Page 95 of An Invocation of Monsters

Then a familiar face flashed by. My mother, younger, wide-eyed with amazement.

But then she was gone too, and it was the endless backwards spiral of stars again.

I was getting dizzy when the spiral finally began to slow, the mist around us clearing even though I could still see a rippling rainbow of colors at the edges of my vision.

We were looking at the ruins once more, unchanged from the present. I frowned, wondering if something had gone wrong…

And then a door of pure darkness opened between one of the archways.

My mouth dropped open as someone pushed through. A little girl, no more than eleven years old. Her pale blonde hair was undone, falling down her back in lazy curls, and the clothes were old-fashioned.

Sophie Marsh stepped out onto the plate, cocking her head as she took in the Void around her. She wore the planchette around her neck even then.

As we watched, she reached back through the blackened door, groping around for something. Then she pulled out another girl, and fished around for the next one.

They were nearly identical, their blonde hair darker than Sophie’s and curled like sausages, their eyes a shade of cornflower blue, whereas Sophie’s were a silvery-gray.

I watched in amazement as Marie and Tessa cried out, clapping their hands over their mouths as they saw what surrounded them.

“It’s just as I said,” Sophie said smugly. “Our manse is on an island, so it is not quite the same, but it’s close enough, I suppose.”

She had a faint, but posh British accent. I watched as she held up Tessa, who seemed to be in shock, but Marie was already upright, turning in circles and taking in this new world with greedy eyes.

I kept my eyes on Sophie, a little girl who had opened this doorway to another world like… like it was nothing.

Like it was normal to her.

“Does it encompass the entire world?” Marie asked, bending down to examine a softly-glowing flower.

Sophie laughed. “Even more than the world. My mother said you could travel for an eternity, and never reach the end of the Void.”

My stomach was churning from more than motion—or time travel— sickness now.

Sophie’s mother had known. She’d even known what it was called.

This went back even further than I’d imagined.

Soon Tessa was curled up against the arch, weeping softly into her hands. Both Sophie and Marie cast glances of the casual sort of contempt only teen girls could muster at her.

“I want to go home!” Tessa wailed, and Sophie cast a sharp look over her shoulder, as though expecting someone to have heard—

Monsters. She was expecting a monster, because she knew what the Void was, so of course she knew there were monsters here.

“She must be quiet,” Sophie said, giving Marie a significant look.

The older girls descended on Tessa, and practically shoved her back in through the doorway.

“I want to see more,” Marie demanded, grabbing Sophie’s wrist so tightly her knuckles turned white. “We cannot return yet! I want to see a monster!”

“You don’t get to choose whether you see one or not,” Sophie said, easily breaking Marie’s grip. “They choose.”

“You’re a liar.” Marie wore an ugly expression.

“I am not.” Sophie seemed utterly unconcerned with Marie’s accusation. “That’s how it’s always worked. One day they will choose to see me, but… I don’t know if they will choose you. You’re not of the blood, you see.”

I couldn’t believe how completely self-possessed my great-grandmother had been, even at twelve years old. What had she seen to make her so secure and confident of the Void and her place in it?

And then what she said hit me.

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