Page 112 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

She stopped by the supply tent and grabbed the pair of shears someone had been using to cut bandages. She stuffed them in her satchel and left the ward with Fely.

Walking the corridors, there didn’t seem to be anything too crazy going on.

The one that led toward the central cavern and hangar beyond was a little louder than the others, but that wasn’t new.

Hallie allowed her fingers to trail along the wall as she walked.

Partly an unconscious habit, partly seeking the warmth of Essence power, hoping to find a Passage brick.

Her hopes fell flat when they finally reached the end of the Catacombs and no warmth found her fingers. Not that she’d expected it to be that easy. With a silent sigh, she grabbed the lantern from the hook and took it with them into the dark.

It was difficult to see much other than the crude stone floor, but the golden haze around Hallie’s vision tipped her off. They were close.

She set down the lantern and fished out the journal and shears.

“Keep watch, if you don’t mind. I need to use this for a moment,” Hallie said with confidence she didn’t feel.

Her palms had healed considerably over the very little time it had been since she’d last used the journal.

She’d lost track of just how much time it’d been, but not enough to fully heal the wounds.

Yet, all that was left of the previous cut was a thin white scar.

She tried not to think about how it was probably her power that had fixed it.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, she pressed the sharp edge of the shears against her palm along the faint white scar and winced against the pain.

She tucked them back into her satchel and flipped the pages of the journal.

She passed another sketch of something, but she didn’t stop.

The page she settled on was the messiest of all, nothing written in a straight line.

Hopefully she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself.

“And exactly what should I be looking for?” Fely asked, coming closer. “Because I’m not aware that using your blood here will do anything. Asa’s, maybe, but not yours. Not in this case.”

Right—because Asa was Ben, and Ben was the Essence wielder who had control over the Gates. Maybe they should’ve figured out a way around the guards and brought him down there, or at least a few drops of his blood. Probably would’ve been the smarter thing to do.

But going back would take too long, and while they were here, they might as well figure out a few things before enlisting Ben’s help, if he was even capable of offering it…

or allowed to do so. Hallie shook her head as she sat down against the wall.

The golden haze had nearly occluded her vision entirely by now.

“It would take too long to explain. Just stay here, and I’ll be back soon. ”

“Stay here?”

Hallie didn’t respond, only pressed her bleeding palm to the messy page. Fely would hopefully understand well enough soon.

She kept her palm pressed to the parchment.

Nothing happened. No suffocating darkness. Nothing.

“I am unsure how ruining your journal is meant to help locate the Gate,” Fely said crossly, like she thought Hallie might be wasting her time or pulling some kind of prank.

Hallie stared at the page, her blood marring the words and staining the pages.

She pressed her hand to the parchment again and again, but there was no reaction, no memory. Had she imagined the earlier ones after all? Was Navara so far gone at the end that she’d forgotten to mix the ink with Zuprium dust?

She sliced her other palm and flipped to the page with the sketch. She barely registered it was an ornate sword before she pressed her hand to it, even though she knew it wouldn’t work.

Nothing.

In a fit of madness, Hallie slammed the book shut and hurled it away from her.

She had never done that to a book in her life, but she wasn’t thinking straight.

She’d spent the entire time since Achilles studying those stupid journals, thinking they held some secret that could help her understand her Essence power.

But they were only ramblings of a mad woman fueled by grief, and the visions she’d had were simply her own mind trying to offer answers after being pushed to the brink of sanity.

Hallie was out of options. Without the second Gate, could she even restore it by combining the Essence powers into the swords? Or would she need to go all the way to Myrrai to reset that one? Would she be forced to follow Saldr’s plan, after all?

Maybe Jagamot would win. Maybe every plan they had was always doomed to fail.

She had failed.

The book landed with a soft thunk and slid across the uneven floor, lost in the weird golden light that haloed her eyes. Another trick of a desperate mind, nothing more.

“Well, I’m not sure if that’s what I was expecting, but—”

Fely was interrupted by an explosion of golden light streaming from the book.

Hallie’s jaw dropped to the floor as she scrambled to her feet.

Where the book lay, a long strand of fire grew like a vine from the center of the spine where the page lay open.

It snaked its way into the air and into the ceiling above.

The light was so bright, both Hallie and Fely shielded their eyes.

“Holy fates in heaven,” Fely gasped.

Hallie scrambled toward it, grabbing the book. As soon as she pulled it toward her, the fire winked out.

“What?” Hallie breathed, inspecting the book for a clue as to what had happened. But the pages were unscathed except for her blood. She held it out again, closer to where the golden haze was in her vision.

Fire exploded again. Hallie dropped the book.

The book wasn’t the Gate, but it revealed it. Whether it was because Hallie had put her own blood on it or the book was simply the key, she didn’t know. Stars, she needed to sketch this.

“That has to be it!” Hallie exclaimed, fumbling through her satchel with shaking hands for her sketchbook and pencil.

“Navara found it, and somehow…somehow the book is what triggers it. My guess is my blood on the pages, because I had the book last time I was down here, but that’s probably why I lost control of my power.

I stumbled into it with the book, but it didn’t reveal itself until now because of that. Maybe. It’s just a working theory.”

Her fingers clasped around the stubby pencil as she flipped to the next blank page in her book. She hurriedly jotted down a few notes before making a quick sketch. “Do you think that this is only a part of it? Because it goes up toward the ceiling and…and…Fely?”

Fely didn’t answer. Hallie looked up to see her staring awestruck at the Gate. It looked vastly different from the one in Myrrai, more akin to the Passage she and Kase had used on the Eudora mission to make it back to Kyvena.

Hallie stood, clutching her sketchpad to her chest. She walked over to the woman, careful not to look directly at the fiery archway. Inside it lay a flowering meadow, a little cottage in the background at the edge of a fairytale forest.

“Stars, what is that?” Hallie asked, leaning closer. Fely grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

“Careful.”

“What’s on the other side? Is this not the Gate?” Disappointment laced the words. What if she’d merely created another Passage? The Gate in Myrrai had housed timelines flying by so fast that they were nothing but blurred images. This was perfectly clear and calm. Picturesque, even.

Fely shook her head. “I would assume that it would be much like the one in Myrrai, though I have only seen that one in books my family has in our library. This is different. It feels different, though I do not know why.”

Hallie sketched out the base of it and looked toward the ceiling.

Only half of the image was there, the flowers and the forest bleeding into the stone wall.

“Not sure where we are in the city exactly, but if we could maybe find where this goes above us, we might have a better picture of what’s on the other side? ”

“Saldr needs to see this.”

“But—” If Saldr came and inspected it, he might still want to go through with his plan.

Fely stuck a finger into the small pouch at her waist. When she took it out, it was covered in Zuprium dust. “I’ll be back shortly. Stay here. Whatever you do, don’t go through it.”

“I think we should wait to tell him,” she tried weakly. But Fely didn’t answer, snapping her fingers instead. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

Why couldn’t Saldr have shown Hallie how to do that instead of pushing her so hard on the stupid fireball?

She shook her head. This had to be the Gate.

It didn’t feel like the other Passages, though it looked like them.

The other two had been characterized by a portal brick at the base.

The only reason Hallie had thought to check out this area of the tunnels again was because her power had reacted to it when she was down here with Kase and the golden haze that had been present.

When Fely didn’t return after a second or two, Hallie picked up the book, causing the Gate to disappear once more. She moved to the other side of the tunnel and held out the book.

Nothing.

She moved back toward the original point, holding out the book at intervals. Five side steps forward brought the Gate into existence. And it continued to reappear until her right shoulder met the wall, though at that point, only the golden fire was visible—not the flower field.

That confirmed it wasn’t the book itself. It was the area. But the book was the key.

Hallie set the journal down, allowing the center of the archway to appear.

The flowers, faraway mountains, and little woodcutter’s cottage painted a nice picture against the dimness of the Catacombs.

She flipped the pages, careful not to touch the fiery outline herself.

The images didn’t waver. It didn’t matter which page she was on, it seemed.

She flipped back to the sketch of the sword.

It glowed in the light from the Gate. Quickly, she flipped to the next page in her sketchbook and copied it there.

It looked so familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

Probably because it was similar to the shadow sword.

This Gate wasn’t angry like the other one, which might lend evidence to it only being a Passage.

It was still a good discovery, though. It might very well be one that had been closed decades ago with the Great War. She hoped not. She hoped that she’d stumbled across the one they needed.

She finished the sketch and tucked her book into her satchel. She took that off and set it to the side, rubbing her neck. Maybe she wasn’t quite recovered from her ordeal earlier in the day. Stars, what time was it, even?

This had been one of the longest days of her life. Going up in the hover, saving Ben, almost dying herself, turning down Kase’s proposal, finding out that Ben was really the heir to the Cerl throne, and now this.

Hopefully she could get some good sleep that night. She’d need it. Any rest she’d gotten after overextending her power with Ben had evaporated with the revelations and events of the last hour or so.

She stood and stretched a little more. Her back popped rather loudly. Where was Fely? Hadn’t she been able to find Saldr? Surely they weren’t coming the long way? Why use the Chronal power to flicker out of existence to fetch him only to walk all the way back?

She stretched her neck and was about to sit back down when a hand slid across her mouth and a knife pressed against her throat.

She froze.

“Found the other Gate, have we?”

That voice. She knew that voice. Hallie didn’t respond. One wrong move or word would end with her throat sliced.

“Relax. I’ve been known to be merciful from time to time,” the man whispered in her ear. “Instead of killing you outright, I’ll let you go painlessly…because once you’re on the other side, there’s no returning for you. I’ll tell Shackley you put up a fight.”

She did the only thing she could do—reach for her power. If she could muster up enough, she might unravel the man who held her hostage. But it was for naught. She was too slow.

Before she could do anything else, the man shoved her into the flowery meadow. She screamed, falling to the ground, scrambling for purchase. Bright light assaulted her, but her fingers found purchase in Navara’s journal. She yanked it. A ripping sound met her ears.

She squinted against the light burning her retinas to see Mr. Gray…and Correa behind him, torn journal pages in his hand.

“No!” She yelled, but it was too late. They were gone in a blink, the dark Catacombs disappearing as Fely had done earlier.

She thrust the book out in the same spot. She picked at her cuts that had begun to scab and bled onto the book, but nothing happened.

She scrambled around on her knees, holding the book out as a peace offering. Nothing appeared. Her only companions were the daisies.