Shadows (Sequel to Rip My Heart Out)

Chapter 14

Everything was dark around me as I stepped into Nowhere. My foot fell through the air for just a moment too long before hitting solid ground underneath me, like when you expect one more step in the staircase, but it isn't there. I stumbled, then stood up straight. I called blue light to my hand. All the light that had been swarming around me back in Kamar Taj had suddenly seemed to extinguish the moment I stepped through the portal.

The light lit up the space around me, but there was nothing here. I could see the blue light, but that was it. The light should have been illuminating something, anything, but it wasn't. There was nothing here, not even shadows, just as the Ancient One had predicted. I lowered the orb of light in my hand to my feet. I was standing on something, so clearly there was something here. The ground under me seemed invisible. Even with my light, I couldn't see it. I could see my boots, but past that, nothing. I crouched down and stared in wonder. How could there be nothing there?

Slowly, I lowered my hand all the way to whatever I was standing on. For a moment before I made contact with the surface, I thought my hand might just pass right by whatever barrier my boots were resting on. But, when my hand hit something solid, all the light that had been in the orb of my hand suddenly rushed into the surface, and a small area of it turned white. It was glowing ever so slightly with my energy. I pulled my hand back and stared at it for a moment. The area, only about a foot around my boots had turned into a tangible surface, something I could see. I poked the floor once, feeling the solid surface under my finger.

Then, I thought of Pietro, and how he must be here somewhere. The Ancient One had done some terrible things since I'd met her, but so far, she hasn't been wrong about matters of different dimensions. So, I opened up a current in my arm, allowing energy to flow freely from my core to my fingertips. Power rushed through me, instantly igniting my entire arm. I felt my eyes flash blue.

I slammed my hand back onto the surface underneath me and pushed as much energy as I could into it. A whole world burst into life around me. The white surface spread further than my eyes could see. Air and space opened up into infinity above it. And even though I couldn't see it, space opened up underneath the surface too, stretching into infinity. I felt time, too, explode around me. Suddenly, this place wasn't just here, tangibly, but it was existing in time, for the first time since the creation of all of the universes.

And then I felt him. Suddenly and all at once. The Ancient One was right. He was here.

I stood and looked to the spot that the stone was drawing me towards. In the distance, I could see a small, huddled figure against the white of the world around him. Pietro.

I felt the Ancient One step through the portal behind me. I wrapped us both in blue light, and teleported us to Pietro's figure, not wanting to take the time to run to him.

"Pietro?" I said, as my knees hit the ground next to him. I placed the Ancient One on the opposite side of him, standing a few feet back. "Pietro, I'm here. I found you. I finally found you."

He was lying, with his eyes closed on his back. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into my lap so that his head rested on my thigh.

"Emelia?" His voice was weak.

"Yeah. Pietro, it's me." I said.

His eyes flickered open, and he squinted at the bright environment around us. I reached for his hand and held it tight in mine.

"Where are we? Is this Kamar Taj?" He asked, confused. "Why am I on the ground?"

I smiled down at him. "This isn't Kamar Taj. This is a place called Nowhere."

"Not anymore." The Ancient One mumbled.

"Nowhere?" He asked.

He moved to sit up. I put a hand at the back of his neck and pulled him up so he was sitting eye level with me.