So, that’s what happened to all the bodies . It was good to know I wasn’t crazy. I stepped onto a rock to get my bearings. I desperately needed to get out of that park. I saw the road off to my left and started picking my way around the rubble.
Unfortunately, Seanna followed. “Gaige.”
“If you can’t help me find Aoife, you’re useless,” I said, hoping my words stung her.
“There are bigger things going on than that,” she said.
I spun on her and just barely stopped my outstretched hand from closing around her scrawny neck. I clinched my fingers into a fist.
“I want nothing to do with you,” I rasped.
“Gaige, please.”
“The gateway is closed. How did you even get here?” I demanded. “Did you bring that Getharey with you?”
“I’m afraid her presence here is my doing, Mr. Porter.”
I whirled toward the sound of the voice. A figure even smaller than Seanna stepped from behind a boulder.
“As for the Getharey, he was a straggler. One that didn’t make it through the gateway before you closed it.”
“Mr. Minor?”
“Why, yes. Of course.” The little man looked confused by my shock at seeing him alive.
I advanced on him, stumbling over the loose rock.
“Gaige, wait!” Seanna said.
I ignored her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” the former dentist said.
With my hands about a foot from the man, a flash of purple covered my vision and I stopped. I could still move—I just couldn’t take a step toward him.
“The gateway. My powers. Why didn’t you tell me creating that temporary gateway would ruin everything?” I demanded.
“It was a necessity,” he said. “If I had told you the consequences, you might have hesitated to do what was needed to save Earth.”
“I trapped Aoife on that damned world!” I yelled.
“Collateral damage, I’m afraid.”
“What?” I stepped away from Seanna shimmering barrier. “What?”
I stooped and snatched up a chunk of rock. I tried to throw it, but my arm stopped halfway through the motion. I looked up to see a circle of purple around my wrist. I turned on Seanna.
“Use magic on me one more time…” I growled.
“Gaige, please just listen,” the Ashling said.
“I don’t want anything to do with you two.” I whirled back to Mr. Minor. “Everybody thinks I’m crazy because you ran off and there was no evidence of what happened here besides the earthquake.”
“Yes, well—”
“Nothing!” I shouted. “No bodies. No equipment. Just me and Brian’s body!”
“Well, of course,” Mr. Minor said, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “As a shapeshifter, he did not possess the same magicks to hide the body if he died.”
“I don’t care! You know what they think? Huh? They think I kidnapped Aoife.”
“They… huh?”
“Yeah. They think I took her off somewhere and killed her,” I said.
Not long after the events that ruined Gate City Park, the police showed up at my door to escort me to the police station for “a few questions.” The only thing that had kept me out of jail was the lack of evidence and Dylan’s insistence that he saw Aoife and she seemed to be with me of her own accord. He continued to deny the truth, but at least he had done that for me.
“That’s unfortunate,” Mr. Minor said.
“Unfortunate?”
“Gaige, we need your help,” Seanna said.
“Shut up,” I snarled, jabbing my finger at her.
Her back stiffened and her eyes went wide before she blinked in unbelief at my directness. “Alisundi—”
“I don’t care,” I said backing away. “You two stay away from me.” I turned to leave, but hesitated. “You have no right to ask anything of me! How did you even get here? The gateway is closed.”
“There are other gateways. You know that,” she said. “I told you about them.”
I did know about them. I had tried to get to England after Aoife went through my gateway. The problem was a minor can’t travel alone without guardian permission. That would be Aunt Stacy. Even if we could afford for me to fly to England, there was no way she would have let me. I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get there but never came up with anything.
“But how did you get here ?” I asked.
“As I said, that is my doing,” Mr. Minor interjected.
“You brought her here?”
“Yes.”
“Why? She doesn’t belong here.”
“Well.” He hesitated, glancing at Seanna. “That could take some explaining.”
“You know what?” I said. “I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do,” Seanna said.
“You grossly mistake what you think you know about me.”
“I know you stayed on Alisundi to help save the Mother Tree,” she reminded me.
I barked a mirthless laugh. “You forget that was Aoife who wanted to stay. She’s the one who convinced me to help.”
“You give her too much credit.”
“You don’t give her enough,” I shot back. “She’s the one who saved your precious tree. She’s the one who saved Earth. Think on that for a minute. She saved your clan and an entire world. What exactly have you done?”
She set her jaw and her eyes hardened. “I’m the one who pulled you out of that dungeon. If it weren’t for me, you’d probably still be rotting down there.”
“That probably wasn’t a good idea to bring that up,” Mr. Minor said.
“You’re the one who stuck us down there,” I growled.
“I did not.”
“You’re responsible.” I jabbed a finger at her again. “Or, did you forget that?”
“I think we all need to take a breath and calm down,” Mr. Minor said. “This is getting us nowhere.”
I turned on him. “You’re as bad as she is. You have no say in this.”
He was taken aback. “I… I feel that’s a bit unfair, Mr. Porter.”
“Is it? You didn’t lie and withhold information from me for your own means?”
“He’s right, Gaige,” Seanna said. “We should take a step back. We didn’t come here to argue. Here, let me take care of that for you.”
What she was talking about didn’t sink in until her hand brushed my arm. Familiar warmth traveled up my arm. I jerked away from her but not before the claw marks the Getharey had inflicted closed and the sting abated.
“Don’t ever touch me with your magic again. Ever!” I growled at her.
She left her hand out for a moment before pulling it to her body and curling her fingers in like I was a rabid dog that might bite them off at any moment. To tell the truth, I just might have if she used magic on me again.
I glanced at a wooden ring on her right middle finger as the purple glow faded in it. “You’re throwing a lot of magic around for somebody who comes from a magic-dead world.”
“Not quite magic-dead yet.” She fiddled with the ring, spinning the smooth loop around her finger. “But very much close to it. This ring was charged here on your world.”
“You can do that? You said it was a complicated process.”
“Well, no. I—”
“Guilty!” called out another voice that made me jump.
Seanna’s shoulders slumped and Mr. Minor reached to lift his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose.
“I’m quite good at it.” A man stepped from behind a boulder, seeming to appear from nowhere like Mr. Minor had. He was tall, but not quite as tall as Gaige. He had brown hair that spiked up from his hair like a pin cushion. He was thin, lanky, and carried a smug expression on his face. Recognition teased around the edges of my brain, but I couldn’t place the man.
“I told you to wait until I told you come out,” Seanna hissed.
“I got bored,” he replied. He looked me over.
“He might be slow, but I figured he would have been convinced long before now.”
It hit me like a kick to the nuts. “Jae?”
“In the flesh!” The Ashling looked at his current human form. “Literally!” He laughed at his own joke. “See what I did there?”
I turned to Seanna. “You brought him ?”
“I had to,” she said through clinched teeth. “Father and Mother would not let me come with Mr. Minor alone. Not after the danger I ended up in the last time.”
“But…him ?”
Jae flashed unnaturally white teeth at me. It seemed he was quite enamored by them. In his true Ashling form, treelike and covered in bark, his teeth were a light brown like wood.
“He volunteered,” Seanna said. “It seems he was quite eager to prove his worth to my parents.”
“Like a dog,” I muttered.
“Besides, he is the best magicker between our two clans,” Seanna said. “If you can believe it.”
“It’s true,” Jae agreed.
“We brought a few of our artifacts for him to fill with magic while we were here.”
“So, you thought you’d just steal some of our magic while you were here?” I asked. “How does that make you any different from Getharey?”
“It’s not like that, Gaige, and you know it,” she replied.
“Just a little magic.” Jae held two fingers close together before his attention was drawn to his fingernails.
Mr. Minor cleared his throat. “Do you think we could discuss this somewhere else? We are quite exposed out here for any curious passerby.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” I said. “So, go back to wherever you came from and leave me out of whatever it is you’re caught up in.”
“He’s a little…what’s the word? Mellonemphatic?” Jae said.
Seanna glanced at him but didn’t reply. “Please, Gaige. We need you.”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Talk.”
“Uh.” Seanna seemed caught off guard by my sudden change.
“Great start,” I said. “You’re on a roll.”
“This really isn’t the best place to have this discussion,” she said.
“She’s right, Mr. Porter,” Mr. Minor put in. “I feel it is best that none of us are seen here. Especially you.”
“Yeah, well I really don’t have anywhere to take you for a private discussion over tea or whatever.”
“I’m sure there’s somewhere,” he insisted.
“I’m not taking you back to my place, that’s for sure. You’re not stepping foot anywhere near my family.” I held up a finger. “I got it! Let’s go have our little chat at my psychiatrist’s office. Better yet, let’s have it at the police station.”
“That’s not helping,” Seanna said.
“What’s a signkitetrist?” Jae asked.
“Did you think you could just waltz back into my life, snap your fingers, do a little mojo, and expect me to follow you back to that hell hole you call home?” I demanded. “Spoiler alert, not gonna happen.”
“No,” Seanna said sharply. “It’s different this time. If you’d just let us tell you what’s going on, you’d see that.”
“I told you to, like, two minutes ago,” I said.
“Ugh!” Seanna threw her arms up in frustration.
“Humans are confusing.”
“Shut up, Jae,” Seanna and I said at the same time.
“Perhaps my place would be appropriate,” Mr. Minor said.
“The police are looking for you,” I told him.
“What?” He looked genuinely shocked. “Why?”
“Because I told them you were there when everything went down here.” I opened my arms to gesture at the rubble around us.
“Why would you do that?” Again, he was really surprised I would even mention his name to the police. It was like I was ratting him out or something.
“Because you were a part of this,” I said. “You try explaining what happened here while the police are trying to pin Aoife’s disappearance on you.”
“Well, yes, but I don’t feel like it was necessary to—”
“Oh, it was necessary,” I cut in. “Besides, Dylan mentioned your name, too. You’re in this deep and they’re looking for you.”
He readjusted his glasses and fidgeted with the hem of his blazer. “I see. It would seem my home is out of the question for now.”
“Wait.” An idea hit me. “Ms. Woodman!”
“Who’s that?” Seanna asked.
“What about her?” Mr. Minor said.
“She never came back. I’ve gone past her house several times and it’s been empty every time,” I explained.
“Really? How odd,” Mr. Minor said. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to use her home once more, now would it?”
“Do you think we could walk a little ways into town without him making a complete dumbass of himself?” I asked Seanna.
“A what?” Jae said.
“I doubt it, but we can try,” she replied.
“Okay,” I said. I stepped back and looked at the group. Talk about dumbass, I was the one about to listen to what these people had to say. The two people who effectively ruined my life. “Once we’re there, you have ten minutes and I’m walking out the door without a single glance back.”
5
Drawn In
Talk.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the doorframe, settling into a stance I hoped conveyed stubbornness.
“I would have thought Ms. Woodman would be home by now,” Mr. Minor said looking around the dim living room.
“That’s not really the topic I’d choose if I were you,” I said. “You’ve got ten minutes. Don’t waste it.”
Jae sat perched on the edge of the well-worn couch looking like he was trying make as little contact with the floral fabric as possible. He folded his thin fingers together in his lap and tucked his elbows against his sides. He pinched his lips together and held his nose in the air like he’d had a human face—and the ability to project snobbishness in all its glory—all his life. It made me happy to see him so uncomfortable.
“You’re being unreasonable, Gaige,” Seanna said. She also sat on the couch, but there was about a foot and a half space between her and Jae.
I turned my head ever so slightly to give her a flat look. To Mr. Minor, I said, “You brought her here, why?”
“I think we should approach this with a little less hostility,” the former dentist said.
“Do you?” I asked.
“Not a good start, Mr. Porter.”
“What is that smell?” Jae asked. He held a finger under his nose.
“Betrayal,” I suggested, still staring down Seanna.
“Yes, well,” Mr. Minor started from the oversized chair he seemed to favor, “I do think we need to start from the beginning. Or, possibly some approximate time as is prudent.”
“Better not go too far back,” I said, glancing at my wrist even though I never wore a watch. “You’re down to eight minutes.”
Seanna made an impatient noise.
“Would you like to start,” Mr. Minor asked Seanna.
She glared back at me for a moment before nodding curtly. “Alisundi is on the brink of war.”
“I don’t care,” I said.
“I believe you do,” Mr. Minor insisted.
“You barely know me.”
“True, but I know your mother and you’re much like her,” he said, raising a finger. “She cared deeply for Alisundi. Almost as much as Earth.”
“And look where it got her,” I said in a flat voice.
“True, she is paying the cost of her choices, but I dare say if she could let her feelings be known, she would express no regrets.”
“Any other invalid people you’d like to speak for?” I snapped.
“I’ve known your mother for a long time, Mr. Porter. I’ve seen firsthand the sacrifices she has made in her role as Gatekeeper. Long before you were born. Lon
g before she met your father.”
“Good for you.”
He struggled to sit forward in the thick chair. After a moment, he gave up and pointed at me from where he was. “Don’t fool yourself, Mr. Porter. Just as you feel a connection with the gateway, you also feel the same for both worlds it connects.”
“Jokes on you, then. The gateway’s gone. No connections at all,” I smirked. “Connection free zone. You’re down to six minutes.”
“You stayed and put yourself in danger to help save the Tree Mother,” Seanna said.
“We didn’t really need his help,” Jae sniffed.
“Shut up,” she muttered.
“I told you before, that was Aoife. Not me. She was going to help with or without me. I went to try to keep her safe,” I said.
Frustration flittered across her face. “So, you’re perfectly willing to let a whole world fall into war? Willing to let it eat itself alive?”
“Let’s say I care. So, what? What can I do to stop a war? I’m not the Gatekeeper anymore. I lost that ability when I created a new gateway.” I cast a quick glare at Mr. Minor.
“It’s complicated,” Seanna said.
“Better try. Four minutes.” I really had no idea how much time had passed. I wasn’t keeping track. I was only guessing. Six minutes could have passed or only two. I didn’t really care. I was only letting them blabber on before I can tell them to go stick it and walk out the door.
“You’re being unreasonable.”
“Three minutes.”
“Even I know one of your minutes hasn’t passed,” Jae said.
“Two minutes.”
“Wait a minute,” Mr. Minor cried.
“One.”
“This is your only chance to save Aoife,” Seanna blurted out. “If she’s alive.”
My whole body tensed. If she’s alive . What if she is? Could I really risk letting her go forever? Was I willing to give up on her?
“That got his attention.” Jae sounded bored. He ran a thin finger around a circle stain on the coffee table.
Seanna stood and crossed the room to stand in front of me. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I’m telling the truth. Alisundi needs you. If you give us a chance, we can try to explain. If you do come with us, I promise we’ll help you find out what happened to Aoife when she came through the gateway.”
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 59
