Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Forty Four

Leah stared at the portal, at the space Maud had disappeared through.

The room was completely silent, and her stomach was full of worms.

"Maud wanted this," Leah said, her voice hollow to her own ears. "She wants the worlds to fall apart."

She turned to Jared, and his face was terrifyingly blank — the kind of blank that Leah knew masked violence.

"Why would anyone want that?" she asked. The words were more an exclamation than a question though, and Jared just stared at the portal, his jaw ticking, before glancing down at the book in his hands.

"These books must mean something," he said, his voice rough. "Otherwise she wouldn't have brought them here. If we can't fix things now, we'll take them back to the others and see if anyone can decipher them."

Anger rolled through his words, and she could tell he was putting the pieces together faster than she was, that he was coming to conclusions she could only guess at.

"Jared—"

"Try closing the portal," he said, leaving no room for debate, and Leah nodded, her stomach empty and numb.

She turned to the portal and stared at it, Jared a stormy presence at her side.

It was the first time she'd allowed herself to properly look at it — to examine the thing that'd lived inside her for months — and something deep in her stomach ached. She missed the roll of it in her system, the pulses of power it sent, as comforting as it was off-putting.

Acting on instinct, she reached out, resting her palm against its churning surface, and it swirled up around her wrist. It's touch was tentative and gentle, like a warm breeze, and the longing grew stronger.

She needed to stabilise it, that was what Brenton had said, or draw it back into her. The concept had made sense, but until this moment, she'd had no clue how to do it. Now, it seemed as natural as breathing.

This portal was hers, after all. Losing it had left a jagged hole somewhere in her chest and she just needed to refill it.

She gave the portal a gentle tug, and it flowed higher, her arm lost in a dark cloud.

Come back to me, she begged, coaxing the portal further, and slowly, it started to sink into her skin, rushing like warm water through her veins and racing to her chest where it belonged. Tendrils weaved tighter and tighter around her body, their hold gentle but firm.

She heard Jared said her name, but he felt very far away, very unimportant.

Warmth was building just behind her sternum — parts of her that'd been lost knitting back together — and Leah almost wanted to cry.

It was nothing like the other portals that she'd jumped through. They always felt foreign and unpredictable, but this was safe. This was right. The portal wanted her back too.

Jared said her name again, his tone sharper, and the ground shifted beneath her.

"Leah!" Jared was shouting now, but she was finding it hard to turn and look at him, to understand what the problem was.

The ground rumbled, and she tried to pull her hand back, but she was frozen, the portal clinging to her tight.

Panic seeded at the back of her brain, blooming quick, and she tried to wrench her hand away, to slow the portal down. But it just kept sinking into her, kept running from the world she'd forced it to explode into. And there was nothing stabilising about it.

She saw a crack spiderweb through the concrete above her head, watched the speakers Maud set up crash to the ground.

"Shit," Leah said and she tried to pull away again. But she was rooted to the spot, her shoulder almost dislocating rather than sucking free of the portal's hold on her.

She was just about to start screaming when something slammed into her and she was flung to the side.

Her arm ripped free, and something vital tore from her chest with it, something she'd lost once before and was only just getting back.

She crashed to the floor, Jared's arms around her and his body on top, and she curled into the foetal position instantly, the pain in her chest so consuming she couldn't speak, couldn't breath.

"Leah!" Jared was hovering over her, his hands moving over her body in frantic motions, looking for injuries. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She could only gasp. It felt like she'd died again, like that hole the portal left inside her had been ripped open anew, and every breath she took sent a stabbing pain down her spine.

"I need a moment," she managed to gasp out, and Jared sat back, his eyes wide and his hands hovering, unsure what to do. She could feel him scanning her, trying to figure out what was wrong, and she squeezed her eyes shut, counting out ten shallow, slow breaths.

When her heart rate had calmed and she'd manage to convince herself she was somewhat fine, she eased herself up into sitting position, and Jared grabbed her arm and helped her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You went into some kind of trace," Jared said. "And the building started shaking. The whole thing was about to come down."

Leah looked around and realised he was right. The crack she'd seen spiderwebbing across the ceiling had a larger, much more terrifying twin running along the floor too — right where she'd been standing. The portal loomed large above it, hovering there silently once more, no longer reaching for her.

"The portal was coming back to me," Leah said, her voice weak. "I could feel it trying to... return."

He was looking at her strangely, as if he was trying to figure something out.

But then there was a thud of noise, the sound of a footfall that Leah was becoming exhaustingly accoustomed too.

She and Jared both froze, and Leah looked over his shoulder, her heart stopping.

The speaker. The speaker had fallen over.

Everything had grown silent in here, which was exactly what Maud had been preventing.

And now one of the creatures from the in between was half in, half out of the portal, it's head raised and listening, still and silent.

Jared saw the panic on her face and he turned, following her gaze slowly, knowing not to move too quick, to make any sudden movements.

They both stared, still as statues as the creature moved further into the room, another one following closely behind. And suddenly the surface of the portal was hazy with outlines — with more and more of those creatures moving towards it — trying to get into this world.

Leah's eyes flickered to the speaker again. It was still intact, and hopefully, still working. The chord connecting the speaker to the laptop had been ripped free. That didn't mean it couldn't be plugged back in though.

Her heart pounded as she shifted carefully to her feet, ignoring the roar of pain in her chest. She could feel Jared's gaze scorching the side of her face, feel him screaming at her to stop what she was doing.

But they couldn't let more of these creatures into this world. Not when Alice was hovering in the car upstairs, waiting for them to return.

Leah's clothes rustled and she froze, the entire room freezing with her. The creatures had heard it. Their heads turned Leah and Jared's way, their bodies hunching down, ready to spring. And Leah knew the time for subtly was over.

With a burst of speed, she lunged for the speaker, not caring about the noise she made, and pulled it upright, grabbing the chord to plug back the laptop back in. 

...

I was a bit late on this one! Sorry everybody. 

The next chapter will be out in two Tuesday's time when I usually post 😊

- Skylar xx