The Spellcast Gate (Accessory to Magic Book 5)

by Kathrin Hutson

  Jessica stepped through the vines and marched quickly toward the edge of the forest, followed by Leandras footsteps. Nothing moved in the trees around them. The life that had seemed so impossible in a world of desecrated wastelands and crumbled fortresses now looked like a sham. She wanted to grab the overhanging branches and study the leaves, feel them between her fingers to know they were real and not plastic set props.

  That was what this looked like. One giant set within a realistic forest.

  Until looking too closely betrayed it for what it really was.

  The second they stepped out of the woods and into the meadow of lush grass and wildflowers, a massive gust of wind blew through the trees behind them. Jessica staggered forward and spun around, watching the ripple of so many leafy branches stretching out across the treetops like spreading ripples in a pond.

  A massive crack splintered the air, and a wall of opalescent light erupted around the forest before eating away at itself in shimmering ruptures. The protection of the Laenmúr’s sanctuary flickered and curled in on itself like a burning piece of paper, though the embers fluttering away into the roiling green storm of the sky were thousands of years’ worth of magic and not crackling cinders quickly cooling to ash.

  “Well.” Leandras ran a hand through his hair and studied the last few fading whisps of undone magic. “That was less climactic than I’d anticipated. We’d best be on our—”

  Another thunderous crack rose from the forest, followed by the sound of violent rain pelting a brilliant landscape.

  It wasn’t rain.

  That was the sound of an entire forest shriveling into decay, because that was exactly what was happening.

  Leaves darkened in seconds and curled until nothing but black husks remained to break from their once living branches and flutter to the ground. Trees groaned and shuddered, contorting as if in agony until they were only scarred, blackened, crooked shells. Some of the trunks snapped and burst, throwing shards of dead wood against their neighbors as they were crushed beneath the weight of heavier trees bearing down on them.

  A large branch at the edge of the forest broke free and hurtled through the air. It landed at Jessica’s feet and shattered like glass, spraying not lush grass and virulent earth up into the air now but more of the same dry, parched dirt coating the rest of this world.

  Jessica spun around and shielded her head against the smaller bits of jagged, dead wood peppering her. She’d expected it to hurt.

  It felt like wings fluttering across her back and across the tops of her shoulders.

  When the groaning echo of an entire forest dying in seconds finally faded, she straightened and shot Leandras a pointed look. “Pretty climactic if you ask me.”

  “Perhaps I spoke too soon.” He dusted black specks off his shirt, then gazed at the destroyed forest that had shielded them long enough to give themselves a moment of peace and enjoyment amidst so much destruction. A heavy sigh escaped him, and he blinked furiously. “I suppose it was too much to hope a few thousand years would be enough to sustain the last bastion of life here.”

  Jessica’s gut clenched as she surveyed the wreckage. They’d done this.

  And if they hadn’t, they would never have left, and they certainly wouldn’t be heading back now to stop this from happening anywhere else. Specifically in Jessica’s world.

  “You think it’ll grow back? You know, when we finish this.”

  “I couldn’t say.” The pain in his eyes when he looked at her made the tight knot in Jessica’s gut leap all the way up into her throat. “But when we finish this, I believe Xahar’áhsh has everything it needs to remember what it used to be. That’s really all we can hope for now.”

  “Yeah, that and a clear shot back to the Gateway without any deadly interruptions. I know it’s not all that likely, but—”

  A blistering streak of green light tore across the sky, followed by the crashing thunder of the eternal storm above them.

  Jessica ducked.

  Leandras spun around hissed. “I’m more partial to heading that way than standing here discussing unknown variables.”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” As soon as she rose from her crouch, Leandras grabbed her hand and tugged her along with him across the wasteland.

  Even though it made her sick—and might have added to why Leandras’ paranoia seemed so damn contagious right now—Jessica couldn’t stop herself from looking up at the splintered sky of this world as they fled back toward the Gateway.

  Something about the whole thing looked off. Yes, this whole world was off, the sky in particular, but this was different now than the sky she’d seen when they’d crash-landed in this world. It was brighter, for one, most likely because of how frequently the angry magic tore through the churning clouds on a much more regular basis. The thunder came with it every time, startling them both until they’d learned to expect it immediately after each blinding flash of light.

  Only when they stopped the first time to catch their breath and study the barren landscape for signs of pursuit did she realize what made everything look so wrong.

  “It’s closer.”

  “I’m sorry?” Leandras straightened and fixed her with a dubious frown.

  “The sky.” Jessica wiped the sweat of her forehead, then peeled her hair away from her face and neck in a failed attempt to cool off a little. The whole time, she studied the noxious, churning clouds. “It looks closer.”

  He looked up and scowled. “If that’s even remotely true, we have less time than I wanted.”

  “Great. Don’t tell me this whole world’s imploding.”

  “That’s a rather absurd conclusion to draw.”

  She snorted and waved him off as his smirk returned. “Then please. Feel free to share your thoughts on the issue.”

  “By the looks of it, I’d say the storm’s increased activity is most likely the herald of an actual storm. With rain.”

  “Oh. Nice. Any idea what kind of rain comes out of a sky like that?”

  “The same kind that has been laying waste to this world and...” He gestured toward the dry, cracked, lifeless earth around them. “Well, the evidence of that is clear.”

  “Jesus.” Jessica’s eyes widened. “And neither of us thought to bring an umbrella.”

  The fae’s sharp glare would have wiped the smile off her face if she’d been in the mood to smile at all under the circumstances. “You must be joking.”

  “Of course I’m joking. But it’s better than going through all the shitty options of what happens to us if we don’t put something between us and literal poison rain.”

  “Which is why we keep moving.” Leandras headed across the broken earth again, not quite setting out at his previous fast pace, but they’d work their way back up to it again.

  “You know, a little teleporting would come in pretty handy right about now,” Jessica growled through her quickening breath as her fae guide did, in fact, pick up the pace.

  “If I could, believe me. I would have done so by now.”

  “Not buying it. You—” Another blistering flash of green light and clap of earsplitting thunder cut her off. “You popped us right out of Mitra’s fae-skewering den. Last I checked, you don’t just lose an ability like that.”

  “Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure that would work.” He shot her a quick sidelong glance and cleared his throat, which at their near-jogging speed was just a grunt. “It almost didn’t.”

  “You can at least try.”

  “Jessica, I teleported us to the Laenmúr because I’d finally come close enough to sense the Umur’udal. If we were any farther from them than Ryngivát, you and I would have been skewered in that viewing room instead of Mitra. I have nothing to orient us from where we are and nothing to pinpoint the Gateway. So no, I cannot try.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because we could end up nowhere at all. Or in multiple locations at the same time, and that would put an inconveniently abrupt end to our goals.”

>   Shit.

  So now their options were to either attempt a teleport that might distribute their body parts across Xahar’áhsh or keep running and hope like hell the sky didn’t open up before they found shelter.

  Jessica slowed in her jogging when she saw a mound of what looked suspiciously like bones in their path.

  That was, in fact, exactly what they were—the bones of some creature that looked like a mix between an enormous rabbit and a bat with a four-foot tail ending in one jagged, serrated blade of bone. If that wasn’t ominous enough, the creature hadn’t met its end like most dying animals who realized too late their time had come.

  This flying chimera wasn’t curled up on the ground or sprawled out like it had clawed its way along the desecrated ground when it breathed its last. It stood fully erect, wings spread wide, its mouth lined with jagged teeth hanging open and the stunted front paws raised in front of its face.

  To shield it from the sky.

  Chapter 13

  Before Xahar’áhsh, Jessica hadn’t spent much time contemplating her own death, but this was not even remotely on her list of best ways to die.

  Another flash of green lightning and the clapping roar of thunder spurred her faster to catch up with the fae man streaking across the barren land ahead of her.

  The speck of green light falling from the sky gave her plenty of time to hurry out of the way. It landed in the dead soil with a loud splash and a violent hiss, throwing up tendrils of green smoke.

  “I think we have even less time now,” she shouted.

  Leandras skidded to a stop on the loose dirt a second before another glowing green speck hit the ground right in front of him. He leapt back with a snarl, then turned around to fix Jessica with terrified eyes. “Don’t stop.”

  He didn’t have to tell her twice. They booked it across the dead land, though not stopping was easier said than done when that was literally the only thing keeping them from getting pelted by the green rain that had killed nearly everything else in this world. And spending half their time looking up to avoid falling projectile poison made it a lot harder to focus on covering as much ground as they otherwise might have.

  “Jessica!”

  “What?”

  “There.” Leandras leapt back and flung both arms out to the side when two glowing storm-drops pelted the ground where he’d just been standing. “That mound just ahead.”

  “You mean the only damn thing out here? Yeah. I—” She launched herself sideways to avoid being incinerated by the rain. Her feet slipped on the loose dirt, she crashed to her knees, then Leandras’ hand clamped down around her upper arm once more. He hauled her to her feet just before the ground burst with green sludge and smoke where her hand had caught her fall two seconds before.

  “Shelter,” he panted.

  Jessica had nothing to say to that. If he was right, they’d be sliding into home beneath what looked like nothing more than a giant rock jutting from the ground.

  If he was wrong, they were dead.

  The ground smoked and steamed all around them now, poisoned rain splashing dangerously close to their fleeing footfalls.

  Twenty feet from the rock, Jessica’s heart leapt at the sight of an actual opening in the stone. Here they were, running to get out of the death-rain and into a cave entrance that only had enough room for one at a time. If that.

  By the time she realized that fun little factoid, they were already upon the cave. Green mist sprayed from the top of the rock where the drops hit it, and Leandras apparently timed his violent shove perfectly after they’d avoided the last burst of deadly Xaharí rain.

  Jessica lurched forward into the cave, her shoulder scraping across the rough stone before she fell and tumbled over something that crunched beneath her weight. “Leandras!”

  His hiss preceded his own sideways bash through the cave entrance, then he dropped to his knees and caught himself with both hands on the cold stone. The sky ripped open with another blinding crack of light and explosive thunder that shuddered the cave floor, and then the rain came down with full force.

  “Oh, shit.” Jessica scrambled toward Leandras’ shadowed form just inside the entrance as everything outside the cave erupted in glowing green steam and splattered drops. The sound was almost unbearable, but the stench was even worse.

  If there was a smell for an entire world that had been rotting for thousands of years, this was it.

  She reached for the fae, but he tried to swipe her aside as he crawled forward. “Get back.”

  “That applies to both of us, you moron.” Jessica’s fingers caught on the collar of his shirt, and in the interest of not letting him get melted alive, she yanked him toward her that way.

  Leandras choked and kicked himself across the floor toward her before they finally fell against the cave wall together in a heap. He tugged the collar of his shirt away from his throat and grunted. “I have not lost my own motor function, thank you.”

  “Yeah, you were about to.” Jessica sagged against the wall and grimaced at the sharp pain in her shoulder from being shoved through a not-quite-Jessica-shaped hole. “You okay?”

  The fae’s silver eyes glowed in the darkness as he studied the cave. “Beyond finding ourselves in yet another cavern wasting even more time to wait out a flesh-eating storm?”

  “I meant physically.”

  He looked at her and scanned her up and down. “Nothing I can’t handle. You?”

  “Nothing I can’t heal from in sixty seconds.”

  “Excellent.” Leandras pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head back against the cave wall. “At least our limited options don’t include debilitating injury.”

  “Yeah, that’s a plus.” Jessica grimaced and raised a hand to her nose. “Unless those fumes take things to a whole new level.”

  If the rain didn’t let up soon, they’d suffocate in here before they had a chance to keep going.

  “The air is still perfectly breathable, and as far as I know, we haven’t lost our access to—”

  “Don’t.” She grabbed his arm and shook her head. “Just don’t say it.”

  “Are you afraid I’ll feed the ykirie?”

  “I have no idea what that is.”

  Leandras shifted away from her, the eerie green light from a wall of deadly rain outside dancing across his smirk. “A Xaharí saying. Not quite translated to its full effect, but something like Earth’s version of ‘Be careful what you wish for.’”

  “Yeah, okay. Well I’m not wishing for anything else to turn this from bad to worse. So just...keep the silver linings to yourself for now.”

  His smile widened as he scooted away from her, reaching out with a hand in the darkness in an attempt to prop himself up. “I’m curious to know what other silver linings you refuse to—”

  He lurched sideways and slapped at the stone wall, his silver eyes flashing when his hand found nothing but air to support him.

  Jessica threw herself onto his legs and only realized after she’d stopped him from slipping away from her completely why she’d done it.

  From the waist up, the fae now dangled upside down over a black and completely invisible drop who knew how far down beneath the convenient shelter of their cave.

  A laugh burst out of him as he waved his hands through the air. The sound seemed to echo forever below them. “This is a form of torture with which I’m admittedly unfamiliar.”

  Growling at the effort of keeping his legs in place, Jessica offered her hand. He slapped at it, their fingers slid away from each other, but the second try got them a firm grasp, and she hauled him out of the drop and back to solid ground.

  “Not funny.”

  “No?” Despite his carefree smile, his silver eyes were wider than ever as he scrambled away from the pit. “One poorly misplaced hand and naïve belief that this is merely a cave? I find it rather ironic, all things considered.”

  Jessica glared at him and finally puffed out a sigh of relief. “You sure you didn’t ge
t splattered by acid out there?”

  “Not that I am aware.” He pushed himself backward a little farther and stopped to remove his hand from the cave floor when something skittered across their shelter. Another white orb of light bloomed at his fingertip to illuminate a bed of tiny, brittle bones coating the stone beneath them. “Ah. It seems we’re not the only ones to have found shelter here.”

  “We better be the only ones who leave.” Jessica watched the light spread across the cave toward the green wall of falling rain outside. A pool of glowing green ooze had already collected just inside the entrance.

  Okay, add one option to their list of possible agonizing deaths if the cave filled up with that shit before the rain stopped.

  “That’s very likely,” Leandras muttered.

  When she looked at him again, she found the fae man on his hands and knees, directing his orb down into the hole that had almost swallowed him and leaning dangerously far over the edge to watch it.

  “Are you insane?” She kicked out at him to nudge him back with her foot. “What the hell?”

  “I’m merely gauging our options. That one is also a dead end.”

  “Yeah, a straight drop down another Skirra tunnel? No shit.”

  Chuckling, he sat back against the opposite wall, and the orb of light shot out of the hole to hover just below the cave’s ceiling. “This does not belong to the Skirra. They rarely surface, if ever.”

  “Great. So it belongs to another giant creature that spits its leftovers aboveground instead of in a communal trash heap.” Jessica gestured toward the bones scattered everywhere. “Not exactly a thrilling alternative.”

  “Whatever creature this cave belongs to is no threat to us.” He settled his head gently against the stone wall and closed his eyes. “I’m sure it won’t return.”