FINAL GATE (#3 GHOST PORTAL series)

FIFTEEN

Guides gathered in the hall with Avery, watching the ghost portal remain illuminated after Ada's departure.

"It's a meeting," one Guide whispered, hovering a bit too close for Avery's comfort. Its voice was sharp despite its lowered tone, and its frostiness rattled through him, making him inch to the side, out of range.

"Is it, really? She's never done that before," said another, tipping forward to glimpse the portal closer. It scintillated, and drew the attention, illuminating the dark hallway like a blast of sunlight. Green-tinted sunlight.

"She has," uttered one Guide, in a high-pitched, annoyingly greasy voice that made Avery shudder. "It's just been a very, very long time. Such a complicated process. It's no surprise she waited this long to do this."

"How would you know?" said the first Guide who'd spoken earlier, somehow close to Avery again, though he'd moved away.

The group chattered on, loud and obnoxious, forgetting Avery was there, eagerly awaiting Ada's return as much as they all were.

"What do you think she's telling them?"

"How long does it take?"

"Does it matter? We need to stay nearby in case she requires assistance when she gets back."

Tired of their chit-chat, Avery pushed through the cluster of blue beings, sensing their cool energy over his skin as he pierced their cloudy bodies. It was like walking through a waterfall, but not getting wet; only experiencing the cold touch of the water.

He needed air.

Once he reached the stairs, he sat, breathing in and out as if he'd been deprived of oxygen for a while. And he had, in a sense—inside the house was a toxic, lingering stench of dried blood and mud, but compared to the basement, it didn't make his guts churn as much. Being engulfed by all those blue beings was definitely a close second, though.

He tucked his head between his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs. How had it gotten to this? To him finding out he had a purpose, a destiny; but that destiny was warped, wrong, and misleading? He'd been told he was a savior, but in reality he was the bringer of doom. And the woman he'd fallen in love with should have died so he'd have never enacted his fate.

It stung him deeply to understand that all he'd been through, all he'd done, had been for nothing. Amy and Jamie needn't have died. And had he ignored his eerie attraction to Jessamine, his fascination for her story, his insistence that she was linked to all this, things might have been different. Had he listened to Jamie, none of this would have happened, would it have?

But no, he was a stubborn asshole who didn't take no for an answer and had to find Amy, at all costs. He couldn't leave well enough alone. He had to turn Jessamine to corruption by bringing back memories she was supposed to keep hidden forever. By dragging her to the place she'd been booted out of, and almost died at.

Losing one friend should have been enough to trigger me into stepping out and away from all this.

As he straightened up, stretching out his legs, a few white orbs popped up around him. Some seemed to stare at him, hovering at eye-level, buzzing near his face. Some swept over to the hallway where the Guides had grouped to witness Ada's return; if she returned.

One blue being hadn't joined the others, remaining at a safe distance, tilted against a wall in the lobby. It wasn't shining as brightly as the others, as if trying to disband from the group, to be alone. Its glowing gaze rested on an orb next to Avery; then it looked at Avery, its see-through, bluish eyebrows raising.