“Limestone is like a sponge, soaking in energy all around it, both man-made and electromagnetic, even kinetic and thermal energy. Everything that’s happened in this school? The Lilin being born? All the teenage angst? Those ghosts out there? It’s all feeding this thing.” Cayman moved closer to the side. “And pair that with the energy line it’s sitting on? This portal could be something we’ve never seen before.”

“Like...like a portal to another dimension?”

Roth grinned at me. “Possible. The portals we use look nothing like this.”

“This is what they’re hiding in here.” Cayman cocked his head.

“Then we need to destroy it,” I said. “Right? Because whatever it’s leading to is probably something Earth ending.”

“You can’t just destroy a portal,” Cayman explained, and I thought about Zayne’s plans. “At least, not by conventional means. Hitting something like this with explosives could make it go up like a nuclear bomb.”

“Jesus,” I whispered. There went blowing up the school.

Cayman reached out as if to touch it, and I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. My gaze shifted to the tunnel directly behind him. The shadows looked different there, thicker.

They moved.

Dammit!

“Cayman!” I shouted. “Behind—”

Too late.

A shadow peeled itself away from the tunnel, moving fast. Cayman spun, but it was already on him.

A Shadow Person.

Without warning, Cayman flew into the air, all the way to the ceiling of the cavern, which was much higher in the middle. At least twenty or thirty feet. He was flipped like a pizza, feet snagged by the shadow.

“Wow.” Roth’s head tipped back.

“You can see that?” I asked. “What’s holding him—well, swinging him?”

“Yep.”

Huh. Demons could see Shadow People. Made me wonder if Wardens could, too.

“What the Hell?” Cayman yelled as the SP swung him to and fro. “Man, I’m going to hurl. I’m going to vomit up that marsala.”

Roth laughed.

“It’s not funny!” he shouted as he swung like a pendulum.

Shaking my head, I stepped forward. “Drop him now!”

The shadow only swung him harder.

“Don’t think that authoritative command worked,” Roth commented.

“Nope.” I sighed. “Put him down! Right now.”

Cayman lifted his hands. “Wait—”

The Shadow Person let go, and Cayman plummeted to the ground like a rock.

Whoops.

The demon twisted at the last second and landed on his feet with a curse. “That was rude.”

The shadow came down like a ball, unfurling to its full height in front of the archway. The thing looked like a combination of black smoke and shadow with the exception of its eyes. They were bloodred, like burning coals.