Burning Key

Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Falling through the portal, Cleo and Destan didn't lose their hold on each other, hands gripping tight and not knowing where they'd end up. The only thing they were both aware of was they were going to follow a female they both loved unconditionally.

Cleo's stomach twisted as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight against the dizziness and nausea that came with being thrown through time and space with no idea of where they would land.

Luckily, they both landed on their feet, boots splashing in shallow puddles of water.

No, not water.

Blood.

Even in the darkened world they found themselves in, they would see the crimson color in the strange light.

Familiar dark shadows were slowly retreating, a low chuckle echoing around them. When the shadows finally recognized there was a swirling portal that was quickly closing, it raced for it just as it disappeared. Cleo's eyes narrowed almost immediately as her own shadows billowed out from all around her, chasing the rest of the darkness away.

It gave way to the dying world around them, so different than their own. Buildings made of metal and glass, streetlamps that were shattered, and a city void of magic other than the magic that had invaded it.

Destan sucked in a breath and quickly let go of Cleo's hand. With good reason, too, since Adeena was on her knees in the street, staring at the blackened body of someone they hopefully didn't know. He ran toward her and Cleo followed just a few seconds after, both of them dropping to their knees in front of her. Destan was the one to reach forward first, taking her face in his hands, lifting up to make her look at him.

"Adeena," he breathed out, kissing a line along her cheek to her temple. He pulled her into his arms then, holding her tight. "Are you all right?"

She didn't say a word, still staring forward at the body. She didn't seem to be seeing it, though. Didn't even realize the two of them were there with her until Cleo reached over, tucking her hair behind her ear. Adeena's eyes snapped up to Cleo's and widened.

"You're here," she managed to finally choke out. "Both of you...you're here."

Cleo moved closer, enough for Destan to bring her into the hug, too. "You think we'd let you just fall through a portal without following? Absolutely ridiculous."

She let out a choked laugh, holding them tighter.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Destan asked her again when they pulled apart. He reached up again, wiping away the remnants of tears from her cheeks.

"I'm all right. I just...I was alone. I've been here for less than half an hour, I think. This is unlike any place I've seen before, but I know this isn't what it's supposed to look like."

Cleo let out a low growl. "I guess we've finally figured out the world Dessa sent Fin to when she was trying to get him out of Arloerin."

"And she unknowingly unleashed him on an unsuspecting people, just like she feared she did." She nodded toward the person she'd been staring at. "She was trying to get away from the oskurreia and the shadows. I didn't...I couldn't..."

"You couldn't save her," Destan told her. "You wouldn't have been able to. Not when..."

"I had a little girl with me," she said in a whisper. Now Cleo understood why she'd had tears streaking down her face. "Madeline. Gods, she couldn't have been more than four. She said something about her father winning, a scary man coming to the party, who I can only assume was Fin, and then them telling her to run. I just...I..."

Fear and sadness clawed at Cleo's throat. "What happened to her?"

Adeena's eyes shifted to where the portal had been. "I told her to run. She went through the portal you came from and I don't know where..."

"Hopefully, it was to Dalcaine since that's where it pulled us from."

"Yes, hopefully," she nodded, squeezing her eyes shut for a few more moments as she clung to Destan again. Letting out of deep sigh, she allowed for Cleo and Destan to help her stand. "I know Milena and Archer were pulled through...but what about the others?"

Cleo shook her head. "No idea, but I wouldn't doubt Dessa, Elys, and Eamon aren't here, too. If the shadows didn't pull them in, they probably willingly jumped through like Destan and I did."

"You...what?"

Destan smiled softly, brushing Adeena's hair back from her forehead. "Did you really think we wouldn't follow?"

Cleo nodded along with him, squeezing her hand. "I thought you were smarter than that."

Adeena smiled at the both of them, moving so they could stand. "What now?"

The three of them looked at each other before a light illuminated from a few streets over, glistening off the broken glass. A familiar, bluish light they'd seen so many times before.

"Dessa," Cleo and Adeena whispered together.

Keeping close to one another, the three of them walked quickly and quietly through the streets, following the light as it continued away from them. They figured out where the others were going by the glowing light they were headed toward. It was illuminating a building in the distance, down a street where strange-looking metal carriages with wheels but nowhere to harness horses were stranded, their doors open and the insides empty.

Everything was dark except for the building and Dessa's light that was getting closer and closer. They passed under a bridge that was halfway destroyed and the words on it barely visible from the blackened stone with the first word completely gone. Cleo could only make out the word terminal from it. It lead into an older building made of stone with glass windows, columns and a statue of what could have been a god in this world, a clock just below it, both hands stuck on the number twelve.

They continued down a street to the left of the building, finally coming close enough to the moving light that they could see who it was coming from.

It was Dessa, just as they were hoping.

And she had Elys, Eamon, Milena, and Archer with her.

As soon as they heard Cleo, Adeena, and Destan's footsteps, the five of them whirled in their direction, Dessa's glowing orb of light flickering out. But as soon as she saw the three of them, Dessa choked out a cry and started running, the others quickly following her. She slammed into Cleo, their arms immediately wrapping around each other in a tight embrace.

"Are you all right?" Cleo whispered to her, holding her tight before pulling back. She put both hands on her face, looking everywhere she could. "Are you all?"

Dessa nodded as tears pooled in her eyes. "Yes, we're fine. But I...I don't know what happened. I don't know where we are...other than it's obviously where I sent Fin."

"Could you be anythingmore like your mother? Going towarddanger rather than away," Destan snorted, eyes following down the streetto the illuminated building in the distance.