What if every magical creature you'd ever heard of was real, driven into hiding by an army of violent zealots? This is reality for Sarah Heisen and Porter Collins. Sarah is a sphinx living a life of luxury in her family's mansion. Hidden from all da...
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Chapter Twenty Two
(Sarah)
It was the middle of the day, and Sarah was beginning to long for the cold winds of winter as the blazing sun milked her for every drop of sweat she could produce. It had been a full day since Porter had been sick, and the young man had managed to keep down two meals and plenty of water. That was good, Sarah thought as she watched him walk in front of her, holding Flicker out in front of himself like a divining rod. But now she was worried that the heat would make him sick again, and he'd just end up throwing it all up.
Suddenly, Porter came to a halt, and Sarah almost walked into him from behind.
"What is it?" she asked.
Porter didn't answer immediately. He stared at the sword in silence for a few seconds, and then slowly turned to the right. Sarah heard a faint buzz as Flicker vibrated in his hand, and then they both looked up to see where it was pointing.
"Do you think that's it?" Tick asked, coming to stand beside Porter.
In the distance, still several miles away, a mountain rose out of the ground. It wasn't a real mountain, Sarah thought as she looked at it. More like a really big hill. From what she could see, grass and trees covered every inch of it, but the sheer size of it...
"It could be," she answered. "It's definitely big enough to hold a town inside it, if they spaced everything out right. Is Flicker telling us to go there?"
"I think so," Porter answered, and Flicker buzzed again. "Yeah, that's the direction it's telling me to go."
"All right!" Tick yelled, putting his fists in the air. "Race you!"
He tried to dart away, but Porter caught his shoulder. "Stay with us," he said. "We don't want to risk startling the guards or something."
"Good idea," Sarah agreed, coming to walk directly beside him. Tick, after shrugging Porter's hand off, reluctantly did as he was told as well.
It was another hour before they finally reached the mountain. Sarah's heart began to beat erratically as she paused and looked around. There were supposed to be other Mythics here, but she couldn't see a single sign of them.
It's a Sanctuary, she thought, trying to calm herself down. It wouldn't stay a secret for long if every hiker and camper than walked by were spotting gryphons and trolls.
Porter turned to follow the base of the mountain, and the other two followed wordlessly. The whole time, chills were running up and down Sarah's spine. Why was she so scared, she wondered? Was she really so nervous about finding her parents? Or was there something else?
Porter's hand abruptly jerked to the side, and Flicker's blade tapped against a large boulder that was protruding from the ground. It was smooth relatively flat, and was coming out of the hill at such an angle that...
