“It would seem logical, but no. There are certain kinds of spells that can ensure that no trace is left behind.”
“So we’ve got a portal with no way of knowing who cast it or why. That’s just swell,” I muttered.
I drifted closer to the portal, frustrated by everything that had happened and the total lack of leads.
“. . . ddy!”
A voice, so small and faint I thought that I had imagined it.
“Maddy!”
I stood still, listening. It sounded tinny, like it was coming through a pipe, very far away.
“Maddy!”
“Beezle?” I called. “Beezle, is that you?”
No response.
“Madeline?” Nathaniel said, watching me with concern. “What is it?”
“Quiet,” I said. “I heard Beezle.”
“I heard nothing.”
“Maddy!”
There, again, first quiet, then louder. Where was it coming from? Was Beezle trapped somewhere in the alley? Was he hurt?
“MADDY! GET AWAY!”
There. It was clear as a bell that time. I stared at the portal.
“He’s there,” I said to Nathaniel.
“Who is where?” he said.
“Beezle is inside the portal,” I said, and I was sure of it, and I knew that it didn’t matter how it had to be done but I was going to get him out.
I walked toward the portal, as if in a trance, my heart beating faster and faster until it was galloping in my chest. Beezle. I could get Beezle back.
“Madeline!” Nathaniel cried, and he sounded alarmed.
I felt his arm around my wrist, grasping, trying to yank me away.
I pulled my arm free, turned back to the portal. Nathaniel grabbed me again, twisted me around to face him.
“Madeline, what in the name of all the gods are you doing? You cannot just walk into that portal without knowing what may be on the other side.” He shook me a little, his hands on my shoulders. “How am I to face Lord Azazel if you mindlessly walk into harm?”
I pushed his hands from my shoulders, furious. “Don’t treat me like a child. You’re only worried about how Azazel would punish you if I’m killed. Beezle is in there, and I need to find him.”
Nathaniel’s eyes were cold and furious. “Think, Madeline. The gargoyle may not be inside the portal. It may be a trap that is laid for you.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “If he’s there, I have to help him.”
“You fool,” he spat. “There are terrible things that you cannot even conceive of in other worlds. And contrary to what you may think, I would not relish the thought of your being devoured by a monster, or captured by a demon tribe.”
My face reddened. Even if I didn’t like Nathaniel, I should probably stop acting like he had no feelings. “All right, maybe you don’t want me to get hurt. But if there is a possibility, even the tiniest possibility, that Beezle is in there, I have to go to him. I have to get him back.”
He’s the only creature in the world who has ever really loved me, I thought.
Nathaniel looked at me a moment. “You are going to go in there no matter what I say, are you not?”
I nodded.
“Then take my hand,” he said.
There was a time when I would have done anything not to touch him. But for this, for Beezle, I put my hand in his willingly.
We stepped into the portal, and as we did I heard Beezle’s voice screaming, “Maddy! NO! IT’S A TRAP!”
Well, of course, I thought. I knew it was a trap. I just didn’t care.
And then the portal was pulling us through, and I was in agony. I had traveled via portal a few times to my father’s house, and it was like having my head squeezed between two cinder blocks. Nathaniel gripped my hand tighter. My eyes felt like they were going to burst from my skull, and a moment later, we were out.
I felt Nathaniel’s grip on my fingers loosen and I landed flat on my face in something soft and wet and foul smelling. I gagged and lifted my head, spitting out mud.
“Is there some reason why you can’t follow the most basic of instructions? What don’t you understand about, ‘Maddy, no, stop, it’s a trap’?”
I wiped mud from eyes, pushed myself back to my knees, and looked for the source of that very familiar and beloved voice.
Beezle was inside a tiny metal cage on a little grassy hillock about ten feet away from me. He didn’t look much worse for the wear, but he scowled at me ferociously.
“Your gratitude is overwhelming,” I said, picking myself up from the muck and looking around.
We seemed to have landed in a swamp. I stood ankle deep in rushes and lily pads, and enormous mossy trees dangled their branches over the water. The air was gray and misty and filled with a sulfurous odor. After a few moments my eyes began to water.
“And what did you bring him for?” Beezle said, jerking his thumb toward Nathaniel.
I looked in the direction that Beezle had pointed and realized that Nathaniel had flown out of the portal. He hung just above the water, angelic white wings outspread, not a speck of mud on him.
“I hate you,” I said, and the bastard had the audacity to smirk.
I began to slog toward the shore and the little cage in which Beezle was trapped. Nathaniel fluttered ahead of me and landed next to Beezle’s cage, examining it carefully.
“So where’s the big reveal? How come you were so all fired up that I shouldn’t come and get you?” I said.