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  It didn’t work. I reached for Gabriel to tell him we’d failed, only to catch my breath in shock.

  The heart.

  It was here.

  Oh. My. Swearword.

  “Syd,” Max said with some urgency in his voice, enough I jerked around, wide-eyed, to face him. His gray skin had paled, diamond eyes sparking with anxiety. “Hurry.”

  No failure after all. We’d done it. We were here, in the other Universe. But this was wrong, so wrong. It looked the same, as if nothing had changed, like everything that happened back home happened here, too. How could that be when we had Creator and these people, these planes only had Dark Brother and sorcery and…

  I shook myself as Jiao pinched my arm sharply on one side while the black ribbon growled on my right wrist.

  Right. Focus, Syd.

  It was easy enough to find the heart, the pulsing of it familiar if only because of my connection to the Stronghold. Did Gabriel give me the ability to find it? Or did it reach for me because it knew me? No matter the reason, my magic reached back to its demands and, a moment later, a small, red shape popped out of the ground from under a flagstone next to the back door and hurtled toward me. I cupped the plastic heart in my palm, turning it over in shock.

  It couldn’t be. But it had to be.

  Max nodded, looking around, hands flexing at his sides. “We have to go.” He sounded like he didn’t believe it could be this easy.

  I had to agree. But here we were, heart in hand. I reached for the veil, for Gabriel. Even as the back door opened and Ameline stepped out into the fall night.

  I gaped at her, taking a second to realize she was gaping in return. What was she doing here? My mind blanked as the door opened wider and Quaid appeared behind her. Put his hand on her shoulder, another at her waist.

  Like they were together.

  “I killed you.” Her hushed voice cut through the night air. Max’s power prodded me but I was lost to this.

  “You first, sister.” I drove my hands into my pockets, hiding the heart from her view. Her eyes widened further, if that was possible.

  “You’re her.” She shuddered, looked over her shoulder at Quaid. “Doombringer.”

  He didn’t take his eyes off me, glaring in that way I knew so well. And didn’t.

  Surreal.

  I felt Max and Jiao reaching for the veil, let them do my job for me while I stood there, staring at the reality that happened here.

  “You killed me?” Stupid question, she’d said so, didn’t she?

  “I did.” Ameline shrugged off Quaid’s hands, took a step closer. “You deserved it.” Sounded like she thought she needed to repeat her performance. “And you killed me?”

  “I hate to tell you what a bitch you were, but…” Was I having fun? No, impossible. Syd, get a grip already. Life and death, remember?

  A tiny smile twitched her lip, curiosity in her face. She looked more like the Ameline I came to like, the one in the maji chamber back home. And nothing like the young woman raised by the Dumonts.

  “I was about to say the same about you.” She hesitated. “You seem different.” Was she doubting herself?

  “I’ve met both sides of you,” I said. “So I’m not so surprised you turned out different here.” But who had I been in her Universe? “I take it you weren’t raised Dumont?”

  She shuddered, backed away again, Quaid’s hands protecting her. They both wore rings, a normal sentiment my ex-husband and I never really took seriously.

  Married? No way.

  “I’m a Hayle sorcerer,” she said.

  And therein lay the utter truth of everything. This wasn’t my Universe, some flipped version of it. There was only sorcery here, no witches and vampires and other races I was used to. No broken magicks. And no me, not anymore.

  Ameline was a Hayle. I didn’t think I’d ever learn to accept that.

  Syd, we must go. Max felt desperate. Where was the Gateway? I searched through the veil for the pocket door Trill left.

  And found nothing.

  Oops.

  Ameline spoke again, distraction I didn’t need. “Why are you destroying our Universe?” She sounded honestly upset, frustrated. Quaid hugged her, glared at me.

  “We know who you are, Doombringer,” he said. “Are you here to try to end everything now?”

  Wait, they were blaming me? “You have no idea what’s really going on,” I said. Hesitated. I didn’t have time to explain and did it really matter if they believed me or not? Besides, they were kind of right. By reassembling Creator’s statue, wasn’t I bringing about all our doom?

  Was this what Doombringer truly meant?

  Before I could push words out of my gaping mouth, Ameline shook her head, looked away.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” she said. I had an instant, one in which the ribbon on my wrist flexed in fury before the air around us rushed outward, cutting off my oxygen for a brief moment.

  The next, the backyard was filled with towering bodies in shining armor, all their power focused on me.

  ***

  Chapter Twenty Six

  She called them. Of course she did. As the Order closed in and trapped us, I shook myself free of the curiosity I had for this Ameline, for Quaid and the two dark haired girls poking their noses out the back door. One looked familiar, the youngest having enough of Ethie in her I realized the truth. No Gabriel. Of course, no Gabriel.

  He, at least, was one of a kind.

  The idea made me want to laugh in the face of the crushing power of the soldiers around me. Ameline and Quaid seemed small in comparison, the backyard space shrunk to a tiny patch of grass trampled under shining metal boots. The full weight of their energy settled on my shoulders, driving me to my knees. Irresistible their power, an equal to mine. Sure, I might have been able to take on one, maybe two. But twenty?

  We were so screwed. And it was all my fault for letting myself get distracted.

  “Hayle family.” One of the soldiers, his armor more decorative than the others, stomped forward, his magic crushing me as though he enjoyed the experience. The black ribbon twitched and the pressure lessened, to the grunting surprise of the soldier. He ignored me then, focusing through the tiny slit in his visor on Ameline and Quaid. Neither looked all that eager to be the center of his attention. “Your aid is greatly appreciated and will be brought to the attention of our Master.”

  “No need,” Ameline said in a voice that shook. “We are honored to serve.”

  Yeah, right. Sounded like it. Never mind I should have been trembling in fear, shouldn’t I? Shaking in my boots, ready to curl up in a ball and call it quits. This was the Order. They’d scared the bejeebuz pants off me the last time I’d seen them, their giant army marching toward the Gateway that Gabriel made in the Stronghold’s underchamber.

  So why then was I on the verge of irritated frustration when the leader turned to me? Defiance and rage mixed together while the girls thumbed their noses—and some rude gestures—his way.

  “If you’re about done,” I said at my most sarcastic.

  He stopped, shock clear in the power rippling around me. So, wasn’t used to being spoken to like that, huh?

  Syd, Max’s voice made it to me, strained and tight with worry. What are you doing?

  You should know my temper by now. I flexed my magic, pushing myself to my feet by sheer force of will. The lead soldier pushed back but damn it I was pissed and the girls were too. And the black ribbon? Well, it had enough, thanks. I caught the shock in Ameline’s face, the way that shock turned to speculation when I carefully crossed my arms over my chest and glared back at him.

  “Nice suit,” I said. “Must ring like a bastard when someone hits you.”

  “No one has ever made contact.” He sounded proud of that fact.

  With the final ounce of power I had, I tapped him between the eyes, making his helmet sing.

  Syd. Dear elements, Syd. What was I thinking? A choking giggle rose in the back of my throat as the
leader took a surprised step back, shaking his head.

  I was toast. But I’d be damned if I wasn’t going down without a snark.

  Maybe I would have made further inroads, but there was only so much I could do considering the press of power around me. And, when two young men and three women pushed past the soldiers to observe me, I realized I’d placed my fear in the wrong race.

  I knew them, what they were. It was easy to see the alternate shapes of them, so accustomed I was to Max, to Jiao and Sass. Only these weren’t drach or lóng or magicked demon boys trapped in the bodies of cats.

  Dragons. There be dragons here.

  The two men looked like medieval versions I’d see on the covers of old fantasy novels. One of the women was clearly a water type with pale skin and hair and a hint of the ocean around her. But it was the last two that shook me the most.

  I was wrong about the lóng not being present. These were the evolution of the drach, those we’d thought dead, near extinction. Were they then able to evolve here and not die out as they had at home?

  Wait, no. Not so, not when traces of elemental power clung to them, not when they felt exactly like Jiao and even a bit like me.

  I was so floored by this revelation, I held still as the lead man and woman approached, ignoring me in favor of Jiao. My fighting heart stilled.

  Daughter. Their minds combined to speak to her, their twining, Chinese dragon bodies clear to me as they addressed my friend.

  Jiao, normally more stone like than Creator’s statue itself gaped at them with eyes wide like a child.

  The battle went out of me, the ability to fight back. The world flashed as the lead soldier saluted the staring pair of Ameline and Quaid, the veil engulfing us. But not the veil I knew. The darkness I’d gone looking for in my alternate backyard might not have been visible there, but it was here, embedded in the membrane between planes. At least, what was left of it.

  They were in the exact same boat we were. Good to have that confirmed.

  I tried to reach for Max but had been cut off. And while I knew I could get to him if I used my white sorcery, I held back. They’d find out about Creator’s ultimate power evolution soon enough. Until then, I’d like to keep it safe in my back pocket—with Creator’s disguised heart—for as long as I could.

  Not that escape was going to be possible. I knew it the second we exited the veil and entered a giant, arching chamber, the ceiling covered in rocky outgrowths, the floor crusted with more, all filled to the brim with dragons.

  I’d thought before we were screwed. I had no idea what that term actually meant until all the creatures roared at our meeting.

  I was a strong person, have always held my own when it came to being hurt, whether as a girl on the soccer field winning with a torn shin or a bloody nose or facing down creatures with magic and fire. But I’d never felt pain like I did in that moment, and screamed in response. I just couldn’t hold it in.

  They didn’t die out, the lóng. The evolution of the drach simply came here. By choice. And there was nothing I could do to stand against them. The Order weren’t the ones I should fear.

  I shook my head, dazed by agony, spotting in the fog of pain a handful of drach scattered in human form among the lóng. Shoulders curved, heads down, they seemed subservient to the lóng. And, for all I knew, they were. Made sense, didn’t it, even to my stunned mind.

  No help there, then.

  From the horrified look on Max’s face, the rapture on Jiao’s, I knew we were lost and that whatever had driven Trill to betray me for the last time I would never, ever forgive her.

  But it wasn’t until one of the drach turned, bowed to the lóng, I understood Max's true despair. The form of its towering dragon body seemed misshapen, damaged. And as it spun and left the cavern, I understood why.

  Someone had cut off his wings.

  I didn’t have time to mourn the loss, to register the hideousness of the act. We were herded with magic out of the cavern, down a long, sloping corridor three stories in height, the ceiling towering overhead as lóng shifted shape and wheeled above us. I staggered as I went, overwhelmed by everything I’d seen so far, but the pressure of the lóng’s continuing control kept me moving.

  Huge doors swung open at the end of the corridor, the room beyond full of ranks upon ranks of the Order’s soldiers, each of them standing at perfect attention. This was some kind of underground parade, had to be, bigger than two football fields end to end, reminding me in many ways of the forced pomp and showmanship of the demon plane. Wait a minute. I knew the rock of this place, recognized the black stone. But no demons lived here, did they? Demons didn’t exist here.

  Ostrogotho. The Seat on Demonicon. That same place housed the Order.

  Of course it did.

  The biggest soldier in the bunch strode forward while I swallowed that prideful thought, almost a foot taller than his soldiers, towering at an impressive seven and a half feet. But, when he pulled free his looming helmet, I realized my mistake. Maybe seven feet minus the headdress. Which made me wonder if his boots were lifts.

  Yeah, even now I reached for humor to keep me from melting down.

  He blustered and yelled at us for about five minutes, pale cheeks pinking, thinning blond hair showing a pulsing vein in his scalp. His soldiers watched his tirade in utter silence. I caught, “Commander Treeger,” and “death to Doombringer,” and a couple of other random words, but that was about it while he did his best to impress me or something. He was so loud and the room so echoing it just wasn’t possible to make him out.

  But when he fell silent it was clear his soldiers did. To a soul they shouted, “Oogha!” or something like it and clamped their right fists to their left shoulders in salute.

  I’d be more intimidated if I wasn’t pissed off all over again.

  “Whatever,” I said in the sudden silence as the echo of their fealty died out.

  He gaped, pale blue eyes bulging. I liked that look on him, at least until he slammed magic into me. I was ready for him though, pulling out the white sorcery and, on impulse, tying it through the black ribbon on my wrist. Together we pushed back.

  It was like shoving against a mountain, an immovable and impossibly high peak that had stood for millennia without shaking its foundations. Fear I’d bitten off more than I could chew this time died when I snapped it in half and tossed it aside with help from the girls.

  We’re dead anyway, my demon snarled. Might as well go down showing them messing with Doombringer is the wrong thing to do.

  Hell, yeah, Shaylee sent, sounding more like her fiery sister in that moment than her usual self.

  Agreed, my vampire snarled in full spirit power mode. Crush him, ladies.

  While her order was a bit out of our reach, my heart leaped when I felt him move. Just a fraction, the barest bit of flex, but it was there. I think we confused him, the myriad of minds and powers. Surely he had no idea what white sorcery was, or elemental magic. And with every push from the girls, from the ribbon and my own personal power, he swayed.

  When he finally took a single step back, I formed a wall between us and nodded once.

  “That all you got?”

  My demon laughed like a maniac in my head.

  “Doombringer.” He said the name like he feared me. I’d take that, thanks.

  Before he could hit me again or whatever it was he planned, Jiao stepped forward and put her hand on my shoulder. I turned to her, hoping she had something in mind. Maybe with Max’s help we could bully and bluff our way out of this.

  Syd, she sent. I’m sorry.

  And everything went black.

  ***

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  I woke up alone. Groaned as I rolled over on my side, my whole body hurting, taking a moment to realize what had actually happened.

  That Jiao, my friend, had betrayed me to the Order.

  No, there had to be a reason, an explanation. I sat up on the stone bench where I’d been lying, passed out for who
knew how long. A quick inventory of my person turned up no physical injuries aside from feeling like I’d run headlong into a brick wall. The black ribbon remained with me, tight around my wrist, though it had fallen silent and I wondered if it had done so to protect itself. Likely. If it was from this Universe as Max and I both suspected, there might be those who would recognize the drach soul for what it was and try to take it from me.

  Feeling oddly possessive, I ran one hand over it before moving on.

  Demon? I almost hesitated to ask.

  Here. She grumbled something about traitors and fire and death but I didn’t bother to ask her to elaborate.

  Shaylee? Again the affirmative.

  We’re all here, Syd. My vampire stretched inside me. Though we were all knocked out by that blow.

  I wondered then if Jiao had been hurt. Don’t we have some kind of defense mechanism against that?

  We do. My demon’s grim joy felt like glass shards on my insides. I believe that disgusting little Black Soul sorcerer almost died because of it when he attacked us in Hong Kong. Smug much?

  Well, there was hope we’d done the lóng some damage.

  Max? I reached out for him, my power—our power—hitting a wall. And not like the mountain the Order’s leader had been. This was a slippery, slimy shell I couldn’t even find a spot to push against. It slithered out of the way but formed into rigid immobility if I tried to shove my way through. Tired and burned out for the moment, I retreated from it, pushing myself to a standing position.

  The room was large enough, carved out of the black stone of the place. More and more I was sure this was the plane I knew as Ostrogotho.

  Agreed, my demon sent.

  Not that it will help us, my vampire sent. Any advantage we might have knowing where we are is gone considering this place is nothing like the Ostrogotho we know.

  Well, there was that. Way to pop the bubble of optimism, my demon snarked.