Black Night

“What is it that you are doing, Madeline?” he said. He was about five feet away from me.

I ignored his question. Emboldened, I pushed the veil away farther, trying to extend it over the breadth of the alley and then down to the T-junction where we had met the wolves. I felt beads of sweat break out on my forehead as it became much more difficult to keep the veil as light as a feather.

“Madeline, what are you . . .” Nathaniel repeated, but I held my hand up for him to stop.

I’d found something, and it was not at all what I’d expected to find. I’d expected to find traces of magical castings or, if we were lucky, an object that would somehow lead us back to Gabriel’s kidnappers. Anything but this.

“Nathaniel,” I said, breathing heavily from exertion. “There’s a portal in this alley, not ten feet from where we are standing now.”

7

“A PORTAL?” HE SAID BLANKLY. “THERE CAN’T BE A portal there. We would be able to see it.”

I could see it very clearly, a swirling vortex of magical power trapped inside my invisible net. As I watched, the portal began to pull at the edges of my net, trying to suck the magic inside. Since I had no idea where the portal went or who had put it there I thought not getting yanked in was a good idea. I quickly doused my will and the net disappeared.

“That was close,” I said.

“What was?” Nathaniel asked.

I explained about the vortex pulling on the edges of my power, and he shook his head. “This can’t be.”

“It can. I’m telling you that it’s there.”

“A portal does not operate in this fashion, like a secret door for club members only. It is always visible and always under the control of a master.”

I thought back to something Gabriel had said to me once. “I thought that some portals were naturally occurring.”

“Yes, but not in this plane. There has never been a naturally occurring portal on this mortal earth.”

“So it’s got to be under the control of a master, then,” I said thoughtfully.

Nathaniel’s lips pressed together. “Yes, it would have to be, if it were there.”

“Oh, it’s there,” I said, getting annoyed. “In fact, this probably explains how Gabriel disappeared. He stepped into the portal by accident.”

“In that case, why has he not returned?”

I glared at him. “Apparently when they were handing out the good stuff they forgot to give you brains to put inside that pretty head. How the hell should I know why he hasn’t returned? I’m assuming it’s because there is either something insanely dangerous on the other side of that portal or it’s a trap. Or both.”

Nathaniel gave me a long-suffering look. “Madeline, why would someone place an invisible portal—not that I believe in such a thing—in a throughway for mortals? Anyone could accidentally enter it.”

I grabbed his wrist and dragged him in the direction of the portal. I was totally fed up with his if-I-can’t-see-it-I-don’t-believe-it attitude. Why the hell would I make up a portal in the middle of the alley? To get attention from him? I think not.

The portal was several feet inside the alley and close to the T-junction. As I approached the corner, I slowed, trying to remember exactly where it was located. Nathaniel smirked at me as I cast out my net again, this time trying to see two planes at once—the physical and the magical. It was less of a struggle to cast the spell a second time, but much more difficult to see the physical location of the portal behind the magical net. The real world was an indistinct blur, a vague procession of washed color and shadow.

I inched closer to the location of the portal, shuffling my feet in tiny steps. Nathaniel huffed out an impatient snort behind me. I would have made a smart remark at him but I needed all of my energy focused on the magical net. The portal had started trying to pull me in again, and I was exerting a great deal of effort keeping my power outside of the vortex.

When I was only about a foot and a half from the portal, I pointed my finger right at it and then dropped the net.

“There. It’s right there. If you concentrate, you can see it,” I said, throwing his words back at him.

Nathaniel looked at me doubtfully, but he got a steady, focused look, like he was searching for evidence of magic. I could see when he found the portal. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

“Extraordinary,” he murmured.

“Don’t apologize for doubting me or anything,” I muttered.

He moved closer to the portal, and it seemed that he was feeling the edges of the vortex with his fingers. I wondered that the portal didn’t try to suck his magic inside, the way it did for me. Maybe he was more powerful than I, or maybe he just had more control.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously as he continued to move around the portal, seeming to examine it from every angle.

“Trying to determine the master of the portal,” he said, not looking at me.

“Do portals have makers’ marks?”

“Of a kind,” Nathaniel said. “Most beings will leave a kind of magical signature or a sense of their power behind with their casting. But the most extraordinary fact about this portal . . .”

“Other than the fact that it’s invisible and it’s not supposed to be there?”

“. . . is that it seems to have been wiped clean of all traces of power.”

I frowned. “But wouldn’t the process of clearing the power signature leave a trace, too? I mean, it had to have been wiped clean by magical means.”