“Maybe it had something to do with that.” Liv was looking past me.
“What?”
She pointed behind me. There were planks hammered into an awkward X. But the boards were rotting, and you could see a doorway behind them.
“Ethan. Am I imagining—”
I shook my head. “No. I see it, too.”
It wasn’t a Mortal doorway. I recognized the symbols carved into the old wood, even if I couldn’t read them. Across from the trapdoor that led into the Mortal world was a second doorway, which led into the Caster one.
“We’d better go,” Liv said.
“You mean go in there.” I set the lantern down on the ground.
Liv already had her red notebook out and was sketching, but she still sounded worried. “I mean go back to your house.” She sounded annoyed, but I could tell she was as interested in what lay beyond the doorway as I was.
“You know you want to go in there.” Some things never changed.
The first board splintered, coming off in my hands as soon as I pulled it loose.
“What I want is for you to stay out of the Tunnels, before this somehow manages to get us both into trouble.”
The last of the boards fell away. In front of me was a carv
ed wooden doorway that framed massive double doors. The bottom seemed to disappear into the dirt floor. I bent down to take a closer look. There were actual roots connecting the doors to the earth. I ran my hands along the length of them. They were rough and solid, but I didn’t recognize the wood.
“It’s ash. And rowan, I think,” Liv said. I could hear her scribbling in her notebook. “There isn’t a single ash or rowan tree within miles of Gatlin. They’re supernatural trees. They protect creatures of Light.”
“Which means?”
“Which means these doors are probably from somewhere far away. And they could lead to somewhere equally far away.”
I nodded. “Where?”
She pressed her hand into a design along the carved lintel. “I haven’t a clue. Madrid. Prague. London. We have rowan trees in the U.K.” She started copying the symbols from the doors onto a page.
I pulled on the handle with both hands. The iron latch groaned, but the doors didn’t open. “That’s not the question.”
“Oh, really?”
“The question is, what are we doing here? What are we supposed to see?” I pulled on the handle again. “And how do we get on the other side?”
“That’s three questions.” Liv studied the doors. “I think it’s like the lintel at Ravenwood. The carvings are a kind of access code to get inside.”
“Figure it out. We have to find a way in.”
“I’m afraid it may not be that easy. Wait. Is that a word up there?” She brushed the dust off the doorway. Some kind of inscription was carved into the frame.
“If it’s a Caster doorway, I wouldn’t be surprised.” I rubbed the wood with my hand, and it splintered beneath my fingers. Whatever it was, it was ancient.
“ ‘Temporis Porta.’ Time Door? What does that mean?” Liv asked.
“It means we don’t have time for this.” I leaned my forehead against the doors. I could feel a surge of heat and energy where the ancient wood touched my face. It was vibrating.
“Ethan?”
“Shh.”