were on the same page. Something was still very much off, and we were woefully underinformed about the enemy and their operations. Well, technically speaking, the clones were The Shade’s enemy, but they’d become mine and Soul’s, too. They were an affront to the living, a stain on the concept of souls. This fight was personal.
Corrine gasped as soon as her feet sank into the golden sand. “Oh… there was a portal here.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “I thought you couldn’t detect them.”
“I can’t. But I can see a number of footprints going in this direction,” she replied, pointing toward the shipyard’s warehouse.
We spent about twenty minutes searching this side of the beach. Soul and I used death magic tracking spells, while Derek and Sofia traced every single scent that still lingered in the salty ocean air. Corrine and Ibrahim used tricks of their own to understand what had happened here, while the footprints left behind told the same damn story.
“They stop here,” Phoenix muttered. “You’re right, Corrine. There was a portal here.”
“I’ve got Claudia’s scent, but it’s weird,” Derek said. “When I focus on it, it’s subtly different.”
“That’s because it’s her clone,” I replied. “She escaped through a portal here, and I figure your kids went through in an attempt to capture her.”
As soon as I said the words aloud, all eyes were on me. Big and glassy eyes, glistening with fear and horror and genuine concern. I felt bad for being the one to offer the conclusion, though they already knew it. It probably wasn’t the easiest idea to accept.
But it had to be iterated clearly. “Thayen, Soph, Jericho, Dafne, and Astra went through the shimmering portal after Claudia’s clone.”
The statement had troubling implications, and the more Shadians who reached the shore in search of answers, the greater the overall issue became. Caia and Blaze were the first to join us outside the shipyard warehouse, panting and desperately searching for their son. Lethe flew Elodie in all the way from the Black Heights. Phoenix was shaking like a leaf—he’d had it the worst. Astra had gone on to another realm, and Viola was missing.
“Do we have even the slightest idea of what exists beyond these portals?” Caia asked as she struggled to get her breathing back to normal. I could only imagine what she was going through. I’d had a son once, but I’d let him down. I’d lost him, and it had happened such a long time ago that I barely remembered how such emptiness felt. Looking at Caia’s pained expression now, however, I realized I did have an inkling, at least. It hurt beyond belief.
“No, but considering the clones are designed to look like us and function like us, I think it’s safe to assume our children won’t be killed by the atmosphere there,” Derek said. “I’m truly sorry we don’t have more to go on.”
The more we talked, the more information poured in from the rest of The Shade. Not everybody was accounted for. There were people missing—among them was not just Isabelle, but Richard, Voss, and Chantal, too. I had a feeling I’d hear plenty of other familiar names by the end of the day. The investigation was in its early stages, and there was so much ground to cover.
Zane and Fiona stormed onto the beach. Luckily for them, they’d been holed up inside the training halls with several daemon soldiers they’d brought over from Neraka. The portal leading back to their world—and all the others, for that matter—had been magically disabled. While the comms had been restored, access to and from The Shade was still restricted, courtesy of the clones’ weird and otherworldly magic. The witches were going to take care of that, but it would take some time. They already had their hands full, since the hospital had been blown to smithereens, and there were plenty of Shadians in urgent need of medical care.
“Please, tell me it’s not true,” Fiona said, her voice trembling as she reached us. “Please, tell me our daughter didn’t just walk through a shimmering portal!”
Derek had already notified Soph’s parents through the comms system, and they were both understandably terrified. Zane’s eyes sparkled red with rage as he stared at the spot where the footprints disappeared. He knew it was where the shimmering portal had been.
“I can still smell her,” he said.
“How do we go in after them?” Lethe asked, a muscle ticking in his jaw as he held Elodie close. The human was doing everything