Chapter Thirty-EightStill standing, Samantha was thrown back by the force of the explosion, landing face first on the grass. Pushing herself up, she scrambled over to her mother. “Mom? Mom!”
“She's breathing,” said Charlotte. “Better since you worked that trick with the shadows.”
“Look after her,” Samantha replied. “We aren't done yet.”
“Wasn't that the portal that just went up?” Charlotte indicated the remains of the church.
“I don't believe so,” said Jim.
“Why not?”
Jim pointed to the top of the hill behind them. “Because that just switched on.”
Above a line of trees another shaft of light now pierced the heavens, tapering to a point somewhere in the roiling cloud base above them. Unlike the blast from the church, this light rotated, causing the cloud to swirl and flicker red arou
