“Skye! We aren’t sightseeing. Help me do this,” I hissed.
She stuck her tongue out at me and gestured to Indigo. “Grab her hands and connect with her like you did with me and Aurum in Avalon. Once you’ve connected, envision where you want to go and then pull on her power as you make the portal. You need to be the last to step through as it will close behind you.”
I cracked my neck.Yeah, no pressure, I’ve got this.
“I’ve never even been to England. I’ve never even been out of the country. How am I going to visualize a place to go there?” I voiced my fear.
A sad look came over Gage’s face. “I think I can help with that.” Stowing his sword in a sheath on his back, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through some pictures. It took a while but finally he handed it to me, and my heart dropped into my stomach. There was a young Gage, I’d guess maybe ten or eleven, standing in front of an ancient looking mausoleum. It was covered in moss and vines, but there was something achingly beautiful about it. Behind him were a thicket of trees. Fog lay on the ground; shafts of sunlight pierced through the leaves. It was one of the most stunning photographs I’d ever seen. When I looked at his face, my throat tightened with emotion. Young Gage wore a haunted expression.
“My mother’s grave. Family plot in Highgate Cemetery. It’s in London, which isn’t exactly where we need to get, but it’s close enough.” His voice was rough, and I nodded, handing him the phone back.
“Thank you.” I cleared my throat.
Reaching for Indigo’s hands, I took them in my own and she grasped them without question. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and pulled up the image Gage had shown me in my mind. There weren’t proper pathways, just leaves and dirt trails cut into the earth. It was as if the bodies of the dead and nature had become one.
When I had a firm visual in my mind, I tapped into my power and then tried to reach for Indigo’s energy signature and connect with her like I had with Skye during training. I’d only done something like this one time before, so I was still unsure of what I was feeling for, but now that I’d opened myself up, it was like I was connecting witheverything. A breeze of power moved over me and through me. My friends spread out around me were like heat signatures in my mind’s eye. It even felt like I could feel the beating heart of the Netherworld drumming beneath my feet.
Energy swirled around me, calling out to me, and I found that it was the most natural thing in the world to reach out and link with it, so I did.
“Help us,” a voice whispered.
“Free us,” another said.
“Save us,” a third chimed in.
What the hell?I shook my head, trying to dislodge the random voices.
“Okay, rein it in, cowboy, you’ve connected with the souls of the Netherworld,” Skye shot beside me.
Crap.
“I’m right here,” Indigo said. “Focus on me.”
I swallowed hard, following her voice with my power, as if that were possible. There was a pull on my energy as if the souls in the Netherworld didn’t want to let go, but I fought against it.
Indigo, I thought.Sweet, slightly misguided, good taste in shoes, Indigo.
A surge of power rushed through me then, and I knew I’d connected with her.
“I feel it!” she shouted, slightly panicked.
“What now?” I yelled, hoping Skye hadn’t left me. If she poofed out before we crossed over I was going to kill her again.
“I don’t know. Make the portal,” she shot back.
I don’t know?
Great. It was like the blind leading the blind.
I started to panic, but then someone came up behind me, pressing their chest to my back.
Gage?
Their energy felt different from Indigo’s and the souls I’d unknowingly linked to before. Different, but still powerful and equally alluring.
“You got this,” Gage whispered in my ear. Itwashim. “Focus on the image, on where you want to portal to.” Gage’s lips brushed over the shell of my ear as he spoke to me in calm tones. The lack of alarm in his voice grounded me, helping to refocus me on my task.
The photo. The vines crawling up the stone, the mist and light pouring through the trees. I concentrated on the details in the photo and then tried to open a portal. A burst of power shot out of me, and my knees went weak with the sudden loss of magic.
