We search the room then scour the ship from top to bottom—but there's no trace of Beatrice. It's around three in the morning. The entire crew and every resident is huddled together on the main deck. The captain breaks away from us to call E.J, and Fifteen minutes later she comes charging back out of the bridge and down the stairs back to us.

"Everyone who isn't crew, group up and get your necessities together. No one goes anywhere alone. You're evacuating to Stormhaven. You meet on the portal deck in thirty."

"What about the crew?" Ursa demands, indignant. "What about their safety?"

Captain Niska smiles weakly. "As soon as you've made way, Ms. Butler is sending in a security detail and specialists to find the breach, re-secure the vessel, and investigate Ms. Bee's disappearance. We'll be well looked-after."

It doesn't take long to pack my things, considering I never properly unpacked to begin with. I cram what little I have that isn't already in my suitcase back into it, taking care only with the Pygmalion.

It's raining steadily by the time we're all gathered to go. We pack together shoulder-to-shoulder as the portal sigil glows to life. That's when I see it—a flashing light, out on the Archipelago.

"Wait!" I cry, but the sigil glows brighter. Gritting my teeth, I throw myself forward, pressing through the crowd.

"Ashwyn, hey! What are you—" people shout for me, but it's too late. Just as I step foot off the sigil, it flares blindingly bright, then everyone's gone. I look out to the archipelago...but the light's gone too.

I can't waste any time. I dash down the stairs and around the main deck to the dock at the stern, where a few a small motorboats are anchored. With a start I notice a dark figure already untying one of their moorings.

"Wait!" I call again, jogging across the platform as the person looks up at me, blinking scarlet eyes.

"Kundu? I need to get on!" I grab the boat's rail, pulling it closer so I can step on. "I saw a—"

"A light out on the central island?"

"Yes! Do you know what's going on?" The boat rocks as I shift my weight onto it.

"No idea, but I intend to find out. Take it you skipped out on the portal?"

"Yes."

They turn the key and the motor rumbles to life.

"Butler's going to thrash us both."

The wind and rain whip cold across my skin, and I wrap my arms around myself.

We speed through the waves, churning up more cold water. I give up on trying to warm myself. The best I can hope for now is to go numb. As I draw nearer to the central island we pass a smaller, curving one that's little more than a high jumble of rocks. Hidden from the Patchwork's view is an entire harbor. The dark lines of docks and moorings crisscross the churning waters.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Just as we pull up to the docks, a lavender flash lights the clouds and a low roll of thunder rumbles overhead. I flash a look at Kundu—but their face is set with resolve. Good. If they had wanted to turn back, I'd have made them leave me here.

Kundu kills the engine and sets to work tying us off. As soon as I can, I step off the boat—testing the wood of the planks for integrity. Then the doctor tosses me a flashlight from somewhere on the boat before following me off of it.

The wood creaks and bends alarmingly beneath our feet, but doesn't give way. As we reach the shore, wind blows through the trees in a rush. Leaves, palm fronds and needles whip aside and Umbral lightning flashes, revealing a thousand faces.

My jaw drops. The stone ruins of a city are only just visible from beneath the thriving trees and overgrowth. Carved over almost every visible surface are the faces of beasts, no two the same. Wolf and bear and boar-like faces, faces with horns and slit pupils and long fangs and tusks—but all of them with something vaguely human about them.

"Come on, then," Kundu shouts over the wind. "It was up there—" They gesture to the tree-covered peak looming above us. "Looks like there's some kind of path over that way."

I follow their pointing finger, squinting against the darkness. It does look like there's something there, winding up between the trees and rocks. To my surprise, they're right. It is a path, and a strangely well-kept one at that. It's overgrown with grass and vines in places, but still passable. The rain drives down on us in sheets as we climb. I trip more then once, but Kundu never does.

I'm panting, drenched, and half-blinded by rain and wet hair when the doctor stops short a few feet ahead of me.

"Wha—oh." I toss my hair out of my face and shield my eyes. Just up ahead, the path ends on a sort of platform carved into the side of the mountain. The smudged remains of a hand-drawn portal sigil are still just barely visible there, blurred by rain and use. Near its outer edge, blood pools across the stone, streaming away in rivulets as it mixes with the rainwater.

I yelp. Setting their mouth into a hard line, Kundu pulls some kind of bundle from one of their interior pockets. They hurry forward, kneeling near the blood, mopping it up with some cloth grasped in a large pair of tweezers. I back away, shaking my head.

"No, no no no." Something about the sight of that blood brings reality crashing down over my head, sends ice shooting through my veins. Beatrice has been taken. She's been hurt. She could be...

The word I can't allow myself to think is blasted from my thoughts as thunder breaks from directly overhead, so loud it could be the moon crashing through the sky. It leaves my ears ringing. The next instant I'm blinded by a flare of brilliant, burning light that sets my every cell on fire. I scream as what feels like the heat of a thousand fires sears through my blood, a wave of pain that undoes me and remakes me all at once.

The burning inside me flares and subsides, and this time in the flash of light I see her—E.J, standing at the path's peak with a look of mingled wonder and horror in her eyes.

In response to my surge of emotion, purple light crackles outward from all around me, and I watch with eyes unblinking in shock as E.J. falls to her knees. Her shout becomes a growl as her form warps, growing and twisting until she stands before me, transformed. Her clothes hang in tatters around her towering form. Her storm-gray fur shines in the crackling light, bared fangs glistening. She cracks her neck, and her antlers sprout a few more prongs. Then there's another immense crash of thunder, a flash of lightning—and the she's hurtling towards me, saliva pouring from between her fangs, eyes wild.

"No!" Shouts Kundu. Reflexively, I throw my hands out to protect myself, and the purple light flares as Umbral energy blasts outward and into E.J, sending both of us flying backward as her form warps even further. My body hits the hard stone with a meaty, cracking thunk. There's half an instant of horrendous pain, then the world goes black.