Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Eight

Cassandra's chair screeched as she jumped up, her gun fixing on Riley's chest, ready to hit where it hurt, but Riley grinned, a hidden knife flashing into her hands.

Zarah had a terrible feeling this was exactly what Riley had wanted: an excuse to get violent. A reason to sweat out all the energy and frustration and anger that could build when you first found yourself in this world.

"Stop it!" Danny yelled suddenly, and they both froze, glancing over at him. He'd curled forward on the chair, rubbing his temples as if the sound of his own voice was too much. "Can both of you calm down? My head is killing me and I can't deal with your pissing competition right now."

Zarah's eyes flickered to his scalp, and she saw fresh blood trickle down his neck.

"She killed you, Danny," Riley said, pointing her knife at Cassandra. "She nearly killed us all. If it wasn't for Cass, none of this would've happened. Brenton wouldn't have known where any of us were."

"That was years ago," Danny said tiredly. "I've forgiven her."

"Why? Why does she deserve forgiveness after everything that's happened?"

Cassandra was frozen, her face pale, and a wall of fury slammed into Zarah. She didn't know the specifics of what had happened when the Caldwell's got hold of Cassandra, but it'd been horrific. She knew it from the screams Cassandra let out at night, from the cracks that appeared every time the subject was brought up.

"She was tortured," Zarah snapped. "You can't blame her for that."

Riley glanced at her. "Actually, I can. Easily."

A rip and rumble ran through the room as another portal opened somewhere, just beyond the horizon, and Riley flinched, glancing out the window, the knife dropping from where it pointed accusingly.

Demons chased each other across Riley's expression, a bone-deep fear rising to the surface.

"And now we're all going to end up worse dead," she said. "Every single one of us."

The room grew silent, the kind that made Zarah want to squirm. Cassandra put her gun down on the table, her hands shaking so much that it clattered and clunked.

"I'm sorry," she said, and then she slipped out the door, disappearing into the dark corridor.

Danny watched her go and then turned back to Riley.

"Are you happy now?" he asked. "Cassandra's spent every second since she got to this world trying to fix what she did."

"Yeah, well, so have I," Riley said. "And I didn't even do anything wrong. I spent my whole life trying to fixing her mistakes. And Leah's. I suppose it was naïve of me to think it'd be different here."

Riley's voice was bitter, but the venom had drained from it, and when Zarah glanced at her, she just looked tired. Fighting the urge to snap again, Zarah cleared her throat.

"What have you been doing, exactly?" she asked. "Since you've been here, I mean. We saw you at the police station."

Riley rubbed a hand over her forehead, looking away.

"Yeah. I've been working with them."

"On what?"

Riley glanced at them, her expression tight.

"You're not going to like it," she said, the words directed at Danny.

He shifted forward and the arm that brushed Zarah's was chorded with tense muscles, his body bracing for the worst.

"I don't care," he said. "Tell me."

"Fine," Riley said. "I'm sure you've figured out that these portals didn't appear out of nowhere. Something instigated them."

Danny nodded, his expression tight, and Zarah suddenly knew she didn't want to be in this room. Everything in Riley's posture told her to run, to hide from this information.

"I thought for a while that Seth did it," Riley said. "That we'd been wrong, and destroying the Mors Mortis Device destroys everything, not just the live world, but then I fell through one of those portals. It took me back there, and I saw the S.I.S. It wasn't Seth they were mourning."

Zarah's breathing had shallowed, Danny's alongside hers.

"It was Leah," Riley said quietly. "She died in an attack on the rebel base, and when she did, that portal inside her got loose. Without someone to tether it, it became uncontrollable."

Danny let out a pained groan and dropped his head into his hands.

"I made it back here," Riley said. "I still don't really know how, but when I did, I went to the police and told them. Now I'm working with them to break our connection."

"I don't understand," Zarah said. "Why are there so many portals popping up now if just one got free?"

Riley shrugged. "I don't know. I think the instability the first one created allows more to... flourish."

Danny took his hands away from his face, fixing Riley with a stare at made Zarah's skin prickle.

"Break our connection?" Danny echoed Riley's earlier words softly, and Riley's face hardened, becoming unreadable. "What did you mean by break our connection?"

Riley just stared at him, the only sign of nervousness, the rapid flick of her knife around her knuckles, sending the steal into a flashing dance, and Danny swore under his breath.

"You going to destroy the Mors Mortis Device, aren't you?" he asked.

Riley tilted her head up, and Zarah wanted to shrink away from that unapologetic expression, from that determination.

"I did warn you wouldn't like it," Riley said.  

...

😶😳 Is anyone else shocked?

Next chapter out in two weeks.

Lots of love,

- Skylar xx