“That.”
Medusa pointed upward at the same time I and everyone else noticed a sudden ribbon of sunlight flowing into this otherwise dark world. The gorgons in the shadows hissed and withdrew into the dark. Medusa smiled even wider, turning her ancient eyes to the golden beams she likely hadn’t seen for centuries and positively basking in them, holding her arms out wide and letting her eyelids flutter closed.
It was a rift.
My eyes bulged, lips parting in surprise as I stared up at the hole torn into the fabric between worlds. It was growing as we watched, turning from a pinprick of sunlight into a veritable skylight. And beyond, we could see a balmy beach, ocean water lapping up the coast, and scientists in white lab coats running back and forth, already searching for their instruments, already shouting instructions to one another. And then I saw him, staring up into the rift as if peering up at me from the surface of a lake.
Wyn Kendrick.
I felt his fear, his determination, his fury that another one of these things could blemish his world, become a blight upon his people, his department. He stared into the void with such intense hatred that I thought, for a moment, he might have seen me. But then he turned away, waving a hand and calling for someone else.
“Incredible, aren’t they?” Medusa asked, pleased with herself. “A window into the mortal realm, a doorway back to where we’re from, back home. If you’re brave enough to claim it. I know a minotaur who was. Poor thing didn’t make it.”
Her gaze flicked to me and my breath caught in my throat at the realization. She knew me. She had seen me take down that minotaur. They could see everything from this side of the rift. Everything.
“Very chivalrous of you,” Medusa quipped then, turning back to Lark, “kidnapping this one a second time to save her life.”
“Is she here?” Lark snapped. “Ariadne. She must be nearby to perform this.”
“That’s the beauty of it. Whatever dark and ancient magic she’s drawing from allows her to conduct this little light display from somewhere else, a fact she figured out after her one and only jaunt down here. I assume that’s why she let you get your hands on the key so easily. She didn’t need it anymore.”
Rook muttered a curse. Cass hung her head. Lark just stood there, gritting his teeth and staring up at the rift.
Then, with one primal cry of rage, he threw his arms outward and began to steam. White mist rose from him and slithered against the cave floors. Medusa gasped and slid away. The gorgons hissed and retreated even further, as if afraid to touch such powerful magic. The mist thickened as it rose up the cave walls and came together to cover the rift above. There was a moment of struggle in which it seemed the Divide couldn’t decide whether or not it intended to heal but Lark’s magic won out and we watched as the rift disappeared, the mist dissipated, and we were plunged back into darkness, back into that dim, eerie moonlight glow.
“You can’t keep us here forever,” Medusa hissed, her melodic, narcissistic tone vanished and replaced by one of utter cruelty, genuine hatred. “If she doesn’t free us, someone else will. We are eternal. Hellscape is not.”
“It will be,” Lark promised. “So long as a Morningstar sits the Obsidian Throne.”
Medusa fell to hissing with the rest of the gorgons as Lark spun around and led us all quickly from the makeshift hall, his cloak snapping after him as he left.
Chapter thirty
A Fire That Consumes
Westrolledrightoutof Hellscape, locked the door behind us, and shadowstepped right back into that orange apartment in the Court of Wanderers before anyone dared to say a word. When they finally did, it was Rook of all people, and it wasn’t exactly the most elegant choice.
“Shit.”
“We have to stop her,” I was speaking before I could properly think about what I was saying. “If she opens Hellscape up to the mortal plane, if she finds a way to make those rifts bigger, if more creatures attempt to escape like the minotaur… how do we stop her?”
Rook grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. Cass looked to Lark. Lark was staring at the wall behind me, jaw set.
“Lark,” I said his name gently and he came too, blinking as his dark eyes found mine.
“What she’s doing shouldn’t be possible,” Lark said then, thinking aloud as he strolled into the living room behind us and we turned to watch. “She’s hundreds of years old and she’s never shown even a hint of such power before. The mind control, that’s a part of her family’s legacy, and I can understand keeping that hidden but this. This is something else entirely. It’s not just dark magic. It’s ancient magic. That kind of power was lost millennia ago with the Fae that put up the Divide in the first place, and it took scores of them. How is she able to pierce it alone? How—”
He stopped, his eyes widening suddenly in realization.
“What is it?” Cass asked, stepping forward.
“Do you remember what Taurus told us about father’s curse? That it was like his power had been funneled out of him.”
Cass’ brow creased for a moment as she tried to remember but then they raised as she parted her lips in understanding.
“You don’t mean—” she started but Lark didn’t let her finish.
“All of that power had to go somewhere. Why wouldn’t she funnel it into herself?”
