39. The Portal
CHAPTER 39
The Portal
Rez
I don’t know how long I sit and stare at the picture and my dead mother, but it’s long enough that Knox comes over and pulls me into his arms. It doesn’t matter how many times you mourn a death. It never leaves you. It only depends on how strong it is that day. And today…it’s a fucking hurricane Cat six.
“I’m sorry, Kitten, but we need to go,” he coaxes, sending all his love and warmth throughout our bond.
“You’re right. I’ll have time to mourn and get my shit together once we get out of here.” I smile up at him, patting his hard pec. “You can put me down. It’s just another day in Hell. I can do this.” I ignore the doubtful look on his face and turn toward the wall that’s hiding the portal, only to frown. “Wait. What are we going to do with my mother?”
I turn to find Knots carrying her in a white blanket.
“It’s only right to bury her once we get to Purgatory,” he admits and hands out her necklace for me. My heart swells with appreciation for my protector. Even though things are a mess between us, he’s still watching over me, physically and emotionally. I’m a complete wreck, but he’s lifting some of the stress that I’m carrying, so I give him a small smile and take her necklace.
She said it belonged to my mother, as in Liliwen, the Fate. But what does this all mean?
“We’re never going to get out of here,” Moni whines and pulls out a coffee cup. “I’m going to run out of coffee pretty soon, and you all know how that will end.”
I shudder thinking about the story the guys told about Moni. I don’t want to be on the other side of that mess. But hearing Moni talk about being stuck here reminds me of our purpose, so I slip the necklace into my pocket and look at Knots.
“Thank you,” I whisper, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice, but I fail miserably. I choke, holding back tears, and Knots nods, thankfully not pushing for more than just the gesture.
Turning back to the portal, I address the elephant in the room. “Um, how do we get past that?” I ask, staring at the massive door with small white knots spaced randomly over it. Some of the knots are close together while others are spaced out, making this the most complicated puzzle I’ve faced down here.
JP and Ryker shrug and give me a frustrated look. “We can’t figure it out,” JP admits in defeat.
“Yeah. We can push in the knots, but I think it needs a pattern or a sequence to open it.
“Do you have any idea?” Moni asks as her bark turns dark gray, showing her nervousness before shrinking down and perching on my shoulder. “Your mother said your marks were the key, and the song opened it. Do you know what she meant by that?” she asks, kicking her legs against my shoulder.
Wracking it up to delusional talk, I shake my head, completely lost. “Let’s look around and see if we can find something that has this pattern. There has to be something close to it. A hint or something,” Levi says in an authoritative tone.
Grateful that someone is handling this, when I obviously can’t, I start looking around the cavern. I check the walls, floor, and even the door with the knots. Running my finger gently over them, I understand what Ryker was talking about. They aren’t knots but small buttons in the wood.
Frustrated, I turn, putting my back to the door, and glance around from the new position while everyone still looks. Moni zips by me once, then twice, and finally stops on the third run.
“Are you giving up?” she demands, her tiny hands on her hips.
I roll my eyes and lean my head back against the door, but only for a moment because Moni squeals and her bark goes neon green. “Rez! It’s you!”
My eyebrows furrow as I give her a confused look. “How many times have you hit your head while we’ve been down here? Do you need a safety helmet?” I ask, extremely worried about my friend.
“No!” she playfully slaps my shoulder and yells over her shoulder. “Guys, it’s REZ!” she calls out, and as I start to move away from her, she turns bright red and glares at me.
“Don’t you dare move, else you’ll ruin it,” she snaps, and I jerk back a moment at her shocking tone.
“Oookay,” I say, drawing out the word as I watch everyone converge on me.
“What do you mean by it being Rez?” Lynx asks first as he stares at me and back at Moni.
“Look!” she demands and flies next to my head. I go to watch her and she immediately growls out, “What did I say? Don’t move! This is life and death, and I need my sweet nectar of life.” She points her tiny hand in my face and makes a motion, telling me to turn my head back around.
Well damn. I’ve never seen this side of Moni, but given the goofy look on Chester’s face…he has.
Levi steps up and looks at my face and then over at Moni.
“See! Look at the knots and Rez’s cheek. This right here has two knots together, and then there’s one up here that matches above her eye,” Moni rambles off as she zips around my head. “Please tell me I’ve done it. Tell me I get my sweet coffee!” she says in fast succession and promptly faints into my hands as I grab her.
Chester quickly takes his mate and gently wakes her as all the guys around me move closer to study my face and the door behind me.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” I ask, finally getting weirded out and needing some answers. Plus, with them looking at me like I’m the damn puzzle, my anxiety is rocketing out of control. I need to move or something.
“She’s right, Rez. Your beauty marks are this pattern right here,” Levi tells me and gently pulls me beside him.
I squint at the door, trying to see what he is, and I shake my head. I know I have them, but I’m too tired to picture my beauty marks right now. “Yeah, no. I don’t see it.”
“Of course you don’t. It’s not like you look at yourself every day, but we do,” Ryker reassures me. “You have to trust us. We can see the pattern.”
“But now we need the key to know which order to push them,” Chester reminds us as Moni shoots up like a rocket.
“What did I miss?” she asks, darting around like a hummingbird.
“You’re right, Mo. She’s the pattern.” JP gives Moni a high-five, but Moni’s bark suddenly turns multiple shades of blue.
“But that still doesn’t tell you what order,” she deflates.
“Holy shit!” Lynx yells, and all eyes turn to him as he continues to call out expletives. “Hell yeah, bitches! We got this. Oh yeah!” He thrusts his hips and does a few spins before stopping and looking back at all of us. “Don’t give me that look like I’m insane.” He smirks. “I just realized…Rez does know the order, and so do I!” His smile takes up most of his face while I give him a doubtful look.
“Way to be a spoilsport,” he mumbles as he steps up to me.
“The song,” he tells me like it should trigger something in me, but I shake my head. “Rez, what did your mother do every night when she tucked you into bed and before we did our ritual?” His eyes stare into mine, trying to get me to think back to those nights.
It’s not too hard because Mother always tucked me in, sat on the bed, and sang a little tune while touching…my…beauty marks in the same pattern.
My jaw drops, and Lynx smiles like that crazy Jack Nicholson gif of him smiling and nodding.
“You got it, don’t you?”
Without answering, I start humming the tune, and Lynx walks over to the door to press on one of the knots. A click rings out in the cavern and shines a bright white.
HOLY SHIT. I’m amazed that there’s a lock in Hell that is specifically made for me. It blows my mind, but maybe that’s a normal thing around here? I mean, I’ve never seen or heard of a device with multiple keys tuned to a certain melody that one has to travel through the bowels of Hell to find, facing monsters, demented demons that are too big for their britches, and gamble their souls for every second they breathe. Yeah, why couldn’t someone have given me a damn code we use for a security keypad, or heck, a cheat code would have been nice.
Lynx and I go around, and together, we hit each knot in the order we subconsciously learned them. With each click, it brings us one step closer to the portal. As I hit the last lock, the door clicks and shudders to life, hissing before it starts to part in the middle and opens up.
Walking through, we see it. Up on a dais is a large portal, much like the portals in The Crucible, back in Hell. Thankfully, during the rehashing with Lynx’s parents, the guys did a great job explaining how it was a massive tent with multiple portals lined up for different places, and the massive one in the middle led to Purgatory. The only difference between the two is there’s only one here, and the stone is a solid silver. But just like the ones at The Crucible, this one isn’t working either.
“Where’s the lever to reset this damn thing so we can get out of here?” JP asks, looking around.
“No clue, but we better start looking,” I suggest.
We split up and begin looking around. I head behind the portal while the others look around the walls and into the crevices around the flooring. This place has no stairs, doors, or furniture, so it’s not like it’s hiding that much. I can’t find anything, at least. Returning to the portal, I examine the marble gate and notice a section that’s not even.
Hmm…I wonder. What’s the worst that could happen? Die? Done that a few times.
I place my hand against the cool exterior and push. It slides in easily, and once it becomes flush with the stone, it heats up, and the portal buzzes with energy.
“Whoop!” Moni shouts and passes out as Chester dives for her, catching her before she hits the ground. I swear that man deserves an MVP medal for saving her ass!
Oh! I’m going to make him one for graduation day!
“Let me call Dad real quick, and then we can bounce,” JP announces before walking off to the side.
I don’t know how he expects to do that down here since I don’t have service, but I’m sure with their special connection, they have a way.
Standing in front of the portal, I wonder how it works since this is the main portal of all portals. As I stare into the purple liquid that swirls around as it waits for a destination, multiple images appear. Some show deadly monsters with gnarly fangs, and some are of cloaked figures that I don’t have to strain hard to imagine are the Rebels. Is this what we will walk into if we use this? Is this our present, future, or past? More images flash, and the common denominator is the Rebels.
This feels like a premonition . But it’s nothing like the time that I had a premonition with Gertrude, a fish-faced monster who tried to push me into the Sulks. That feels like a lifetime ago. This premonition is much clearer. At least I don’t have to walk through this portal to see what will happen.
Hopefully, it’s a sign that I’m becoming stronger. As I wait for JP, my mind starts to wander, and the images in the portal also begin to change. In one image, I see the glade where I met Anwen outside Nova. Another image is the swamp where I grew up in New Orleans and my grandparents' store. Now that I think about it, are they even related to me? I have so many questions, and I don’t know where to go to get answers. The next is a place in the mountains, but I have no idea if it’s on Earth or in Purgatory.
Can portals even take us to Earth? And if not, then why did I just see the swamp with my grandparents’ store? My head starts pounding when Lynx comes up to me and pulls me into a hug.
“I love you. Please don’t ever sacrifice yourself again,” he pleads. I turn into his arms to lay my head against his pec and feel his heart race under my cheek.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” I whisper. “I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to save you.”
He runs his hand down my back and swats my ass hard.
Oww.
‘ I’d rather die with you than live a second without you. Don’t take my choice away.’ He pulls back enough to cup my face in his palms and looks into my eyes, allowing me to see his misty turquoise ones before he claims my lips. ‘ You are my heart. And I can’t live without my heart.’
A tear frees itself from my lashes before we’re interrupted by a bashful JP.
“Dad says thanks and says for us to get out of here because he’s about to rein Hell on…well, Hell. It’s not going to be safe anywhere down here.”
“Sweet, let’s go,” Zeke exclaims, rushing to the portal. Ready to get out of here, I look up at the purple swirls and go cold.
“STOP!” I yell. Thankfully, Zeke freezes and throws his arms out, stopping everyone else from going past him to the portal.
“What?” he yells back, motionless.
I pull away from Lynx and quickly get in front of Zeke, looking at the swirling images of a robed figure and Hell hounds perched next to them. Behind him are monsters and a giant, along with massive cages. I have no idea what those cages are for, but I can only guess. I know what this is though. On the other side of the portal, there’s a group of Rebels waiting for us to walk through, and even with our experiences being down here, we’re exhausted and no match to take them on.
“There’s a group of Rebels on the other side waiting for us,” I calmly explain. “With wonderful matching cages that are big enough to hold giants. I wonder what they plan to do with those.” Sarcasm drips heavily from me.
“What the fuck?” Ryker hisses.
“That bitch was going to set us up!” Moni seethes while turning red, glaring at the dead Ms. Teal. “I ought to…grrr,” she growls and quickly zooms over to the dead body and spits on her. I stifle my laugh, not wanting to upset Moni, but I do give her a thumbs up when she rejoins us.
“I’m really glad you stuck her like the bug she was,” Chester agrees, pulling Moni into him and kissing her forehead.
“Do you think they will be able to use the portal coming back this way?” Knots asks.
“If that were the case, they would be here already,” Levi surmises. “The mere size of the cages suggests they expect more than our party to come through the portals. That has to mean it’s spelled from the other side. So, no matter where the portals are in Hell, when they reactivated they would spill out to that location, wherever it’s at, allowing the Rebels to collect them. I’m sure they were thinking we would turn it on and hop out without thinking. Maybe Ms. Teal was hoping to even chase us out of here and into the portal, not having to deal with us directly.”
“If it’s spelled, do you think we can override it?” I ask, worrying my sore bottom lip as I wait for his answer.
His brows furrow for a moment as his hazel eyes darken to a dark green before he meets my gaze. “To be honest, I can’t override it,” he admits and my body sags slightly. “But…you might. You’re strong enough,” he continues.
I shake my head as my shoulders sag. “Maybe at one point, but my powers are all wonky since the stabbing,” I admit. A needle could be heard dropping in the following silence, and I feel multiple eyes on me before Moni appears in front of me.
“What stabbing?” Moni shrieks, flickering between glitter bomb and red.
I bring up my hands and try to calm her down, but she huffs and puffs before me until Chester gently grabs his mate and pulls her away from my face. I turn to face the rest of my family, noticing their concerned faces.
“I’m okay. I promise, and we’ll find someone to help fix it. Besides, it was back on Lust. All it’s affecting is my magic. That’s it,” I tell them, omitting that I have pain every time I use my magic. “My stab wound is even healed; if it wasn’t, I’m pretty sure you animals would have used it as another hole during our fuck fest at the temple.” I arch an eyebrow and watch as a few of the guys smirk, and Lynx nods like the dork he is.
Turning back to Levi, I notice he’s been looking at me the whole time and hasn’t interacted with his family. I frown in confusion, but before I can ask, he steps up to me.
“Just try, please. It’s the only way for us to get home.” He pleads, holding my hands. Worrying my busted lip once again for a few seconds I nod and turn towards the portal.
I know what he’s getting at, what he wants me to believe, but I’m not there yet. I have to try because we have no choice so I wrack my brain and think of the safest place we can go. I might be able to redirect the portal to send us to a place we all trust, and I smile when I suddenly see Dean Cauldron on the other side of the portal.
Wait. Did I just direct the portal with only a thought? How am I doing this? Or was it someone else? Do I really have time to question this when it could revert back? Pulling myself out of my inner thoughts, I try to lighten the mood.
“Everyone ready to go back to school?” They all groan but have smiles on their faces when the portal’s swirling colors iron out and stop swirling, bringing into focus the picture of the smiling Dean Cauldron for all of us to see. “Let’s go.”
I pick up Reaper and step through, looking forward to a long, hot bath and maybe a month of sleeping in my comfy bed.