Page 111 of Strange Familiars
I don’t wait for Percy to finish before I spin to face my friends. “He’s been kidnapped.” My memories are raking through the other things Jarvis had said to Nathaniel at the hospital, about patient 39.If we station 39 inside the Void…we can just swap out the tethers on the outside as they burn out.
My voice wavers as I add, “I think that…Harrisford has been taken into the Void.”
46
Gwendolynne
“The Void?” Conall gasps out. “But…how?”
“He’s got a piece of Source implanted in his neck.” I touch my own neck involuntarily; the pitch of my voice rises until I’m sounding borderline unhinged. “I guess they used him to hold open the portal and then, what…just dragged him right through?”
Conall’s eyes widen. “He’s got aSource? How’d he get a Source?”
Heloise tugs on a loose braid before winding it back into her bun. “Magecorp put it in, we think. The fuckers.”
I push back my own hair with shaking hands. “We need to find him. Quickly. The surges arekillingthe human tethers, and—” Tears spring to my eyes. I can’t believe that after everything that’s happened, I’m crying over the possibility that Harrisford Briggs might die. If you’d asked me three weeks ago what I wished for Harrisford’s future, I’d have probably said that I wanted him dead. Hell, if you’d asked me this morning, I would’ve offered to strangle him myself.
But that was before I figured out he hadn’t left me—he’d disappeared. And now he’s in danger. Fear is clawing up my insides, gouging out a gaping hole. I chew the inside of my cheek so hard that it bleeds, and the metallic taste of blood floods my mouth, centering me.
“Perhaps we need to open the portal again,” Conall suggests. “Inthe same place where he was taken.” He frowns, then murmurs, “There must be a weak point in here, somewhere.”
“Okay.” I draw in a shuddering breath. “But how do we open one? We haven’t been able to figure out how the black box works.”
“Well…” Conall rubs his temples, thinking. “We’re assuming the portal is here, in this room, where his life force disappears, aren’t we? So long as we find the right spot, we can use our bit of Source to tether open this side. Hopefully, he’ll be on the other side.” He frowns. “We’ll need the exact coordinates, though.”
“Right. Okay.” I nod my head, which feels barely attached to my neck, like I’m one of those spring-loaded bobblehead dolls. We have a plan. If we have a plan, I can distract myself from falling into an anxious heap. “Percy, can you find the weak spot? Can you smell where Harrisford’s life force disappears?”
Percy twitches his whiskers, ducking his head slightly as if to nod.Yes, Hairless One, he says to me.I am fairly certain that I can.
Ten minutes later, we’ve gathered our supplies—including the black box—and Conall is fiddling with its dials, the tip of his tongue sticking out. Pen is at the door, keeping watch. Percy is pacing around the room, sniffing everything intently, trying to find the exact location of the previous tear: the one that Harrisford would have been snatched through when he was kidnapped into the Void.
I’m standing on Harrisford’s plush cream carpet, Heli’s arms around me. I’m quaking. My body is nothing but adrenaline; my organs feel too big for my skin.
“Do you think I’ll find him?” I say, after a prolonged period of silence. I can’t hide the slight tremor in my voice.
Heloise gives my shoulders a squeeze. “What do you mean, ‘I’?Wewill find him, Gwen. Of course we will. Have faith.”
I sniff and blink back tears. “You don’t have to come. Into the Void, I mean.”
She huffs out a soft laugh. “Don’t be daft, Gwen.”
“But…it might be dangerous.”
She reaches up to give me an affectionate pat on the cheek. “G, you’re my best friend. Of course I’ll come.”
“I’ll come too,” Conall says, still focused on the black box. It makes sense—he would never pass up the opportunity to study the infamous Void up close.
Percy interrupts his search for half a second to interject,I too shall accompany you.
A tiny ember of warmth sparks within my chest. As much as I don’t want any of my friends to risk themselves, I’m kind of glad I won’t be alone.
Everyone falls quiet again, the only sound the clicks and whirs from Conall fiddling with the box.
“But,” Heloise continues, breaking the silence. Her voice has turned unusually stern. “If we go in there and find him, G, then you have to promise one thing.”
Suddenly wary, I say, “What’s that?”
She crosses her arms and gives me a knowing look. “That you’ll finally shag him.”
