Only the Strong, стр. 34
“Then I have to get help,” she surmised, resigned.
“Yes. Give us ten minutes. If we don’t come back, leave without us and tell Cormack what happened. He’s going to be furious but you can’t risk coming in after us because we need someone on this side who knows where we are. Do you understand?”
She nodded, morose. “She always does this. She leaps before she looks.”
“Yes, well, now I’m leaping with her. We’ll be back. I promise.” I took a deep breath and faced the gate, my heart giving a long roll. The last time I crossed over I’d thought there was a legitimate chance I would never return. This time, I was stepping into an entirely different world, and I had no idea what to expect.
I closed my eyes and stepped through the opening, slamming into something solid three seconds later.
“Oomph.”
Zoe shot me a dirty look from her spot in the middle of what looked like an ancient storage room. I’d run into her, but not with enough force to knock her over. “You could’ve announced you were coming or something.”
“How was I supposed to know you were just standing here?” I snapped. “I thought maybe you’d been grabbed ... or hurt. Only an idiot goes through a gate like that, by the way.”
“Isn’t this your second time on the other side of a gate?”
“And I’m done talking to you.” I lifted my hand to cut her off and surveyed our surroundings. There were shelves on the walls, and they looked to contain various magical items. In addition to the shimmering gate behind us, three more portals appeared to be available should we want to disappear through them.
“Okay, this isn’t like the other gate at all,” I said. “This is ... something else entirely.”
“Yeah, I figured that out myself.” Zoe cocked her head. “I feel ... something.”
“Is it something dangerous?”
“That’s not necessarily the word I would use. I mean, it’s possible there’s something dangerous through one of those gates. What I sense is different, though. I sense ... something familiar. It’s as if I should recognize this room.”
“Do you? Recognize it, I mean.”
“No, but it feels familiar.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know.” She stepped toward one of the other gates but I grabbed the back of her shirt before she could advance too far.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned. “We have no idea what’s on the other side of those gates.”
“That’s why I’m going to find out.”
“No, you’re not.” I was firm. “We’re going back to tell Cormack what we found. Then we’re going to talk about it, rationally, with everybody else.”
“That sounds like zero fun.”
“I’m sure your husband would like to be included in the conversation regardless.”
She shot me a dirty look. “That was low.”
“It was also necessary. We need to figure out exactly what is going on here, and we can’t risk crossing these gates until we have a better idea what’s on the other side. It could be an army of revenants for all we know.”
“It could be something else, too,” she countered. “It could be something helpful … or a plane made up of fluffy bunnies.”
“We’re not finding out today.” I refused to back down. “We need to take this information back to the others.”
She didn’t look thrilled, but she ultimately nodded and turned back toward the gate we’d entered through. “We really need to talk about your sense of adventure.”
“And I happen to think we need to talk about your notion of self-preservation.”
“One of those conversations sounds more fun than the other.”
“Not everything in life is about fun.”
“The good things are.”
I wanted to continue arguing but I knew it was a waste of time. “Just go. Paris is probably having a heart attack.”
“Oh, that’s something to look forward to.”
Eleven
I didn’t return to the office, instead texting Oliver that something had occurred and I wouldn’t be back until the following day. He didn’t question me, instead taking me at my word. He knew better than putting important information — or damning questions, for that matter — in a text, especially if the higher-ups in the reaper council decided they wanted to know what we were up to.
I drove straight to Grimlock Manor, parking in front of the massive house and letting Zoe and Paris inside without knocking. I didn’t even think of myself as a guest when visiting now. I spent almost every night with Braden, and while he stayed over at the boathouse with me at least once or twice a week, Grimlock Manor had turned into our primary residence. The house gave me a sense of calm, and that was something I was desperate to embrace after our afternoon excursion.
The first thing I heard upon entering was yelling, though, and it took me a moment to realize nobody was fighting. Instead, Redmond and Sami were going at it again, this time over what looked to be a Nerf basketball game they’d set up in the foyer.
“You can’t use your magic,” Redmond insisted. “It’s cheating.”
Sami was having none of it. “Oh, please.” The eye roll she unveiled was straight out of her mother’s playbook. “You’re like three feet taller than me. I have to use my magic or you’ll win.”
“I’m supposed to win.”
“No, I don’t like to lose.”
I shot a look at Zoe and found her smirking. Apparently Sami’s competitive streak was inherited, too.
“What did we miss?” Zoe asked as she crossed over to her daughter, her gaze busy as it roamed Sami’s flushed face. “Where is your father?”
“He’s drinking with Braden,” Sami replied. “I told him that people who drink in the middle of the day are less likely to get ahead in life — that’s what my guidance counselor says, anyway — but he doesn’t care. He said that going to the DIA with me was the longest day of his life and that he’s giving me to the Grimlocks.”
Zoe’s smile widened. “That seems fair.” She flicked