Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Wallace jerked his head when Mei appeared beside him. She frowned as
she stood on her tiptoes, looking over Hugo’s shoulder. “Crap.” She dropped
back down on her heels before raising her hands close to her chest, left palm
toward the sky. She tapped the fingers of her right hand against her left palm
in a staccato beat. A little burst of light came from her hand, and she reached
over, grabbing Wallace by the arm.
“Get him home,” Hugo said.
“What about you?” she asked, already pulling Wallace away. She
grimaced when the skin of his wrist filtered through her grip.
“I’ll follow,” Hugo said, staring straight ahead at the man before him. “I
need to make sure Cameron stays where he is.”
Mei sighed. “Don’t do anything stupid. We’ve already had enough of that
for one day.”
Right before Mei pulled him around the corner, Wallace glanced back
once. Cameron had tilted his head toward the sky, mouth open, white tongue
stuck out as if he were trying to catch snow. Later, Wallace would realize that
it wasn’t flakes of snow that fell onto Cameron’s tongue.
He didn’t speak the entire way back.
Mei did, however, muttering under her breath that of course her first
assignment would be such a pain in the ass, she was being tested, but by god,
she was going to see this through if it was the last thing she ever did.
Wallace’s mind whirled. He noticed with no small amount of dread-tinged
awe that the closer they got back to the tea shop, the less his skin
disintegrated. It became less and less until they hit the dirt road that led to
Charon’s Crossing, where it ceased entirely. He looked down at his arms to
see they looked as they always had, although the hairs were standing on end.
The hook and cable were still attached to him, though the cable itself now led
to where they’d just come from.
Mei dragged him up the porch stairs and shoved him through the door.
“Stay here,” she said before slamming the door in his face. He went to the
window and looked out. She stood on the porch, wringing her hands as she
stared out into the dark.
“What the hell?” Wallace whispered.