An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,84

some hope left that we would succeed in stopping her. My legs hurt. My thighs were burning. But I couldn’t give up. We were so close.

“Come on!” Thayen shouted, briefly looking over his shoulder at us. “She may be like Claudia, but she’s not Claudia!”

The faster he moved, the closer he got to her.

We left the woods behind. The giant redwoods watched us as we made our way onto the beach. Farther to our left, where the ocean met the sandy shore, the Port rose with its stone structures. Beyond it, the lighthouse beamed in the night, rivaling the moon itself beneath the sea of stars.

A shimmering portal opened at the base of the nearest Port building—a shipyard warehouse that hadn’t been used in ages. Adrenaline spiked through me as I understood what Claudia’s clone’s next step was. She planned on taking what she’d gotten from Isabelle’s doppelganger back to wherever they’d all come from.

“Don’t let her get away!” Jericho shouted to Thayen.

“Obviously that’s what I’m trying to do,” Thayen shot back, clearly frustrated and possibly tired from the constant running and fighting we’d had to deal with for what felt like an endless number of hours.

But Claudia’s double managed to get away, jumping through the shimmering portal. We ended up a few feet from it, its energy rushing through my body like an electrical current, jolting me back to life.

“Crap!” Thayen muttered, unable to take his eyes off the glowing gash. “We can’t… we can’t let her have whatever she took!”

“Then we have to go in after her,” I said, though I had no idea what had given me the courage to say such a thing. I only knew that the simple proximity of the portal was downright rejuvenating, as if all the energy I’d wasted healing and throwing barriers and fighting back against the clones was finally coming back to me. It was as if someone had plugged me into a socket, my batteries refilling faster than I could even comprehend.

Thayen gave me a troubled look. “Go in there?”

“What have we got to lose?” I replied, the urgency pressing against my chest. “If we stay here, they’ll keep coming for me. They won’t stop, Thayen. Whatever Isabelle’s clone took, I’m sure it’s only the beginning.”

“Gah, this hurts!” Dafne cried out, and I quickly touched her face to heal her. She was still under the black smoke’s influence, though she’d been doing an incredible job of keeping it together. The pink glow in my hands seemed brighter. My earlier theory about my “batteries” recharging was true. “Oh, keep it coming,” the ice dragon said as my healing began to work on her traumatized mind.

I moved to Soph next, finishing what I’d started earlier, while Thayen gave me a confused look. It demanded an explanation, and he’d certainly earned it.

“It’s the portal,” I told him. “It’s not just that I can sense it when it’s open. It’s recharging my energy levels for my Daughter powers. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I’m feeling a lot better now than I did five minutes ago.”

“Astra’s right,” Jericho said, his brow furrowed as he looked at the shimmering gash. “We have to go in there. Now.”

“What if we can’t come back? What if we find our death in there?” Thayen asked.

Soph raised her chin in defiance. “We’re cowards if we sit this one out. And you know it. Claudia’s clone took something from us. It was important enough for her people to come through and wreak havoc in our world. We cannot let this stand.”

“Damn it!” Thayen snapped and walked right into the portal.

We only had a few seconds left, at most, before it would close. There was no room for hesitation. One by one, we went through, and the sensation was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Chills danced across my skin, mingling with hot sparks as I felt the shimmer envelop me from head to toe. My soul buzzed, and my heart swelled to the point where I feared it might burst from my chest.

It only lasted for a few seconds as I walked through a peculiar sea of diamond white. I closed my eyes as I approached the exit. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. As soon as I stepped onto the other side, my words were lost.

Thayen, Jericho, Dafne, Soph, and I stood on the beach. The Port was just ahead. This was The Shade. For a moment, I thought maybe we hadn’t