The Fifth Portal: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 5)

by Tamara Geraeds

  There’s a rustling sound beside me, followed by Vicky’s soft ‘Thanks, babe’.

  One down, three to go.

  Two thuds reach us in rapid succession. Charlie’s voice rings out. “Wow, great job, Dante!”

  “Just a second longer,” D’Maeo says. The tension in his voice is obvious, but I don’t blame him. One moment of broken concentration, and Maël tumbles into the lava.

  Still I can’t help but look up to see what’s taking her so long.

  The drumroll of rapid footsteps gets louder.

  “That can’t be good,” Charlie says, his eyes wide with fear as he looks up too.

  Then the ghost queen tumbles down, and I focus on the ice and snow again.

  She lands without trouble, but her staff is knocked from her hand. It slides to the edge of the slab she’s standing on. When she reaches for it, a dozen shapes fall from the sky.

  “Hurry!” Charlie yells at Maël as she manages to grab her wand just before it slips off the ice and into the lava.

  The slab turns into a seesaw as more and more monsters fall down on it. Several of them lash out at Maël with their tails. She knocks some into the lava with her staff, but there’re too many of them, and they keep coming. Soon the ice slab won’t be able to hold all this weight anymore.

  “Hit them with hail, Dante!” someone yells.

  “No, melt the ice under their feet!”

  I grit my teeth while I try to do both at once. Cracks form in the ice under Maël’s feet.

  Charlie steps forward. “Let me help.”

  With a couple of quick wrist movements, he hits several monsters in the face with gel. They flail in an attempt to get the stuff off and knock over some of their congeners.

  Maël weaves between them, swinging her staff to create a path to the floating portal.

  “Hurry!” I tell her. “I can’t hold the ice much longer.”

  More and more cracks appear under her feet while balls of gel fly everywhere, and monsters keep falling from the sky.

  Suddenly, a deep, rumbling voice booms from above us. “Vic… ky…”

  Without thinking I look up, my concentration broken.

  Charlie lets out a panicked ‘Dante!’ and grabs Maël’s wrist just in time.

  I help him pull her through the portal as the ice breaks into a thousand pieces and goes under in the smoldering sea of lava. The piercing screams of the burning monsters hurt my ears, but they’re soon drowned out by the frustrated growls of the remainder of the army that looks down on us from the world we just left.

  Maël straightens up and wipes the dust and ice from her dress. “Thank you, boys.”

  “You’re welcome,” we say in unison.

  I turn my head back to the portal above. “Who did that voice belong to? The one that called Vicky?”

  The ghost queen steps aside to let Vicky through, who shoots me a concerned look. “I think it was an ent. Althan, the one that healed me.”

  “Why was it calling you?”

  She slowly shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

  Charlie points up. “They’re leaving.”

  The growls finally die down, and the monsters turn away. With their tails low, they disappear from sight.

  “Vic… ky…”

  “Althan?”

  “Have present… for you…” the voice answers.

  A branch reaches down, holding a small bottle filled with some kind of brown-greenish liquid.

  “Take… this…”

  Vicky holds out her arm, but they’re way too far apart, so I gesture for her to climb onto my shoulders while Maël holds on to her waist to make sure she doesn’t tumble out of the portal.

  The ent leans closer and stretches out his branch as far as he can. “This will… help you…”

  The rest of his sentence is lost when his old, gray eyes grow wide and he slips over the edge of the portal.

  “No!” Vicky and I yell at the same time.

  We both try to grab one of the ent’s branches, but it’s too late. With a splash, it lands in the lava stream and catches fire. The low moan it produces sends shivers down my back.

  “Althan!” Vicky yells. “No!”

  With his last strength, the ent holds his arm with the present in it high above the boiling sea.

  “Quick, try to grab the bottle,” I say, pointing at the tree fingers wrapped tightly around the glass.

  Vicky leans closer. “I can’t reach it.”

  With the sound of trickling sand, the Beach of Mu swoops down and grabs the bottle, dropping it safely into Vicky’s hands. Then it dives into the portal, which starts to close. The round opening above us gets smaller, as does the monster with the toad skin that looks down on the burning ent with a menacing grin, up from its safe, dry place behind the other portal.

  Charlie sees him too and conjures a ball of gel in his hand, but the portal closes too quickly.

  A second later, there’s nothing but red sky around us, illuminated by two yellow moons.

  “How much longer before we can go home?” I ask the Beach, waiting for us to follow it again.

  It gives me a wide smile, which I take to mean ‘not much longer’.

  When I turn and take in my new surroundings for the first time, my mouth falls open.

  After all the dark and depressing worlds we’ve gone through, this one feels so light and refreshing. Everything around us is colorful and warm. Sweet smells rise up from large orange flowers that sway from left to right, tinkling softly. When I look up at the sky, pink clouds drift away to reveal a giant green sun.

  “It’s so beautiful here,” Taylar gasps, leaning on Jeep heavily.

  “Hey, you’re awake.” I smile at him. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m not sure,” he says evasively.

  I give him the most confident look I can manage. “Don’t worry, we’ll find this Banks guy soon.”

  Gisella throws back her long, bright red locks. “I might have an idea.”

  “Shoot,” I say.

  “Well.” She paces up and down in front of us. “There’s an object that can store memories. You can replay them, sort of like a YouTube video. We can use it to record Taylar’s memory of his brother’s death and take it to the police. They’ll arrest Shelton Banks and put him away for years.”

  With a sigh I shake my head. “That won’t work. It’s not enough evidence. Besides, it’s the fairy that killed him, not Banks himself.”

  “True.” She taps her lips with her index finger. “But… while he’s being questioned, we can search his house for more evidence. A man like that has killed more than one person, don’t you think?”

  The corners of my mouth move up. “You’re right.” I scratch my head as another thought hits me. “But how do we find this object? And how will we get it to the police or whatever if we can’t even return home ourselves?”

  Taylar waves his hand in the air to catch my attention. “We can worry about that later. Just working on my unfinished business, making progress with it, gives me energy.”

  “And finding the object is not a problem,” Gisella smiles. “One of my ancestors made it, so we can use my blood in a summoning spell to get it.”

  “Sounds good to me, if you know where to find such a spell.”

  She points at my pants. “It’s in your father’s notebook behind your waistband.”

  “My father’s notebook?” My hand moves to my waistband on its own and pulls the two books out. As soon as I do, the weight and size of them seems to change. Weird.

  The books look almost identical. They have the same red leather binding, but one of them has a couple of scratches on it, as if a bear or wolf ripped it. Or something else… When I open them, yellow symbols pulse at me, the same ones I saw on the Cards of Death. On the next page, our names are written, also in yellow ink. The scratched book says John Banner. The other one has my name in it.

  Vicky ta
kes the books from me before I can flip more pages. “Let me look for it.”

  “But─”

  “I’m sorry, babe. You can inspect them further once we’re back home. Right now, we’re in a hurry.” She gestures at Taylar’s almost faded face and my cheeks burn with shame.

  “You’re right.”

  She gives me a warm smile and starts walking, with her head buried in Dad’s notebook. Briefly, she looks up at the swirling sand shape above us. “I can search and walk at the same time. Lead the way, please.”

  When I catch up with her, she hands me back my notebook, which has the title ‘Book of Spells’ written under my name on the first page in my handwriting. Pushing back my curiosity, I quickly slide it back behind my waistband, where it immediately feels lighter and smaller.

  I have to admit, a lot of this magical stuff is really cool. If only there wasn’t so much scary stuff too, I would be able to actually enjoy myself.

  Vicky reaches inside her back pocket with her free hand while scanning the ingredients for the spell. She hands me all kinds of bottles with herbs in them, some candles, salt and an incense stick.

  “Where did this all come from? I saw you put the bottle Althan gave you in that pocket. This can’t possibly fit in there too, can it?”

  She chuckles. “Sure it can, babe, it’s a magical pocket.” She hands me a chocolate bar. “Give this to Charlie.”

  I frown at it. “Why?”

  “He needs it. It’s fuel for this grease balls.”

  Charlie snatches it out of my hands and rips the wrapper off.

  I raise my eyebrows at him. “Really?”

  He swallows the first big bite and grins. “Really.”

  After a confirming nod from Gisella I shrug. “Well, I suppose it explains a lot. You’re always eating after all, and you never gain weight.”

  He munches on contently, and I turn back to Vicky. “There’s something I don’t understand.”

  She glances up from the book. “About what?”

  “Why did Althan save us, and why did he give his life to hand you that bottle?”

  Vicky’s shoulders sag immediately, and I stutter an apology. “I… I’m sorry, Vick. I didn’t mean… I was just… Forget about it.”

  “No, it’s fine.” She blinks away her tears. “Althan said we were important, that there was a prophecy about us.”

  I hold my breath. Another prophecy about me? “What did it say?”

  “That one day, a young couple would stumble into their woods, lost and injured. This couple was to be saved, or all worlds would fall.”

  I rearrange all the objects under my arm before gently stroking her hair with my free hand. “He died to save us, to save… the universe, I guess. It is an honorable way to go.”

  She pushes me away and I drop a candle, which Charlie picks up. “He didn’t have to die,” Vicky says, raising her voice. “He only did because we messed up. He saved us, but we failed to save him in return.”

  With a heavy feeling, I shake my head. “We did the best we could, Vicky. And sometimes things are just meant to be. I wish we could’ve saved him, but we simply couldn’t.”

  With an impatient gesture, she wipes her face. “I know. I don’t blame you. I’m just mad at all the evil in the world.” She stops so suddenly Jeep bumps into her.

  “Sorry,” he mumbles, but she doesn’t seem to hear it.

  She points at a small clearing, mostly hidden by trees with bright pink leaves. “That looks like a good spot to cast the spell. Hopefully, no one will bother us there.”

  I watch her walk away, baffled. “Right, I guess the conversation is over.”

  Charlie puts a hand on my shoulder. “Give her a break, she’s been through a lot the last couple of days.”

  “I know. I just wish she’d talk to me about it.”

  He tilts his head. “She will. But she puts Taylar’s well-being before her own struggles, you know.”

  I utter his unspoken words. “Which is exactly what I should do.” I take the candle back from him. “Thanks. Let’s get this done.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “Is this even possible in this world?” I ask when Vicky puts everything in place for the spell. “I thought Maël said our magic doesn’t always work when we’re in another world.”

  “True,” Vicky answers without looking up from the circle she’s making out of salt. “But we have to try.”

  One look at Taylar, slumped against a tree with his eyes closed, tells me she’s right.

  I rub my hands together. “Tell me what to do.”

  She hands me Dad’s notebook back. “Here are the instructions. Make sure you don’t change the words.”

  I scratch the back of my neck with my free hand. “I thought you said I had the ability to write my own spells.”

  She pauses her preparations. “You think it’s wise to do that when you know so little about spells?”

  “Probably not,” I agree, bending over the book.

  The instructions are pretty clear, so as soon as Vicky is done setting everything up for me, I begin.

  I light the incense stick and follow the line of salt, inside the circle, reading from the book in my other hand.

  “Powers that be, hear my call.

  Help us out, before we fall.

  Aid us in our time of need.

  Give us strength before we bleed.”

  After I finish my walk around the circle, I push the stick into the ground in the middle and light the four candles one by one, meanwhile repeating the spell twice.

  Then Vicky nods at Gisella to step forward.

  She puts her hand in mine, and I pull her inside the circle. The thought of cutting her makes me nervous, but she seems fine with it. She just waits patiently, with her hand outstretched in confidence.

  After reading the instructions one more time, I take my athame from behind my waistband, place the tip of the blade in the middle of her palm and pull it toward me. Blood wells up, and I drop the dagger in the grass. Together, we move from candle to candle and hold our hands above the flames.

  “Powers that be, hear my plea.

  Take this blood and set it free.

  Turn it into smoke to find

  the object that was left behind.”

  Every time I say the words, I squeeze Gisella’s hand until a drop of blood lands in the flame.

  When the last candle is done, we move to the middle of the circle, and I push her palm against the burning incense stick.

  Her face contorts with pain, but only for a second. One by one, the candles are extinguished by an invisible force. The smoke that rises from them takes on the shape of a spiral above our heads. It twists faster and faster while the smoke gets thicker.

  “It’s working,” Vicky says breathlessly from outside the circle.

  The smoke spiral turns into two claws that dive into the ground. Clumps of earth fly everywhere, and I shake my head to get it out of my hair.

  For a while, nothing happens, and I’m starting to worry. What if it didn’t work at all? Or… if we conjured some kind of evil by accident?

  Just when I lean forward to peer into the hole that the claws made, they shoot out of it. The smoky fingers are clutching something, which they take straight to me.

  When I hold out my hand, they drop a small object in it and dissolve with a soft puff.

  I look at the gizmo in my hand.

  “Is this it?” I ask Gisella, while the others join us for a closer look.

  The werecat girl slash witch gives me a wide smile. “It is. It worked!” She holds up her hand, and I give her a high five.

  “Well done,” she says.

  I grin. “You too.”

  After a glance over my shoulder at Taylar, my grin falters. “Tell me how to use it.”

  We hurry over to the young, white-haired ghost, who opens his eyes with a start. “It worked, d
idn’t it? I can feel it.”

  My heart pounds loudly in my chest. “You can?”

  “Yes, I felt a little jolt of energy in my power core. Do you have the object?”

  I hold it out to him, and he picks it up gently.

  “Are you sure this is it? It looks like a pocket watch.”

  There’s not much I can say to that. He’s right. It looks quite normal, like an antique, silver pocket watch.

  Gisella sits down next to him and points at the engravings on the case. “What do you see?”

  Taylar scrunches up his nose and squints. “It looks like a woman with two rats at her feet.”

  “My great-aunt,” Gisella explains.

  “The one who made this?”

  “Exactly.” She smiles again when Taylar’s expression changes from fascinated to scared. “Don’t worry. It won’t harm you, and it won’t turn you evil either. It has been cleansed a couple of years ago, and it hasn’t been used since.”

  Taylar stares at her hard. “How do you know?”

  She wiggles her fingers in front of him. “I used my witchy senses.” She points at the pocket watch again. “What else do you see?”

  “Well, this looks like… eh… like a…” He sighs. “I don’t know what this is.”

  He points at a snake-like thing along the edge. The same things are carved along the other side.

  “It’s an elephant’s trunk. It symbolizes a strong memory. The watch will keep any memory you want until you take it out again.” Gisella places a hand on Taylar’s arm. “Are you ready to use it?”

  He blinks out of sight and grits his teeth when he appears again. “I don’t have a choice.”

  Gisella squeezes his arm. “You’ll be fine. Can you summon the memory of your brother dying?”

  The young ghost swallows. “Of course.”

  “Make sure it’s complete,” Maël interrupts. “We need a clear view of the fairy and what she did.”

  Taylar nods solemnly and closes his eyes again.

  With a sudden flash, several images come back to me. I remember what Taylar showed me not too long ago. The abandoned house, the fishbowl, his brother Lleyton climbing in through the window. And then the fairy, who turned everything upside down, literally. It must be horrible for him to relive this again. To see his brother getting killed and not being able to do anything about it.