Page 24 of The Other World

“Okay,” I said. “Here’s what I know. I need to find Sam and get him back home.” There was also Vucari’s relic but something stopped me from mentioning that to them. They didn’t need to know all my plans. “Once I do that, I can leave here and never come back.”

“Um,” said Nikolai. “Can you not do that.”

He waved a hand at me, and when I looked around, I saw that I’d been pacing as I spoke in the exact same way Other-me had. I stopped walking and put my hands on my hips. Then I dropped them, but I didn’t know what to do with them, so I folded them over my chest again, even though that was exactly how Other-me was standing.

“How will you leave?” asked Althea. “How will you take someone back with you? You couldn’t take us through those doors you walked through.”

“Sorry, what?” asked Other-me. She turned to Nikolai. “What is she talking about?”

“She can walk through walls,” Nikolai explained. He waggled his eyebrows in a way that I’d seen my Nikolai do when he thought he was being sneaky, though it was obvious he thought they could use my power to help their plans in some way.

“Do it,” Other-me said, waving a hand toward me as if to say I had the floor.

“Uh, no,” I said. “I’m not a performing monkey, and I’m not here to get involved in whatever little power grab you’ve got going on with your evil dad.”

“You want our help,” she said. “You help us.”

“I never said I wantedyourhelp,” I told her. The less time I spent with her the better, she was obnoxious.

“You’re currentlymyprisoner,” she said. “You’ll do whatever I want you to do.”

“We’ve all seen it,” said Althea. “She can pass through solid matter. What’s the big deal, we’ve all got talents.”

“Ihaven’t seen it,” said Other-me. “And some of us have more useful talents than others. Some of us can perform miracles, and some of us,” she motioned toward Tennyson and Althea, “can sniff butts and pee on lampposts. It’s not the same.”

“And what can you do?” I asked her. “Are you talented like your father? Can you steal other people’s power and ruin lives? Whatever. I don’t need your help. I can find Sam on my own.” I started toward the door, but as I did, the doors slammed shut.

I turned back toward Other-me and saw her hand raised in the air.

“I don’t need to move through doors,” she said. “Doors move for me.”

Which, admittedly, could be useful, but didn’t make her any less annoying. And if she could do it, surely I could too. I probably just needed to practice.

Still, maybe we could help each other, if it meant getting Sam to safety.

“Fine,” I said, and turned back toward the door, preparing to walk through it. “But after this, I want some answers.”

But before I could walk through the door, someone else walked through it. Mrs Spencer, and she was armed.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

She wasn’t quite solid,I could see through her to the door behind, but she wasn’t exactly ghostly either, she wasn’t fuzzy or out of focus. She held my sword in her hand as if she were prepared to strike down anyone in her way. There was some sort of commotion behind me, but I ignored it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her. “Is everyone okay? My father hasn’t…” I knew he’d attack at some point, it was always in the back of my mind. I’d just hoped I’d have all this dealt with first. Ideally, I’d be fully ascended and invulnerable, able to squish him like a bug.

“Everyone’s fine,” she said, her voice sounding a little drippy. She shook the sword at me. “We think we’re ready to open a secure doorway, but we need you there or the ritual won’t work.” She glanced behind me. “We could use their help, if you think we can trust them.”

I wasn’t sure but I nodded. “What do you need?”

She thought for a moment. “The portal needs to open somewhere safe. We can’t have any old bozo wandering through. Is Sam there with you?” She craned her neck to look around, as if he’d be hiding behind me or something.

“Not yet,” I told her. “I got knocked out during the escape and woke up back here. I don’t know if Sam got out.”

“That’s a shame,” she said. “But not a dealbreaker. It might be easier to have the portal stabilized beforehand anyway. We don’t want to throw anyone out to a different parallel world, and have to go through this whole thing again!”

That wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Is that possible?”

She shrugged, which I took as a yes. “So, get your people to set up where you think is best and then haul that butt of yours home. Okey dokey?”

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