Chapter 43

The room was dark. A desk sat at one end upon a really expensive carpet, probably stolen from some rich guy eaten centuries ago. The walls were lined with shelves and books. Sitting on a pedestal in a plaster niche lit like something out of a gawdamned movie was the jade lion.

Killian stood next to me as we stared at it in silence.

It was the size of a pint glass, absolutely unremarkable to look at. It could have been mistaken for a Chinatown souvenir. But, man, there was a glow whenever I looked at that thing. It was radiating green like someone had turned on a porch light to welcome me home.

More minutes passed as Killian and I looked at it.

“This is such a trap,” I said.

“Yes.”

“There is no way that they would leave this thing so weakly protected.”

“No,” Killian said as he gave me a slow smile and walked over to the statue, do or die. He picked it up gingerly, as if waiting for some siren to go off or a cage to descend, but neither happened.

Instead, he just lifted it up, and then slowly walked back towards me.

“I say we go home,” he offered.

But that’s when the shift happened. Or the alignment.

As soon as Killian was standing next to me with that jade lion’s eyes facing the same way as my eyes, the wall between the worlds opened up like an automatic door at a discount shopping center.

I had never felt anything so easy.

One minute, I was looking at Vaclav’s library shelves. The next, I was staring through a portal at the psychedelic painted buildings and swaying palm trees of Venice Beach.

I stepped into the portal, but instead of the paper thinness I usually felt in the border, it was like a glitter tunnel of rainbow lights. Just this one lion was able to harmonize with my innate talent and hold the portal with a stability that I never experienced on my own. I felt my vampire disguise melt away and my true self return.

I stood in this bubble between the two worlds.

“It’s strange,” said Killian. “I can see right through you.”

I let myself sink into the other time-ness of this middle dimension. I kept my eyes towards the gardens, but rather than moving forward, I stuck my hand out to the side.

And felt fingers grasp mine.

I put a foot in front of me and stepped over to Earth. It felt like I was pushing through mud. I did not let go of that hand.

I strained against the great vacuum trying to pull him back into the middle dimension. Sweat prickled on my brow.

“Keep going, Maggie. You have almost got him!”

And then suddenly, we were out. I turned. Standing there almost glowing in the California sun was my dad. He looked haggard and worn. But it was him.

And in his hand was the diamond lion.