Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,50

this form, it would’ve been racing like lightning.

Mom—both of them—smiled. “This is just an illusion to illustrate to you. Pretend one is my human body and one is my spirit.”

Freaky. I nodded, creeping closer.

“For you, you’ll have your human form in one world, let’s say High Mage Island.” She pointed to her duplicate soul, which was still smiling at me creepily but thankfully not talking. “Then you’ll send your spirit form to the other place, wherever you want to create the portal between the two places. Let’s say Shifter Island.” Her duplicate soul walked into the rock face and disappeared.

No. Way.

Shocked, I blinked, but creepy duplicate Mom was really gone … through the rock. Facing my mom, I tried to put my muddled thoughts into words. “So you’re saying I spirit walk to the other place I want to go, and then…”

My mom nodded. “Then you mentally merge the two while using your spirit magic to open a space between your two halves. I can’t do it down here, of course, but it would look something like this.” She clapped her hands, and a shockwave burst out of them, knocking into me.

“Sorry.” She winked. When she opened her clasped hands, I gasped. A hole inside of the rock face was starting to open too.

What the…?

The hole opened wider as her hands moved farther apart, revealing her creepy duplicate spirit standing inside of the rock like in a cave.

“Whoa,” I breathed.

My mom grinned, and it was shocking because she looked so much like me. I totally had her smile. My mom then walked into the cave to join her duplicate self to symbolize walking into a portal. Her ghostly body disappeared, and she stepped out of the cave and faced me once more as it poofed closed behind her. Just an illusion.

“See. Easy enough. Now you try.” She pointed to the rock wall, now flat and cave-free.

I frowned looking down at my spectral body. “I’m not sure I can … my body is back in the spirit pools.”

My mom nodded. “It’ll just be practice. Anything you can think of here, you can create. One of the perks of being in a spirit realm. It’s like an illusion, but it’ll work pretty much the same in the real world. Now, you give it a try.”

“Okay…” I closed my eyes and envisioned my soul splitting in two, and then I opened my eyes to see my mom wincing.

“You’ll get better with practice, and remember it’s not real.”

My head jerked to the side, and I screamed. A freaky-looking Nai, with one eye and a droopy vacant expression, was watching me like a zombie.

“Now, have her scoot off to the rock so you can create the portal,” my mom coaxed.

One-eyed Zombie Nai just blinked at the wall and then walked over to it before disappearing inside.

I was totally going to need therapy after this.

Focusing on the task at hand, I imagined that I was in one world and zombie Nai was in another. Breathing in and out, I clapped my palms together like my mom did.

“Good. Now, as you pull your hands apart, imagine you are teasing open the space between the worlds. Hold awareness of both this place and inside the rock in your mind.”

I thought of the inside of the rock and how I needed to open it in order to get to Zombie Nai; then I slowly pulled my hands apart.

There was a cracking noise and my mom yelped. I looked at the rock to see a big chunk had fallen off and lay on the ground. Zombie Nai peeked out of the rock, looking at me vacantly.

“Oops.” I shrugged.

My mom chuckled. “It’s okay. Now, clear it and try again,” she told me.

I shook off my hands and cleared my mind. Just like that, Zombie Nai disappeared, and the rock mended before my eyes.

Whoa.

I tried again over the next several hours and came very close on the last try to opening a perfect pretend portal to Zombie Nai like my mom had done. But the most I managed was to reveal her head and upper body. Hopefully, with practice in the real world, I could do it better than that.

When it was time to go back so that I could meet Rage, I stood there a little awkwardly, not ready to say goodbye.

“Thanks for the lesson.” I shuffled my feet.

She smoothed her hair, tucking pieces back into the braid lying over her shoulder. “Nai, I want you to know you don’t need