Read Dearest Mother of Mine (Overworld Chronicles) for Free Online Page B

putting any of you at risk."
    I shook my head without hesitation. "No, I'm not risking a friend like that. We'll go together or not at all." I gazed around the room. "So, who's with me?"
    Shelton was the only one who didn't raise his hand until Bella elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm gonna string Christmas lights around my body," he said.
    "Better yet," I said, "how about I glue glow sticks to a leotard and you wear that?"
    Adam snickered.
    Shelton glared at him. "Laugh it up, fur ball."
    "What about the arch in the cellar?" Meghan asked. "Is there a safe way to find out where it goes?"
    "After Justin banished the demon guardian from the arch, it apparently disconnected the arch from its destination," Cinder said. "There are no obvious controls in the room."
    The arch in the cellar looked like a miniature version of an Obsidian Arch. Instead of being large enough to admit a jumbo jet, it was maybe ten feet tall and twice as wide. Every arch I'd seen had a circle of silver embedded in the floor around it—a magically closed circuit which prevented accidental Gloom fractures from forming outside the ring. "I once activated an arch by closing the circle around it," I said. "Maybe this one works the same way."
    "Or maybe Jeremiah Conroy did something to hide the controls," Shelton said. "He seemed to know a hell of a lot about this mansion."
    "Well, there's only one way to find out," I said, and stood up.
    "Now?" Shelton said, aghast.
    I shrugged. "Why wait?"
    "You need to take up scrapbooking," Shelton said. "Because I don't like it when you get bored."
    I led the group into the cellar, down another set of stairs, through a tunnel, and into the room where the arch sat. It stood on a polished circle of obsidian bordered by a silver ring. There were no markings on it or the floor around it.
    Shelton ran his hand up the twisting ebony material. "Look at the design of the columns," he said giving me a look. "Remind you of something?"
    I thought back to the time we'd inspected arches in the control room at Queens Gate, and the answer occurred almost immediately. "The geometry is as complicated as the omniarches," I said.
    "Yep."
    "Mind explaining what you're talking about?" Adam asked.
    I knelt next to the arch and pointed to the triangular base. "A normal arch has a three-sided column which twists as it runs the span."
    Adam traced his eyes up the column. "Whoa, it makes my eyes go crazy trying to follow it, but it looks like it changes from three-sided to a lot more than that."
    Shelton retrieved a picture comparing the two arches from his arcphone and displayed it as a hologram. "This arch looks like an omniarch," he said. "Question is, will it work right, or dump you in an alternate dimension?"
    "I concur with Harry's identification," Cinder said, looking at the pictures.
    The only time I'd taken an omniarch, it had sent me on a joyride through hell, and finally deposited me in El Dorado. Omniarches, from what we'd determined, had no set destination, but could open anywhere.
    "According to your theory, these arches could send you to locations even without an arch at the other end," Cinder said. "But how do you control where you want to go?"
    "I just told it I wanted to go home," I said. "And it took me to Elyssa."
    She smiled.
    "But then it sucked me back in and tossed me in El Dorado," I finished.
    "I suggest we grab an ASE and send it through to video the area," Adam said. "That way we don't risk anyone."
    "That's a great idea," I said. ASEs, or all-seeing-eyes, were orbs which could record everything around them.
    Adam ran upstairs to retrieve some ASEs, while Shelton and I thought up a place to send it first.
    "I say we send it through to Thunder Rock," Shelton said. "That way we can see what Daelissa has been up to."
    "If she's there and sees us, we're done for," Meghan said.
    "How about El Dorado?" Bella said.
    Elyssa shook her head. "We should try somewhere safe first."
    I listened to them argue over destinations and finally