FINAL GATE (#3 GHOST PORTAL series)

TWELVE

Digesting Landon's regrets took time. Jessamine didn't push him, didn't ask questions, didn't demand to know why Avery shouldn't have been saved. Landon had a right to his own opinion; and in his mind, Avery should have fought harder to save Jessamine to save the world.

But Jessamine knew better. Avery knew better. There was no other way, and she had no doubt Avery had battled with all his might to delay the inevitable. It wasn't in his character to give in, not after how he'd battled Jamie to keep her alive, to allow her to enter the house and swallow up all the demons.

She didn't hate Avery for pushing her in; she was grateful. His sacrifice, her sacrifice, had likely saved the world.

But she knew Avery loathed her for what she'd done while possessed. The carnage, the cruelty, and most of all, the death of his best friend. He'd never forgive her for that, and for that reason, she preferred being away from him, locked in her new life, her new world. Away from confrontation and confusion.

She just wanted to tell that to him herself, before severing contact with him forever. Face-to-face, somehow; one last time, before never seeing each other again.

Landon thought he could get her out, but she felt, deep in her weary bones, that there was no way. And she'd grown to accept it the longer they walked through the wasteland that was the demonic dimension.

"We're almost there," said Landon, lifting his chin, sniffing the air.

"How can you tell?" Jessamine saw no difference in the scenery, though she did feel the atmosphere changing, growing heavier, muggier. Clouds choked up overhead, becoming thicker, as if to announce a storm; but Landon had already told her there was no weather in this realm. Only a vacant sky with a few clusters of clouds, and warmth from an eerie, otherworldly sun. No rain, no wind, nothing.

"I've had time to explore this place," said Landon, gesturing in front of him. "The California area has denser forests in the distance. You can't reach them, but they're more prominent. See?" He kept his arm outstretched, his pointer finger indicating a larger mass of trees up ahead. "And the air changes, too. It's hard to explain."

Jessamine stared at the tree-line, desperate for some shade. The sun had been battering onto her skin, and though it wasn't oppressive as some California summers had been, it was bothersome. The rays were rich, thick, causing her flesh to almost melt beneath her clothes.

"It's OK," she said, with a quick look at Landon, who seemed to be having no perspiration issues, himself. "I sense it, too. It's a bit more humid, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and the smell," Landon sniffed again, "it's not as intense."

Jessamine opened her nostrils wide, but coughed as the odor swarmed in. The sulfur and blood stenches were lesser, sure, but they were still pungent, and her nose wasn't quite used to it all yet.

"If the door is active, I'm positive it'll be around here somewhere." Landon paused, setting his hands on his knees as he scanned the area from one side to the other. "I don't think I can see it or summon it, but you're fully human, so it might appear to you."

As Jessamine opened her mouth to answer, an invisible, dark energy jammed into her, knocking her sideways. She gasped, her lungs losing oxygen, as she noticed Landon also being thrown off-balance, landing on his knees.

"What the fuck?" Her breaths were wild and ragged as she attempted to right herself, but more shifts of power jolted into her, jabbing at her legs and arms. Like pinpricks, tiny fish bites on her skin—but so many of them at the same time, it was painful and disturbing.

Landon grimaced, brushing himself off as he got to his feet. He was wobbly, and kept swiping at the air as if to ward off flies. "This is new."

The sky grew ominously obscure overhead. So suddenly it switched from sepia to a looming gray, and Jessamine wondered if they were about to be rained on. But Landon said it never rained down here.