Page 16 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
I ignored Amelia as a whisper of Sadie pulled at my power. Even without tapping into my magic, I felt her. She wasn’t close, but it was like a faint memory. She hadn’t been here in almost a week, allegedly, yet there was an inkling of her presence.
“Meera?” Vareck asked, breaking my thoughts. “Are we following them?”
“No,” I said, swallowing and feeling my mouth dry. An uneasiness settled over me.
Amelia shrugged, turning back to her bar.
“Wait,” I said quickly, and she turned. “Can I look around the rest of the bar ... check in the back room, maybe the portal room? I won’t touch inventory or anything like that.”
Amelia looked at me confused, tilting her head as she considered me. A smile curled up her lips, and I couldn’t place why she felt the need to grin. What about this was amusing?
“Knock yourself out,” she said, pulling the towel down from her shoulder and wiping the counter with it. She didn’t bother looking at us before adding, “Grab me a bottle of gin on your way back. Room number six.”
As we walked away, Vareck spoke softly. “What’s happening?”
“I can feel Sadie.”
“She’s here?”
“No, she’s not here. Her essence is.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t explain it. I don’t think I’ve ever felt something like this before. If she was here, I would have known when we were at the safe house. But there was no thread leading to her.”
“Is there now?”
Facing away from the stage, I reached for my power. The tiniest flickering thread pulsed like it was almost out of energy. “I have something. It’s faint. She was back here,” I whispered,mostly speaking to myself as I began to question what was happening. “This doesn’t make sense.”
I followed the thread, using as much power as I could, hoping it would brighten the golden string as I snaked through chairs, passing doors without even bothering to open them.
When I came to a stop in front of a door, a small plastic plaque etched with the number six made me pause, but the feeling of Sadie was stronger. “Six ...” I muttered under my breath.
“Stop,” Vareck said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Something is wrong.”
I grabbed the handle despite his protests. “The thread leads this way. My powers aren’t wrong, Vareck.”
I pushed the door open without another thought and the room was pitch black, more so than any room should be. That should have been my second warning, but it didn’t stop me from walking in.
“Meera, wait?—”
The tug of him grabbing my backpack wasn’t enough to save me. The floor dropped from under me, my arms slipping through the straps with ease. I fell through darkness, my sense of direction lost as I plunged through a void. Vareck’s panicked voice reached me as he shouted my name, but it was the cold, brittle laugh that followed that truly terrified me.
Amelia.
That bitch.
Chapter 5
Vareck
A split second. That’s all it was. A single moment of time where I gripped her bag, the next, she was falling through a portal. I jumped after her without hesitation, tumbling through the threshold in a jarring twist as gravity played tricks with my sense of direction. The cackle that followed made my blood boil, but there was no time to dwell on anything but the present situation.
We landed with a thud, the air rushing from my lungs before it suddenly stalled, holding my body hostage as the wind knocked out of me. The metal of my swords clanged against the ground, and her backpack plopped beside it unceremoniously. Meera and I coughed as our bodies resettled into steady breathing. Heat saturated the air, baking me from the inside out. My head swam. I blinked a couple times, trying to clear the black spots in my vision. I slowly gained a clearer focus, taking in the uneven clay ceiling above us. Meera groaned, long and loud.
“Are you okay?” I asked through another cough as it racked my chest.
“Everything hurts,” she mumbled, wincing as she spoke.
