Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

14 - Jump through hoops - Part 2

Alexander shifted the black cloth higher on my face. "Focus," he told me quietly. "Keep control of them."

I turned to the portal. "Take us to Michael?"

I put my hand in Gabriel's and we stepped through.

A dry wind blew sand into my eyes. The air shimmered hotly over a hilly expanse of sand. Just scarcely visible in the midst of the shifting hues of tans and browns, a building the same color as the sand rose like a prison, windowless and square. Several figures in silver – was that armor? – were standing in a group near the building. They began to turn around towards us.

Gabriel's hand tightened painfully on mine and dragged me backwards. We stumbled into the beach house.

"That was not the location of the revenants," Gabriel hissed, jerking me close. His chest pressed against my back.

"Ow, Gabriel!"

"Where was it?" Alexander asked.

"Some fucking desert."

"Gabriel, ow."

He shifted to hold me around my waist. "If the portal will take us anywhere at random, then it cannot be trusted with you at all."

I didn't know if it was random, seeing as we didn't know where it had tried to take us. I opened my mouth to say just that, but Alexander said, "Rose doesn't need to cross over. Any of us can write the names into the book. She can thread them once they are on this side."

"I want to see the caves!" I cried. My eyes met Lukas's, always more sympathetic than Alexander's. "I don't want to always be stuck here! Please, take us to Michael this time, okay?"

I tried to pull out of Gabriel's hold, to step back towards the withered old portal, but my own portal flew to insert itself between us.

"Hey!"

It can't be trusted, my portal explained.

I glowered. "I guess you think we should abandon Michael in the caves, then?"

"Of course not, I'll try to retrieve him," Gabriel said. He'd relaxed. "Who is stopping you taking the second portal?"

"Mine is!"

He nodded slowly. "Can yours take me to Michael?"

My portal brightened. Yes. You can go through me. I can be trusted.

"So you do know how to get to the caves?" I asked suspiciously. "How?"

My portal shimmered and dimmed slightly. I'll guess it. He'll be fine.

"First of all, I'm coming too. And this is silly. The other portal has to know what it's doing better than you."

Alexander shook his head. "Don't be stubborn, Rose. Gabriel, let me come with you, in case it brings you somewhere unexpected."

Lukas frowned when he saw my eyes tear up. "Rose, don't cry ... Look, you two, if you manage to find Michael without issue, return for her to come with you."

Gabriel, who was still holding me from behind, tilted my head up with a hand around my chin. His eyes tightened.

"Fine." He kissed a tear away from my temple. "Is your portal in front of us?"

"Yes," I sniffled.

"Where's your death book?"

I retrieved it from my own backpack and put it into the backpack on Gabriel's shoulder.

Gabriel described the revenants' caves to my portal in as much detail as he could remember. He and Alexander stepped through.

I watched them disappear with a deep sense of foreboding.