“How much of it is about the portal?” Cassidy asked, jumping right in.
Ward carefully opened the book to a point about three-fourths of the way into the volume, which looked to be about three hundred pages long. The sheets were a discolored yellow, and the ink, had clearly changed colors in several places, varying from a dark black to a lighter gray. It was clear the entire tome had been handwritten. Cadence envisioned an ancient Vampire sitting down with squid’s ink or the blood of a freshly beheaded chicken to dip his crooked talon in a well and scratch each letter out on the page.
“Only four pages are devoted to the Blood Moon Portal. Though there are other mentions of it elsewhere, they are all in reference to information shared here or not recorded at all.”
“Four pages doesn’t seem like much,” Ashley said, and for a moment, Cadence considered sending her someplace else. But it was almost 6:00, and she had a feeling her phone would be going off soon. Aaron had said for simplicity's sake, they would only text Cadence, and she knew Ashley would want to be there when the text came through.
“Four pages is enough, I think,” Ward said, his voice sounding as optimistic as possible. “But it is going to take some puzzle-solving on our part.”
“What do you mean?” Cadence had barely finished the question when her phone dinged—twice. With a gulp, she reached into her pocket and pulled it out. Before she even looked at it, an overwhelming feeling came over her that something was wrong. Perhaps emotions could escape from the portal when it opened as well.
The first text seemed to have been composed right after their last texts had been sent. It said that all of them had been received, and they were all still fine, trying to find a way out, that sort of thing. The second one had all of the color draining from Cadence’s face.
“What is it?” Ashley asked first, her voice measured.
“Is it bad? Did something happen?” Aurora demanded.
Cadence’s eyes immediately went to her sister, but Cassidy wasn’t looking at her. “I only saw five flickers,” she said quietly, and Cadence realized her sister had been reaching for them, hoping to make contact while the portal was open.
The IACs did the same thing as Cassidy’s telepathy, but it was so brief, Cadence could never keep track of who she’d picked up for a split second without going back over it. She knew who was missing, though. Cassidy swallowed hard, and Cadence got the impression she’d figured it out, too.
“What is it?” Aurora asked again, eyes wide.
“Alex....” She shook her head, taking a deep breath. “He was wounded in the leg, and he told Jamie he didn’t want to be healed. He... passed away.”
The table was silent for a long time, no one speaking or moving, barely breathing. Cadence hadn’t known Alex well at all, but she was well aware of how fond her sister was of the former statesman, and he had saved Cadence from Fergus at the warehouse in April. She slid her hand over to her sister’s and Cassidy encircled her fingers, squeezing a little too hard. A sharp pain spread up Cadence’s arm, but she didn’t flinch. “I’m so sorry, Cass.”
“Cassidy,” Ashley began, tears sliding down her face again, “he was such a good friend. I’m so sorry.”
The rest of the group gave their condolences to the teen who took a deep breath but said nothing, her eyes staring at an eye on the table.
“He was hopeful that the serum would work in his favor, and he’d be able to pass on,” Hannah reminded them all in her soothing tone. “I’m certain this is what he wanted, as hard as it is for us to comprehend.”
Cassidy’s head rocked up and down. Then, she pushed her chair back. “I told Tara I’d let her know as soon as we heard something since Dax can’t text her. I’ll be back.”
Cadence followed her sister into the hallway with her eyes, wishing she knew what to say. She had a feeling Hannah was trying her best to help Cassidy with her emotions, something she wouldn’t normally do for death, but under the circumstances, they all needed to focus. Ashley dried her tears, and Cadence finally allowed herself to look at Christian, who had known Alex much longer than anyone else. He didn’t look sad at all, and Cadence wondered if he was even capable of the emotion. But at least he’d kept his mouth shut, which was something.
A few moments later, Cassidy returned to the table. She had a few tear streaks on her cheeks, but other than that she seemed okay. “Sorry about your hand,” she said quietly.
“I’m okay.” Cadence brushed her sister’s long brown hair over her shoulder and then they all returned their attention to Ward.
“I’ve read through these pages several times, and I think I have a decent understanding of what the portal does—not how it works, mind you—but when it opens. I think it is possible to determine where it will open and at what time, but that’s where our investigative work will come into play.”
“Are you talking about that list on the second page, after it mentions how to open the portal during a Blood Moon?” Christian asked, and Cadence raised both eyebrows at him. “I saw it, but I had no idea what it was talking about.”
She wished he’d mentioned not understanding what he was reading a week ago.
“Yes, that’s precisely what I’m talking about,” Ward agreed. “I believe this is a list of locations. There are thirty-six named sites. We’d have to try to figure out what they’re talking about, which will be difficult since most place names don’t stay the same for that long, and some of them are very vague.”
“So you think you can force it to open again?” Cale asked.
Cadence turned in his direction, forgetting that he was even in the room up until that moment. He was not up to speed. “It opens every six hours,” Cadence said. “We just don’t know where it’s going to open.”
“So why don’t they just hop out while it’s open? Why does it matter where they are? They can call us when they’re out.”
“Well, because sometimes it’s in outer space,” Ward explained. “This one, for example, number four, translates basically the same in ancient Gaelic as it does the current language. An taobh an ear de ghiuthas roughly means the east side of Jupiter. I can’t imagine it would be the best idea to step out of a portal into space.”
Chapter 631 Riddles
“How do we know it just doesn’t mean some spot in alignment with the east side of Jupiter?” Ashley asked, wiping her nose with a tissue she pulled out of her pants pocket.
“Brandon said that Heather told him it really is outer space. The first time the portal opened while they were in there, it was under the ocean, and she refused to go. Besides, they only have a few seconds to get to wherever the opening is, and it’s usually pretty far from where they are. They are trying to figure out a pattern so they can guess which tunnel is going to open next and be there.” Cassidy’s tone seemed normal again, despite the fact that her eyes were still a little misty.
“The ocean?” Ward asked before Ashley could formulate a response. “So that was likely the eighth place on the list or the twenty-seventh. One says trainnse de dh'uisge domhain, which I believe is Challenger Deep, or the Mariana Trench. The other says beinn fada air falbh bhon teine. That could be just about any volcano in the ocean. I wouldn’t blame her for not wanting to attempt to swim up from the Mariana Trench or step out into a volcano.”
“So you’re saying we need to actually establish for certain what one of these locations is and where it is on that list. If they can figure out which of the two was the first one that opened while they were in there, assuming they know where that was, maybe they can count over and find the right one?” Cadence was attempting to clarify but only managed to further confuse herself.
“Jamie said something about the tunnels shifting. How can we even know for sure if they’d be able to tell which opening is which?” Ashley ran her hands down her face in frustration.
“The book says that the key holds the tunnels in place. If they’ve found the key, and it looks like they have, then the tunnels may shift but not dislodge themselves out of order.” Ward was staring at the book while he spoke as if he were looking for something more.
“Do you think that iron bar in the floor is the key?” Cassidy asked Cadence.
“I don’t know. Maybe. That seems awfully simple, though.”
“I think the key is more like a map key than an actual mechanism,” Christian said, not even glancing in Cassidy’s direction as he spoke. “If they’re standing in a hub with tunnels shooting off in all directions, and someone managed to pin it down so they don’t shift out of order, I would say the key is actually the hub itself, not the metal holding it in place.”
“There is a poem here that might be of use to us, but I’m not sure what it means.” Ward was gesturing toward one of the earlier paragraphs on the page. “Thig an t-àite is an t-àm ann an òrdugh mura h-eil thu a ’comharrachadh atharrachadh bhon taobh a-muigh.”
“How does it translate?” Hannah asked.
“Essentially, it says they will continue to go in order unless there is a signal from the outside that causes them to shift out of order,” Ward replied, running his hand through his dark hair.
Exhaustion was creeping in at the corner of Cadence’s mind, and concentrating was becoming more and more of a struggle. “Does it say how we create such a signal?”
“Not exactly,” Ward admitted.
“With a reflective surface?” Cassidy offered.
“Possibly. That’s how one signals the opening during a Blood Moon.” Ward pointed to the spot in the book that must’ve been the source of information Hamish Stewart used.
“The Vampires were thorough with that one.” Ashley folded her arms across her chest, and Cadence had to agree with her assessment. Water, mirror, reflective stone. The only thing they were missing was a mirror app on an iPhone.
“All right—let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Cadence took a deep breath and tried to regurgitate everything she thought she was hearing Ward say. “We need to pick a spot from that list that we’re fairly sure we can identify. Go there and hope that that’s where the portal is set to open, considering the Vampires interfering with the Blood Moon didn’t shift anything out of order. Meanwhile, we need to tell the Guardians where this portal opening is in relation to one they can identify from their side so that they can be ready to get out?”
“I believe so,” Ward nodded.
“There’s just one more problem with that.” The angst was back in Cassidy’s voice. “In order for them all to get out, someone has to be left inside the portal. Right? Does the book say that, too, Ward? One person must stay behind?”
He flipped the page and ran his index finger down the print. “It does. Feumaidh neach fuireach gus geàrd a chumail.”
“So if we want to bring everyone back, we also have to put someone in there. Someone we can do without.” Cassidy was staring hard at Christian as she spoke.
“Don’t look at me, psycho,” he said, his eyes doubled in size.
“Why not? This is all your fault.” The ire was up in her little sister’s voice.
“How is it his fault?” Cale asked.
“Calm down!” Cadence insisted, putting her arm out in front of Cassidy and ignoring Cale’s question for now. “We’re not putting Christian in the portal. We’ll put someone else in there, though.”
“Who?” Ashley asked. “If you ask me, you should shove in the responsible party.”
“Hey, I didn’t make the damn portal open!” Christian shouted. “I didn’t cause this.”
“No, you just conveniently forgot to mention that you’d seen information about a portal in that book when Aaron asked you!” Cassidy yelled.
“I don’t read Scottish Gaelic! Especially not from hundreds of years ago!”
“Yeah, well... you knew enough!” Aurora spat back, finally jumping into the conversation.
“It doesn’t matter!” Cadence caught Cale’s eyes, realizing he was caught up now. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and as angry as we can all be that Christian didn’t mention this, or that no one else caught it, Christian did not put them in there. But we know who did....”
“So you think we can find Holland in time to shove her ass in there?” Ashley asked, still eyeing Christian menacingly.
“No. But we have Stewart. He can get a little taste of his own medicine. And if any of the other Vampires we took for questioning don’t want to cooperate, they can go in, too,” Cadence replied. The thought had crossed her mind as soon as she found out that someone would have to be left inside of the portal. “It beats housing them here.”
“What if they escape someday and come out to hunt us down?” Ashley didn’t unfold her arms, but her tone seemed slightly less hostile.
“There’s not a Vampire in that group I’m remotely frightened of,” Cadence assured her. “But before we get into all of that, you guys realize how complicated this is going to be, right? Not only do we have to figure out where these obscure spots are, but we have to help them confirm it on the other side. And that could take days.”
“We don’t have days,” Cassidy said. “We’ve already lost one of them. None of them are safe over there, not even Elliott.”
“We’ll work as quickly as we can,” Cadence promised them. “Ward, do you have any idea where any of these other places are?”
“A few,” he said. “I need to do some more research, though. Hannah said there are some other books from the time period written in the same tongue in the archives. Perhaps I can do some comparison.”
