Page 12 (2/2)

Fifty yards ahead of them, a swath of the forest had been wiped fro else Starting deep in the ground and shooting all the way to the sky was a wide gash in reality, ato another place Jacob could see part of a beach, the deep blue waters of the ocean beside it, a sun where there shouldn’t be a sun The time was almost noon, and the real ball of fire was directly overhead It was as if someone had clawed a rip in the reality of this world and replaced it with another

“What in the great dickens are we lookin’ at?” Jacob whispered

“Grandpa?” was all Chip ed in reply His voice shook with equal parts confusion and terror

“I’ve been from one end of this world to the other,” Jacob said, not sure if he was talking to hi like that in my life”

“Let’s go home”

“Home?” Jacob tore his eyes away from the spectacle and looked down at Chip “Didn’t you hear what I just said? This is a once in a lifetio check her out”

Jacob took Chip’s hand once again, and they startedcloser to the impossible vision of another world streaked across their own They’d come to within twenty feet when a person appeared on the beach, stepping into the picture froe of where reality had been torn apart

It was a lady, though Jacob could only tell that from the ratty, filthy dress she wore; a hood was pulled up over her head A red ly made out of metal, covered her face The expression on the er

She saw them just as they saw her, and she stopped to stare, the features of theto create an expression of absolute shock

Jacob took a step backward before he realized what he was doing

“Who are you?” the woman asked, her voice raw and scratchy, like it came out of a throat scarred with acid “Do you kno this happened?”

Jacob’s mouth had turned into a bucket of dust, and he couldn’t re words out, but nothing cahtest hint of a croak

Surprisingly, Chip spoke up “Lots of bad sounds carandpa were just trying to see what happened”

Such bravery from the kid meant Jacob had to speak He found his voice “Where you fro”

The lady’s mask melted—literally, by the looks of it—into a frown “I’m from the Thirteenth Reality Where are you?”

Jacob sed a lu toe “UmKentucky?”

Before the lady could respond, her i around her suddenly spun into a tornado of colors that quickly ray It swirled and swirled, picking up speed and creating a wind that tore at Jacob’s clothing And then the sound of terrible thunder see the forest and splintering Jacob’s skull with pain

When the spinning e thought that although he certainly wasn’t a cat, curiosity had killed him all the same

Chapter 2

A Formidable Foe

Mistress Jane winked herself a thousand yards down the beach as soon as the first sign of trouble appeared with the strange gash into another reality She’d been talking to an oldto wonder if she dared try to step through and escape the Nonex, when the whole thing collapsed into a spinning vortex of graythunder that had acco away to oblivion

Interesting That was all she could come up with to describe what she’d witnessed Very, very interesting She had the faintest spark of an idea as to what had actually happened It gave her so to contemplate while trapped in her bizarre neorld

She turned away and resu beach The salty breeze co off the ocean waters stirred her robe, and she wished she could take off her ainst her cheeks once , and even if she did, the result would be disappointing The nerves of her skin were mostly burned away, replaced by the particles of Chu’s Dark Infinity weapon She felt things in a different way now Not unpleasant, necessarily, but not the same

Chu Reginald Chu Why did she have to think of the man?

She’d spent the last ith hiinbottoo They were on an island that soa piece of fresh fruit and have the thing turn rotten before you finished Fish flew through the air, and birds swaht—or what passed for night It had been three days since the sun last set below the horizon Everything here rong

Not to ruant Atticus was nice enough, considering the three of them were bitter eneance, as if his innocence and goodere tangible things that floated around his body, pointing out how everyone else wasn’t worthy to be in his presence The boy e

But none of that oal at the et out of the blasted nowhere they currently called home

A flicker of ht her attention She stopped just in ti soround

Hoeet, she thought bitterly He’sa campfire What a Boy Scout Same team or not, they all tried to keep their distance from one another as best they could

When Atticus noticed her, a look of sheer disappointment painted his features This both hurt Jane and ry