Page 92 of The Princess of Portals

There was another boom, and this one shook the whole building. The ball in Kato’s hand flashed green, and then the Masked Metamorph punched through the wall. He moved toward us, a bulldozer of magic, a terrible force of nature. The debris from the broken wall retreated, fleeing from his presence.

He opened his mouth. “Now.” His voice was deep and terrifying, powerful and primal. It hit me like a punch to the gut. Just that one word was enough to make the walls shudder and the ground quake. “It’s time.”

CHAPTER 2

MEMORIES

Iknew it. I just knew something terrible was going to happen. But in all my wildest nightmares, I hadn’t envisioned him crashing the Ball.

The Masked Metamorph looked at Kato and Conner. They looked at him. Something I couldn’t describe flashed in their eyes.

“Well?” the Masked Metamorph said, impatient. “What are you waiting for?”

He turned and ran away. Conner and Kato ran after him. They chased him out of the ballroom. I followed, trying to match their pace, but I was so much slower than the three of them. I kicked off my heels. That was a bit better. But just a bit. The Masked Metamorph had magic-enhanced speed, and Kato and Conner kept mini-teleporting, jumping forward several steps at a time. When had they learned how to do that?

Maybe I could do the same. And I did. One jump. Two jumps. Three. I was gaining ground. Just a few more jumps.

The Masked Metamorph spun around and threw a bottle at the ground. It shattered, releasing purple smoke. I saw it too late. I teleported right into it—or, more like, against it. My body hit something solid and hard, and I bounced back, hitting the ground. Ow.

I pushed myself off the floor. I tapped into my Nymph magic, summoning wood, metal, glass…anything I could find in the area, anything I could use to throw at the smoky barrier. The barrier ate them all, but they were eating it too. I could feel it. I could hear it. I could see it. The barrier was splitting apart. If only it weren’t taking so long.

Finally, the barrier burst apart. I took off again, running and teleporting. I found Kato and Conner in the library. I looked around. I didn’t see the Masked Metamorph anywhere.

“Where did he go?” I asked them.

They stared at me. There was a dark look in their eyes, and it scared me.

“What happened? Where is the Masked Metamorph?”

“His name is Erador,” Kato told me.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with that information. “What did he want? Why did he come here?”

Kato looked like he would rather do anything but answer that question. “He came here for us.”

“For you?”

“This was always about us, Seven.”

“I don’t understand. What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?”

“No, he didn’t come here to attack us. He came here to talk to us.”

“To…talk? What would a deranged Metamorph possibly want to talk to you about?”

Conner gave me a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “No, you have it all wrong, Red. He’s not deranged.”

“We were wrong about him.”

“We were wrong about so many things.”

I looked into their eyes, and I looked very closely. There was nothing that screamed dazed, bespelled, or out-of-their-minds. There was only sharp intelligence…with a touch of melancholy. What had the Masked Metamorph done to them?

“What things?” I asked them.

Conner sighed.

“What did he say to you, Conner?”