“To meet you.” Her voice rang with conviction.
“Then I’m here for you,” I said.
Her eyes searched mine, like she was digging deep, hunting for truth.You know me, I thought, feeling the familiar ache in my chest.Better than anyone, ever. But I didn’t say it. Staying quiet, I watched her study me.
She smiled, a sad smile that hit me like a punch in the gut. “We need to get going if we’re gonna make it to South Beach,” she said quietly. She was already getting to her feet.
“Let’s pack and roll.” The words rolled out, like an autoresponse.Have a nice day.Good luck. May the Force be with you.Rote and hollow.
Rives stretched, looking oddly comfortable for someone who’d slept upright against a chunk of black rock. Not many people could grab zz’s sitting up, but Rives told me once he could sleep anywhere, anytime. Lucky him.
I watched them: Miya opening her eyes to Jason, Jason handing Charley dried fruit, Charley laughing at Rives, Rives reading Charley’s charts. They’d take care of each other after I was gone, and the knowledge gave me comfort. Charley wouldn’t be alone.
We reached South Beach by mid-morning. After chasing gates north, we’d turned and were now chasing them south into Quadrant Two. The gate storm should be swirling through here soon—unless we’d already missed it. And we wouldn’t know until today at noon.
I felt amped and edgy, like I always did as noon approached. Lately the noon vibe was worse than ever, because now nausea was mixed in, just enough to throw me off my game. Off Nil’s game.
Eyes wide open, Kevin’s ghost urged. My eyes were so wide I barely blinked.
Jason and Rives hugged the tree line, pacing like soldiers. Miya drifted near Jason. She had eagle-eye vision, and was a great Spotter in the making. And of course Charley walked beside me. Her hand tucked tight in mine, her chin tilted up, daring Nil to defy her.
God, I love you, I thought, watching her face. I squeezed her hand, and just as she turned to me, Jason’s cry split the air. “Gate! Eleven o’clock!” Whipping to look, I caught the shadow rippling across the charcoal sand. Fifty meters out, at most.
This was it.
Like someone had shot a gun, we all began hauling ass toward the gate, running as if our lives depended on catching it, which of course, mine did. The sand dropped, the air rose, and in a sweet twist of fate, the gate began moving—toward us.
“All out, Thad!” Rives shouted. “GO!”
Jason, Miya, and Rives dropped back. I refused to let go of Charley’s hand. My fingers crushing hers, I kept her close.
“Love you,” I choked out.
“Love you, too,” she said, grinning, but her eyes were shimmering, like the gate I was dying to catch.
Please don’t cry, I thought, fighting to run.Because I’ll lose it for sure.
She didn’t. “Almost there,” she said. Now her eyes were on the gate. Her grip loosened, a tiny hint of what was coming: pain.
But the pain of the gate would be nothing compared with the pain of leaving Charley.
The gate rolled at us, fast. It was a single. It had to be; it flew like a rocket. The air glittered, reflecting rainbows and light, a million prisms, each one itching to tear me apart, more brilliant and roiling than I’d ever seen an incoming gate, or maybe I was already feeling the burn; the iridescence was blinding. Every fiber of my being ached as my brain screamed to let Charley go. Meters from the gate, I spun Charley out of range.
The luminescence dulled.
Behind me, Jason yelled, “Thad, something’s weird! The gate’s muddy.”
“I see it!” I braked so hard I kicked up black sand. It sprayed into the face of the gate, where it disappeared like mist. Then it reappeared.
Black sand. Black mist. Blackness in the air.
“Back up!” I shouted, reversing in the soft sand and stumbling away. Breaking into a run, I grabbed Charley and dragged her away. “Incoming!”
Two gates—one entry, one exit—were flashing in the same space, something I’d never seen or even known was possible. And my gate was blocked.
As we sprinted away, I looked back in time to see the inbound gate flush completely black. To its left, the outside edge of the outbound gate shimmered. For an instant, two overlapping circles were clearly defined: one as black as night, the other iridescent crystal magic. The black one glittered like mirrored charcoal, confirming my fear: this inbound had a rider.
Person, thing, or animal.
