FINAL GATE (#3 GHOST PORTAL series)

TWENTY-EIGHT

Getting used to the normal, not blood-tinged, death-soaked air of the mortal realm—the basement—wasn't easy for Jessamine. She struggled to breathe it in at first, then the Guides had huddled around her and turned the air to ice, making it even harder. The atmosphere made her dizzy. The sensation of falling never stopped, giving her vertigo.

When she'd parted ways with Ada and collapsed head-first into a spinning, never-ending black ditch, she'd gotten it into her brain that the demons had tricked her, that she was in fact moving on to a worse dimension than theirs. Some kind of real hell where she'd be falling forever.

But when she stirred in Avery's arms, opened her eyes, took in his musk, captured his glorious, glowing blue eyes to memory, she knew she'd survived.

That instinct to survive remained as he half-carried her up the stairs, out of the basement. The stuffy air down there had gone from tolerable to impossible, with all the Guides and their angry energy concentrating in the small, confined space.

In truth, the farther from the formerly red door as she could get, the better. If she could put that entire experience behind her and move forward, she'd rest easier. Though a part of her wondered if she'd ever truly rest again.

As Avery led her down the hallway, she shuddered. Though there was something different about it, it engulfed her. Too many memories of this place; too many visions of that dreadful night when she'd shoved past Avery and Jamie, forced her way into the house, stomped down to the basement, to the door she'd been destined to open. Now she was doing the reverse trek; away from the door and all it represented. Away from all the suffering she'd caused, the trauma she'd been responsible for.

Her legs gave out halfway to the front door. Avery gasped, then guided her to the main stairs, letting her sit on the bottom step to catch her breath. "Need a minute?"

She nodded, biting her lower lip. "It's quite a difference between there and here," she said softly, lowering to set her chest against her thighs, her chin near her knees. "How long was I in there...?"

Avery grimaced. "To be fair, I lost track of time with everything going on up here... probably a few days?"

Jessamine brushed stray hairs from her face. Her hands were cold, frozen, even, sending goosebumps to line along her neck. "I'm guessing a few days up here is like an eternity down there. Time works differently in adjacent realms."

"Yeah," Avery sneered, "so I've been told. And so I've felt, too; did I tell you I was—"

"—in the demon realm?" She flinched at the word demon. Saying it out loud, out here, was almost like inviting a curse to fall upon her once more. "They told me, actually. When I... when we found you in the basement, I didn't realize that was where you'd come from. Neither did they. Or if they did, they didn't share it with me."

Avery knelt before her, his hand itching to touch her face. To caress her worries away, to soothe her. She wanted it, too, but not just yet. She needed a bit more time to adjust.

"I have to, um," he winced, "this is going to sound weird, but I have to go re-bury some bodies."

Jessamine's eyebrows raised, but she didn't question him. "After everything we've been through? That doesn't sound so weird."

"It has to do with Limbo and portals opening up in their realm, and... ah," he straightened up and flashed her a bright smile, "I'll be back. You relax."

She silently thanked him as he opened the door, allowing a film of sunlight to stream over her face. He shut it, though, and she was in darkness once more. But after the sepia-toned hell she'd thought she'd be stuck in forever, this darkness was welcome.