Page 25 of The Other World

I nodded and she faded away.

When I turned back to the other four, they’d stopped arguing and were staring again.

“Did you get all that?” I asked them.

“You want our help to set up a portal from your world,” said Other-me. “What guarantee do we have that you won’t just march an army through and take over our world?”

I rolled my eyes. “We don’t want your crappy world.”

“We only have your word for that,” she said. “No deal.”

I shrugged. I didn’t exactly need her permission, so I turned to Althea and Tennyson.

“We’re in,” Althea said. “You helped us escape, so we owe you. But if you double-cross us, we will kill you.”

“Sounds fair,” I said, not doubting for a second that she meant it. “Do you still have the manor in this world?” I figured that would be the safest place to open the portal, but from the look on Althea’s face and the way Tennyson started growling, it seemed like a touchy subject. “Somewhere on the school grounds then? Maybe near the lighthouse?”

If Sam wouldn’t come willingly, I might need to restrain him, so being close to the magic door to my not-dad’s compound would be good for that, though I didn’t want to betooclose and tip off anyone we wanted to keep from entering our world.

“If it’s too close to the lighthouse, there will be interference from the doorway to my father’s compound,” said Other-me, as if we were stupid for not knowing this already.

“I thought you weren’t helping,” I told her.

She waved a hand at me dismissively. “I just don’t need you causing any more trouble than you already have."

I turned back to Althea. “The clearing behind the house here?” I asked her.

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “I don’t see any reason why not, except…” She glanced over at Other-me.

Other-me huffed. “I’m not going to interfere in your silly little plans,” she said. “I’m too busy trying to fix the mess you made of my own plans. But at the first sign of funny business, I will shut this whole thing down so fast your head will spin.”

“Okay,” I said to Althea. “Let’s do this.”

As we turned to leave the library, Nikolai started to get up from his chair, but with a look from Other-me sat back down. This Nikolai was much more well-trained than the one we had at home, though I doubted I’d want to use her training methods.

“This is where I came through,” I told Althea and Tennyson, once we were outside. “Around here somewhere.”

We all stared at the spot, but there was no sign of anything magical.

Now that we were out of the house, away from Other-me and Nikolai, I took the chance to pump Althea for information. Out of everyone I’d met in this world, she was the one I trusted the most. Well, and Tennyson, but he couldn’t talk.

“So,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Things are pretty bad here? For lycanthropes, I mean. And magic users.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. The shrewdness of her look was so like my Althea that I almost felt like I was home.

“You’re really not from here?” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care who you are or where you’re from, if you’re planning to take down that establishment, count me in.”

“Establishment,” I repeated. Something about the word triggered a memory, but I couldn’t quite place it. It gave me a bad feeling though.

Althea nodded. “The Establishment. Your father… that man’s organization. The ones who rounded us all up like cattle when we were children and stuck us in those places to be their lab rats.” Her voice failed for a moment and I felt bad for bringing the subject up, just to satisfy my own curiosity. Tennyson moved closer to her, so that he was squished right up beside her. “There’s none of us left. Only what you saw at that place. My family, we hid. We were some of the last. Us, the Yorks, the Volkovs…”

“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing how little that helped. I reached out and took her hand. “I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to stop them. In this world and my own.”

She cleared her throat, then squared her shoulders. “What do you need us to do?”

I thought for a moment. I needed to get back home, and there was only one way for that. I only hoped this whole thing wasn’t going to end with permanent damage.

“Knock me out,” I told her.

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