I’m cut off when the hand returns, harder than before. My lips are smooshed against my teeth so hard I taste blood.
“Delta?”
It’s distant. Too distant. Waverly and Rihana had heard my plea. But they are too late. Without ceremony, I am thrust into a nondescript white van. The door slams before I can gather enough self-control toget up. Torun.
The van, already running, takes off immediately. I’m flung into the side of it as it takes a sharp turn, my head hitting the wall so hard that I see stars, and before I know it…
Everything…
Turns…
Black…
…
Chapter Two
My head aches. I groan, my hands rising of their own accord to soothe the pain. Instead, the contact causes a stinging sensation, and I open my eyes to find blood on my fingers.
I gasp.
Where am I?
I sit up. Too fast. My head spins, and I fall straight back down onto the bed I lie on. Wait. I’m on a bed. I’m not in the van anymore.
As my head stops spinning and my vision clears, I take in my surroundings with small movements. I’m in… a hotel? The room is small and white: the walls, the bedding. I swivel my eyes. There is a window above my head, but the curtain is closed. Sunlight reaches its glowing tendrils through the gap beneath.
How many hours had passed? It had been early evening when Dad had…
My stomach sours and burns, as if I have taken a shot of acid.
He had sold me. His only daughter. To give himself a laughable and non-existent chance at a better life. Whatever amount of money he may have gotten from selling me may cover the fees to get him some place new, but his habits weren’t so easily tamed. He’d be broke again before the year was out. And he’d be completely out of options then. I’d be gone.
Because he hadsoldme.
Ever so slowly, I take a deep breath and sit up. This time, with patience, I managed it. I swing my feet off the side of the bed and study my room further.
Beside the bed and window, there is a 2-drawer cupboard, a small desk with a lamp, and a stack of papers on it. I’d have a look at those soon. A door and a solid white wall divided the room beyond that point. I assumed the bathroom lay beyond there. Down the narrow hallway was another door. The exit.
I stand, my head no longer spinning. I go first to the door that takes me out of this room. Locked.
Frustrated but unsurprised, I spin and head back to the window. I take a deep breath, already knowing what I will probably find beyond the curtains, but I have to know for sure.
I pull the curtain open.
The sunlight stings as my eyes try to adjust to the sudden brightness. But, even blinking through the tears, I see what I am looking for. What I really didn’t want to see.
The portal.
It’s huge, seemingly so much larger, and daunting in real life. And so purple, which had once been my favorite color. As I stare at the portal, bubbles of sludge oozing through my intestines, I know it never will be again.
I turn away from the towering mass and look down. I’m fairly high up, at least ten stories, but not high enough to be at the very top. A sprawling camp, like a tiny town, sits amidst the portal’s shadows. I spy hundreds ofsoldiers crawling like ants through their nest. They seem to be performing drills and exercising. They move in formation, a stiff and robotic dance.
Others mill around almost lazily.
I spy army trucks and helicopters, even a few tanks. I scoff. The army wasn’t brave enough to use them, so why bother displaying them? Right,intimidation. To magic-bearing humanoidmonsters,of all things.
I fling the curtain closed.
