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“Paige,” Taran grasped at her arm, but she twisted away, tripping as she stumbled backward. She tried to right herself but couldn’t overcome the unwieldy weight of her backpack. Still grasping the flashlight, she threw her arms up to cover her face, anticipating a painfully hard blow against the cave wall.
The bone-jarring impact sent pain shooting through her shoulder and hip, the backpack scraping painfully along her shoulder blades, but thankfully, she’d fallen just short of the cave wall. She looked up at it, grateful she hadn’t gone face first into the…solid?…granite?
Taran was at her side as she awkwardly tried to scramble backward, unable to take her eyes from the shimmering, wavering wall.
“Are ye hurt?” Taran asked, helping her into a sitting position. “Is anything broken? I’m so sorry lass. I dinnae mean tae—”
She must have hit her head, after all. She blinked, and blinked again, but the section of undulating stone didn’t change. She raised her hand and pointed. “Do you…do you see that?”
The impact had knocked the flashlight from her hand. As it rolled, its beam cast swirling patterns of light along the wall. That had to explain this impossibility she was seeing. Her eyes just hadn’t adjusted yet. “Hand me the flashlight please.”
Once Taran placed it in her hand, Paige aimed the shaft of light on the rippling section of rock.Preposterous. She swallowed hard against the fear climbing from her belly to her throat.
“By the Saints and Stars,” Taran whispered low, staring in disbelief. “That wasnae there before. I dinnae ken if this place is evil, as ye said, but ’tisnae somethin’ we want tae stay and test.” He pulled her further away and helped her to her feet. “Dinnae get any closer than ye have tae. ’Tis near the tunnel that takes us back to the main cave entrance, so be careful as ye slip by.”
The more Paige stared at it, the more intrigued she became. “It’s the size of a big door,” she muttered. Glancing around her feet, she picked up a stone and holding her breath, tossed it into the quivering mass.
“Bloody hell,” Taran gasped.
“It’s a portal,” Paige whispered, in awe. “I didn’t think they actually existed.” Her mind couldn’t process all the thoughts that came rushing in, but she felt the surge of adrenaline and the sudden burst of joy in her chest.
She whirled to Taran, her smile so wide it hurt. “Taran! Don’t you see?” She grabbed his arm, pulling his attention to her. “This explains everything! Why Austin disappeared. Why there’s no trace of him.” Joy bubbled in her throat. “We’re close. We’re so close! I can feel it!”
Taran looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “What are ye tryin’ tae say? That yer brother went through…” he jerked his chin at the wall, “that?” The horror in Taran’s voice was undeniable.
“Yes. The ultimate adventure. He wouldn’t have turned his back on such an opportunity. Don’t you see? He didn’t desert me, after all. He just wasn’t through exploring. Nothing intrigued Austin more than the unknown.”
Taran grabbed her by the shoulders and glared at her with the same exasperation some of her foster parents had expressed when they thought she’d acted irrationally. “What about the letters, Paige?” He glanced over her shoulder at the scratched-out letters on the wall. “If he dinnae intend tae desert ye, why did he go tae so much work tae cross ye out?”
Rage bubbled through her at the cold reminder of Austin’s heartbreaking message, until her only thought was to prove Taran wrong. “You’re not going to take this away from me, so stop trying.”
“Take what away?” He stepped back and tossed his hands in the air. “Austin is gone, Paige. Whether he walked out of here or dove intae that swirling…thing…he’sgone! By his own choice! Ye need tae accept that.”
Gritting her teeth, she shook her head. “No,” she snarled. “I do not!” She backed away, inching toward the portal. “Austin is on the other side of that entrance.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “And I’m going to find him.”
She continued backing away, moving closer to the wall. Terrified to go through with it. Terrified not to. What if theportal—if that’s what it truly was—was no more than a trick, a manifestation of this evil cave? She could be walking into a granite tomb. And Taran? Could she just leave him behind like this? Abandon him the way he said Austin had abandoned her? Tears filled her eyes and streamed down her face, making her vision of Taran waver, just like the wall.
He held out his hand. “Come lass,” he coaxed. “Let me take ye out of here.”
Taran, her heart cried, already missing him. But it was Austin’s promise to a six-year-old that he’d find her and they’d be a family again, that drove her forward.
“Goodbye,” she whispered brokenly when she reached the wall. She took a shuddering breath. Her last? Dropping her flashlight, she slid into the liquid stone, letting it take her, but her gaze remained on Taran.
“No!” he howled, his face a mask of terror as he lunged for her. “Where ye go, I go,” he shrieked a split-second before he dove through the opening.
Go back, her soul wailed, though she knew it was impossible.
Behind him, the last faint light from the cave dimmed as the portal closed to a pinpoint and disappeared, leaving them in the dark, swirling depths. No floor, no ceiling, no walls. An endless pool of weightless, breathable…space.
Chapter Eight
“Oomph!”
Taran winced as they hit the hard ground in a jarring tumble of bodies and backpacks. He rolled shakily to his feet, aided by the gentle slope of the hillside dropping away from the mountain behind them.
Instantly alert to any danger lurking in the darkness, he scanned the area, seeing only dense shadow below. A valley, mayhap? Or merely a low spot before the next rise. In the distance jagged treetops were silhouetted against a dim, moonless sky.
His legs wobbled and nausea churned in his belly. He wouldnae fare well in a fight if one should ensue, but he heard nothing. No’ even the usual night sounds he would expect—at least in his own world.
