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  “You mean some of them are in the leadership?” Charlotte chewed her bottom lip a moment. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

  It did to me, too. And gave me hope I shouldn’t have allowed a place in my heart again. “Can you find out details?” I could go tracking them, of course I could. I’d sworn Femke was a priority. But the disappearance of sorcerers and witches wasn’t lost on me and I worried the other massive things on my plate were running off to play without supervision.

  I really needed to clone myself.

  “I assure you,” Danilo said, suddenly intense and a fraction of his old self. “I intend to return to the prison cell or accept my death when this is over.” His dark eyes burned. “I am guilty, Sydlynn Hayle. But if helping you and Femke can in some way make a difference, if I can do this to appease the memory of my loving wife,” he choked a moment before going on, “I am at your disposal until the end.”

  Werewolf devotion. Seriously.

  “I’m coming with you.” Charlotte’s grim determination was so like her brother I just sighed.

  “The two of you be careful.” I could have sent Danilo alone, I knew that to the bottom of my toes. His word was enough, his aching need to prove himself and his faithfulness written all over him. But knowing Charlotte would be with him made me feel this might actually work out. Never mind she was the werequeen. I knew better than to tell her to stay home and be a good wolf girl. Instead, I reached out, took her hand and shared the power I’d been handing out lately. Her eyes widened but she accepted without comment, the white sorcery bonding visibly to the lychos she’d become like they were made for each other.

  Charlotte shivered, delight on her face a moment before she settled again and shrugged at me, hand on her brother’s arm. “We’ll be in touch.”

  I opened the shielding and let them go. She had more than enough power to protect them and the white sorcery I’d just given her meant an added level up.

  They’d be fine. And would get the information I needed. Now, back to my regularly scheduled Universe saving.

  And how was that going for me? Don’t ask.

  SYD! Why did someone shouting my name in my head always make me leap and act? Probably because the people in my life who did so only called for help when they were desperate.

  Awesome.

  Sass. I was in the veil already, felt a twinge of something that made me pause, even as the cat’s mental voice slammed hard against me again, his magic showing me a vision that made my heart stop beating.

  My son. On the floor of his bedroom. Empty eyes staring at the ceiling.

  GABRIEL! I screamed his name into the veil. Because, of course, I knew exactly what my child had done.

  You don’t have to yell, Mom, he sent, quite calm and composed as he spoke through the veil to me like abandoning his body to join with the Universe was no big deal.

  Fury warred with fear did a cha-cha with pride as I pulled myself together in mid-leap for Wilding Springs. I hugged his soul to me, but he slipped free this time, not allowing me to jerk him out of the veil. Instead, his spirit danced away, almost joyful while I panted pure terror into the dimness.

  Come home this instant. Yeah, like ordering one of the Universe’s most powerful beings to go to his room was going to get me anywhere. I had to have kids, didn’t I?

  This is the only way, Mom, and you know it. I’ll be back soon. And then, Gabriel was gone.

  Fuming, I stepped through into his room, finding Sass in cat form huddled in a miserable ball in Jiao’s arms, his ears hanging sideways, whiskers drooping low. It wasn’t his fault, or hers. But saying so wouldn’t help.

  I knew that from experience myself. Self-blame was a family curse.

  The only activity in the room came from the colored ribbons that bobbed and weaved over the still form of my son. I tried not to stare into his empty eyes, swallowed past the terror he was dead, that he’d not be able to return to his physical form while the agitated drach souls wheeled overhead and squealed their protest of his departure. I knew exactly how they felt.

  “How long.” I gritted my aching jaw against the question.

  “I don’t know,” Sass whispered. “We just found him like this. Syd, it’s my fault for not watching him more closely. I’m so sorry—”

  “Save it,” I snapped. “For a chewing out when he gets back here.” My fists settled on my hips, one foot tapping against the hardwood floor in impatience. “We both know you wouldn’t have been able to stop him even if you’d caught him in the act.” If he didn’t return in five, four, three, two…

  Gabriel suddenly gasped and sat up, color pinking his pale cheeks, leaning over to cough as the whirling ribbons shrieked their delight and wrapped around him in ecstatic hugs. I let them have their moment as my son gathered himself, looking up at last to meet my eyes with his own full of the veil still.

  “We’ll fight about it later,” he said. Oh, would we ever. “It worked, Mom. I know where the next piece is.” His grimace wasn’t helping the tearing urge I had to leap on him and embrace him, to cover him in kisses and protect him from what he was doing, becoming. And what was that exactly? I had no idea. But I was afraid we were going to find out.

  “Let me guess,” I said with as much of my Mom in me as I could muster. “I’m not going to like it.”

  My son choked on a laugh, nodded. “I’m afraid not,” he said. Sighed. “The heart Trill took,” he said, rising to his feet to face me. “Don’t ask me how she did it, but somehow she figured out how to cross the barrier.” That truth settled around me as I gaped in shocked silence. Meanwhile, my son finished telling me the impossible. “I’m sorry, Mom. It’s in the other Universe.”

  ***

  Chapter Twenty Four

  This time I did lunge for him, grasping his upper arms in my hands while Sassafras gasped behind me.

  I didn’t shake my son. Oh, I wanted to. But the mother in me and the all-powerful Doombringer were too tightly locked in battle to allow me to do anything but hold him gently and ask the obvious question.

  “You crossed over?” Dear elements, what would that mean for the Universe? Gabriel’s first Gateway had opened the way for Dark Brother to come here, hadn’t it? Did my son just make it possible for Creator’s sibling’s terrible army to cross to our Universe? I had to talk to Max, to warn him—

  “No, Mom,” Gabriel said as if such a suggestion was ridiculous and really I needed to take a deep breath and some heavy duty drugs to chill out already. “But I felt where Trill crossed.”

  The young Zornov again. Honestly, my ability to waffle back and forth between trusting her and Creator’s plan and just wanting to beat some sense into her was giving me a migraine.

  “Is she trying to bring the Order here?” Trust Jiao to ask the question that needed asking in a voice so much like icy resolve I actually felt better. Sassafras uncoiled from his cat body, his human form shifting through the silver Persian that still remained and into the lean, handsome young man he also was.

  “I don’t think so,” Gabriel said, frowning a little as he rubbed at his eyes. When he met my gaze again the veil was gone, only the beloved hazel with sparks of green showing.

  He still feels like spirit magic, my vampire whispered.

  And Earth, Shaylee sent, equally as quiet.

  So my son held all his power just as I did. Interesting.

  That’s all you can muster is interesting? My demon sounded offended and a little shocked.

  You want me to run off on another side chase now? I prodded her with more good humor than perhaps I should have. Really?

  She snorted and backed off. Weenie, she sent. Can’t handle a little divided attention, is that it?

  Sigh.

  “Mom.” Gabriel rubbed his hands over his upper arms as I stepped back, releasing him at last. Not a pained gesture, but as though he were suddenly cold. “I hate to tell you this, but you have to go get it.”

  Of course I did.

  Ten minutes late
r, my frustrated daughter left behind under the protection of the coven in Wilding Springs, I sat on the arm of a wing backed chair in Mom’s office and listened to all the people I’d gathered there to talk this out tell me all the reasons why I shouldn’t cross Universes in pursuit of the heart of Creator. Why Gabriel had to be wrong, why doing so would open the way for the Order to cross over. Even as my kid met my eyes and held them with resigned determination while emotion and words swirled around us as much as the thin ribbons of the drach souls did.

  I’m coming with you. He didn’t sound as confident as he could have.

  Keep dreaming, sweets. I stood up at last and held up my hands, winning silence. Faces turned to me, eyes watched with careful fear. Mom, Dad. Sass and Jiao. Varity with her smirk hiding most of her anxiety. Gram. I keenly missed Demetrius and, oddly, Piers. My sorcerer friend wasn’t reachable, not even through the white magic I’d shared with him. I should have been worried, except I wasn’t. Piers could take care of himself.

  I just hoped it wasn’t bad news. Void news. As in poof, there goes the Steam Union. I couldn’t think like that and had no time to run off to Scotland to try to figure out what was going on with him.

  My sister cleared her throat where she stood next to Mabel, Max on their other side. He stared out the window into the early evening, not speaking or offering any kind of support. That hurt me a little bit. But he had to have as much on his mind as I did.

  The black ribbon on my wrist tightened when Meira spoke.

  “Demonicon is down to less than two dozen planes.” She didn’t sound angry, just frustrated and at a loss. “We have to do something.”

  “We need the heart,” Mabel said, her calm taking Max’s accustomed place. “And if that means Syd must go to the other Universe to retrieve it, I choose to trust Creator’s guidance.” She nodded to my son who seemed so small and frail all of a sudden, the center of so much intense attention. But he didn’t seem to mind it, taking it in stride.

  “Mabel is right,” he said, little voice ringing with authority. “And Mom has to go.”

  “Why me?” I had known for some time my son had access to information I didn’t, information he’d never been able—or willing, if I was being honest about his reticence—to share. This seemed like as good a time as any to prod him.

  Gabriel winced, looked away. “You just do, Mom.”

  I could have pulled a fast one and told him I wasn’t going unless he filled me in. But this wasn’t some mother-son game we were playing, not a power struggle over him cleaning his room or doing his chores. This was life and death, the fate of the Universe. And I didn’t have the right to tell the Gateway no, despite my reservations. Like I’d let anyone else run off and handle this without me.

  Hey, I was a grown up. Who knew?

  “You realize this is a trap.” Mom’s snapping anger just made me sad. “Some means Trill Zornov arranged to get you into the reach of Dark Brother and the Order.”

  I’d considered that. Gabriel’s continuing misery didn’t help much.

  “So be it,” I said. “We have to finish Creator’s statue and in the order the pieces were meant to be returned.” There was that word again, layered over Mom’s reference. “What choice do we have?”

  No one answered, mute frustration holding us all in a vicelike grip in the heavy air.

  “I’m coming,” Gabriel said, but Max chose then to turn around and face us, to speak at last.

  “No,” he said in his deep voice that hummed unhappily with the song of the drach. “If we are to cross, you will be our only way back.” His diamond eyes met mine. “I will come with you, Sydlynn Hayle. For good or ill, let us venture into the heart of darkness together.”

  Tears burned my eyes at his offer. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  “Girl,” Gram said, weariness in her face, in her voice, though her magic never wavered. “You are Doombringer.” Like she had to remind me. “What if crossing over triggers the destruction of our Universe?”

  “Our Universe, Ethpeal Hayle, is already dying.” Max bowed his head to her. “Nothing Syd can do at this point will make things worse than they already are. And I have a feeling that title has a far different connotation than any of us can conceive just yet.” Did he, too, know more than he was saying?

  No, he sent, I don’t. Nice of him to read my mind. But I don’t believe Creator would send you where we must go if this is all there was to who you are.

  I wasn’t sure I followed his logic, but so be it.

  “I would journey with you, Syd.” Maybe I should have been surprised when Max’s apprentice offered to come, but Jiao’s offer was welcome.

  “That’s it,” I said. “The three of us.” I nodded to Mom, ready to go now. So I didn’t change my mind or anything smart like that. “Just hold things together as best you can until we get back.” If we came back. “This shouldn’t take too long.” I hoped.

  “And where exactly is it you’re going?” Gram’s bitterness wasn’t lost on me. She hated it when I left her. Well, I hated leaving her. So there. “I highly doubt Dark Brother and his pets are going to let you wander around looking for the heart.”

  Okay, I hadn’t thought this all the way through, clearly. But Gabriel’s hand was reaching for mine and I knew he had.

  At least someone had.

  “The only place Trill would take it, Mom,” he said while sending me an image so familiar my chest ached.

  Of course. It made perfect sense, as did Trill’s cryptic words not so long ago. Pay attention when Wilding Springs goes dark. Listen to your heart. The heart of Creator waited in the Dark Universe version of home. But why there in the back yard of the house I knew so well, in a Universe I didn’t?

  Order, Mom, he said. There are rules and order to this entire thing. Connections, patterns. Wilding Springs is one of them, for many reasons. The veil was back in his eyes. You’ll know more later. For now, just trust. And go get the heart.

  I nodded, never feeling so unsure and yet confident at the same time.

  I won’t let you down, I sent.

  His smile lit my whole world. Oh, Mom, he sent. You never will.

  With a sendoff like that, how could I possibly lose?

  ***

  Chapter Twenty Five

  I reached for the veil then and there, not wanting to have the chance for Fate or bad luck or whatever was out there to mess with me and find a reason to keep me here. Whether a good sign or not, no giant disaster happened, not a flicker of protest from the Universe I was about to step between here and what lay beyond the barrier.

  Guess that meant I was doing the right thing. Hoped that counted as a good sign.

  Not here, Max sent, feeling odd in my head. What was up with him? The ribbon around my wrist flexed in agreement.

  Right. I knew where he wanted to go and took us there without comment.

  The backyard in Wilding Springs welcomed us, the evening air cooler, autumn rapidly approaching now as September finally turned over into October. I’d been home less than a week from my six month sojourn with the drach and it felt like forever.

  Time was funny stuff. Maybe it had been forever and I just didn’t know it yet.

  Here. Gabriel reached for me through the veil, showed me the place where Trill had crossed. It felt squishy, soft around the crust as if she’d sealed the way behind her again but left the door open from this side. I can make a Gateway for you once you open the veil to travel. I won’t be able to leave it open, though. He didn’t sound happy about that. Get the heart and send a message into the veil. I’ll hear it and make a new Gateway for your exit. His mind quavered, confidence shaky. So, he wasn’t sure this would work.

  I could either make him feel worse about it by questioning his instructions or just get on with it already. Guess which one I chose? A woman of action, yup yup.

  I love you. I hugged him with my power before opening the veil, my intent to arrive in the same backyard I now occupied, only on the other side.
It was hard to focus because I had no idea what I was walking into. Did it look like this one? Or was everything different? Did Wilding Springs even exist over there as it did here? An instant of panic gripped me as a Gateway sprang to life and I realized for the first time how powerful my son had become.

  He was still at Harvard, wasn’t he?

  Be safe, Mom, Gabriel sent, softly wistful. Come home, okay?

  Still not completely sure. No way was I letting guilt stop either of us, though the sight of blankness on the other side of the Gateway didn’t exactly raise much confidence. Didn’t the other side usually appear, the destination clear, when he opened one of these things? Empty nothing wasn’t the most promising of destinations. I’ll see you soon, sweets. Take care of things while we’re gone.

  With that, Max on one side and Jiao on the other, I stepped into the Gate and that blank nothing.

  I’d spent most of my adult life traveling the veil. I thought I knew what it felt like, as a witch, a maji, even as a drach. The living, breathing rubber membrane between planes had a distinctive feel to it, warmth that embraced me every time, its dimness no longer an issue. I always felt at home here, had only experienced confidence within the confines of the veil.

  Until now. My stomach heaved as we crossed into the Gateway, the ribbon on my wrist flexing painfully in tune with my sudden loss of breath. It seemed everything flipped over on its back, shook like a wet dog then righted itself again. The very veil snarled at me, pulling and tugging at the edges of my magic, even as I slammed bodily into a barrier that felt well-known and yet like nothing I’d ever encountered before.

  I didn’t get a chance to ask Max what the hell was happening—not that the drach lord would have an answer. Between one crushing heartbeat and the next I staggered unceremoniously from the irritated and disdainful embrace of the veil, spit out into my backyard.

  Damn it. I spun on my heel, the same cool evening wrapping me in a breeze that smelled of autumn, the light over the screen door coming on in response to the last of the day dying in the West.