Free Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 3, Portal Guardians by Elle Casey Page B

shrugged.
    "Oh.   Shit.   Sorry."   Her anger at life was starting to make sense, and my past anger at her was starting to make me feel uncomfortable.   Maybe I hadn't exactly been fair.
    "Whatever."   She shrugged again.   "That's the breaks, right?"
    I nodded, but I really didn't agree.   That shouldn't be how life goes for any kid, especially a two-year-old.   I looked down at the sleeping pixie next to me, glad he was always going to have someone around who wanted him, even when he was stuffing pollen balls up people's noses.
    "So ... what are we going to do now?" Samantha asked, looking not quite as depressed as she had earlier.
    I searched the room for answers.   All I saw were my friends hanging in cages and a dirty, empty room beneath us.   Triden had left during our conversation, and no one else had come in to take over, making me wonder if a group of brownies would be descending on the place soon to work their magic.
    "We have to get out of these cages and back to finding the dragons," I said, not sure how that was going to happen.
    "They're here, you know," she said.   "The dragons."
    "Here?   In this mountain?" I asked, not sure whether I was understanding correctly or not.
    "Yeah.   In a cave with access to the outside, so they can fly in and out."
    "How'd you learn about that?"
    "Shayla.   Before she left us she gave us some info to try and help us."
    "Why'd she leave you?"
    "She was attacked, actually." We took off running and lost track of her.
    It sounded too eerily familiar.   "By angels with black wings?" I asked, hoping the answer would be no.
    Samantha nodded. "Yeah.   You saw some?"
    "They came after Beau, too.   What are they?"
    "Demon angels from the Underworld.   They've been slipping in through the void like everyone else."
    "Courtesy of Ben," I said, my anger coming through in my voice.
    Samantha looked at the floor of the cage.   "Yeah.   I think so."
    "Did you help him with that?" I asked.
    Samantha's head jerked up, her eyes blazing with earnestness.   "No.   I had nothing to do with that.   I knew he was working with some others to bring demons up to the Here and Now to scare people a little bit, but I had no idea he'd gone this far."   She looked over at him in his cage and leaned in closer towards me again, speaking softer now.   "I'm not even sure he knew exactly what he was getting into.   He seemed as surprised as we did about the dark angels."
    "You wish," I scoffed.
    "No, I mean it.   He didn't look happy.   He looked scared, actually."
    I didn't believe her, but I did think that she believed herself.   I was struggling to hang onto reasons to hate her, but my conscience wasn't making it easy.
    "What?   Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, sitting back and wrapping a string she'd pulled out of her tunic around her finger, turning the tip of it white.
    "I'm just ... trying to figure you out, is all."
    She breathed out in a bitter huff.   "I haven't made that easy, I guess."
    "No.   Not at all.   You were my sworn enemy an hour ago."
    "Now what am I?" she asked, not looking at me and pulling on the string that was strangling her finger for all she was worth.
    I shook my head.   Life was so messed up.   How could all the feelings of anger and hate and bitterness against her just be melting away like frost off a heated windshield?   I thought they were a permanent part of me, something that would never leave, let alone be replaced.   Replaced with what?   Pity?   Respect?   Friendship?   It was too much to figure out now.   And maybe it wasn't even my choice.   The thought was sobering.
    I sighed heavily, feeling the weight of mature choices settling down over my shoulders.   It would have been so much easier to just tell her to go to hell.   "I don't know, Samantha.   What do you want to be?   You tell me."
    I could sense that she wanted to speak, but there was something holding her back.   I could almost see it burning her up