Fly: A PORTAL Chronicles Novel (The PORTAL Chronicles) Read online

  Everett fidgeted under the heat of my eyes. “Let’s focus on getting an overnight bag packed for you and making sure none of your belongings are missing.”

  “At least explain what Smitherson was talking about. Someone’s obviously out to get me.”

  “Later.”

  “Everett! I—”

  “It isn’t safe, Sophie,” Everett said, pointing to the walls around us.

  “What? Like the place is bugged?” I whispered.

  Everett sighed. “Once we’re somewhere safe, I promise… I’ll tell you everything.”

  Chapter 27

  Hiding Place

  Everett knocked on the door for a fifth time when a skinny, pimply-faced boy finally answered looking puzzled. His hair was disheveled and he only wore a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

  “What do you want?” he asked groggily, squinting into the light of the hallway.

  “It’s Everett, your roommate. I don’t have my key with me. Let me in,” Everett whispered, pushing his way past the boy into the dorm room.

  “What are you doing? I don’t have a roommate!” the boy said, indignant.

  But it was too late. Everett was already flipping on lights and making sure the room’s two windows were well covered. I quietly stepped in and shut the now-abandoned door, locking it for good measure.

  The dorm was much smaller than mine with two twin beds, two small desks, and a closet along one wall. The cold tile floor was covered in places by rugs and a nicely framed poster of the Periodic Table of Elements hung on the otherwise bare, white walls. The rest of the room was covered with neat stacks of books and papers. Even the spare bed was piled high with books. The only uncovered part of the room was a small bathroom tucked into a corner, which shined, sparkling white and clean.

  “You said I could have the room to myself,” the boy whined.

  “Our agreement was that you could have the dorm to yourself unless I needed it in case of an emergency,” Everett corrected. “This is said emergency. Sophie and I are spending the night.”

  “Sophie?” He looked up, noticing me for the first time. “Oh my! Sophie Cohen!” he exclaimed, grabbing a sheet off his bed to cover himself. He dashed about the room, trying to find something among his books and papers. Finding gray sweatpants under his bed, he quickly pulled them on. He then squinted at me for a time before grabbing a pair of glasses from his nightstand and pushing them on. “Since when are you two an item? I thought Sophie was dating that crude Hagen Dibrom fellow,” the boy mused as if I wasn’t there, still staring.

  Everett was too busy clearing books and papers off the spare bed and floor to answer. Not knowing what to do, I fidgeted in place, watching Everett work while the boy watched me.

  The boy nervously blinked a few times through his badly smudged lenses before saying, “Hi, Sophie.” His voice cracked and he audibly gulped.

  “Hi—” I paused to think. “—sorry, but what’s your name?”

  I felt bad for not knowing, but then again, he wasn’t the type of guy Hagen would ever be seen with, and I had only befriended people who’d been Hagen-approved. I felt foolish, realizing there were many at Brightman whom I hadn’t gotten to know because of Hagen’s disapproval.

  “My name is Anthony Moses Moynahan,” the boy answered.

  “Nice to meet you, Anthony,” I said, shaking his hand.

  “You can call me Andy, Sophie. All my friends do.” His voice cracked again and he cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind me asking, Sophie, what happened to your face?”

  “Oh! I face-planted after slipping on some ice,” I explained, fingering the dried blood on my chin. I had yet to look at myself in a mirror and could only imagine what a wreck I looked like. “I’m a total klutz,” I laughed self-consciously.

  “You? Really?” Andy beamed. “Me too.”

  “Andy, do you have clean sheets for the spare bed?” Everett asked.

  “Sure.” Andy set about rummaging through his closet, eventually producing neatly folded sheets covered in chemical abbreviations. “Here, Sophie. You can use my favorite Periodic Table of Elements sheets,” he said, reverently handing them to me. “They’re freshly laundered.”

  “Wow! Thanks,” I replied. I went about making the bed, grateful to have something to do.

  “No problem, Sophie.” Andy liked saying my name. Turning to Everett he asked, “Where are you going to sleep?”

  “In your bed.”

  “What? But then… where am I going to sleep?” Andy asked, folding his arms over his chest. “You know, the Brightman Student Handbook clearly states girls aren’t allowed in boy’s dorms after hours. I have no choice but to notify Dr. Smitherson of this rather serious infringement unless you—”

  “Save it.” Everett must have seen the creepy look Andy was giving me, for he stepped into his line of vision. “You’re sleeping on Mia Veracruz’s couch.”

  “Really!” Andy grew red and flustered. “I’ll be off then. Snacks are in the cupboard. Help yourselves. Oh! And that box you gave me at the beginning of the semester is in the closet. See ya.”

  Andy was out the door within seconds. Everett chuckled and shook his head. A knock then came at the door. Everett grabbed Andy’s pillow before answering.

  “Hi, again,” came Andy’s voice.

  “Mia lives in dorm six of Harmony Hall,” Everett answered the question before it was asked.

  “Great! And one more thing?”

  “Your pillow.” Everett handed it to him, again beating him to the chase. “And remember, you never saw us here.”

  “Is Mia aware of the lovely slumber party you’ve arranged?” I asked as Everett shut and locked the door.

  “No. But she owes me,” Everett said with a mischievous grin. I gave him a disapproving look. “What? Andy is perfectly harmless. I’m doing him a favor. He has a huge crush on Mia and her couch is bigger than his bed anyhow.”

  “Yeah, but what about Mia?”

  He laughed as if I’d said something funny. “Mia is quite capable of defending herself. Besides, Andy is a gentleman.”

  “And what about you?”

  “I assume you’re referring to me holing you up in this tiny dorm room. No, it’s not the most gentlemanly thing to do, but it’s the safest. Which reminds me… ” Everett shuffled through Andy’s closet. “Here it is!” He set a large high tech safe on Andy’s bed.

  “What’s in there?” I asked, eyeing it.

  “Necessities,” Everett replied, pushing a code into the safe’s key pad. A heavy door popped open with a beep. “I doubt any of Divaldo’s men would dare return to Brightman tonight, but if they are stupid enough to, no one would think to look for you here as only Dr. Smitherson and Andy know I’m an occupant of this dorm.” He produced a remote from the box. “And if they were to happen across our whereabouts… ” He pushed a button and the corners of the room silently gave way to metal plating that spread out over the walls like window blinds before shifting into one solid piece. “… they’re out of luck because this room is a steel-enforced safe room.”

  “Wow!” I breathed. “So I take it we’re stuck here for a while.”

  “Only until morning, which is why I packed some other things.” He named items as he unpacked them. “An electric kettle. Teabags. Packets of instant oatmeal. Water bottles. Disposable coffee cups and bowls. Plastic silverware. Cans of peaches and pears. And an overnight bag for me.” He shut the box. “Be right back.”

  Taking his bag to the bathroom, he soon reemerged wearing sweatpants and a clean undershirt.

  “So now you’ll explain everything?” I asked.

  “Not until after you’ve cleaned up. You could use a mental break before taking in everything I’m about to tell you. In fact, you can even take a shower if you want to. Andy’s a germaphobe so the bathroom is spotless. Besides, I doubt you want to sleep in that,” Everett said, pointing to my shirt with a grossed out expression.

  Looking down, I noticed the blood spotting my whi
te shirt for the first time. Grabbing the bag I had packed, I made my way to the bathroom. Catching my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I stifled a scream. I looked like a character from a scary movie. Blood was dried down my chin and neck, matting in my hair. After rinsing out my shirt and hanging it to dry, I decided a shower sounded enticing after such a hectic night. Getting the water nice and hot, I undressed and hopped in, watching the blood and dirt — and my awful night — circle the drain a few times before washing away. It felt good to clean up and by the time I came out in my pajamas, Everett had finished making the spare bed up with pillows and blankets and was making hot tea.

  “It’s mint tea. I know it’s your favorite,” he said, extending a mug to me. “Hagen isn’t the only one your instincts have been right about. I’ve lied to you a lot, but only because I felt it necessary for your safety. I know more about you than you probably think.”

  “I knew it!” I lit up before fear sobered me. “But how?”

  “That comes a little later.”

  “Get started then,” I said, undeterred.

  “There’s so much to tell that I don’t exactly know where to begin.” Sitting on his bed, Everett sighed before asking, “What do you know about PORTAL?”

  “Nothing. What’s PORTAL?”

  “Your parents didn’t tell you anything?” Everett sounded amazed. I shook my head. “Wow. Well, PORTAL stands for Paranormal Research Task Force and Anti-Warfare League. In a nutshell, it’s an underground agency responsible for controlling traffic through Earth’s portals to other realms.”

  I laughed. “It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie.”

  “Sort of,” Everett admitted. “But it isn’t aliens we chase.”

  “We?”

  “I work for PORTAL, as well as Mia, my parents, and several staff members here at Brightman, like Dr. Smitherson and Maddy. My brother, Benson, and your parents used to work for PORTAL, too.”

  I didn’t know what surprised me more: that Earth had active portals or that my parents had worked for the organization that oversaw them. “What do you do?”

  Everett nervously sucked on his swollen lip before blurting, “I’m an undercover agent.” His eyes held mine as he waited for my response.

  I laughed from how absurd it sounded, before realizing he was serious. “Sorry.”

  “You’re fine. It’s not everyday that you meet a nineteen-year-old with a full-time career at some weird underground agency.”

  I gaped. “What?” The wheels in my head began grinding at full speed, a torrent of questions soon overflowing from my mouth. “I was expecting you to tell me you filed papers… or answered phones or… something like that. How can you attend Brightman and work full-time? That’s completely impossible. And did you say you were nineteen? I thought you were seventeen and in the same grade as me. Did you fail some grades or something? But back to your job… what!?! You have a full-time job as an undercover agent? How do you get a job like that? And for how long have you been doing it? What kind of stuff does an undercover agent do?” Fear gripped me then. “You aren’t a hit man or anything, right? I mean, you don’t, like, kill people, do you?”

  Everett laughed uncomfortably. “Not exactly?”

  “What do you mean ‘not exactly’? And to which part?” I wanted more. I deserved more. I put down my tea and hugged my knees to my chest. I’d wanted to know more about Everett, but now that he was telling me, I was scared of what I would hear.

  “Sorry. I’ve never really talked to anyone about this. Everyone close to me already knows about what I do, because they also work for PORTAL.” He took a deep breath. “Well, my brother Benson and I got our GEDs when we were fourteen. After that, we underwent agent training, which is sort of like an express version of college with courses on other realms, demonology, and combat training mixed in. Since graduating at sixteen, we’ve worked full-time for PORTAL.”

  I watched him closely. He looked as guarded as I felt. “Then why attend classes at Brightman?” I asked, sounding more defensive than I meant to.

  “Attending Brightman is a cover. PORTAL placed Benson and me here two and a half years ago. We were simply told that our mission was to blend in, that it was pertinent for a case we would get later. Then Benson screwed up and… went missing.” He paused, looking down for a moment. “A few months after losing Benson, PORTAL offered me a case protecting a girl over the summer in a city far away. I knew some time away would do me good and, figuring the job would be like a paid vacation, I accepted it.” He gave me a look that I didn’t understand. “Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the mission and soon found myself growing attached to the girl.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Sophie, the girl lived in Portland.”

  I gaped, realizing what he was saying.

  He whispered, “I’ve been assigned to protect you for the past six months.”

  Chapter 28

  The Prophecy

  My breath caught in my throat as my mind struggled to make sense of what Everett had said. Why was it that the moment I was finally getting my bearings, the landscape of my life invariably shifted? A girl’s brain could only take so much. I was on the verge of mental overload, but my need to understand what Everett was talking about prodded me onward.

  Everett held my gaze, waiting for my response to the startling news he’d divulged. “I know this is a big shock,” he said, looking concerned. “We don’t have to do this tonight. We can wait.”

  “No!” Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet with my finger in his face. “You were assigned to protect me for the past six months! Why? What does that mean?”

  “You’re special. Because of this, very bad people are out to hurt you.”

  On edge, I paced the space between the twin beds. “Six months ago… so… that’s what?” I thought aloud. “That’s June!” I stopped and turned on Everett. “You’ve been following me around since June?”

  “Well, I don’t exactly ‘follow you around.’ I’m not a stalker,” he said, offended. “But, yes, I’ve been assigned to protect you since June.” He sighed. “I know you like mint tea and blueberry scones because it’s what you ordered at the bookstore you frequented. I know a lot of your other favorite foods because I trailed you at the grocery store. I also know you like Scrabble, that you prefer reading over watching TV, and that you like to paint, but for some reason, only in secret when you’re alone.”

  My eyes bulged. “What?” I couldn’t believe my ears.

  “I was assigned to watch you this summer to get to know you and your dad. I wrote reports on your patterns and things you did and liked. The idea was to get to know you better than the enemy.”

  I paced again as I thought. I didn’t know how to feel upon hearing this. Then puzzle pieces started falling into place. “So that’s why Dad sent me here, and why you were chosen to escort me around my first day at Brightman.”

  “Yes.” Everett looked sad. “Your Dad was very heartbroken to have to send you away. He didn’t want to be separated from you, but he agreed it was best. As for your first day here, I wasn’t supposed to meet you yet. The plan was for Mia to befriend you and introduce us much later.”

  “So that’s why you spazzed that day,” I mused. “Mr. Control Freak was thrown a curveball and panicked because he wasn’t prepared.”

  “I’ll own that I’m a control freak but I didn’t spazz out.”

  “Whatever! You kept frantically looking around, you wouldn’t look at me when I talked to you, and when you talked to me, you were super snarky,” I explained, mimicking him.

  He laughed at my exaggerated demonstration. “I was nervous.”

  “Nervous?” Hope welled up within me. “Why would a super cool undercover agent like yourself be nervous?”

  “It was my first time meeting you.”

  “But you already knew me.”

  “Yeah, but we hadn’t been personally introduced and there was a lot at stake. I mean, I needed you t
o like me and trust me so that we could hang out without you suspecting anything.”

  “Oh.” My heart fell, exploding like a water balloon. No wonder I have feelings for him. He’s been playing me this entire time! “So, you got to know me in Portland to learn how to trick me into liking you once I got here in order to better do your job.”

  “No!” Everett looked alarmed. “It’s not like that, Sophie. In Portland, yes, my assignment was to get to know you and your dad, but I had no knowledge at the time that I’d continue to be assigned to you. When fall came along, I came back home and PORTAL’s director, Emmanuel Salvatore, revealed that, all along, Benson and I had been attending classes at Brightman so we could eventually protect you here. Everything had been planned out a long time ago. And sure, what I learned about you helped me once you came to Brightman, but I was given total discretion on how I ran the mission and I chose to meet you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why’d you choose to get to know me? Why not do things from a distance like before?” I asked.

  Diverting his eyes, he shrugged. “It was the safest thing to do. I could protect you better if I was close to you, in your inner circle. And I knew this moment would finally come when I had to tell you the truth about everything and I figured you’d take it better coming from a friend than from some strange guy who you had possibly seen around school.”

  I instantly regretted asking. I didn’t want the truth after all, now feeling more crushed than before. I realized that I’d been holding my breath, but what had I expected? For him to lie? He was stuck protecting me and, for my sake, trying to be polite and make the most of a bad situation.

  This whole time, I had only been an assignment to Everett. All the time spent thinking about him and analyzing our conversations was a waste. And I confessed my feelings for him earlier tonight! I groaned, feeling sick to my stomach. I couldn’t be more mortified. I wanted to cry, to scream, to crawl under the bed and hide, to disappear, but none of those things would make the situation better. None of those things could save me from the danger I was apparently in. Unfortunately, only good ol’ Everett Sinclair could do that.