Shadow Fall (The Nightkind Book 3) by Kit Hallows

Author:Kit Hallows [Hallows, Kit]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

28

I met the others beneath the gigantic goat-headed octopus statue. They seemed unconcerned, despite the fact its rubbery body was pulsing and trembling. I slowed, worried it was about to spring to life and whip me with its tentacles, at least until I noticed the gaggle of Fae children laughing at my alarm. Apparently, the statue moving was a common event.

“Any luck?” Johnny asked. He sat stretched out below the sculpture, his face red and flustered. He usually had that expression on the rare occasions when he forced himself to suppress his fury. “All I got were lies, riddles and horseshit.”

“Same here,” Evelyn agreed. “Unless the Fae I spoke to were telling the truth and the door to the portal out of here really is hidden in the sewers beneath a giant ball of wax.”

“I had similar luck.” Thaddeus shrugged. “This place frays against my sanity like a rusty old dagger.”

“I think I got a lead,” I said. “Come with me.”

We left the town square and hurried through the city streets. Thankfully, the door by the gate was still ajar. The guard we’d met before was absent from where he’d sat perched on the rock. I wondered if the dwarf had vacated the bush but, as we passed it, a quick blast of trumpet filled the air and glinting eyes watched us from the foliage.

We followed the path beside the city gate until it turned a corner, and then I saw the hill the seer had mentioned. A cave opened like a maw beneath its velvety green sward. I drew Eznárez as I entered the hollow. Not that I needed to. The place was shallow, musty, and empty but for a pile of bones and a rickety old looking glass set upon a stand.

“That’s the portal?” Johnny sounded as suspicious as I felt.

“So I was told,” I said.

As Thaddeus placed his hand upon the mirror, the mildew-speckled glass shimmered. He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed as he concentrated on whatever destination he was searching for.

“I wish we’d known about this portal before,” Evelyn said. “If we’d arrived here when we left the city we’d have saved ourselves a ton of hassle.”

She was right. But then again, we rarely seemed to have much luck where simple journeys were concerned.

Thaddeus’s frown deepened. I wondered what he was focusing on. Was he trying to open a portal to return him to his own world? Had he remembered where he was from? He opened his eyes and glanced at me, as if reading my thoughts. “Back to the city,” he said. And then the mirror blazed with a flash of silvery light and he stooped down, stepped through the glass, and vanished.

I followed him.

The world swam. Everything turned murky. And then golden fireflies shimmered in the air and their glows were so vivid I had to screw my eyes up against their glare.

I fixed the image of the city in my mind, and pictured myself within its streets, as if this was an inevitability and the only destination I could arrive in.

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