VEE

Breanna’s words raise the dark anger inside, the one she said I contained, and I ready myself to deny the bullshit she and Logan spew. I am not here to destroy anything apart from inhuman threats to my world. My world.

But I don’t have a chance to speak. I sense something is wrong, but not in enough time to realise what’s happening.

The room draws away from me, growing smaller and smaller, and I grasp onto Joss and Ewan as I lose sight, the world around sucked away. Suddenly, I feel weightless, dragged into a void that fills my head with pressure. Air rushes past my face as the darkness engulfs me and suddenly I'm on the floor, grass beneath my hands and feet. I fight the nausea caused by my insides being jostled around and stare at the damp grass.

No snow.

Warm.

My vision returns and I look to my left. Joss lies on his back staring upwards, thankfully breathing rapidly. Ewan’s to my righthand side, unsteady on his feet. "What the fuck just happened?" he asks.

Around me, pine trees, thick and protective, stretch tall above our heads into a bright sky. The hard ground hurts my knees and I stagger upright.

"Where are we?" I ask.

Ewan pats at his clothes and pulls his phone from his pocket.

"More importantly, how are we here?" asks Joss. "Did the fucking demons do this?"

Me. This had to be me. I felt the surge between us, the fact I held on to them both dragged us all to…here. Who knows where?

I say the words even though they sound ridiculous. "I think I teleported."

"Huh?" Joss knocks dirt from his jeans. "That's not one of our powers."

"Thetford Forest." Ewan holds out his phone.

"England? And here? How far from the portal?" Joss strides ahead and points. "This way?"

Ewan shakes his head and points south. "That way."

"Portal?" I ask

"Hang on. Did you say teleported?" asks Ewan.

"We've always wanted to be able to teleport to the portals, nice power." Joss snorts, an edge of sarcasm to his voice. "I presume it is a power."

"I don't know." I explain to them what happened, how I felt, and they watch with stony faces.

"You brought us with you somehow?"

"I don't know if I chose this or was pulled here," I protest.

"This is freaking crazy," mutters Ewan. "Come on."

Our weird expedition continues through the forest. Ewan and Joss seem unsteady on their feet, but minutes later I feel no after effects.

"Have you ever teleported?" I ask.

Joss frowns. "How would we do that? We can't."

"No, I mean are there like magical amulets or something?"

Ewan snorts. "Maybe. Ask Syv. She seems to move around the world bloody quickly sometimes."

"Oh sure, next time we meet and have a friendly chat."

We tramp further. Despite the winter cold, I don't feel as cool as I would've before. Joss and Ewan's cheeks turn pink in the freezing wind.

I've no idea what to expect, or what a portal looks like. Joss and Ewan reach a clearing and examine the trees around, counting and touching them.

"Is one here?" I ask.

Ewan rubs his mouth and nods. "The portal will be visible in the centre of this space soon. The wards have been disturbed."

"No guesses who by," mutters Joss.

I'm pulled to a spot close to the centre Ewan points at and I kneel on the ground. Since I stepped into the space, the energy I feel buzzing around my body has grown. Am I being drawn to the portal, or is it drawn to me?

Blue light flickers on the ground, as if fire kindled by sticks, and I watch as it spreads outwards and upwards into a circular pattern. The middle swirls with a rainbow of colours, images distorted behind as I stare into the centre. I tip my head up to see the top as it grows to over seven feet in height and almost as wide.

"Move away, Vee!" Joss grabs my arm and tugs me backwards, pulling me from my wonderment.

"Where does the portal connect to?" I ask.

Joss is about to answer when Ewan's phone sounds a message alert. He scowls down at the screen and thrusts it at Joss. "Fucking Seth! What does this mean?"

I crane my head to look over Joss's shoulder. The words ‘The centre cannot hold’ are on his screen and underneath are the words ‘guess who?’

"I fucking knew it!" Ewan jabs a finger at the phone. "Seth was the killer outside our house. And is that more literary shit?"

Joss nods. "The same poem as the line he wrote on the wall when Casey died."

I tense. When he killed Casey. When I denied there was something wrong.

Joss picks up on my thoughts. "How did Seth hide from you, Vee? That's what I don't understand."

"He's a freaking god, Joss. It's not like detecting a demon!" snaps Ewan.

I smile at Ewan, grateful for him reinforcing what I'd hoped.

"Do you think he's here? If we can't detect him, he might be?" I turn 360 degrees, looking around us, but there's no sound, not even cyclists and walkers we passed on our trek here. The portal shimmers in front of us, and I fight the desire to step further forward and touch.

"I'm here," says a familiar voice.

I look upwards, at the guy speaking as if he's arrived for a catch-up with friends.

Seth.

Chaos.

Sitting on a tree branch and looking down on us.

Bizarrely, he still looks the same; I’d convinced myself he was going to disguise himself as somebody different. Seth gives a little wave. I don't miss Ewan step backwards, closer to Joss.

"Hey, Pony Boys. How are you feeling, Ewan?" The guy's grin spreads across his face as we stare at the Cheshire cat several metres high in the tree.

"Fuck you," he mutters in response.

"I wasn't sure if you'd come too." He gestures between us. "Did you teleport because you were next to her? Or touching? Just so I know for next time."

I stare back, fury shaking into my limbs as something deep inside yells at me to attack him.

"Hey, Verity. Keep it calm, right?" asks Seth. "Not like you could reach me."

"Get down from the fucking tree," growls Joss.

He chuckles. "You gonna try and take me on?" His voice lowers. "Ask Ewan what happens if you piss me off."

"You're hiding up a tree," laughs Joss. "Are you scared of Vee?"

"You should be," I call up to him.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm hedging my bets."

Ewan gestures at him. "You can't touch us from up there."

Seth sighs and gestures towards the sky. "Don't you hate a sudden storm?"

A black bolt jolts from his fingers, and a dark cloud blots out daylight above us. Seth chuckles as a huge crash of thunder is joined by a lightning bolt hitting centimetres away from Ewan's feet.

"Arsehole," mutters Ewan as he dodges.

"Besides, I prefer the vantage point up here. Should be fun to watch what happens next."

I glare at Seth, weighing up how far my powers go. I doubt I could climb the smooth, tall trunk to the tree branch he sits in, and if I can teleport I have no clue how to.

Seth links his fingers together and outstretches his hands, cracking his knuckles as he does. "I’d hoped all four of you would arrive, so we could have a little meeting of our own, but sadly no. I guess you can always relay the information back to the other two."

"This is the first meeting I’ve had with an idiot sitting in a tree!" calls Ewan.

Seth snorts a laugh and waves a dismissive hand, "Seems you morons finally figured out who I am."

"Yeah, someone who pisses me off," replies Ewan.

"I piss you off? You know what pisses me off? Apart from you, of course. All these stupid other so-called gods who come along and pretend my creations are theirs and think they can police my world with their creatures. Demons. Angels. Whatever. I never said they could make these disgusting human things to crawl all over what belongs to me."

I look straight to Joss, whose tired face pales. Angels and demons. Is Seth planting doubts again? Or is this true?

"So, anyway," Seth pauses. "Do you mind listening to my story? No? Good." He lowers his voice. "Now, I’m the important one, and that’s not just my ego, by the way. Everything around you is a part of me. This world—me. The human fleas crawling on it fucking irritate me. Literally, like an annoying itch. I need them gone."

"Humans have been here years, why come back now?" I ask.

"Oh, this isn’t my first time. I created and opened some portals from my other worlds to here a while ago. I thought I’d watch what happened before everybody died." He chuckles. "You know the portals? There’s six of them right, pony boys? Well, the stupid other god got in my way and closed them. Or tried to."

Joss breathing picks up. "What other god?"

Seth throws his hands up in mock despair. "God. The one who thought he could march in here and take over." He points upwards. "You do know about him, surely?"

Ewan shares Joss’s shocked look. "Bullshit."

"Fine. Believe what you want. The reason I’ve been away so long? I had some other business to attend to—you know how it is when people just won’t leave your things alone—so now I’m back to fix the mess here."

"He’s insane," mutters Ewan. "Don’t listen to him."

"And here you are!" He waves his arms as if welcoming us to a party. "The lovely Horsemen and their mysterious Truth. Now she was my curveball. I came back expecting to flick you four off the planet and be done, maybe take down an angel or two, if any still exist. Anyway, with her around—impossible. God knows I tried too." He chuckles. "God knows? See what I did there?"

"Well, give up and piss off, then!" snaps Ewan. "See this world as the one that got away."

Seth barks a laugh that echoes around the clearing. "Truth is just a roadblock, I’ll end her somehow." Ewan tenses. "Now, here’s where we have something in common: we both need to know who Vee is and how to use her. I saw the book the Collector has—thanks for taking me to meet him, by the way. Nice guy. This book was presumably created for you all to find. It’s definitely connected to me because someone wrote my runes inside, but fuck knows what the rest of it says."

"You’re not getting your hands on that book," I say.

He ignores me. "There’s something to translate the text. Hidden. Probably some stupid attempt to stop me." He rolls his eyes. "Everything has to be so damn hard. I’m sure that in the book there’s the answer to the question we both need to know: what is Truth?"

"She’s here to fucking kill you," Ewan calls up to him.

"I need to know if that’s true or not. Bring me the book."

"No." My reply is as loud as his laughter before.

"Wrong answer! Try again!" he calls. "Or else things will get really fucking unpleasant, for you and the fleas you protect."

"This conversation is over." Joss turns his back on Seth, then adds in a low voice. "Get away from him."

"Don’t fucking walk away from me!" he snarls. "Ewan made that mistake once!"

A low whining noise emanates from behind me, and I snap my head around. A sound like a cacophony of voices comes from the portal, increasing in volume, and my desire to attack Seth suddenly switches to panic.

"What did you do?" asks Joss sharply, looking at the portal.

"This little meet-up is also a test run. I need to see what happens when Vee is close to a portal." He flicks his fingers at where shapes morph in and out of view behind the shimmering colours. "What do you think, Truth? Can you close portals?"

A crackling sound joins the whining, the volume drowning out Ewan's reply to Joss. I focus on watching the portal, a tension flickering down my spine and shooting strength into my limbs, and the familiar tingle caused by magic begins.

"What's behind this one?" I ask Joss.

"We don't know. Nobody ever bothered tampering with this portal, since this is closest to where we're based."

"I don't know, either," pipes up Seth. "Hopefully something interesting."

A black fault line appears down the centre, like an animal's pupil, running from top to bottom and widening. Ewan and Joss move to stand in front of me, and I shove them to one side. We form a line, all transfixed.

"Can you see anything? What is it?" calls Seth. "A dragon? I hope it's a dragon!"

A force rushes through the portal, blurring the surroundings for a moment, and knocks back the guys, but I remain standing, arms outstretched, ready to protect myself and deal with whatever this is.

"Maybe ten dragons!" enthuses Seth.

"I seriously want to rip that guy's fucking head off," Ewan mutters. "What do we do?"

We don't move, and my heart kicks into overdrive as a hulking figure on begins to form from behind the spiralling colours. The figure doesn't move for a few seconds, and then a dog appears and springs from the glimmering space.

Not a dog. This is three times the size of the Rottweiler my old neighbour owns, and three times the bulk.

The dog lands on all fours, then looks around with shining orange eyes. The glow surrounding the dog makes him morph in colour between black and red, and it's impossible to see whether the creature has any hair. It's definitely possible to see the unnatural size of its teeth and claws though, especially as the animal rushes Joss with a snarl.

Joss sidesteps in shock, and the dog crashes to the ground. Regaining his footing, the dog turns his head towards Ewan and slobber flies from its mouth, and as it does, hits Ewan on the hand.

"Shit!" Ewan yelps and wipes away the drool. He stares down at the livid red mark left in a pattern to match where the saliva hit him. "Don't let the bloody thing touch you."

"Uh, yeah, I was planning on avoiding that." Joss calls and backs up. "I left my knife too, because Xander didn’t want us all carrying them."

Seth makes a loud tutting sound. "Bloody Xander. Always causes you problems, huh? Vee, can you bring War next time? I'm sure he'd love to see me as much as I want to see him."

Next time?

I wipe a hand down my face and turn back to the portal, focusing my attention away from the dog. The guys will keep the creature off me, I'm sure. We all know one thing: I need to figure out what to do with this portal.

"How do I close it?" I call to the guys.

"No fucking clue. Is anything else coming through?" asks Joss.

"Dragon?" asks Seth and claps his hands together.

"Shut up about fucking dragons!" shouts Ewan as he weaves backwards away from the dog's attacks.

I snap back to studying the portal, pleading with the fate that brought me here to give me the power to solve this. I picture a pack of giant dogs with glowing eyes and poisonous saliva pouring through and charging into the forest—and the world.

Or worse.

That can't happen. I step forward and touch the edge of the glimmering frame, tentative at first. As I do, I see the crowding figures held back by the shimmering barrier. Now I'm closer, I can also see a dark background, mingled with orange, but no buildings visible.

And judging by what just burst through, I don't want to see anything else. My panic joins determination that if there's anything within me that can stop whatever Seth has started, it will.

Snarling and thudding sounds from a fight continue behind me, with Joss and Ewan shouting instructions at each other. Seth remains quiet. I zone away from my surroundings, the way I did the other night standing in the snow, and concentrate on the energy emitting from the portal. My hand glows as I watch, but nothing happens to the portal.

A limb breaks through, blackened, hand held into a claw sweeping from side to side, and panic jerks every muscle inside me. I want this closed. This has to closed. The sound of a dozen dogs growling echoes behind.

Shit.

I move my hands onto the portal, pulling at the energy as if I'm drawing together a rip in fabric. The hand grasping at me slides backwards as the hole begins to disappear and the forest can be seen behind again. I grip on with every ounce of energy—supernatural and physical—praying I can hold this closed long enough.

"Help me!" I call out. "I don't know how you can, but please!" My body trembles as the built-up strength pours through me, dark spots dancing in front of my eyes as the portal grows smaller beneath my hands.

The last thing I hear before I pass out is a snarl followed by a yell and then Joss's voice at my side.

* * *

EWAN

The fucking abomination lands on my chest and I throw it from me. Well, I expected it to be stronger than that. It lands with a howl and whimpers, then remains still. Ignoring Seth's running commentary of our battle, as if we're taking part in some kind of fucking football game, I pull myself upright.

Focusing on the dog, I stride over, but am arrested by Vee's cry for help. I turn in time to see Vee thrown backwards from the portal, landing heavily on the ground several feet away. Joss rushes over to her, and all thought of harming the dog leaves as I see her prone body.

"Fuck!" I join Joss and stare down at her pale face, hair tangled in the dirt.

"Aw man!" calls Seth. "That wasn't much fun. Now the dog’s hurt too! Is Vee okay?"

I turn on my heel and stomp over so I'm beneath where Seth looks down, blinded by fury. I don't give a shit if he hits me again; he might hurt me but I'm ninety percent confident he won't kill me.

Ninety percent.

"You say you're going to end me? I'm going to fucking end you!" I shout.

"Ooh, you're sounding a bit War-like there, Pestilence." Seth laughs. "Be serious."

"What the fuck is all this about? If you opened a portal, why bring us here to try and stop it?"

"For shits and giggles." He points behind me. "Vee managed to close it though. Don’t stress so much! She’s fine. Look."

Vee staggers to her feet and pushes hair from her face. The space containing the portal has changed, and only the small blue sparks remain, fizzing on the hard earth.

A figure blurs as the dog charges in my direction. I sidestep, not ready for its attack, but the creature screeches to a halt by the patch on the floor. He sniffs around at the ground and whimpers as the blue energy hits his nose. The blue disappears and the dog begins to dig furiously, a hole a metre across appearing in seconds.

"Kill it!" I hiss at Joss.

The dog stops abruptly, as if hearing my words, and launches itself towards the edge of the clearing, figure blurring into the trees before any of us can move.

"Oopsies. He got away." Seth laughs. "I hope he doesn't hurt anybody."

I ignore him. "Are you okay, Vee?"

She nods and stares down at the hole.

"Do you think this is because you’re in the world?" Joss asks. "You were pulled to and closed the portal Seth tried to open. Maybe you do that every time one is threatened."

"I doubt it, or we'd be running in circles forever. I open, she closes, I open, she closes, yada yada," calls Seth.

A thought strikes me. "You're scared of her, aren't you? Look at you, hiding in a fucking tree."

He sneers. "I'm not going to stand in front of an opening portal!"

"Well, you failed. She closed it," snaps Joss.

"This time." He sighs. "Well, now that’s over, here’s the deal. I have someone looking for something to translate the book too. Syv won’t be an issue if she gets in the way because she has less power than you. Bring me the book, Syv stays safe, and the portals stay closed. For now."

"I'm going to end you." The darkness in Vee's voice shocks me as I stare around at her.

"Of course you will," he says in a patronising tone. "But we don’t know how you can do that. Or if you can."

"We will," I shout.

"Such confidence! I love that!" he calls back. "Would you do whatever it takes, Vee?"

"Yes."

Seth pauses and leans forward. "Even die?"

The forest floor retreats to an eerie silence and I hear my heart hammer in my ears after the fight—and his words. Seth smirks down, leaving his dramatic pause and unanswerable question as the dark void I saw once appears around him and swallows his figure.

Joss rubs his temples as we stand, the three of us dishevelled and in shock. I reach out to Vee, who stares at the ground, face hard, and she allows me to fold her in my arms. Joss approaches too and we stand and hold her, sharing the same thought.

Vee. Die?

Is Seth causing chaos with his words, as he did with breaching the portal’s defences, or does he know something we don't?