A scream tore through the manor. Not human. Not alive.
Penelope flinched, but her stride did not break.
“They are all waking,” Mingxi finished.
Another impact rocked the doorway. Shadows shifted violently inside, shapes jerking upright with grotesque speed. The portal flickered ahead—unstable but open—its blue-white arch spasming like a dying heartbeat.
“Keep moving,” Mingxi ordered.
Penelope didn’t need to be told. She lifted her skirts with one hand, the other pressed instinctively over her pocket where the Grimoire lay.
The fog parted just enough for the portal’s light to halo around them.
Behind them, the revenants began to pour out of the manor. Not fully formed. Not fully coordinated. But many.
Penelope didn’t look back. “Councilor Shen,” she said tightly, “if any of them reach us—”
“They won’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I do.”
They sprinted the final stretch.
Just as the first revenant stumbled onto the garden stones behind them—its jaw unhinged, body twitching with incomplete animation—Penelope and Mingxi crossed into the portal’s light.
Chapter 14
The realm snapped shut behind them.
The instant Penelope stepped into the portal, the world convulsed. Light didn’t envelop her—it snapped around her like a trap. A violent jerk twisted her stomach as the spell shunted them sideways through the realm-veins. The portal wasn’t stable enough to give them a smooth crossing; this was wild, frantic magic, overloaded by the necromantic disruption clinging to them.
Mingxi grabbed her arm as the ground vanished beneath their feet. “Hold on!”
To what, she didn’t know. The spell was ripping everything apart.
The portal flickered between darkness and blinding white, shuddering with each pulse of unstable magic radiating from her pocket. She felt the Grimoire throb, a faint glow leaking through the fabric. She didn’t recognize the sensation, but Mingxi’s head snapped toward it, sensing something as well.
“Lady Penelope—”
The portal buckled. A shockwave slammed into them, throwing both forward into open air.
They crashed onto the cold marble floor of the Council’s arrival chamber. Penelope almost landed face first, but Mingxi rolled beneath her, twisting to take the impact. She landed half sprawled across his chest, breath knocked from her lungs.
Gasps erupted around them.
“Seal the wards!”
“Is that Lady Penelope?”
“Close the portal now!”
Guardians scrambled to seal the gateway as its form tore apart behind them. The arch convulsed, spitting sparks before collapsing into a cascade of dying runes. Silence followed, sharp and brittle.
Penelope pushed herself upright, hair loosened, dress torn at the hem, silver magic faintly crackling along her fingertips. Councilor Thane stared at her, pale and horrified.
“She came through a portal collapse?”
