Hearing him admit he cares about her makes my jaw tick. But I shove the irritation aside, knowing I have more important things to worry about right now than my jealousy issues.
I take a few breaths, trying to collect myself. “Let’s do it then.” I lift both my hands in front of me and he steps forward and lines his palms with mine.
I take another breath, then channel my power of ice while he works to unleash his power of water. As the elements leave our body and collide, they form a movable, flexible wave of ice that glistens against the flashes of the lightning and glow of the fire.
Once we feel like we have a steady connection with the wave, we crouch down and shift it underneath Sky’s feet. She remains frozen, crouched down on the wave of ice as it slightly sways against the wind.
“You ready for this?” I ask East as I prepare to guide the wave through the rainbowy portal.
He nods, a bit of nervousness evident in his expression, an unnatural look for him, but he quickly collects himself. “Yep, let's do this.”
Taking a deep breath, I sidestep and he moves in sync with me, along with the wave Sky is on. We continue to move together, stepping into the portal and rainbow light, and warmth surrounds us.
“My powers already feel stronger,” East says as we enter the portal. “That world was definitely messing with them.”
He seems relieved that we’re leaving, but I don’t share his feelings. I liked being in that world, although I understand that we needed to leave. I just hope that one day we can go back, but since we opened the portal there by accident, I’m not sure we’ll be able to.
But on a positive note, East having more control over his powers alleviates some of my worry about us getting safely through this portal. And his powers seem to grow even more as we continue moving deeper into the rainbow light, step by step, carefully guiding the wave and Sky with us.
The farther we get in without any mishaps, the more I start to believe that everything is going to work out perfectly, that we’re going to make it through the portal without any hiccups. I should’ve known better, though. Should’ve remembered that nothing ever works out perfectly.
I get a reminder of that about halfway into the portal when tendrils of smoky darkness start to creep through the walls of the portal and mix with the rainbow-tinted light.
“Is that darkness from Sky?” East says, scanning the portal. “Or is it…” He trails off as a tall figure emerges through the wall of the portal just a little ways behind us.
Usually creatures can only enter from the entrance and exit of a portal unless they’re extremely powerful. Which means…
My stomach drops as I realize who the figure could be. And my suspicions are confirmed as it turns toward us and the rainbow light casts across its shadowy face and evil eyes.
“The god of darkness,” I utter, momentarily frozen in shock.
His wispy hair moves like snakes, smoke rises from his skin, and his charred lips curl into a smirk. “You, little elemental enchanter, have something that belongs to me.” His cloudy eyes zero in on Sky.
“Fost,” Easton hisses. “We need to move now.”
I snap out of my trance and focus on guiding the wave forward, away from the god of darkness and toward the exit of the portal.
“You think you can outrun me!” the god of darkness shouts, his voice reverberating against the walls and making the rainbow light dim. “How foolish you are. Do you not understand what I am? What I can do? How powerful I am?”
“We’ve managed to get away from you before, so maybe you should be the one worrying about us.” Easton throws him a taunting smirk at him, even though I can tell he’s scared shitless.
“Did you, though?” he questions, wisps of darkness reaching through the rainbow light toward us. “Because it looks like my element of darkness has taken over the elemental enchanter power source. And once I slip inside her, her and her power will be mine forever.”
Anger bursts through me and my power of lightning briefly slips out, bolts of blue energy zapping from my skin, making the ice beneath Sky start to melt.
“Get a hold of yourself!” Easton yells, snapping me back to reality.
I drag my attention off the god of darkness and focus on getting Sky out of here. Deep down, though, I know this might not end well. That even if we reach the end of the portal without the god of darkness getting ahold of Sky, he could exit the portal with us if we don’t get it sealed quickly enough.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. I’m going to try with everything I have in me.
Shoving everything else out of my mind, I center all of my focus onto moving the wave, trying to put some distance between the god of darkness and us. Strangely, he appears to be struggling to keep up with us, the distance between us growing instead of shrinking.
“He’s weak for some reason,” Easton mumbles as he casts a glance behind us. “I wonder why.”
I concentrate on the wave carrying Sky. “I don’t care why just as long as he stays weak long enough for us to get out of here and get the portal sealed.”
“I want us to get out of here too, but I’d like to know why he’s so weak right now…” He trails off, his eyes widening in the direction behind us.