Chapter 21 #2
Just like the other times I’d jumped a portal, I couldn’t tell if I was falling, flying, spinning, or all three at once. There really should have been warning labels for this sort of thing. Or safety rails. Or tiny complimentary barf bags.
“Tess! I hate you!” screamed Ronin from somewhere behind me.
His high-pitched voice almost made me smile. Almost. The fact that he still had enough oxygen to complain was oddly reassuring.
I stole a look behind me. It was dark, but I could still make out some shapes.
Beverly was holding on to her breasts like they might fall off.
Ruth had one of the biggest smiles, her arms out like she was a human-airplane.
Ronin had his eyes closed, and he looked green while Iris gave me a thumbs up.
Dolores looked… not sure how she looked.
She had a calculated expression, like she was trying to figure out how exactly the portal worked.
Leave it to Dolores to treat interdimensional transportation like a math problem.
If she survived this trip, she’d probably write a report about it.
The big presence next to me was Marcus in his gorilla form. He was focused, not a glimpse of fear, just hard concentration. His massive shape moved through the portal current like he weighed nothing.
So far so good. We were all still intact, which considering my previous portal experience, felt like a major victory. Martha’s bathtub wasn’t here. Nobody appeared to be missing limbs. Standards had become surprisingly flexible.
The magical current whipped around us, dragging us forward through a tunnel of shifting shadows and impossible sensations. Colors I couldn’t identify flickered at the edge of my vision. Sounds echoed in strange directions.
I clenched my teeth and forced myself to focus.
Darian.
Nothing else mattered. Not the possibility that I might emerge inside a mountain. Or inside a tree. Or inside a tax accountant’s office. Portal magic still felt like it enjoyed practical jokes.
Darian. My kid.
I pictured his face. His messy hair. The way he grinned whenever he thought he’d gotten away with something.
The sticky fingerprints he somehow managed to leave on every surface in the house despite Marcus cleaning like it was an Olympic sport.
The way he’d run toward me when he wanted a hug.
The way he laughed when he thought he’d told the funniest joke in the world. My chest tightened painfully.
I grabbed on to those memories and held on with everything I had. They became an anchor, a lifeline, a direction.
My son was at the other end of this, and I was going to find him.
The portal surged.
Heat rushed past me. The pressure around my body doubled and then tripled. The current grabbed harder, as though it had finally decided where we were going and was now eager to get there. Somewhere behind me I heard Ronin make a sound that suggested he was questioning every decision he’d ever made.
Suddenly, a pale light appeared ahead.
Small at first.
Then larger.
The opening expanded rapidly until it filled my entire field of vision. The light grew brighter and brighter until it swallowed the darkness around it.
The magical current seized me and hurled me forward.
My breath caught as the darkness vanished. Solid ground slammed into my feet. Momentum carried me forward, and I crashed to my knees on a cold concrete floor.
Pain shot through both kneecaps. “Ow.”
I stayed there for a second, breathing hard and trying to convince my stomach that we were no longer traveling through magical insanity. My organs slowly seemed to return to their assigned seating arrangement. Mostly.
The air smelled faintly of chemicals and disinfectant. Underneath that was something else. Metal. Electricity. Sterile cleanliness. The kind of smell that made me suspicious.
Metal tables lined the room. Banks of equipment blinked with tiny lights, and somewhere nearby, machinery hummed steadily in the background. Monitors flashed. Glass containers reflected the harsh overhead lighting. Shadows stretched between rows of equipment.
A lab. I’d found the lab.
“Is this Addison’s lab?” came Dolores’s voice.
I turned to look at her. “Yes. It’s the same one.” I did a quick check to make sure we were all still in one piece. Ronin, Iris, Beverly, Ruth and Marcus were all here. We’d all made it.
Then with a pop of displaced air, my portal folded on itself and then it was gone.
“Darriiian,” growled Marcus before his massive body shot forward.
“Shit. Marcus!” I ran after him as he crashed through metal tables and cabinets.
He stopped moving. And then I saw why.
Darian.
He was sitting in a medical chair, his lids droopy like he was fighting sleep.
A cry escaped me as I rushed over. “Darian.” I ran my hands over him, shaking. He had a catheter in his arm connected to tube that was draining his blood. I pulled it out of his arm and tossed it. “You’re fine. You’re fine.”
Darian blinked. “Hi, Mommy.”
“Hi, sweetie,” I said, my voice trembling.
Darian stared at the tiny bruise on his arm where the catheter had been. “Mommy, she said my blood was medicine.”
Well, that nearly undid me. But I managed to stay standing.
I frowned. “Medicine?”
“Thank the cauldron,” said Dolores as she came over.
Ruth pressed her hand on his forehead. “No fever. That’s good.”
“Great. Now let’s get the hell out of here,” said Ronin. “This place is giving me the creeps.”
A click sounded behind me followed by the shuffling of feet.
I turned around, pulling on my magic, ready to blast whoever was behind us.
I was expecting someone.
Just not someone who looked like that.
A figure stepped from the shadows wearing a stained white lab coat.
For a moment, my brain couldn’t decide what I was looking at.
One arm hung too long. The other looked almost human.
Dark fur covered patches of her neck and jaw before disappearing beneath pale skin that looked stretched too tightly over bone.
Her shoulders sat unevenly, one higher than the other, as though her body had gotten halfway through a transformation and then forgotten what shape it was supposed to be.
She took another step. Something clicked loudly inside her leg.
She flinched. The movement sent a tremor through her hands.
Her fingers curled and uncurled compulsively, nails lengthening into black claws before shrinking back again.
Fur rippled beneath the skin of her forearm like something trapped underneath was trying to claw its way out.
Her eyes were the worst part. They should have been familiar. Instead, they glowed a bloodshot gold, surrounded by angry red veins. Exhaustion hung from them like a physical weight. Every blink looked painful.
She stopped a few feet away, breathing hard, sweating, and trembling. The smell of blood and antiseptic clung to her.
Then her jaw shifted with a sickening pop. Pain flashed across her face. Constant, relentless pain.
Even then, I knew who it was.
Addison.