Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Twelve

Zarah ran towards Danny before her mind could catch up — before common sense and the terrible things portals did could flash to the forefront of her mind.

She reached him just as he started yelling, just as his legs were ripped from beneath him and disappeared into that black, swirling mass. He slammed to the floor, his gun skittering across the room and his fingers clawing at the tiles, trying to find purchase as he was dragged backwards.

Zarah lunged, grabbing the hand he stretched towards her. She curled her fingers around his wrist, nails sinking into flesh.

"Grab my wrist!" she commanded, and when he did, Zarah leant back and yanked, trying to tear him from the portals grip.

It did nothing other than nearly pull Danny's shoulder from it's socket, and he gasped in pain.

A rushing was filling Zarah's ears, the dizziness that always came when she stood too close to a portal flooding her senses.

"Shit," Zarah breathed, leaning back and yanking once more with a similar lack of success.

"Zarah—" Danny ground out, his teeth gritted in pain.

"I'm sorry," Zarah sobbed, panic running through her voice. She could feel the loose tendrils of that portal hovering around her, as if waiting for her to slip up. "I'm sorry, Danny. Just once more. I'm going to pull once more."

She pulled again, but the portal gave no ground. Instead, it seemed to suck Danny further in. His hips were nearly gone now, just the belt of his trousers visible, and Danny started swearing under his breath. His entire body had gone taut, his muscles stretching and straining, like a line of rope in tug-of-war.

Zarah turned to the door, yelling for Cassandra as the pressure in her arms and thighs increased, as sweat beaded along her hairline and palms.

Zarah could hear Cassandra shouting, could hear feet pounding towards them, but her grip was already slipping, the pull of the portal growing too intense.

She wasn't strong enough. She was going to lose him.

"No," Zarah gasped. "No, no, no, no."

She tightened her hold, digging her fingers into Danny's wrist hard enough that blood well under her nails.

"Zarah."

Danny's voice reached her, softer than she expected, and she looked up at his face.

His expression was strained, pain rolling deep in his eyes, but there was a calmness there too, an acceptance that made her blood run cold.

"You need to let go," he said.

Zarah recoiled from the words, hating him for even speaking them.

"No," she snapped.

Danny swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"You need to get away before it gets you too. Or Cassandra."

Zarah stared at him, her mouth setting into a stubborn line.

"Danny—"

She saw what he was about to do a second too late.

He twisted, letting go of her wrist and spinning his out of her grasp. She lost him for a second, just a second, but it was enough.

Danny was yanked backwards, pulled into the portal between one blink and another, and suddenly Zarah stood in an empty room.

She stared at the portal, waiting for him to come back, waiting for a hand to emerge or a scream to break through. But there was nothing. Nothing and no one.

Vaguely, she was aware of someone storming into the room behind her, of hands on her shoulders, her arms, a voice yelling her name. But the ringing in her ears was building, a despair so deep and violent ripping her apart from the inside out.

Her mum. Her dad. Leah. Danny.

How many more people would this thing take from her? How much more destruction would it wrought?

Those tendrils of darkness still hung around her, floating in the air like delicate wisps of smoke, and one drifted towards her and brushed her cheek. The touch was cool, almost wet, Zarah felt the emptiness that sat inside it, the nothingness it'd pulled everyone she'd cared about into.

And suddenly she was screaming, lurching towards the portal like she could cleave it in two. She wished her hands into knives, sharp enough to destroy, wished her body into a weapon, one that could massacre worlds, or, at least, kill herself in the process.

But as Zarah lunged for the portal, as she clawed and spat and screamed, she never reached it — because it kept moving away from her.

Zarah paused, her eyes widening, and whoever was in the room with her gasped.

She swiped at the portal again, and it evaporated along her skin, sizzling like mist under sunlight.

Someone gripped her forearm, hard enough to make her flinch, and Zarah turned to find Cassandra beside her, staring wide-eyed at the portal.

"Keep going Zarah," Cassandra said, her voice urgent. "Keep charging at it."

Zarah did, lurching forward and letting her entire body be engulfed by that darkness, only to have it retreat again. A hiss filled the room, the sound like a cornered animal, and then Zarah struck something warm and solid and alive.

She let out a cry as Danny's head emerge, his face slack and sick and pale. She dived in again, groping blindly, and found his hand. She gripped it, pulling him towards her, and this time, nothing pulled back.

He slipped from the portal, thudding to the floor at her feet, and Cassandra grabbed him, tugging him further back as Zarah kept lunging at that portal.

Section by section, she made it flee, not questioning how or why, only repeating a tactic that was working without any obvious explanation. The darkness whipped away from her, a furious screaming filling her ears.

Only once it was all gone, only once the room was filled with silence, did she stop, gasping for air.

Her stomach was rolling with nausea, her fingers trembling, but she turned and looked at Cassandra and Danny. Cassandra had Danny's head cradled in her lap, her hand gripping his hard enough that Zarah could see her skin turning white under the pressure. His eyes were closed, his skin deathly pale, but his chest was rising and falling, slowly but surely.

Alive, Zarah realised, relief flooding her. Still alive.

"Well, that's something you don't see everyday."

Zarah glanced up, her eyes widening. All the officers they'd rounded up were crammed into the doorway, some peaking over each other's heads. Arelie stood at the head of them, her eyes on Zarah, and her face set in a characteristic scowl.

"Sorry to ruin the celebrations," she said. "But you're all under arrest."

...

Next chapter will be out in two weeks!

- Skylar xx