Conceal by Andrea Pearson

Author:Andrea Pearson [Pearson, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Andrea Pearson
Published: 2019-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

8. Chapter Five

Nicole, Lizzie, and Austin waited in the castle for Jacob to bring Azuriah. Nicole was not looking forward to spending time with the Shiengol. Too bad it was necessary.

Azuriah stormed through the doorway ahead of Jacob, and Nicole caught sight of a dark, heavy-stoned interior through the link behind him. Fitting for his personality.

“Renforth has finally contacted me,” Azuriah said. “We must head to an industrial factory in Kansas.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Kansas?”

“Yes,” Azuriah said. “Are you going deaf?”

Nicole really had to work hard to ignore him. It helped that Austin grabbed her hand and squeezed. She tried to calm herself down—they hadn’t even begun their trip, and already, she was fighting with the stupid Shiengol.

“Why can’t we have Jacob take us to Renforth’s planet with his magical key?” Lizzie asked.

“Renforth won’t allow it.” Azuriah said, unfolding a map.

Nicole rolled her eyes. No accusations of stupidity this time. It really was Nicole that Azuriah didn’t like.

Once Azuriah had pointed out the place where Jacob would be taking them, he turned to the others. “Follow my lead.” He glanced at their clothing, eyebrow raised. “You probably won’t want to wear those again after tonight.”

Nicole had figured as much. They’d all worn grubby clothes for that reason. She hated that they’d be going to see cranky and opinionated people while dressed so poorly, but that was all part of the “humiliation game” Renforth was apparently playing.

Jacob opened a link, revealing a dirt road and a huge smokestack next to an industrial compound. He shut the door once they’d gone through, and Nicole and the others surveyed the place in front of them.

She wasn’t sure which dimension of earth they were on, but assumed it was Jacob’s, since she couldn’t feel any magical pulses anywhere, apart from hers, Lizzie’s, and Austin’s. It made sense for Jacob to take them to his own dimension.

Azuriah strode across the dirt road, heedless of the trucks passing by. Apparently, the drivers weren’t aware of him either.

“We must already be in the link to Renforth’s world,” Austin said.

Nicole nodded.

The three students followed Azuriah to the smokestack. He opened a door on it, then gestured for them to enter ahead of him.

The smokestack was nothing but a tall, cylindrical brick edifice with a ladder on the inside that led all the way to the top.

“Up you go,” Azuriah said.

Small holes cut into the cement walls here and there allowed a bit of light inside, enough to see that the place was filthy—greasy, grimy. Nicole groaned when her hand slipped off the first rung. This wasn’t going to be fun. Too bad they didn’t have leather gloves or something that would grip through the grime better than skin.

She started climbing first, followed by Lizzie, Austin, then Azuriah.

It wasn’t long before Nicole’s nose started itching from the smell of stale smoke. She refused to touch it for as long as possible, but wasn’t able to hold off forever. After about thirty rungs and what looked like an eternity more to go, she gave up and scratched wherever she itched.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.