AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I recalled the time from when I’d last glanced at the clock on the dashboard in the taxi. “We have less than twenty minutes before the portal opens.”
“That’s not much.” Kyllen headed to the fence on the right of the gate. “We’ll have to find the pond. Can you climb this? Come, I’ll give you a boost.”
He placed his foot on the stone foundation. I climbed on his knee, then over the fence, carefully trying not to impale myself on the spiky ends of its metal posts. Once I was on the other side, Kyllen easily scaled the fence to join me.
We walked swiftly along a stone path between the neatly trimmed hedges powdered with snow. The crisp winter air smelled fresh. I tried to commit to memory the scents of my home world, but these scents were foreign to me.
The smells that would forever be tied to this world for me were those of dusty canvas walls, animal enclosures, and the stale air inside trucks and train cars that were either too cold or too hot to travel.
“There.” Kyllen pointed up ahead after a while.
The light of the setting moon reflected in the surface of water in the distance.
“That’s a very big pond.” I’d imagined something much smaller and far less freezing that the large body of water up ahead. That looked like a lake.
A wooden dock held a painted sign in French and English, advertising rental of pedal and paddle boats, though no boats were anywhere in sight. They must’ve been put away for the winter. It hadn’t been cold enough for the water to freeze. Just a thin lace of ice had formed along the shore overnight. It would surely melt in the morning.
A sudden thrill of a whistle sliced through the air. Someone yelled in French.
Two people were running to us from the small building on the side of the lake. A man and a woman, both dressed in black uniforms.
Kyllen turned to me.
“Must be security,” was the only explanation I had.
I quickly scanned the surface of the pond. There was no sign of any portal. Maybe Kyllen had been right in his suspicions, and Lero had lied. But I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Can you stop them?” I asked Kyllen, gesturing at the quickly approaching guards.
He raised his hand to his hood.
“No!” I grabbed his arm. “Not like that.”
Horror echoed through me. My hands shook. I couldn’t let him do it. I couldn’t watch more people die. Rourke and his gang might’ve deserved what he did to them, but the security guards were just regular people doing their job.
“Could you just…punch them or something?” I asked. That would hurt, but at least they’d stay alive.
He shrank back from me, seemingly appalled. “Are you asking me to hit a woman? Who do you think I am?”
“You were about to kill her,” I pointed out the obvious.
He shook his head. “That’s different.”
“How is punching her any worse than turning her to stone?” Frustration rose in me.
The shouting grew louder. The guards were coming closer.
“Well.” I shrugged out of my coat. “If you insist on being a gentleman, then we’d better run.”
I spun on my heel and took off away from the guards. Kyllen easily caught up to me, taking his coat off, too, on the way. We sprinted along the shore. But the shrills of the whistle and the screaming of the guards sounded closer. The guards were gaining on us.
I ran faster, pumping my arms.
“Amira, look!” Kyllen pointed at the pond.
A small cloud of mist rose over the path of moonlight that reflected on the surface. It would look not much more than evaporation over the water—steam rising in the cool air—if it wasn’t for the tendril of pink shimmer in the very core of it.
“Oh my God, it’s true!” I nearly tripped over my feet. “The portal is true, Kyllen!”
There was no other reason for the pink color to appear. The night was still black with bluish-silver moonlight and not a hint of sunrise yet.
This had to be the mist of the magical river that connected the worlds. It had to be.
The female guard grabbed the end of my scarf. She yanked me back, shouting in French.
“No!” I twisted out of my scarf, leaving it in her hands.
I was so close. Nothing was stopping me now.
“Run!” Kyllen swerved off the path toward the pond, dragging me along.
Ice crunched under our feet. The freezing water rushed into my shoes. My breath hitched, my skin going numb. I gasped, the cold air invading my lungs.
Cold. It was everywhere. And the portal was still a distance away.
“Can you swim?” Kyllen yanked at my arm.
I shook my head, taking short, shallow breaths as the ice-cold water rose higher and higher up my legs with every step we took.
The dumbfounded guards remained on the dry land, shouting even louder and blowing their whistles. They obviously had no idea what was happening, and probably would report two people drowned in the pond the next morning.
None of it concerned me anymore. There was just the dark night and the black as ink, freezing water.
The bones in my legs ached, as if turning to ice.
“Hold on to my shoulders,” Kyllen commanded. “Whatever happens, don’t let go.”
