Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“You know I trust you,” I assured him.
He only nodded, unable to speak, and hugged me again.
“What if I never see you again?” Dylan asked me the night before when Raphael and I went to his and Malic’s home to say goodbye.
“You will,” I promised, my words sounding hollow even to myself.
Now, faced with the room, I glanced at Deidre, who smiled encouragingly, and then at Jael, who nodded his support.
“Ready?” Raphael asked me, putting his goggles on.
His were like something out of a steampunk movie, two pieces over his eyes that didn’t look like they were going to do much. The rest of us were wearing welding goggles. And while Leith was used to them, being a welder himself, for me, they were heavy on my face, and once I put them on, I was blind in the dark room.
“I can’t see shit,” I told him.
“You’ll see white in a second,” Raphael replied. “And Jael, you and Deidre put on yours now. I’m opening the portal.”
The warder vortex was basically a funnel of icy wind, and you stepped through to somewhere else. Not other planes, because warders were bound to ours, but I could conjure the vortex and step out in Tokyo. It allowed us to aid other warders and to travel to cities, to show up when needed, like those helping us while we were gone.
I had always found the vortex amazing, but it was crude compared to the portal Raphael created, not with a wave of his hand but with whispered words. I saw a horizontal line of light floating before my eyes, there in the blackness, and then it got longer before suddenly parting, like a fissure, one half rising, the other falling until we were faced with a rectangle of pure white light that I was squinting at even behind the powerful glass of the goggles.
“Now,” Raphael said, taking my hand tightly in his and leading me forward. The others followed close. We didn’t all hold hands—Raphael said it wasn’t necessary—but made sure everyone was no more than a step behind us.
There was nothing but endless white, and I could feel the slightest bit of heat on my skin.
“Where are we?” I asked, following Raphael.
“This is Ibos,” Raphael explained. “You have to pass through this to heaven.”
“This must be the white light everyone always says they see when they die,” Simon offered in explanation. “I didn’t think it was literal.”
“No,” Raphael corrected him, “the planes people go to after death, that’s another dimension. That veil is thin there, even thinner at certain times of the year, but it has to be so souls can visit in dreams and speak to the living.”
“You believe that?” Leith asked. “That the dead can talk to the living?”
“I don’t believe,” Raphael assured him, “I know.”
Leith went quiet after that as usual.
“If this isn’t the white light people see at the moment of death, what is this place?” Julian questioned my mate. “I mean, I know it’s Ibos because you said, but what exactly is it?”
“These are the empty planes of Ibos, bathed in the light of the heavenly host.”
“Huh,” I said, glancing around.
Raphael chuckled. “Not impressed?”
“I just… You make it sound so romantic. Light of the heavenly host and all that, but what this really is, is like a badass perimeter fence. No demon could survive walking through this.”
“That’s right,” he agreed. “It’s why this was the safest way to bring you. A demon would be instantly incinerated and not leave bone or blood here. Nothing could follow us.”
“Wait,” Leith said sharply, and when I turned to him, only then did I notice that there was only us. The other warders, and Jael and Deidre, we could see in the distance, but they were no longer with us. “We’re alone.”
Raphael grunted. “That was the only part I wasn’t sure of.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, squeezing his hand because even though he didn’t sound afraid, I suddenly was.
“You have to be strong to pass through this barrier. Humans don’t have the power. I have it, and I’m using mine to bring you.”
“And Ryan and Leith have built the power, right?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking at them. “Both of you are very strong. That power’s been building, as everyone noted back home. The others aren’t as strong, so they couldn’t make the crossing. I doubt even Jael could, or Deidre. It takes a lot of strength to move between the planes, plus to shield another with your strength.”
“We couldn’t open this kind of portal, though,” Ryan said with certainty.
“No, only I can. Also, I can only bring with me those who are bound to me, who I consider family.”
“We’re your family?” Julian sounded really touched. “That’s how you think of us?”
Raphael looked away, into the white nothingness all around him.
“Hey,” I said, tugging on his hand. “He’s talking to you. Answer the question.”