Leaving the question of the shadow bird behind for now, I followed the rest.
We passed rooms with doors of night. The others carefully didn't look at them, walking single file down the middle of the hallway as if afraid of what those doors housed.
I paused next to one, tempted to touch it.
Breandan caught my hand before I could. "I wouldn't. Curiosity killed the cat."
Baran looked over his shoulder. "Not all of the king's creatures were expelled when the realm closed. Some of his worst monsters remained behind, locked away."
My hand lowered, and I took a step back, the memory of the monsters I'd seen in the illusion fresh in my mind. Best not to tempt fate.
The shadow bird swooped, darting through one door. The shadows swallowed it with barely a ripple. The bird exited out of another door further along the corridor. It climbed, circling before winging its way back to me.
This place was so strange.
We started walking again, only to stop minutes later on the landing of a set of stairs.
Owen leaned against a wall, waiting for us with a bored expression.
Astrid stood on one of the steps leading up, rocking back and forth on her toes as she examined the black veil preventing her from going any further.
The stairs to the level below had a similar veil over it.
There was no seeing past it. It was like someone had pushed back the abyss and this was where it had stopped. What remained was a broken, discombobulated version of what had been.
Like the portal we'd traveled to reach Noctessa, the black shimmered with a never-ending Aurora Borealis.
Once again, I found myself mesmerized by the play of light and colors. They danced to a tune only they could hear. Briefly I found myself caught up in it, nearly swaying to the faint strain of music.
I took a baby step toward the veil as it whispered my name. A hard hand on my shoulder yanked me back. The nascent bond that had started to form snapped.
"What do you think you're doing?" Travis barked.
My thoughts felt scattered and slow.
He forced me a step further away. "I didn't arrange all this only to have you kill yourself in seconds."
Finally, my brain kicked back online. "Gee, you're all heart."
I shook his hand off me. "Don't go losing your mind. I was simply trying to get a better look at the veil."
"Until you understand the deadening better, it's best to keep your distance for now," Callie advised.
Astrid frowned at all of us. "I don't understand why you pulled her back. We'll eventually have to send her through either way."
"But not before we prepare her the best we can," Callie argued.
I ignored the two of them, noticing the shadow bird's restlessness as it rustled its wings, hopping a step closer to the veil then away again.
On the other side, a dark shape moved as if a great leviathan was swimming toward the surface.
The shadow bird rustled its wings, hopping another step closer to the veil.
Don appeared next to us, umbrella in hand and shadow horns curling from his forehead. "Pull her back. Something is coming through."
The veil started to move, as if a magnet was dragging it toward us.
Travis wasted no time listening, putting distance between us and it, seconds before the veil spat a dark blob out of its depths.
