Drea stopped short and then glanced over her shoulder and gestured for Marlow to get in front of her.
“Get out of the way,” Marlow yelled to me from the Lumen side of the open portal.
I recognized immediately what Marlow was doing. I’d been laid out enough times by her shockwave in training to know when she was building power. Jacob stood next to her with a small dagger in each hand and a wicked gleam in his eye.
Keeping one hand pointed at the portal, I yelled for everyone to move in order for Marlow to get a clear shot. Gage’s head snapped up. He spotted the portal, and then Marlow with her hands raised on the other side. He hit the ground, knowing what was coming. Then Marlow unleashed on Dash’s unsuspecting brother and dad. Her shockwave blew both of them backward at least fifteen feet until they collided with the wall. Before they had a chance to regain their senses, Jacob stepped up and tossed his daggers, embedding them in one’s shoulder and the other’s thigh.
“Let’s go!” I screamed.
Gage and Dash immediately rushed toward me. I backed into the portal, stepping into Lumen Academy and keeping it open for the others to join me. Gage bolted through after me, followed by Indigo, but when she stepped through the portal, she fell to the ground immediately and started to shake.
The bracelet that protected her from the Lumen wards! I had it on, not her.
“Drea, I’m wearing Indigo’s bracelet,” I said, throwing her a frantic look. I couldn’t take it off while I was keeping the portal stable. Dash and Harley weren’t through yet.
Drea lurched forward and ripped the Lumen relic off my wrist. Grabbing Indigo’s arm, she shoved it over her hand, and the moment it settled on her skin Indigo stopped convulsing.
I looked up and through the portal to see that Dash had hefted Harley back in his arms. The layers of her black dress concealed his chest and arms, but I could still see his poor burned gray wings rise up behind him.
He was only steps from crossing over the portal’s threshold when he lurched forward, his eyes popping open in surprise. He tossed Harley through at Gage, who managed to catch her before she hit the ground, and then Drea rushed forward and pulled a bracelet from out of nowhere, affixing it to Harley’s arm.
Dash staggered in, almost tripping, and it wasn’t until he fell to his knees after crossing through the portal that I noticed his mother standing ten feet behind him, a hand pressed against her side where a wound leaked blood down her leg. The smile on her face was nothing short of evil, making my blood run cold.
I quickly closed the portal, as much to keep the Shades out of Lumen Academy as to get away from the creepy smile that would no doubt give me nightmares for years. The moment the gateway to Shade City closed, Dash keeled over. It was only then that we all saw the axe buried in his back.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Seeing Dash with a weapon sticking out of his back sent me into shock.
“Dash!” Drea rushed forward, the first of us to process what was happening. “Gage, help me get him to the healing center.”
Drea yanked Dash upward and his head lolled to the side as he passed out.
Without a second thought, Gage set Harley on the floor and then grabbed Dash by the waist, hauling him over his shoulder in a fireman hold that wouldn’t jostle the axe sticking out of his back. I froze, unsure what to do. Did I follow Gage and Dash or—?
Harley moaned at my feet and I panicked. If she woke up now, we were screwed.
“Help me get her in the cell!” Marlow snapped. “It will keep her from being able to use her powers and portal out of here.”
Great idea.
Stepping forward, I opened a portal into the iron cell. It took longer than usual because half my mind was with Dash and I was feeling depleted of energy. My strength marks engaged and I felt a sudden burst of power.
“Get her in!” I yelled as I held the portal open. Indigo and Marlow grasped Harley underneath her armpits and hauled her inside. They kept tripping over the giant skirt of her poofy dress but were finally able to get her in the cell and then step out themselves so I could close the portal.
Harley moaned again, slowly starting to stir, and I looked back at the door on the far wall where Drea and Gage had taken an injured Dash.
Should I leave Harley and go check on him? Or try to talk some sense into my half-sister?
“You bitch!” Harley yelled, and I whipped my head back to find her glaring at me.
Okay, forget this, I was going to look after Dash.
“Can you keep an eye on her?” I asked Indigo and Marlow, and they both nodded.
Harley stood and threw her arms out at me. A black smoke ball appeared for a second and then fizzled to nothing.
“ARGHH!” She screamed and beat on the bars. “I willkillyou for this,” she seethed.
