“If you drink a mouthful, you’ll be able to see what your heart most desires. The water acts like a drug, only it stays in your bloodstream for ages. You’ll be able to project anytime, anywhere.”
I didn’t need further encouragement. I moved quickly to kneel at the lake’s edge and scooped the crystal- clear water into the palm of my hand. Without hesitating I raised my cupped hand to my mouth and drank eagerly.
A gentle hypnotic hum began in the air like the whirring of cicadas. I leaned in closer scanning the surface of the water for a sign. Looking into the lake made me feel disconnected from my body, as if I were falling under a spell. Suddenly I had a sensation very much like being hit in the chest with a punching bag. When I exhaled, I saw my own breath like a glowing orb. It hovered in front of me just inches from the water. Inside it, thousands of tiny balls of white light skittered furiously. I watched the orb descend slowly and disappear.
“Don’t worry,” I heard Tucker whisper. “The lake is reading your memories so it knows where to take you.”
For a while nothing happened and there was only the sound of our combined breathing. Tucker was talking to me, but his voice was muffled. Then I couldn’t hear him at all and realized why. I was looking down at him from above. The lake and its surroundings began to dissolve although I knew I was still physically there.
A panic began to rise as a new location formed around me. At first it appeared pixelated, like a photograph someone had tried unsuccessfully to enlarge. But when it came slowly into focus, I was no longer afraid.
Instead I felt a rush of emotion so powerful it felt like tumbling headlong into a whirlpool. I was going home.
11
Reunion
THE kitchen at Byron Street was exactly as I remembered it; large and airy with views of the frothy ocean on every side. I was standing in the middle of it with all my senses functioning and yet I knew I was only a spectator watching from the sidelines. I could move freely in the space and yet I wasn’t part of it. It was like watching the opening of a movie from inside the screen. It was early morning. I could hear birdsong as well as the whistling of the kettle on the bench top. The French doors were open and someone was mowing the grass at Dolly Henderson’s place next door. There was a tiered cake plate with iced cupcakes that I remembered Ivy baking some days before I’d disappeared. They hadn’t been touched and looked stale now. A vase of wilting cornflowers also sat on the bench, a reminder of the cheerful place the kitchen had been just a few days earlier.
In the next second the scene burst into life. Xavier was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands, just a few meters from me. His posture drew my attention because I’d never seen him slumped over like this before. He was wearing a familiar fitted gray T-shirt and sweatpants, but the stubble on his face suggested he hadn’t made it to bed that night.
I willed myself to move closer to him and was excited to find I could do it without too much effort. The proximity was dizzying. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch him, but I couldn’t. My ghostly self had no substance and my hand passed straight through him. Xavier looked different. I couldn’t see his face properly, but his shoulders and the muscles in his forearms were tense. I could feel the sense of grief hanging in the room.
The scent of freesia wafted past me, a fragrance I knew only too well. My sister appeared in the doorway and looked at Xavier with concern. Ivy appeared as angelic and composed as ever, but the uncharacteristic crease in her brow betrayed her. I could see she was overcome with worry.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked Xavier gently.
“No, thanks,” he replied. He sounded distracted, as if his mind were far away, and he barely raised his head.
“Gabriel’s gone back to visit the Knox place,” Ivy continued. “He thinks he might pick up some clues.”
Xavier was too lost in his own brooding thoughts to reply. Ivy came to stand beside him. Reading his mood, she placed a tentative hand on his arm. He jerked at her touch, not allowing himself to be comforted.
“We mustn’t lose heart. We’ll find her.”
Xavier raised his head to look at her. His face was paler than I’d ever seen it and there were circles under his bright blue eyes. His lips were pressed into a hard line. He looked forlorn, consumed by his grief. I wanted to reach out and take his face in my hands, to tell him that I was okay — trapped, lonely and miserable but otherwise unharmed. I might not be in his arms where we both wanted me to be, but I was coping. I was surviving.
“How?” he said after a long interval. He struggled to keep his voice even. “We have no idea where he’s taken her … or what he’s doing to her.” That last thought proved too much and his voice cracked.
I felt a cold lump of dread rise in my throat. If they had no idea where I was, what hope did they have of ever finding me? Neither Gabriel nor Ivy had actually witnessed my disappearance so all they had to go on was Xavier’s sketchy report of what he’d seen before Jake had run him down. As far as they knew I might be held hostage in some remote corner of the globe.
“Gabriel’s working on it,” Ivy said, trying to sound confident. “He’s good at figuring things out.”
“Shouldn’t we be there with him?” Xavier said helplessly.
“He knows what to do, what signs to look for.” There was an awkward lull in their conversation when all that could be heard was the ticking of the hall clock.
“It’s my fault,” Xavier said finally. Saying the words out loud seemed to offer him some relief. “I should have been able to protect her.” His eyelashes looked wet with tears, but he brushed them away before Ivy could see them.
“No human stands a chance against that sort of power,” said my sister. “You can’t blame yourself, Xavier. There’s nothing you could have done.” Xavier shook his head adamantly.
“Yes, there is,” he said through gritted teeth. “I could have stayed with her. If I hadn’t been fooling around down at the lake, none of this would have happened.” He curled his hands into tight fists and swallowed hard. “Don’t you see? I promised I’d look after her and I let her down.”
“You didn’t know. How could you know? But you can help Beth now by not falling apart. Be strong for her sake.”
Xavier squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
“Gabe’s back,” said Ivy, way before the key even turned in the lock. Xavier rose from his chair and seemed to falter forward. Minutes later Gabriel appeared in the kitchen. Even though he was my brother and I knew him as well as anyone could, his radiance still made me gasp. His perfect, marblesculpted features were severe. His silver eyes were solemn and his face grave.
“Any luck?” asked Ivy.
“I think I found something,” Gabriel said hesitantly. “It
“Oh, no.” Ivy moaned and sank into the nearest chair.
“Why is that important? A portal? What’s a portal? A portal to where?” Xavier asked his questions in rapid succession, but Gabriel answered in a measured voice.
“There are openings in this world,” he said, “that lead directly into other realms. We call them portals. They can appear randomly or they can be conjured by someone powerful enough.”
“What kind of realms? Where’s Beth?” There was a rising panic in his voice.
“The asphalt on the highway was burned,” Gabriel observed, sidestepping the question. “And everything around it scorched. There is only one place that can leave behind marks like that.”
Xavier took a breath as if to steady himself. I could see the moment when the truth behind Gabriel’s words dawned on him.
“That can’t be true,” he said weakly, his rational mind still struggling to comprehend.
“It’s true, Xavier.” Even Gabriel had to turn his face away in order not to witness the effect he knew his words would have. “Jake has dragged Bethany into Hell.”
Xavier looked as if his worst nightmare had been realized. The news hit him like a slap in the face. His jaw
