Page 42 of The Other World

For once, I couldn’t disagree with her.

“I might be able to help Althea,” said Hannah, still clinging to her father. “Though without knowing the details of those experiments…”

“I have some of her notes,” said Tennyson. “I took what I could after the explosion.”

“I’m sure having some proper doctors look at her will do much more good than an untrained witch,” said Harper. “She’s been tampered with enough, leave her be.”

I bit down on a smile. Normally Harper and Althea were mortal enemies but Harper was obviously worried about her.

“Well, at the very least, I’m going to do a cleaning spell on her,” said Hannah. “She’d hate for anyone to see her in such a mess.”

I let them argue and dropped back to walk beside Sam. I was surprised he’d even come through the portal. I assumed his mother must have pushed him.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. “I know you’ve been through a lot.”

He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s okay for me to be okay.”

That was the most he’d said since I’d found him. Even though his words were bleak, I took the fact that he was saying them as a positive.

“Your mother will be fine,” I told him, trying to sound upbeat. “She’s strong as a bear and wily as a fox.”

“Maybe,” he said. I thought that was an end to our conversation, but he kept talking. “You should have left me there. In that cell. You shouldn’t have come to find me.”

I sighed. I didn’t know how to make him stop punishing himself for something that wasn’t his fault. He needed to see someone, someone much more skilled than I was at helping him deal with everything that had happened to him.

“I’m glad I found you,” I said. “Even if you hate me for it.”

He shook his head. “It’s not you that I hate.”

When we got back to the house, Harper took Althea to her room to get her cleaned up and comfortable, and Hannah got her father settled. I wanted to help but as soon as I sat down, I knew I wasn’t going to move again for a very long time. I couldn’t believe that we were home, that the nightmare of the other world was over. Part of me didn’t want to fall asleep, in case I woke up back in that other world, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It had been a long day.

I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was still home.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The next morning,doctors were called, both human and otherwise, but none of them had a definitive way to help Althea. Mostly they said to give her time. Her body had been through trauma and it needed to rest. Once it was healed, she’d wake up, good as new. I didn’t like it. It reminded me of when Sam had been in a similar state, but I didn’t have any better ideas either.

I hadn’t even finished breakfast when Nikolai nudged me and showed me the screen of his phone. There was a text from Vucari. He wanted to meet.

“How did he even know we were back?” I asked.

Nikolai shrugged. “He just knows things.”

So, after I was finished eating, Nikolai, Hannah, Tennyson and I made our way down the train tunnel so we could contact Vucari. We went through the same ritual as last time, with the magic powder and chanting and mirror. As far as I was concerned, after this I could quite happily never see another magic portal again.

“You got the lodestone?”

I held the stone up to show him. It was the happiest I’d ever seen him look. Which was a pretty low bar, if I was honest.

“How will I get it to you?” I asked. “I assume you can’t take it from through this portal. You’re just a projection, right?”

“You mistake me,” he said. “The lodestone isn’t for my benefit. You need to use it. The next phase of your transition will make you one of my people. Only then will your powers be in balance and will you be able to claim your rightful inheritance.”

I shifted on my feet awkwardly. “Well, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the thought,” I said. “But my powers got kind of zapped out of me, so I don’t think there’s going to be any more transitioning or ascending or any of that.”

“What has been foretold cannot be unwritten,” said Vucari. “The stone will help you along your path. You need to trust in its power.”

“Okey dokes,” I said. What else could I say, the guy seemed pretty sure of himself. “So… I feel like I haven’t really paid back my favor though, if I’m going to be keeping the stone. Are you sure that’s it?”

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