The portal looked like a wound.
Mán Shū had torn it open with both of her hands, her tiny body trembling, golden light bleeding from her fingers like she was pulling apart the sky itself. The edges of the portal flickered, unstable and looking as though it was on the verge of collapse.
"Hurry," she said. Her voice was thin. Stretched. "I can not hold it for so long."
Xin Yi stepped toward the rip in the air. It was cold on the other side. Not the cold of winter or mountains. The cold of somewhere that had never known warmth.
This was a spectacularly bad idea.
"I don't like this," Hei Yan said. His panther ears were flat and his tail was still.
"No one likes this," Qing Lin replied. He was already stepping through the portal, trying and failing to hide how terrified he was.
Sha Chen went next, spear in hand, bandages still wrapped around his head from Jin Ze's attack. He didn't look back.
Jin Xuan tried to go fourth but Xin Yi caught his arm.
