this dimension.
“We need to stop them. What do you suggest, Tejus?” Ash turned to his commander.
Tejus was silent, looking out to the ocean where the water was being whipped into a frenzy, his face pale. I could see my own fear reflected in his eyes – that we had come too late, that Queen Trina had succeeded in raising the entity.
That we didn’t have a hope in Nevertide of getting out of this thing alive.
Rose
The tar was burping and bubbling, the gap that let in chinks of daylight gradually widening till the tar was drawn back completely, and the bluish, swirling mists of the portal floated upward—the wisps of the portal’s tunnel mingling with the choppy waves.
“Do we have any idea who’s opening it?” I asked Mona.
She shook her head. “No, which is what I’m worried about.”
Maybe it’s one of the kids. Maybe they’d managed to find a witch or jinni to help them on the other side.
“We should still take the advantage,” my father replied. “If there is a threat then we need to contain it…and I want to see my grandchildren.” My mother nodded, her green eyes anxious but resolute.
“Do we have any idea if the power opening it is a benevolent one? Or is this dark magic?” Sherus asked, still uneasy about GASP’s decision to explore the portal.
“I don’t know that either,” Mona replied. “The only way we’ll know is by getting to the other side. The one thing I can tell you is that the magic is powerful…and it feels old.”
“I don’t like this,” Sherus muttered.
“You’re not the only one,” Nuriya muttered. “But what choice do we have? This is family.”
Lidera looked sideways at her brother. “Sherus. If whatever is on the other side of this portal is a threat to the fae, then we need to investigate. Our people are relying on us. We can’t let them down.”
Sherus didn’t reply, but with a small nod of his head he acknowledged his sister’s words.
“Are we ready?” my father asked, glancing around him one last time at the members of GASP who were assembled. It was a huge operation: Caleb and I, my mom, Ashley and Landis, Claudia and Yuri all standing closest to the portal, with the witches, jinn, fae, werewolves and other vampires closely behind. The dragons hovered above the portal, waiting for my father to give the signal to go down. We all nodded.
My father went first, followed by my mother, Mona, Kiev and then Caleb and I.
The blue mists spun around us, fast, blocking the light that I had seen emanating from the dimension we were traveling to. The portal started to get darker—the blue mists turned a dark navy, and then a charcoal black…
“What’s happening?” I called out, hoping Mona could hear me.
I started to hear the sound of ragged breathing. At first I thought it was coming from me, that I was starting to get frightened, but then I realized it seemed to be coming from inside my head, then all around me, till I was hardly aware of anything apart from the deep, laborious sounds of breath.
What is that?
The walls of the portal started to shake. I felt Caleb’s hand grab mine. Something was horribly wrong.
In the next moment, I heard a voice. As clear as day, as if, like the breathing, it was coming from inside my own head.
Welcome, the voice whispered, cloying and soft. I have waited an eternity for this day to arrive. That you will be here to witness my rise, foolish fae king, means more to me than you could possibly know…
I tried to spin around in the weightless mist, seeking Sherus out, but he was nowhere to be seen—there were too many of us hurtling down the portal. What I did understand, from the flickers of the shocked faces of GASP, was that the voice had not just been in my own head…everyone else had heard it too.