Page 53 of The Shadowed Oracle
“I told you,” it repeated. “I told you they were coming.”
“Is it Sylan?” Ingrid blurted.
The Wrane only smiled that sharp grin in response.
“Don’t bother with it.” The clanging on the keyboards ceased, and Tyla’s voice rang out like a siren call in the emptiness. “Where’s Dean?” she asked.
“Right behind me. Or, he will be.” Ingrid stumbled over her words before articulating her biggest concern. “Do we have a place to hide, there, in Ealis?”
“Technically.” Raidinn lifted his fist, readying to put it through one of the monitors. “Problem is, we can’t get thefucking portal to work. They must’ve figured out a way to shut down our generator. We’re rebooting everything now using the backup source, but…”
Ingrid waited what felt like hours for more information. She looked to Tyla for any sign of hope, for any sign of that radiant and soothing glow of hers, but found none. Even she couldn’t muster any optimism. The two physically imposing immortals were hunched over the old computers like Neanderthals trying to discover fire.
Something was wrong.
“But… what?” Ingrid asked. “What is happening?”
“They don’t have a way to close the portal,” the Wrane answered in their stead, its voice carrying the amusement of a lover scorned. “Escape is futile.”
“What does that mean?” Ingrid refused to look at the cocky wraith as she asked the question. “Can we still go through? Can we escape?”
“We can,” Tyla said. “But the backup generator, it doesn’t give us full control of the machine. We’d have to…”
The two females locked eyes.
And in that moment, Ingrid knew.
“Once you go through,” the Wrane mocked. “The door will be left wide open. We will simply meet you on the other side.”
“There’s gotta be another way,” Raidinn barked, as if it were his sister or Ingrid who had spoken. “Dean. He’ll think of something. He’ll?—”
“I can close it,” a voice from the doorway crept in.
Dean stepped closer, dressed in full armor now. He made the final moves to the control panel, to a hidden switch below on the underside of the desk, then looked to Tyla, to Raidinn, then finally to Ingrid, as if he was apologizing.
“The backup is for emergencies only,” he said. “In the event of something like this, the portal has a failsafe. Securitymeasures. We can go through without being followed. But after we do, everything will self-destruct.”.
The news sank in with everyone present in the room, including the Wrane, who was now pressing itself against the bars like a trapped rat trying to escape.
“Perfect!” Raidinn exclaimed. “Problem solved. We escape and no one follows us. I like the sound of it.” He quickly read the room, stiffening. “I mean aside from the… Dean losing his childhood home thing—sorry about that mate. Really.”
“You absolute twat!” Tyla pulled at her ponytail anxiously. “That’s not why we’re upset! We won’t be able to come back. Every portal in Ealis is guarded night and day. If our portal is destroyed, we can’t come back.” The repetition was like a deathbed confession, quietly accepting her fate.
Raidinn looked like the wind had been knocked out of him. “It might be a while, but I promise you, sis, I’ll find a way for you to come back. We will find a way. We always have.”
Tyla gave a single nod in response.
Ingrid moved toward her, reached out and held her hand, then looked to Dean and found solace in his focused tinkering. Judging by his expression, his plan was working. Now all she had to do was wait for the go-ahead.
“It’ll be okay,” Tyla said under her breath. “Rai, you’re getting your wish, so that’s something. We’re finally going.”
“Not like this.” Raidinn hung his head, falling into a bout of deep thought. “I’d always seen it differently. The two of us all dressed up. Bags packed. A plan. A whole itinerary for everything we’ve always wanted to do. Everything Mum and Dad told us about.”
“An itinerary?”
“Yeah,” Raidinn said. “What’s wrong with being prepared?”
“Nothing.” Tyla was smiling with ease now. “Just, I’ve known you your whole life and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you plan for anything. Not even university.”
