Van clears his throat, “Actually, we did. We were wondering, if we did decide to have House, and you as our home base and permanent home, do you know of a portal reasonably nearby that isn’t going to give away the location of where we’re going to anyone, or a way to stop someone from knowing the location so that we can use Naimh’s portal?”
Ethel is silent for a moment and then asks, “You haven’t explored the house properly yet, have you?”
I share a look with the guys and then reply for all of us, “No, we haven’t really done much exploring. I’ve been here enough that it didn’t occur to me to explore, although I suppose with House making the new rooms for us all, then it should have.”
“You have a portal, my dear. One that is capable of taking you almost anywhere that you wish to go. If you were to use this house as your permanenthome, then you would be able to come and go as you pleased, and only House would know where you were going.”
“Holy shit,” Ransom exclaims. “Seriously?”
“Oh yes,” Ethel replies. “Back in the main hallway, second door on your left, follow the corridor all the way to the end door, and the portal is in there.”
I gape at her. “Okay, yeah, House has definitely done more than just our bedrooms, because there simply wasn’t that much space the last time that I properly explored the house.”
“Let’s go and check it out,” Reed grins. “Raiden is going to be pissed as fuck that he’s not here to see it.”
“We can show Coen and him later,” Griff says. “They’re most likely deep in the woods by now, and it will take us ages to find them.”
“You don’t need to convince me,” I say as I grab Van’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
They chuckle as they follow me out of the kitchen.
“Whoa,” River exclaims as we pull open the door. “There are so many doors down here.”
“Let’s check out the portal first, and then we can look through the others,” Ransom suggests, already striding down the hallway to the door at the end.
We all follow him, and he pulls the door open. Sure enough, there’s a portal, all geared up and ready to go in the middle of the room. It doesn’t need to be activated or anything.
“This is old magic, and it is really fucking strong,” Ransom says as he studies it closely.
“I wonder how you calibrate it to take you where you need to go?” Doc asks.
Van holds up a book that was on a table off to the side that I completely missed because I was distracted by the giant swirling portal.
“According to this, you simply tell it where you would like to go, and it will take you there. Then there’s an incantation that you say in order to call it to you to bring you back here.” He explains. His eyes scan the page, and he glances up in surprise, “Apparently, it’s only calibrated for us, and if we’re bringing guests, we need to hold onto them and make sure we’re projecting feelings of I want this person to come with us, otherwise they’ll get trapped in the portal and die.”
“That’s kind of cool,” I grin. “If anyone tries to follow us through, they’ll get killed before they can get here.”
“The ultimate home security,” River says. “I like it.”
“Let’s go and see what’s through the other doors,” Doc suggests.
I don’t think any of us need much more convincing. We all head back out into the hallway and start looking through doors. There’s a cinema room, a weapons room, and what appears to be a cold-weather room filled with extra outerwear, which is really handy.
We haven’t even gotten halfway through the doors when a giant yawn takes over my entire face.
“If it’s okay with you guys, I think I’m going to have a nap, I’m super tired,” I say while another yawn takes over my features.
The guys chuckle.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Neith
“Icould go for a nap,” Griff replies. “Do you want some company?”
“Absolutely. I always sleep better with snuggles.” I reply as I start to head toward the door that will take us back into the main hallway.
“We’ll wake you up when dinner is ready,” Van says with a smile before he pulls me in for a kiss. “Are you sure you don’t want something to eat before you head upstairs? We missed lunch.”
