Read Online Beyond The Door by Phaedra Weldon - Free Book Online Page A

of
the spine. She moved it to the left and it followed the same path
as the first one.
    Each page took time—nearly twenty minutes each
as the invisible hand re-wrote the magic contained inside the Grimoire .
    When the last page melted down into the book,
all the pages fanned to the right, and then to the left, as if
those same hands were flipping through to find something
specific.
    And then the book opened to a different page,
near the dead center. Intuition told her the book was waiting on a
page to slip inside of this spot—and it was an important page. She
just couldn't tell what.
    Then the page facing her lifted as if something
were embossed itself into the grain of the paper. It formed a face
that looked a lot like Dags! Once it was finished, it was a
parchment paper maché version of him, looking up at her. "There is
still a page to be returned."
    The voice was his, but it also echoed. The lips
didn't move, but she heard the voice in her mind. She cleared her
throat so she could speak to it. "Those are all I have."
    "I am missing one more, granddaughter of
Helios. Without it—I cannot protect the Guardian."
    She ignored the title the book gave her—it had
her curious. "You...protect the Guardian. Who...are
you?"
    The face didn't answer right away. Instead the
pages flipped to the right, and to the left. They stopped on a page
where the handwriting moved, as if it were constantly changing.
When she looked closely at it, she realized there was only one
word.
    Zoë.
    Anger and irritation flared in her chest. "What
is this?"
    "This is the Guardian's heart. This is not what
you seek—" and it sounded surprised.
    She resisted the urge to rip out that page and
toss it aside. But she wasn't sure what would happen if she did. It
could in fact be the page that kept Dags' actual heart pumping.
He'd become so much a part of the book. It held his soul along its
spine.
    "No, it is not," she finally said as the pages
flipped again. "But I do not have the page. Is it the final
page?"
    The image reappeared and then recessed back
into the sparkling parchment. The book closed and without her
bidding, as if making the choice on its own—or retreating from the
anger that radiated off of her from inside—it sunk back down into
his chest.
    Nona caught her as the spell ended and the
physical world came rushing back to her. Rhonda caught her breath
and realized she'd been sweating. "Rhonda?"
    "I'm okay...did it work?"
    "I don't know. You've been at it for over four
hours."
    Four hours?!
    After wiping her face with a rag Nona gave her,
she moved back to the slab where Dags lay. His color was a hundred
percent better. Did his face have expression again? She wanted it
to.
    The door opened and the other Revenants filed
in, but they stayed back behind Nona.
    Azrael came up to the slab. "Book-boy
back?"
    Rhonda turned to answer the symbiont, but
another voice beat her to it. "I see tall, dark and milky-eyed is
still kicking."
    It was a voice she hadn't heard in months. She
looked back down at Dags—his eyes were open and he was smiling up
at her. He reached up and put a finger to her cheek and she
realized she'd started crying. Rhonda grabbed his hand and kissed
it. He was warm, and he was smiling...at her!
    "Thank you," he said as he returned the squeeze
on his hand. "I owe you, Rhonda. And I'm gonna be in debt for the
rest of my life."
    Nona joined them and put a hand on his lower
leg. "We're just happy to see you like your old self
again."
    Dags pushed himself up on his elbows and looked
around at the faces looking at him. Rhonda wanted to take him away
with her and protect him. Never let them get their hands on him
again. 
    His expression shifted from delight to what
looked like pain. 
    "Dags," Azrael stepped forward. "What is
it?" 
    "I can't…" he put his hand to his chest and
started panting. "I can't get to it. I can't even feel
it." 
    "Get to what?" Nona said. "What's wrong. Are
you okay? We need to get you to Joe so you can