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Chapter 388
“You have made your world safe, for the time being at least. Now, will you come and help save ours?”
The words of the mysterious female voice from out of the black portal echo in my head. Less than an hour has passed since my Power finally appeared, triggered by the scorching fire of the balrog. The confrontation with the lava dragon was the penultimate challenge of a five hundred mile journey by land and sea, a journey marked by danger and death, by attacks from a swarm of wyverns, a kraken and a snake-haired gorgon, among others. Am I ready to step into an Anomaly now and journey to the nightmare world from whence those monsters sprang? I don’t see how I could be—how anyone could be.
My friends are all staring at me, waiting. I look at my fellow Miracles first. In all the world, these six are the only others we know of who possess a Power. I’m pretty sure they would all come with me if I were foolish enough to go. I’m certain Radar
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 389
Jordy pulls his arm from Radar’s and steps in front of my dad. He snaps off a sharp salute.“Permission to go, Sir,” he asks.Dad nods. “Granted, son.” He looks at me. “I’m coming, too, of course. Which leaves one more.”Lieutenant Gregerson steps forward. “I’d like to volunteer, Sir.”Dad smiles. “I know you would, Lieutenant. But someone has to lead the rest of the men back to San Diego. It’s not going to be an easy trip, without the Miracles or Kai. I need you to go with them.”Lieutenant Gregerson nods. “Yes, Sir,” he says, though I can hear the disappointment in his voice. “I’ll get them home, don’t worry.”Dad looks over the ranks of his men. They all volunteered for the mission to Alcatraz—he knows every one of them would volunteer for this newest mission. His gaze fixes on Sergeant Moss, our grizzled weapons expert.“What do you say, Sergeant?” Dad asks. “You got one more mission in those old bones of yours?”Sergeant Moss’s face lights up like a kid who just received an early
Leesa's Advent Chapter 390
“You heard her,” Dad says. “Let’s get out of here. Down to the dock, everyone.”We make our way over the lowest section of the old wall and head down toward the water, staying grouped together for safety, just in case. I walk alongside my dad, with Radar on my other side. The Miracles are all close by. A ring of very alert Marines with rifles at the ready surrounds us. I notice that most of them have their faces turned skyward, which makes sense. Other than the serpents Kai warned about who only come out in darkness, there shouldn’t be any danger left on the island. Threats from the air, we’ve learned all too well, are another story. A gauzy layer of fog blowing in from the ocean masks portions of the sky, adding to the atmosphere of danger.As I follow the soldiers’ gazes upward, I’m a bit surprised to see the sun floating so low in the eastern sky, where the fog hasn’t yet reached. With everything that’s happened already today, it feels like it should be later in the day. We landed
Leesa's Advent Chapter 391
Radar sees me looking and grins. The rest of the Miracles turn around to face me and break out into the Happy Birthday song.“Happy Birthday to you,” they sing. “Happy Birthday to you. Happy birrrthday dear Blaaaaaze, Happy Birthday to you.”I feel my cheeks begin to grow warm from the attention. It looks like my friends have chosen my new nickname, too. I kind of like it. Blaze. It’s simple, to the point, and strong.“I would have baked you a cake, Blaze,” Radar says, grinning. “But in case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve been kind of busy the last day or two.”I can’t help returning Radar’s grin. We’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since we were young tots, and I can safely say I’ve never known Radar to bake anything.“Yeah,” I reply. “I’m sure that’s the only reason you didn’t bake a cake. Let’s just forget that you w
Leesa's Advent Chapter 392
The crossing doesn't take long, fifteen or twenty minutes maybe, which is just fine with me. Every time we hit a patch of rough water, my stress level bounces upward with the boat, despite my best efforts to remind myself that everything is fine. As we slow down to approach the wharf, the mermaids swim closer to our vessel. The dolphins remain a bit farther away.“I guess…this is farewell…for now,” Selene calls up to us.I realize we haven’t had a chance to tell them about our plan to go into their world. I wonder if they’ll be returning as well, or if they’re stuck here in our world.“The woman who sent you here has asked for our help,” I explain quickly, knowing our time to talk is short. As soon as we dock, we’ll be hurrying away from the water.“We’re heading for higher ground,” Radar adds, “so she can open a portal for us to enter your world through.”Selene’s almond-shaped eyes widen in surprise. She clearly had not been expecting this.“Be careful,” she says. “Our world…can be
Leesa's Advent Chapter 393
We haven't even made it across the road when the silence is broken by the last sound any of us could have expected to hear—the roar of throbbing motors.I have no idea what kind of engines are making the clamor, but it’s far louder and more powerful than the noise generated by the boat we just rode on across the bay. And it’s getting louder by the second.“Motorcycles!” Sergeant Moss shouts. “Coming this way.”None of us Miracles has ever seen a working motorcycle, but the sergeant is certainly old enough to recognize the sound. I wouldn’t doubt that he rode one in his younger years, either. He seems like that kind of guy. I catch myself holding my breath, wondering whether the riders are human—or something else.Dad recognizes the sound as well. “Get out of the road!” he orders. “Now!”We race across the street. There’s no time to get any farther than the sidewalk
Leesa's Advent Chaptr 394
The unexpected explosion of green light had momentarily blinded Leesa. When her vision returned it was as if she were looking through a thick film of green plastic, the afterimage of the flash of Ralin’s magic, she knew. Closing her eyes, she massaged her eyelids softly with her fingers. She felt Rave’s hands gently grasp her by the shoulders.“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice heavy with concern.Leesa nodded. “I think so.”When she opened her eyes again, she could not believe what she saw—and more importantly, what she didn’t see.She whipped her head around frantically, desperately searching the unfamiliar landscape. What had happened to their backyard? Where was Ralin? And Dominic? What was going on here?“Where’s Ralin?” she shouted. “What’s happening?”Rave’s voice was calmer than he felt as he drew Leesa against his chest. There was no point in adding to her anxiety.“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Some kind of magic, apparently. I don’t know any more than you do.”Of cours
Leesa's Advent Chapter 395
Leesa and Rave gazed out over the stark, forbidding landscape. This was not a place anyone would visit willingly, that was for sure.“We’ve got two choices, I guess,” Leesa said finally. “We can stay right here and hope that the magic somehow undoes itself and we end up back home, or we can start looking for whomever or whatever might have had a part in this and get them to undo it.”“I vote we start searching,” Rave responded. He looked around them once more. “You’re the wizard—pick a direction.”With the pale sun almost directly overhead, there was no way to label any direction. Leesa spun around in a slow circle, surveying their options. There was nothing as far as the eye could see in two directions, and she had no real desire to head any closer to the volcanoes. That left only the woods, if that’s what the dark outline in the distance was. She raised her arm and pointed toward it.“That way,” she said.“Works for me,” Rave agreed.She took Rave’s hand, not wanting to chance that
Leesa's Advent Chapter 396
As Leesa and Rave pushed onward across the barren plain, they encountered no more serpents, saw no creatures of any kind. Nonetheless, Leesa kept the invisible shield wrapped around them, protecting them from any more strange and unexpected dangers this place might suddenly throw at them.Another hour of hiking brought them close enough to see that the dark line they had viewed from a distance was indeed the edge of a large wooded area—more of a forest, actually. The trees bore no resemblance at all to the grotesque, stunted trees that dotted the plain, nor did they look at all like any trees Leesa had ever seen.They weren’t all that tall—perhaps thirty-five or forty feet at most—but they were astonishingly lush and beautiful, covered with bright, emerald green leaves edged in a golden hue so bright it almost glowed. The leaves grew so close together they formed curved, mushroom-like caps that blanketed the top half of every tree. So thick was
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