The Void of Mist and Thunder (The 13th Reality #4) by James Dashner

Gable?”
    “Never you mind. Now have a seat, enjoy the flames. I’ll be back with some warm milk and cookies.” She started walking toward the kitchen.
    “You do know it’s really hot outside, right?” Paul asked as he and Sofia took a seat on a leather couch. They sank half a foot into the deep cushions.
    Gretel turned to face them. “Yes, son. But I’m old, and old people get cold even if they’re in a desert. Plus, the things we’re going to talk about today are gonna chill us right to the bone. I think we both know that.”
    She slipped into the kitchen before they could respond.

    Tick was in a trance.
    He felt like an oracle from ancient times, going through a ritual to call down the rain. He still held hands with Chu and Jane, but he was barely aware of it. Eyes squeezed shut, he saw only a dark swirl of orange and black in his vision, and the air hummed heavily with the power of Chi’karda. His skin prickled with chills and sweat at the same time.
    He’d been at it for hours, poking the depths of Reality with his senses, looking for something to represent a way out of the Nonex. He felt like an astronaut in deep space, slinging himself from one galaxy to the next, sending out probes to see if he might capture the right data he needed. He’d been on the verge of giving up—his muscles aching, his mind exhausted—when he finally found what he’d been searching for.
    A doorway. A portal in the darkness, framed by that eerie orange light.
    He mentally flew towards it. The opening expanded, growing larger and larger as he approached. Everything was symbolic now, and he went with what came. His body—his conscience, his imagination, his thoughts—catapulted through the portal, and suddenly the air exploded with light. He closed his eyes. He no longer felt the hands or presence of his two partners, even though he knew they were still there. Until this was over, Tick was on his own.
    His feet touched a hard surface, and within his mind, he opened his eyes again.
    He stood in a field of white snow. The sky above him was a piercingly clear blue, and the sun shone down with all its power, reflecting off the whiteness with a brilliant light that he’d first felt when entering the portal that had brought him here. He turned in a circle and saw that there was absolutely nothing in any direction. Just flat land and snow as far as he could see.
    If anything could symbolize the Nonex, this was it.
    There was one thing. Off in the distance, maybe fifty feet away, he thought he saw something blue—a bruise on the endless sea of white. He headed that way, his feet crunching and sinking slightly in the cold stuff below him with every step. There was no wind, but the coldness of the air bit into his skin, as if someone had just flicked on his senses with a switch. He looked down at his clothes and saw them magically transform from what he’d been wearing by the fire back on the beach to a huge parka and heavy pants and boots. Gloves and a thick wool hat on his head completed the transformation. Much better.
    As he got closer to the spot of blue, it grew in size, but not just because he approached it. It literally grew, expanding outward like a drop of food coloring on a paper towel. Tick stopped and watched as its leading edge came toward him, then stopped at his feet. He could see that it was frozen water, but the icy lake seemed unnatural, as if it were made up of that nasty colored stuff used to create small ponds at the miniature golf place.
    Tick dropped to his knees, knowing this was what he was supposed to do. Crystals of snow plumed out from behind him, dancing across the surface of the deep blue ice. Somehow they avoided a portion of the lake, forming a perfectly white rectangular frame. Tick knew what would happen before it did.
    The rectangle flickered like a television coming to life, and then a moving image appeared on the ice, replacing the blue.
    Tick leaned forward, placing his hands on the outer edge