Page 62 of Wrong Squad, Right Mess

I hopped to my feet at the same time the others did, searching for the source even if we could do nothing from in here.

There, just a few feet from the edge of the barrier, purple shimmered in the air, like a long scar. It wasn’t round like a portal, but instead appeared like a tear through space. Shadows moved on the other side, black silhouettes that danced and moved like demons.

Corsa’s laugh signaled his arrival, but I didn’t even bother to look his direction. I’d prefer to keep my eyes on the most dangerous thing here.

“You didn’t believe me, did you?”

“What the fuck is that?” Ingram asked.

Corsa walked into our line of sight, standing just before the tear, and lifted a small device. It wasn’t a crystal, but it had a similar glow. “This opens space between this realm and theirs, letting me communicate with them.”

I gulped, the action making my throat ache. As unbelievable as his story had seemed, as unwilling as I’d been to believe it, how could I keep denying it in the face of what I saw?

“Maybe that’s just a tear to earth,” Kenyon said, though a shake in his voice suggested he didn’t believe it.

Corsa laughed, the sound maddened and amused. “You can believe that if you want, but it won’t save you. You see, as much as we hate the monsters that come through those portals, that hatred means little compared to those who stand on the other side of this tear. They have suffered far worse than we have, and they place that blame firmly on our shoulders.”

“If they hate us so much,” Carter asked, “why would they trade with you? Why help you at all?”

“You should know as well as I do that power is what really matters. The world is all about give and take. That was your problem from the start, that you didn’t understand what real power is. You think it’s just your personal strength, your speed, your skills. That’s all transient, and it doesn’t offer people real, lasting power. Instead, that comes from connection, from our place in the world, from what you can do with those skills you’re given. I had power before due to my name, my family, my own work. Here I’ve gained power because I took over The Pitt, because I’ve gathered items that could pose a threat to them, because I can offer them information about our world, so they work with me.” He spoke like some egotistical CEO, so assured of his own worth that he looked down on everyone else.

I kept my mouth shut, trying to study his face, to glean anything from him even without my powers.

“And what exactly do they want with us?” Ingram asked.

“They’ve never gotten their hands on uncorrupted espers from our world. Only those already corrupted have breached before, so I imagine they want to study you, watch you, perhaps tear you apart to see how they can use you to their advantage.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t much matter to me what they want with you, so long as it means you are not my problem anymore. This will ensure they are willing to trade with me enough for Yun and me to live a very happy life.”

I breathed in a sharp, short breath, holding back any insults.

“Fuck that bullshit,” Ingram said, voicing the very things I’d wanted to.

I glanced around, meeting Carter’s gaze.

The plan was simple, really. He’d have to take down the barrier to move us, right? To hand us over, he’d have to release us. If that were the case, we had a chance.

Not much of a chance, but anything was better than nothing.

The tear widened like fabric ripping at the seams, like it was pried open by constant force. That thin line of purple grew wider, the darkness inside it solidifying.

It was different from the portals that I knew, the ones I’d spent most of my life around. Those shimmered, and were impossible to see through. This gave me a good view to the other side, growing clearer with each passing second.

Standing there were three people, and they appeared so human, I again wondered if this wasn’t some grand trick. I thought about the monsters we fought, the twisted forms, and had expected the same from their world.

Instead, these people looked like that—like people.

It was a man and two women, the man in a loose shirt and pants that appeared the same. The women both wore dresses like something straight out of one of those old picture books on ancient Greece. The only difference?

Their eyes were purple, and light purple streaks rested on their skin, shimmering and moving as though a part of them.

“You’ve called us sooner than usual,” one of the women said, her voice tight and high. “To demand a meeting when the sacred space still connects to your world is sacrilegious.”

Why the hell could we understand her? I wondered it at first, but then the soft current of power, so low I’d nearly missed it, gave me an answer. They must use some energy to send the meaning through as well, to make the words understandable no matter the language. It suggested they used some sort of mentalist power.

Corsa smiled as though he had no fear of them. “I have something that cannot wait.”

She peered past him, her gaze landing on us, and a shiver ran through me at the weight of that look. It felt as though she peeled my skin away, like she saw deeper than any person should be capable of. “A few corrupted? Useless.”

“Look again,” Corsa pressed. “They aren’t corrupted. They are espers prior to corruption.”