Passing through the portal was easy, even with Lucius leaning on my shoulder for support. We just walked across the blackness toward the portal and passed through it as easily as a doorway. If our surroundings hadn’t changed—from empty blackness to the darkness of the Earth night—I probably wouldn’t have even noticed that we had just crossed universes.
But there was one thing I did notice: We had walked into the sky and were now falling down toward the earth below. I had forgotten about the fact that the portal had been opened in the sky and now we were both going to fall to the ground and either die or at least get really hurt upon impact. Lucius’ wings spread, but it was pretty clear that all they could do was slow our descent, and not gracefully, either.
But then two large creatures f
