Page 152 of Black to Light

I froze, staring at him. “What?”

“Don’t play coy with me, young lady.”

“But I honestly don’t know what––”

Brick snarled loudly at me, fangs shining in the torch’s light.

When I fell silent, the smile that wasn’t a smile returned to his pale face.

“A bit of a cheat, isn’t it?” he quipped, tilting his head. “To claim you won’t harm me and mine, all the while more and more andmoreof your people keep wandering, unwanted, into our sweet and pristine and pretty little world? How long before one of them decides to follow Charles’ example, Miriam? How long before Charleshimselffinds his way back here? After all, you tried banishing him once, didn’t you? How well didthatwork out for all of you?”

I stared at Brick, then looked at Black.

“Seriously,” I said to the vampire, voice flat. “What the fuck are you talking about? I thought the only door left was the one under your childhood home, in New York.”

Brick shook his head. As he did, he backed up slowly towards the rock wall behind him, dragging Nick with him.

It was only then that I saw it.

It had been invisible from above, as the rock wall slanted in at a steep angle, narrower up by the walkway, wide and broad and filled with crevices and shadows down below. I hadn’t seen the light it emanated because of theyissotorches, which washed it all out.

But I could see it all clearly now.

A misty swirl of glowing light shone from the dark rock face.

Water dripped down the rock around the dimensional tear, leaving orange, pink, green, and yellow streaks along the wallaround it, probably from minerals accumulating in the falling water. The effect made it look almost like a mouth, like the rock itself was alive.

It was smaller than the one we’d found under Brick’s childhood home.

It looked more organic somehow, more natural.

But I had absolutely no doubt what it was.

My heart thudded in my chest as I looked at it. The hairs rose on my arms, and on the back of my neck. My mouth seemed to tense, as if I’d bitten down on a live wire.

Brick and Nick stood only about five feet from its lit edge.

“How did you even find this?” I whispered, bewildered.

Brick’s red eyes bored into mine.

“We hadn’t until now, Miriam, dear,” he said in that drawling voice. “Of course I knewsomethingwas going on. Seers began to be sold and traded on the black market… seers we’d never seen before, and we’ve been meticulously documenting your kind since we’ve known of your existence. These seers were new. They were unnamed. They were unidentified. They had to be coming fromsomewhere,didn’t they? Including your dear little poppet here, who’s quite a story in and of herself…”

He jerked his chin towards where Aura stood.

I followed his eyes, still fighting shock, a kind of sick unease.

Aura hadn’t changed positions.

She stared at Nick like she was terrified out of her mind, but teetering on the edge of desperation and rage. Jem stood next to her, a nearly identical expression on his handsome face. Both of them looked like they would leap on Brick the second they saw an opening. Both of them looked like they’d tear him apart with their bare hands.

They also stood closer to the two vampires than any of us, even Black.

In fact, they stood pretty much directly between Nick and Brick and the rest of us.

I glanced at Black’s face. I saw from his eyes that he’d seen the portal, and knew exactly what it was, what it meant. He seemed significantly more cognizant of how it factored into the little standoff here, given it stood directly behind where Brick gripped Nick by the throat.

I looked at Nick, wondering suddenly why he was so quiet.

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