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A tiny thrill shivers through me. I want Gabriel to join our group. I want him to stick around, even after we discover the truth about me.
I try to hold Gabriel's hand as we start walking toward the mountain slope, but he shakes my hand off.
"Theyareyour friends," I tell him. "You're not alone anymore. You have a home here in Sanctuary."
He grunts and refuses to look at me.
A bolt of lightning slams down on the beach just yards ahead of us. The blast throws us backward, and we both go tumbling across the sand into the surf. My ears ring, drowning out all other sounds. I scramble to my knees, hindered by my backpack, and crawl over to Gabriel, who lies flat on his back with his eyes open, seeming dazed. I shake him. He blinks slowly, twice, then grimaces.
A flash overhead makes me tip my head back to stare at the heavens, just as another flash coruscates across the blue sky. I would call it cloud-to-ground lightning, except there are no clouds.
"Get up!" I shout to Gabriel, who still seems a little dazed. "We need to find shelter."
I grab his hand, tugging hard as I rise to a half-crouch. With my help, he gets to his feet.
A bolt slams into the ground, striking so close to us that the sand erupts and showers onto our bodies.
Gabriel seizes my hand, and we take off toward the trees.
Yet another bolt slams down in front of us. But this time, it doesn't retreat into the sky. No, it just hovers there, shimmering and sizzling, the energy rippling inside it. The bolt blocks our path to the trail that leads up the mountain.
We veer to the left, toward the other side of the little cove.
Another bolt punches into the sand and hovers there, like the other one is still doing.
Running for the narrow swathe of beach that skirts the rock outcroppings doesn't work either. The lightning has boxed us in, and we have no escape route.
Gabriel grips my hand so tightly that it almost hurts, but I don't care. Echo lightning has trapped us here, which makes me wonder what will happen next. Will creatures appear to abduct us? In the two months that I've lived in Sanctuary, we've only seen the occasional creature. If a horde of them lived nearby, surely they would've made their presence known.
The sky splits open. The rift spirals outward, forming a black disk high above us that enlarges with every passing second. A ratcheting noise accompanies the ever-expanding disk. Is that… No, it can't be. There has never been an entrance to the Echo in this area. Those are only in cities or some of the small towns. Not here, in the wilderness. Not in Sanctuary.
Something flies out of the opening.
I swallow hard, but my throat has constricted.
A winged Echo creature swoops down to seize us, whisking us up toward the whirling black disk. Before I realized what's happened, we've been pulled through the entrance and into the Echo.
The flying beast drops us and soars away.
We land sprawled on the ground, with me on top of Gabriel.
He smirks. "Well, I'm liking this position."
"Sarcastic come-ons are not appropriate right now." I scramble to my feet. "We're in the Echo, aren't we? How did that happen?"
He sits up and glances around. "Home sweet home."
Yeah, he was being sarcastic again.
I plant my hands on my hips. "But how—"
"What makes you think I have a clue? No idea why a flying monster dragged us into the Echo and dumped us in the middle of nowhere."
I hadn't realized the Echo consisted of more than cities, but we currently stand in a scorched wasteland that seems to have once been countryside, maybe even farmland. I think I see the remnants of corn stalks. Echo creatures farmed? Wow, I have a lot to learn about this world. But my main concern right now is how to figure out why a creature dumped us here.
"Do you think that Aldith woman brought us here?" I ask. "Maybe she wants to talk to us."
"I doubt that. She was in the castle, though she might also have the ability to go into the stronghold. I got the impression she can't roam free, though."
