Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

She tried to let her breath out naturally and keep her heart and lungs exactly synchronized with Sandu’s. She was grateful that Sandu allowed her to take the lead since she had been trained for this moment. She knew what she was supposed to do. She had gone over and over the scenario in her mind, in her dreams, even her nightmares, thousands of times. As a child, her mother had drilled every move into her head.

He is the epitome of the modern lifemate, Benedek said.

In the human dictionary, we will put his picture beside the word modern, Nicu added, and immortalize him.

Petru chimed in. I will send word to Josef and ensure Sandu is written up in what he calls his advice column: old geezers—lifemates to young, hot party women. Sandu can be used as an example of an ancient who knows how to be hip.

Hip? Sandu nearly whirled around to face the direction where Petru was drifting close to Adalasia. Sun scorch you, Petru. Where did you even hear of such a word, and how did you know its meaning?

Does Josef really have such a column? Afanasiv asked. That seems to be the most pertinent question.

It was all Adalasia could do not to burst out laughing, and maybe that was why the guardians were carrying on. She needed to be completely relaxed, and with just that short exchange, she was.

I see the portal. I need to really examine it for places where it could be thinning. Sandu, reach out to Liona and see if she answers you. Tiberiu, see if you can subtly reach out to your sister. They would never have kept her original name. Whatever her given name was, use that, or if there was a special name your family called her, just in case either jogs her memory. It’s a long shot, but provided she doesn’t betray you to Nera, it will be okay. Don’t use the common Carpathian path; she will believe it is a trick. Use your family path.

She felt Sandu’s sudden amusement. He shared with her along their private, intimate path: Tiberiu is very traditional. He is not used to you—or us. You are the one taking charge, not me, and issuing orders. It’s a little amusing, that’s all.

She glanced over her shoulder at Sandu. It was difficult not to love him even more when she heard things like that. He was an ancient, and his inclination had to be to take the lead, yet he wasn’t. He had faith in her. More than anything else, that gave her the determination to succeed.

One hand rose to the center of her chest, and just barely moving her wrist, she deftly used her fingers to weave a revealing spell. She murmured the accompanying words softly, so softly the sound of water dripping and the persistent drumming noise covered her chant. The portal shimmered in and out of the shadows, but now she could see it in its entirety. An archway, sealed, but there were thin spots. Two of the cracks were tiny breaks just wide enough that the demonic creatures, although a foot high and horribly lethal, were thin enough to scrape through. She could see where they had used their claws to pull themselves through. The claw marks were deep on the portal, as if they had tried to widen the crack for others but were unable to do so.

I’ve found the breaks and weak spots in the portal. I can close it and seal it, but once I do, nothing will be able to leave that realm from this portal.

Wait. Tiberiu was imperious. I have reached out to my sister. She has yet to answer me. I feel her, but she will not answer. If you close the portal, I have no hope of recovering her.

It is possible this woman is not your sister, Tiberiu, Sandu said. I could be wrong. I could have brought you false hope. It was a guess on my part.

We have to hurry, Adalasia said. I feel the demons pushing at the portal. It’s bowing in toward us. They’re determined to break through, and there is much weakness here.

Begin to seal it, Adalasia, Sandu ordered. Tiberiu, tell her the time is now or never. I am reaching out to Liona now. She is not on the other side of the portal. I feel her. But she isn’t there.

Adalasia didn’t wait. She hurried to thicken the seals on the portal, pouring in the strongest of the ancient woods and old magic it was originally built with but weaving in webs of more modern material that demons might not understand the composition of: titanium. She added the safeguards against demons taught to her from the time she was a child into every weave. The strongest. She was patient, taking her time.