Page 14 of Forever Frenzy
I helped Mom to her feet.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“You and Tage are tethered. He bound himself to you while you were both vampires, but that bond was never broken. Even death isn’t strong enough to break it. I need you to find it and tug on the tether. It will show us where to find him.”
“How do I find it?” she asked with a trembling voice.
“I don’t know. You just have to look within and dig deep.”
She swallowed and closed her eyes. “It’s the feeling in my gut, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Probably.”
“I’ve always felt it.” She turned her head, ashamed to admit to the bond.
“I know you love Dad, but I also know you loved Tage. It’s okay, Mom.”
“He’s that way.” She pointed to the left. “But how do we get there?”
I whispered a few words, asking for the feeling in her gut, the tether, to become real. Soon, a rope, white as snow, appeared around her stomach and stretched into the darkness in the direction she’d indicated.
“I’m going to hold onto you, and you have to pull us to him.Think you can do that?” I tried to smile.
“I can.”
She grabbed the rope and stepped off the tiny sand pile into the darkness as if there was a solid floor beneath her feet. Soon, it didn’t matter. Her feet and mine flew out behind us and we were pulled into the inky darkness.
“Hold on to me!” she yelled, her hair whipping my face.
“I’ve got you.”
“Hold on to the book, too!”
It was tucked into my pants. “I’ve got it!”
All of a sudden, a light appeared as if at the end of a long tunnel. It grew larger as we got closer. Palm trees. A pond of clear water. A building made of stone. Mom shielded her eyes from the brightness, blinking away the tears and pain. I did the same.
She stared at the building in front of us, standing several stories high. There were no windows or doors, just solid, thousand pound blocks forming a cube that was too large to bust through and obviously spelled. I could feel the magic pulsing around the structure.
“How do we get in?” Mom asked, staring up at the impossible.
I took the book out and began gently flipping the pages. “Let me see if I can find something to help us.”
“He’s in there. I can feel him,” she said softly.
“I know.”
The rope around her waist was still taut, leading right into the center of one of the stones. Somehow, it never went slack. With the sun beating down on us, it seemed like it took forever to get from the front cover to the back, but there was nothing in Tage’s book about how to break through an impenetrable building or wall.
Mom walked to the stone, placing her hands on the facade. “Tage?” She didn’t yell, she simply spoke his name.
I couldn’t hear an answer, but a tug on her waist confirmed that he’d heard her. “We need your help,” she said softly. “We can’t get in.”
Another tug on her waist and she was jerked against the stone. Her cheek lay flat against the surface as she braced her handsagainst the rock.
“Are you sure it’s him, Mom?” I was beginning to think coming here was a bad idea.
“I’m positive. Can you try to use your power to make a door?” she asked.
