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Jarek doesn't respond.
"He can only answer yes or no questions," Gabriel says. "You made it too complicated."
"Oh, right. I forgot."
"Let me try." Gabriel moves closer to the window. "We know the gateway is sealed. But will you take us there anyway?"
Jarek nods.
"Thanks, buddy. We appreciate it."
The golem stretches out one hand toward us, holding it palm up. His other arm, the one still clamped onto the windowsill, has begun to tremble faintly. Must be really hard to maintain a position like that. Gabriel climbs onto Jarek's open hand first, then helps me up.
Aldith reappears to wave goodbye as Jarek releases his hold on the window.
We sail downward, rushing through the clouds, with the ground zooming ever closer. Just when I think we're about to get creamed, Jarek's massive feet whump down with surprising gentleness. Then he starts striding across the barren landscape, heading back toward the Capital City. Since I have nothing else to do, I take stock of the damage caused by the lightning and fireballs. Scorched earth surrounds the crater where the first fireball struck. The other two never made it to the ground. The lightning had slashed into the ground with electric force, creating glass-encased tunnels.
Gradually, I begin to see signs of civilization ahead of us. Well, I'm using the word civilization loosely. The apocalypse decimated the Echo too, and according to Grant and Erin, not many living things have remained in the Capital City. I got only a glimpse of that metropolis when the Echo flier grabbed me and Gabriel, whisking us away.
Jarek lumbers past the edge of the city, which has a sharp line of demarcation, unlike any city in the normal world. No suburbs, no smattering of shops that peters out the further you go from the skyscrapers. Yeah, I can remember what cities on Earth look like. It's my memories of my own life and the apocalypse that vanished. Jarek speeds up his pace as we head down a four-lane street, and I get my first glimpse of the gateway to the Echo. The sight makes my skin crawl and my mouth go dry.
The black disk in the sky swirls round and round, releasing slithering fingers of darkness that dissipate into smoke-like wisps. The gateway generates no sound, but the gravity of it vibrates in my bones.
Now it's time to find out if the Echo will let us leave—or if it will hold us hostage.
Chapter Fifteen
Gabriel
As I gaze up at the gateway, my memories rewind to that day when the sky split apart and the world as we knew it ended. The apocalypse began in the cities with eerie, terrifyingly beautiful music taking over the world, serving as the precursor to the devastation that followed. The spinning tendrils of magics that lashed out from the gateway's center heralded the coming of creatures disgorged from the Echo to wreak havoc.
Today, I see only the placidly swirling disk of darkness.
Despite my mind wanting to pull me into the past to relive my personal journey into the apocalypse, I can't let myself sink into that oblivion. We have too much to do, and no idea how to do it.
Sarah gapes at the gateway like she's never seen it before. We had both gone through the gateway earlier, but it happened so fast that I doubt she got a good look at it. Now we both have no choice but to watch as we draw ever nearer to the disk-shaped abyss that swallows a large quadrant of the sky. Even the damage to the city around us can't tear our focus away from the gateway.
Jarek halts below the black disk, which I can now see lies at his head level. The gateway consumes such a large part of the sky that it's hardly surprising the golem can reach it. When he raises his hand to his chin level, Sarah and I find ourselves staring straight into the roiling blackness of the gateway. Jarek extends his hand toward the opening.
And hits an invisible barrier.
The jolt surprises Jarek, who instinctively jerks his hand away. The sudden movement sends me and Sarah tumbling off the golem's palm, sailing down toward the street far below us. She screams and flails as if to grab on to me. I seize her forearm but lose my grip.
And the ground rushes toward us.
Jarek scoops us up just before we would've hit the ground. We both lie sprawled on the golem's palm, somewhat dazed by our narrow escape from becoming human pancakes. My gaze lands on the gateway, but it's not simply spinning anymore. No, it now roils and rumbles, pulsating with a rhythm that I can feel but not hear.
We just ticked off the Echo.
But we aren't done yet.
I sit up, then cautiously rise to my knees. Once I determine I'm not going to fall off Jarek's palm, I grab Sarah's hands to help her stand too. "We need to tap into our Echo power so we can force the gateway to open."
She nods, though she's biting her lip.
I don't blame her for feeling off kilter. The Echo slammed the door in our faces, and now we plan to kick it in. I clasp Sarah's hands as we face each other, our gazes bound, and summon the magics. The power sizzles between us, hot and liquid, slipping into every cell in our bodies. I concentrate on thoughts of the Echo, of kicking that door open so we can jump through it.
A blast of energy fires into the gateway and bounces right back at us. I fly off Jarek's palm to the left, but Sarah flies off to the right. I tumble toward the pavement below us, face up, and can do nothing but watch as Jarek bends his knees and thrusts out both hands to catch us. We wind up crumpled on separate palms, but Jarek tips one hand over to dump me onto his hand beside Sarah.
