The Borderkind Read Free

eyes to adjust.
    But the corner was empty.
    Julianna breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s get out of here.”
    “Agreed.”
    She went to the door. It seemed to stick a moment, and then the latch gave and Julianna hauled it open, hinges creaking again.
    Outside the door, the world had changed.
    The storm was gone, and so was Canna Island. A blast of warm air rushed in to greet them. A light summer rain fell from a sky striped with low clouds, speckled with clear spaces where the blue sky showed through.
    Julianna could not breathe.
    Shaking, she stepped out of the little stone hut. It stood now at the top of a long, sloping hill of rock, striated with colors like thousands of years of volcanic eruption. At the base of the hill, far below, a river rolled gently past. Some small brush and greenery grew on the banks of the river, but on the other side, once again, there was nothing but rock. She turned in a complete circle. Around her there were only mountains, though far to what ought to have been the south she saw the tops of trees in the river valley.
    A short way along the rocky slope was the still, lifeless form of the tiger-man, who had escaped the carnage of Canna Island only to die here, alone on the craggy hillside.
    “This…can’t be,” Halliwell rasped.
    Julianna studied his face. Tentatively, she reached out a hand to touch him. The moment her fingers confirmed that he was real and solid, she felt foolish. Of course he was real. But in that moment, she had been uncertain of everything.
    “Go back,” she said. “Go back through.”
    Halliwell looked stricken, but he nodded and quickly reentered the stone hut. She followed him in. Even the warmth of the day and the gentle rain made her skin crawl, simply because it was wrong. Unnatural.
    They exchanged a silent look. Trembling, Julianna reached out and closed the door, casting them once more in the grim gray darkness within those stone walls, behind those filthy windows. She expected to feel cold almost immediately, but the warmth remained.
    A terrible weight settled upon her and Julianna bit her lip as she opened the door. But beyond it, nothing had changed. There was the barren hillside and the river below, the summer rain pattering the rocks. Whatever sort of door they had just traveled through, it only swung in one direction.
    After a moment’s hesitation, she stepped back out into the impossible world. Her heavy jacket was too warm and she unzipped it, then slid it off and dropped it on the ground beside the open door.
    She wouldn’t be needing it here.
    Julianna turned and glanced at Halliwell. She was surprised to find not fear or confusion, but determination etched upon his face.
    He stepped out after her, treading heavily upon the rocky terrain.
    “All right, then,” Halliwell said. “Let’s go.”
    “Go?” She knew they had no choice, but had no idea how to begin, which direction to take. “Where are we going?”
    “The job hasn’t changed. We’re going to find Oliver. And we’re going to find some goddamned answers.”
             
    Grim silence embraced Oliver and his companions as they made their way along the bank of the Sorrowful River. When they had crossed through the Veil from Canna Island, they had emerged on a rocky slope not far from the water. Blue Jay had transformed himself into a bird and taken to the air to survey their surroundings. He had returned with the news that not only did the river valley become fertile and wooded to the south, but that he knew the area and believed they were not far from a place called Twillig’s Gorge.
    Kitsune had balked at this. She believed Twillig’s Gorge was only a story, a legend amongst legends, but Blue Jay insisted it was real. So they had set out, following the river as it ran through the valley and then into a forest of whispering leaves and cool shade.
    The longer Oliver spent in the forest, the more troubled he became. It was peaceful here, even pleasant, but it simply felt