Page 20 of Veinblood
I open the door and step out, walking along the short passageway, following the sound of Ellie moving around. She stops when I walk in, turning to smile at me.
“Are you hungry?” She shakes her head. “Stupid question. You must be. That soup won’t have been enough.”
She crosses to a door and pulls it open. Cold air spills out, and frost coats the shelves inside. I step closer, reaching out to touch the ice curiously.
“It’s called a freezer. It keeps food frozen until we want to eat it.”
I nod. “There are cold rooms kept underground in Meridian. Ice is cut during winter, and stored there. But … nothing like this.”
She removes two small boxes, shuts the freezer, and opens another compartment built into a lower structure. Using a fork, she pierces the clear surface of one, places it inside, and closes the door. A faint chime sounds when she taps the front.
“A microwave,” she tells me. “It heats up food straight from frozen. It won’t take long.”
I watch the container spin inside the glowing box, then turn to Ellie. “I think Meridian would have been easier to adapt to than here.”
“For you, maybe. I wouldn’t have survived without you. If I hadn’t stumbled across your tower, I’d be dead.”
The microwave makes another sound, and she turns to it to take out the box and replace it with the second. While that one heats up, she empties the first onto a plate and sets it on the table.
“Eat.”
I pick up the fork, and sample a mouthful. The flavor is odd, not unpleasant, but different from what I’m used to. She watches me eat, turning briefly to fill her own plate when the microwave makes that strange noise again, then sits across from me.
“What do we do now?”
I still, looking up at her. “I need to find a way back home.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know yet. If the crystal sent us here, there must be a way to reverse it.”
Her expression turns thoughtful. “When I first arrived in Meridian, I just appeared there. I was walking along a street one moment, the next I was in the desert.”
“My summoning placed you where you were needed. A summons didn’t bring us here.” But it’s a starting point. “What do you remember of your arrival in the Sunfire Dunes?”
She closes her eyes. “Heat. Disorientation. I think I saw a bird on one of the street lights before I was pulled out of Chicago.”
“A bird? Could it have been my familiar?”
“Maybe? Are you telling me the raven found me?”
“The raven was free while I was imprisoned. It was part of the spell that sought someone capable of breaking the binding.”
“And it found me.” Her voice is soft.
“And now we know that it was more than chance. You were born in Meridian, and you carry Veinblood power.”
“Does that mean we need to recreate your summoning spell?”
“No, I don’t believe so. The spell was searching for someone to bring to me. We need something that takes me back to Meridian. What we need is a focus. The raven was my focus for the summoning. The crystal, I believe, was the focus which brought us here. We need something that can channel our combined abilities and also holds a link to Meridian.”
“Where would we even find something like that? We don’t have magical … wait … there are stores that sell crystals. Do you think that would work?”
I stand up. “I would need to see them.”
Ellie reaches across the table and grasps my hand. “Sacha, we can’t go now. It’s Christmas Eve. Everywhere is closing up for the night. Nothing will be open until the day after tomorrow. It’s a major holiday here. But after that, we can search.”
Chapter Seven
