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“I don’t exactly have the luxury of letting this happen on its own,” I said. “We’re running out of time to figure this out before Leto kills again.”
“That’s what’s tripping you up,” Grant theorized. “You don’t trust yourself to get it now. We need a different approach. Can I see the book?”
I handed it to him. I’d been through the sections on portals so many times, I didn’t know what he could possibly find that I hadn’t.
Grant began reading under my witch light. “Portal magic is a manipulation of reality. This is why the Arcanean fae and the Elves—rest their souls—are the primary portal casters in supernatural society. Both races are talented illusionists, and one must be skilled at manipulating reality in order to cast a portal. Goddess, how old is this book? They’re talking about the Elves as if they’re still alive.”
I shrugged. “Pretty old, I guess. But I know all this. The book goes on and on about reality manipulation, but it doesn’t say how to do it.”
“What are you trying to do?” Grant asked. “What’s your thought process?”
“I’m doing what the book says. I’m imagining where I want to go, then focusing my magic on that.”
“So you’re more or less trying to teleport?”
“Well, yeah. That’s basically what a portal is.”
“No, a portal is a means of transport,” Grant said. “If you want to travel across the country, you’ve got to get on a plane. The reality manipulation isn’t connecting points A and B. It’s creating a step between them. A portal itself is a different reality, and you must step into that reality in order to come out somewhere else inside our own reality. You’re trying to step through a door on the other side of a room without walking into that room first.”
“That doesn’t sound any easier than what I was doing before.”
“Just try it,” he encouraged.
I faced away from him and held my palms up. This time, I focused on what it felt like when I’d slipped through the portal that day with my father. I thought of the flash of colors and the disoriented feeling I’d gotten. That was the reality I was trying to access.
Grant gasped, and my eyes shot open to see sparks of magic filling the air in front of me. “Keep it up!” Grant cried.
I imagined sliding through this other realm, to the cemetery on the other side. The portal expanded just enough that I spotted a gravestone… then it slammed shut. All I saw was the empty forest beyond us.
“Hey, you did it!” Grant cried. “Great job.”
It hadn’t been a large portal—only big enough to reach a hand through—but I’d done it. That in itself was a victory. “That was easier than I thought. I was imagining it all wrong this whole time. Let me try again.”
I closed my eyes and lifted my hands. I pictured what the portal realm felt like, then imagined the cemetery in my mind. I thought of a pathway forming between the clearing we stood in and the cemetery on the other side of town—a wormhole that would connect the two points in space. When I opened my eyes, the portal had returned. The edges flickered, but I took a deep breath to calm myself, and the portal stabilized.
“That’s it!” Grant encouraged. “Keep going.”
I set a simple intention, and the portal expanded to my command. It bloomed as tall as I was. Through the portal, we saw shadows of gravestones, and I spotted a leaf tumbling across the top of the snow.
Grant’s jaw dropped as the entire cemetery came into view. “Whoa, Lucas. You did it!”
I smiled proudly. “Pretty damn impressive, huh?”
Grant approached the portal slowly, inspecting it from every angle. He walked behind it, like he was double checking to see if the cemetery was there. I noticed the longer I held the portal open, the more tired I became.
“Wow,” Grant breathed as he came back to the front. “So… can I touch it?”
He reached toward the portal. The moment he touched it, he was blasted backward and landed flat on his back in the snow. I heard a thwack, and Grant cursed as his head smashed into a rock. My heart leapt, and the portal slammed shut. Oliver nearly toppled off his log at the suddenness of it all.
“Grant!” I rushed to his side and helped him sit up. His whole body shook. “Where are you hurt?”
He pressed a hand to his head, and his fingers came away bloody. “Ugh, everywhere. It feels like I was electrocuted. Your portals aren’t stable.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I said sarcastically. “We’ve got a start, but no one’s going through my portals until I figure this magic out.”
“Fair enough.” He groaned as he got to his feet.
“Goddess, Grant. Sit down. Your head is bleeding.” I forced him to sit on the log, then I conjured a first-aid kit.
