“What the hell?” I said under my breath as I watched a misshapen hand—my hand—appear near the other edge of the gateway. On this side. Definitely not where it should’ve been.
One thing was very clear—something was interfering with the magic, blocking the far side of the tunnel I’d punched through reality.
“Has this ever happened before?” Lex asked.
I started, not realizing she’d moved closer and was now standing beside me. I’d been too focused on the messed-up gateway. Staring at my own seemingly floating hand, I shook my head. This exact gateway had worked several hours ago, so why wouldn’t it work now?
Lex sucked in a breath. “Oh God, Kat—what happened to your hand?”
“Nothing,” I said, probably too quickly. “It’s fine. Nothing I can’t deal with later.” I was referring both to my hand and to the far greater internal damage caused by Nik situation. I cleared my throat. “We’ll just have to go the long way. It only takes fifteen minutes to get there.”
Lex was quiet for a moment, likely reading way too much into my reaction to her concern. Finally, she shook her head. “You know I can’t be out there for that long. Besides, Heru’s bound to have noticed I’m missing by then.”
Damn. She was right.
“But . . . you could try creating a new gateway, I suppose,” Lex suggested. “Maybe one that leads straight to their house?”
“I guess it’s worth a try.” I tore my stare from my hand. “You’re willing to wait?”
Lex nodded. “For however long it takes. Garth’s ancestors saved my life; I owe that family a great debt. I’ll do whatever I can to help them.”
“But what if Heru figures out what we’re doing?” It was more a matter of when than if, but I wasn’t really in the mood to talk Lex out of helping me.
Lex shrugged, but when she spoke, there was steel in her voice. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Chapter Fourteen
“You should look outside,” Dom said, his words buzzing through my mind as I drew on the garage wall, knocking me out of the zone. “Something’s going on.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the wall, then inhaled deeply and exhaled through my nose. I was creating the second gateway to Port Madison on the opposite side of the garage from the first, in case there was something wonky about the other wall that was causing the misfire. Or had been, because now, my concentration was well and truly broken.
“You have the shittiest timing, Dom.”
“Be that as it may . . .”
I sighed, heavily, and straightened.
“What is it?” Lex said from her perch on a fold-out stepladder. She’d been watching me work, silent in her observation, until now.
“Dom says something’s going on outside.” I turned partway to look at her. “Do you mind checking it out while I finish this?” I said, giving a sideways nod to the almost complete rendition of the log cabin’s front door. I just needed another minute or two and I’d be done. It would’ve been half that without Dom’s interruption.
“No prob,” Lex said, hands on her thighs to help her stand. From the way she moved, it looked like she was still a little stiff and sore from the tumble off the back of the bike. She’d twisted her knee in her landing, but she barely even limped now.
“Here,” I said, reaching into my coat pocket. I pulled out the compact mirror that functioned as one of Dom’s windows to the physical world and held it out for Lex to take. “So you two can discuss whatever’s supposedly happening out there,” I told her. And leave me the hell alone, I added silently. Otherwise, I’d never get this gateway up and running.
Lex took the mirror and opened it, greeting Dom before making her way across the garage to the door. I was already immersed in the drawing on the wall by the time I registered the sound of the door opening and shutting.
It wasn’t long until that familiar rush of electric energy flowed through me and the gateway flared to life. It was dark on the other side of the gateway, the moonlight filtering through the clouds the only thing lighting the cabin’s exterior.
“Dom, can you tell Lex I’m ready for her?” I was so used to Dom always being there in the mirror pendant that it took me a few seconds to realize that his silence was a product of his absence. He wasn’t in my pendant right now, he was in the compact I’d sent with Lex. Duh.
I ran across the garage to the door to fetch my sister myself. “Hey, Lex,” I said as I stepped out into the dark of night.
She stood a few yards from the door, her back to me.
“It’s ready. Let’s get go—”
My words cut off as my focus shifted beyond Lex, and I peered at the tree line to the west. Shock stunted my speech, my lungs seizing up from a sudden wash of dread. There were no stars in the sky above the jutting treetops. No clouded moonlight illuminating the bare, scraggly branches. Just complete and utter blackness. Only one thing could cause such relentless darkness.
“Is that—”
“Anti-At,” Lex said, her back still to me. “It’s around the whole compound.”
“But—” I swallowed, wetting my suddenly parched throat. “But how?” I shook my head. “Why?”
Lex turned around, facing me. “There’s only one person who could do this,” she said. And she was right.
Mari, my old partner back when I’d worked for the Senate, was the only Nejeret alive whose sheut enabled her to pull inky anti-At, one of the two building blocks of the universe, into the physical plane. She was the only person other than a full-blown Netjer who had that insanely dangerous ability. It was a well-known fact.
“But why would Mari do this?” I said, not really looking for an answer.
“Perhaps the compound is under attack, and creating a dome of anti-At was the only way to shield us,” Dom ventured.
I didn’t buy it, and I said as much. If we were under attack, we would’ve heard something, even from within the garage. There would’ve been signs. The entire compound was wired with an alarm system to alert everyone within the walls of any kind of danger, and that sure as hell hadn’t gone off.
“Maybe there was an accident in the lab,” Lex said, voice unsure, “and this was the only way to keep something toxic from getting out?”
I shook my head. She was reaching with that one. There was another option—a scarier one. “What if it’s the Visitor?” I said. The mysterious Netjer hadn’t exactly been friendly during my one and only interaction with him back in the Ouroboros boardroom, and he was the only other living being currently in this universe capable of creating such a dome.
Lex’s only response was to wrap her arms around her middle, hugging herself.
Spinning on my heel, I ran back into the garage, sprinting toward the new gateway. I didn’t slow as I approached and hurtled straight through.
And, in a dizzying about-face, found myself lurching straight back into the garage.
“Damn it!” I shouted, kicking the stepladder. It flew a half-dozen yards only to crash into the back windshield of a vintage, cherry-red Mercedes.
Whatever the reason for the anti-At barricade, one thing was certain: the damn thing was behind the malfunction with my gateways.
I heard the sound of rubber soles slapping on concrete, then Lex said, “If the Visitor did this, then there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re trapped.” She heaved a few breaths. “We can’t get through . . .”
“But Mari should still be able to.” I placed my hands on my hips, the toe of my boot tapping as I considered our options.
If my gateways weren’t working, I doubted Heru would be able to jump outside, either. And it wasn’t like we could break through the poisonous barrier. One touch by a Nejeret—any Nejeret other than me, the only one of our kind besides Mari with an apparent immunity to the soul-eating effects of anti-At by way of the protective ward on my palm—and that Nejeret would be erased from existence. Total eradication. Not only would they cease to be; they’d cease to h
ave been.
I couldn’t, for the life of me, imagine a single reason why Mari would ever take such a terrible risk, which meant it had to be the Visitor. We had one hope to get out of here—Mari. Without her, we were truly trapped.
Chapter Fifteen
I didn’t even bother with the bike, though it may have been a second or two faster. I was too hyped up, and sprinting from the garage to the house would do my adrenaline-flooded body good. When I reached the house’s terraced front stairs, my strides ate up the steps three at a time. I slammed into the front door, trembling hand fumbling with the door handle, and tore the door open, a sweating, panting mess.
“Not another step,” Heru said, the words a whiplash.
Much as I might like to believe myself beyond his influence, I couldn’t ignore the command in his voice. The more intuitive parts of my mind picked up on the reality that I couldn’t beat him—that if I tried, I would lose—even if my stubborn forethoughts didn’t.
I stood, frozen in place, staring at the two men standing near the foot of the grand staircase. My eyes narrowed when they landed on Nik. It was all I could do not to launch myself at him, reigniting our fight. I settled for glaring; it was a hell of a lot better than crying, which seemed to be my only other option, according to my tear ducts.
“What’s going—”
“Silence,” Heru said.
I opened my mouth to argue, but the look in Heru’s golden eyes told me that now was definitely not the time to test him. Pressing my lips together, I crossed my arms over my chest and split my glaring efforts between the two ancient men.
“What—” Lex came in through the open door behind me, out of breath from racing back here. “What’s going on?” She passed me, steps slow and hand gripping her side. “Did you see that thing out there?” she asked, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb.
“Yes,” Heru said, his tone thawing a bit. “I have, in fact, seen it,”
“Well, why’s it there?” Lex asked, exasperated.
“Nekure assures me it’s merely a precautionary measure,” Heru told Lex, eyes only for her now that she was in the foyer. “Little Ivanov,” he said, using his pet name for his wife, “what were you doing with Kat?”
Lex waved his question away. “Nothing that matters right now.” True enough; it wasn’t like we could get out to finish what I’d started now, what with the giant dome of anti-At keeping us here. “So, Mari created the dome to protect us from something?”
“Mari didn’t create it,” Nik said. “I did.”
“What?” I blurted. I couldn’t help it, order to be silent or not. “What are you talking about? You’ve never been able to control anti-At.”
Nik’s pierced eyebrow arched upward. “Is that so?”
I sucked in a breath to say more but lost my momentum when I realized I didn’t know anything about the powers Nik’s sheut afforded; I’d only assumed.
Nik had been around for millennia, almost as long as Heru. He’d been born with a sheut, unlike me, and Lex, Heru, and Aset—we’d been gifted ours a few years back, just before the twins headed out for their grand adventure in Netjer-land. These days, it seemed that my sheut powers were growing in leaps and bounds. Nik had had thousands of years to develop his magical abilities, and he’d had one hell of a coach to help him along the way—Re—so of course he was capable of more than just controlling At. I felt like a moron for never suspecting it.
I’d been too caught up in my own shit, wallowing in sorrow over losing my mom and disparaging the rotting nature of my assassin’s soul. I’d been too focused on Nik in relation to me—on his perceived years of abandonment of me—that I’d never given a second thought to him in relation to him. Gods, it was past time for me to get over myself already.
Reality was—I didn’t know Nik at all. The realization was a gut punch. I couldn’t fathom why he’d come back into my life, why he’d spent the last few weeks helping me. I mean, he’d been living in my apartment. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t staying there with him; he was in my space. He’d made himself a part of my life. He had—his choice, not mine. Why? What possible reason? Had that, too, been because of some voice in his head?
Nothing made sense anymore, and my every attempt to understand was dizzying.
Only two things were clear in my blindsided mind: Nik was the one trapping us here, and I had to find a way out. Charlene’s life depended on it.
“Why are you doing this, Nik?” I asked, pleading with my eyes. “Why keep us trapped here?”
He bowed his head, a sad, dry laugh shaking his chest. “I told you before—I’m trying to save you. I’m trying to save all of you. If the universe collapses, we all die. Re says—”
“Bullshit.” I took a step toward him, hands balled into tight fists. My nails cut into my palms, feeding my anger and clearing some of the haze of confusion from my mind. “Bull-fucking-shit, Nik.” Another step. My fingers itched for my sword. It didn’t matter that I’d fought him just hours ago and lost. That he’d nearly killed me. I only had eyes for him, and my view of him was cast in red.
Hurt and anger threatened to drive out all rationality, but I managed to hold on, turning the pain and rage into vehemence. Into passion. Into strength.
I needed to convince Nik that he was wrong about Re—to make him believe that the Netjer’s voice was a figment of his imagination—just for moment. Just long enough for him to lower the barrier and let me out so I could reach Charlene.
I took another step toward Nik. “Re’s not talking to you.” Another step. “He’s not in your head.”
“Tread lightly, little sister,” Dom warned. “Something’s changed—he’s different now than he was this morning.”
Dom was right. I could see the change, plain as day, whether it was insanity or godly interference. Either way, I couldn’t stop myself.
One more step, and I was within arm’s reach. “You’ve lost it,” I told Nik, voice hushed. Like I was speaking only to him, only for him. “Can’t you see, Nik? All those years spent with Re hitchhiking in your body have you all twisted up. You can’t tell what’s real and what’s not anymore.” I laughed bitterly, shaking my head. “You know, I get why you left now. I see what he’s done to you.” I stepped closer, getting all up in his personal space, and tilted my head back to meet his hard stare. My words were tactical, but a surge of genuine pity tightened my throat. “He broke you, Nik.” I searched his familiar eyes, feeling like I was looking at a total stranger. “You’re broken.”
I was vaguely aware of Lex and Heru standing nearby, silent and watchful.
Nik breathed a laugh through his nose and closed his eyes, and I hoped my words were sinking in, that his resolve was wavering. Then, maybe he would let me out.
His eyes opened, and he gazed at me through his dark lashes, his pale blue irises barely visible. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Kitty Kat?”
My eyelids opened wide. “What?”
“Then we’d be two peas in a pod, you and I.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t about me. I’m not—”
“We could commiserate about how broken we both are.” He brushed his knuckles down the side of my face.
I stiffened, needing to get away from him but finding that my legs were unwilling to move.
“We could comfort each other.” His hand slid lower, his fingers curling around the back of my neck. He leaned in, resting his forehead against mine. “Isn’t that what you want . . . what you’ve always wanted?”
My eyes burned with a toxic mixture of desire and shame. I’d been drawn to him since the first moment I met him, even when I’d feared him—even when I’d despised him—but now I was desperate to put some distance between us.
Except, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. My mind and my body weren’t communicating properly, almost like I’d been hypnotized.
“You can have that,” Nik continued. “We can be together.” His breath brushed across my face, warm and intoxicating. “You jus
t have to agree to give up. No more transformations. No more new Nejerets. Not even one.”
I felt the strong desire to agree, to abandon my quest to save Charlene. My head even started the downward tilt that would initiate a nod.
But, somewhere in the back of my hazy mind, I recalled a Nejeret named Nicolaj. His was one of the names tattooed on my arm in permanent At ink, because he was one of the rogue Nejerets I’d hunted down. One of the many I’d killed. He’d had a sheut, natural born, unlike mine, and it had enabled him to overwhelm human minds until they bent to his will. Just humans, in his case, but who was to say that Nik hadn’t developed a similar power—one that worked on Nejerets, too.
As soon as I considered the possibility, I knew it was true, and the realization that Nik was exerting some kind of magical mind control over me was like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head. I blinked once, shocked and appalled that he would ever violate me like that. And then I kneed him in the groin as hard as I could.
Nik’s hand slipped off my neck, and he doubled over. Gets them every time.
I skittered back a few steps. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
I needed to find Mari; she was the only person who could get me out of here, because she was the only other person alive who could break through a wall of anti-At. I spun around, brushing past Lex and Heru as I ran to the door to the underground lab. Mari would be down there; like Aset and Neffe, she’d been spending nearly every hour of every day in the lab since the Cascade Virus started spreading . She’d even taken to napping on the cots set up in the quarantine area.
“Kat!” Lex called. “Wait!”
I yanked the door open and stepped through the doorway, pausing in the opening. I met Lex’s shocked stare and shook my head. “How could you let him . . . ?” I shook my head, devastated by the avalanche of disappointment.
And then I slammed the door.
Chapter Sixteen
The Kat Dubois Chronicles: The Complete Series (Echo World Book 2) Page 45
