Page 56 of Dragons Of Shadow and Sea

I face the portal. It's grown to about my size, but all I can see through it is a circling mist of purple light. There's no way to know what's on the other side. All I can do is trust in my magic and in the tug, pulling me toward two dots of warmth somewhere high above me in the Shadow King's Citadel.

Taking a deep breath, I step through.

Chapter

Thirteen

EMBER

And I remember this from last time--sort of. But when I accidentally created the portal to the Water Kingdom, I was out of control. A battle raged around me, and we were losing. Badly. I flung out wildly with what little magic and strength I had left, struggling desperately to pull my mates through a hole in the fabric of space. I was the portal.

This time, I can see the swirling purple vortex that I'm stepping into. I feel the same plummeting sensation that carried me away before, but I'm not lost to the magic. I reach out toward the two glowing dots of warmth that are my guiding lights.

But even as I do, I school my heart. I have no hopes. No expectations.

And yet. As I emerge out of the portal into an empty room, I can't help but stagger under the crushing weight of disappointment.

"Shit," I breathe.

And it's fine. I knew Mariutza was a little touch-and-go with reality. The chances that she was actually leading me toward my parents--who were secretly alive and well and living in the Shadow Kingdom for a decade--lay somewhere between slim and none.

But I was so sure. I felt them.

Even now, I feel something.

Forcing myself to push past the grief threatening to consume me, I take quick stock of my surroundings. The portal has closed, leaving me in a still and silent room. It's laid out like a library with row upon row of tall shelves. Instead of books, the shelves house creepy black orbs. For a second, I think the orbs are vibrating, but then it occurs to me that the entire place is buzzing.

A shiver runs through me. The magical energy in here is off the charts--stronger than the Grand Temple of the Stone Kingdom, and more intense than the Water Kingdom's sacred pools.

I begin to reach toward one of the black orbs when a streak of white light flashes through its center, and I instinctively pull my hand back.

On closer inspection, the spheres aren't black at all. They're clear glass, but inside each of them is a swirling storm of dark smoke. Their centers faintly pulse with different colors of light.

Tentatively, I extend my hand again, and the power radiating out of the spheres threatens to sear me through. My bracer burns, and I stop just short of touching the glass. A faint, scratchy whispering echoes in my ears, growing louder and raspier until I can't bear it a second longer. I drop my arm again, unsettled in a way I can't explain. The magic holding the energy inside the orbs is sharp and grating, and it makes my teeth hurt and my bones quake, reaching right into my chest and leaving my insides both rattling and cold.

And then it hits me. This is the room I passed earlier today, on my way to the Shadow King's throne room. I glimpsed these very spheres though the window in the door. They were the ones that made me stagger into the wall; that put real fear in Lord Rook's eyes.

My stomach does an anxious flip, and a dark dread fills the pit of my abdomen.

Why on earth did my magic pull me here of all places?

Closing my eyes for a moment, I try to feel those two warm dots of light that drew me here. My brows pull together, and a cold sweat breaks out on the back of my neck. The painful magic emanating off the orbs blinds me, overwhelming my magical senses.

But then there's a bright light--two twin points in the darkness. Close. So close.

And it's as if I can smell my mother's perfume, hear my father's voice. I swallow a hiccup and force open my eyes.

All I see is row after row of these disquieting orbs. For a second, I want to smash them. Instead, I focus with the inner sense that led me to this room in the first place. My bracer crackles with energy.

They're on the other side of this shelf.

The absolute certainty that fills me is staggering, and I almost trip over my own feet in my rush to run to the end of this row of bookcases. I swing around it to the other side.

And stop short. Because standing right there, between this set of shelves and the next, his head bowed, is Lord Rook.

This is a trap. He lured me here.

But at my gasp, his head snaps up. His gaze meets mine, and there's honest shock in his eyes. I've taken him by surprise.

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