Page 105 of The Iron Dagger
She reached out to touch it, but Gideon stayed her hand out of caution.
“Let’s think about this. Your mother and countless other people are also here somewhere. But where are they?”
“It looks as though we are all in our own mind’s version of the realm-between-realms. They could be sitting all around us, but we wouldn’t know,” said Hara, pulling her knees to her chest. Her eyes were fixed on the water and her brows were knitted together.
“How can we find her, and the others?” muttered Gideon, getting to his feet. “Let’s go over what we know about sorbite. We know it is a magical substance that acts as a portal to the place where the past, the present, and the future meet. So, this place is your mind’s interpretation of the spirit realm, orwherever it is that time lives. If anything, that means your Sight should be stronger in here.”
Hara nodded, still staring at the water. “It’s hard to ignore. It feels like I am drawn to it.”
“So, could you See where your mother is?”
A snarl ripped through the air, wet and guttural.
It was unlike anything Gideon had ever heard. He whipped around, but all he could see were gently lapping waves. Hara stood and went to him, clinging to his arm.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“It seemed to come from over there, but I don’t see anything,” said Gideon as he pointed towards the empty water. “There’s nowhere for it to hide.”
“This place is a physical manifestation of the spirit world,” Hara muttered to herself. Then she tugged at his arm. “I have an idea.”
She grabbed his hand and began to walk them into the sea.
“Hara, I don’t think—” he began, trepidation growing with every step. As soon as the water touched their boots, the snarl rang out again, and then Gideon saw them.
Two old men stared at them from the waves, their faces half submerged. They were curiously close together, as though they stood side by side under the water. Their eyes were clouded like long-dead fish, but they held a furious awareness that made Gideon stop in his tracks.
Barely moving his lips, he said, “Hara, look,”
She stopped at the sight of them, a slip of breath catching in her throat. The men were a fair distance away, just close enough to make out their predatory expressions. Perhaps Hara and Gideon could make their way back to the beach, and that would appease them. Gideon made up his mind to flee rather than fight, and he turned back towards the shore.
Then they began to move.
Gideon’s heart stuttered into a gallop as he clutched for Hara, his hands shaking as he frantically pulled her towards the sand.
As the men neared, moving into shallower water, their shoulders began to emerge. Their close stance was soon explained as their sinewed necks appeared, seamlessly joined. The long, pallid torso they shared rose from the sea with every step, and thick ropes of flesh sprouted from it, dragging in the water like gangrenous ribbons.
The creature snarled again, both heads gnashing their long teeth, and it was then that Gideon realized the heads had the faces of Corvus and his own father.
He wanted to heave, his throat spasming, but Hara suddenly began to tug him in the opposite direction, dragging him deeper into the water.
“No—Hara, stop, what are you doing?!” he exclaimed in a panic.
“Trust me.” She gasped, clasping his hand.
The weight of the sea pulled at their thighs and hips. No matter how quickly they tried to move, the water dragged at their legs and hindered their progress. Their breaths became labored pants and his muscles burned with the effort. The creature charged towards them as though it suffered no such exhaustion, and Gideon hoped with desperation that Hara had a plan.
Then there was another snarl, like a scream from a jungle cat.
Gideon whirled around in time to see a massive shape emerging from the haze in the distance. It appeared to be running down the beach at incredible speed, and Gideon’s skin turned icy as all the blood drained from his extremities. He couldsee the sinuous flex of its haunches as it sprinted towards them, and Gideon wished that he’d brought his pistol after all.
The form solidified into an enormous black and white cat, taller than a stallion. Its pelt was short and sleek, and its growl rippled and reverberated in a tremor that Gideon could feel in his chest.
Claws like scythes unsheathed from its paws as it sprang for the water—not towards them, but for the two-headed monstrosity. It pounced and slashed at the beast, fastening saber-like teeth into one of the necks. Its tail thrashed at the water, sending violent sprays into the air.
“Seraphine,” whispered Hara in disbelief.
Relief and awe pounded in Gideon’s heart, and he held Hara close. She quivered in his arms, her hands over her mouth as she watched her familiar’s form savage the creature. Gideon made a silent vow that if they left this place alive, he’d never complain about the cat again.
