Underground (Kat Dubois Chronicles Book 3) by Lindsey Fairleigh

Author:Lindsey Fairleigh [Fairleigh, Lindsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-02-27T18:30:00+00:00

17

My lungs seized up. My heart strained to pump. I was frozen. Immobile. Both there and here. Dead and alive. Existing and not.

And then there was a whoosh, and oxygen-rich air rushed into my lungs. My heart stumbled over itself in its eagerness to return to business as usual. I dropped to my knees, Mei’s hand slipping off my arm, and touched my forehead to the sodden, mulchy ground. It was wet, muddy, but at least it was cool.

“Is it always like that?” I asked, gasping for delicious air. Thank the gods that traveling through gateways was a totally different experience from teleporting.

“Pretty much,” Mari said. “But you get used to it.”

I turned my head to the side so my cheek was touching the ground and watched Mari’s slippers move into my range of vision. Apparently, she’d been going for comfort lately down in the lab. Her wool-lined moccasins sank into the rain-soaked earth as she stood with her toes nearly touching a glimmering wall of absolute, light-sucking blackness.

I pushed myself up so I was kneeling. I was a little dizzy, but at least I was upright. “So, next time should be better?” A quick glance around told me we were just outside the compound’s walls in a wooded knoll about a quarter mile from the gate.

Mei offered me her hand. “It took Mari a couple hundred jumps to get acclimated.”

“Awesome.” Before I accepted her proffered hand, I tucked the anti-At knife into my boot sheath and wiped the mud from my face with the front of my shirt. “Thanks,” I said as Mei helped pull me up onto unsteady legs.

She released my hand and gave my shoulder a gentle pat. “Always glad to help.”

“This’ll just take me a sec,” Mari said, both palms pressed against the anti-At barrier. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her lips were pressed into a thin, bloodless line. She’d never been able to handle anti-At as quickly or nimbly as Nik could At—chalk it up to thousands of years of practice, I supposed—but this long of a delay was unusual for her.

I started counting the seconds as they passed. “What’s the holdup, Mars?” I asked when I reached thirty.

With an exasperated grunt, Mari let her hands fall away from the wall. “The barrier’s not just made of anti-At,” she said, then slapped the thing. “He cheated! It’s laced with At, too. I can’t break through even a small part of it.”

I closed my eyes and inhaled and exhaled slowly. “That sneaky turd,” I said under my breath.

Well, I had no choice but to throw a Hail Mary now. I climbed to my feet and raised my left hand. The Eye of Horus tattoo burned the closer my hand came to the unbreakable barrier.

“What are you doing?” Mari exclaimed, making to reach for my wrist.

I swatted her hand away, stopping a second attempt with a look. “Trust me.” After a nervous deep breath, I slapped my palm against the barrier. There was no guarantee that

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