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  My fingers stroked over the black ribbon around my wrist, the epiphany I’d had about it—about him—returning while the air in my yard burst and erupted with tunnels, with blue fire, people arriving to stop and stare at me in mute silence as they landed in a rush. Stunned and shell shocked by my appearance. No, not at mine.

  At the Order soldier in his full armor who waited for me to notice him.

  “You shouldn’t have brought me here,” he said, pulling his helmet free as if we were alone. So much guilt on his face smudged with ash, so much regret.

  “I couldn’t leave you to die.” Zoe’s voice again, the memory of her prophecy. Was he part of the reason I had to go to the other Universe? But why? Maybe a chance to study the Order would give us an advantage. But even my cynical mind wasn’t convinced. There was more to this—to him—than I’d allowed myself to believe just yet.

  We’d see.

  “You realize you’ve made a terrible mistake.” Oliver sighed, shrugged.

  “You’re welcome.” And the snarky smartass returned. Awesome. Nice to be her again.

  He shook his head. “You don’t understand,” he said. “Now that I’m here…” he looked around as if wondering despite himself where “here” was exactly. “They’ve been looking for a way to cross for a long time. Wanted to know how you managed it.”

  “Good luck finding a way without my son.” I pulled Gabriel toward me, against me. “He’s the Gateway.”

  Oliver didn’t seem impressed by what I’d just said. “Syd,” he said. “You have to send me back. Right now.”

  “They’ll kill you.” Why did that matter to me? Because he’d risked everything to save me. I wasn’t about to put him back into the line of fire. “I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with us until this is over.” I guess I’d be kind of pissed to have to sit things out too if I was suddenly in the other Universe with no way home.

  Oliver’s gray eyes glinted with hints of green as he spoke. “Syd,” he said. “I wish it was that easy. But you’ve just given them the path they needed.” I froze, finally understanding what he was so afraid of. “I won’t have to go home for them to find me and kill me.” He looked up at the sky, inhaled heavily, exhaled. “In fact, unless something drastic stopped them,” he sounded like that was impossible, “they’re already here.”

  I gaped at him.

  “They just needed someone to follow,” Oliver said with gentleness I clearly didn’t deserve. “And you gave that to them.”

  ***

  Chapter Thirty Five

  I would have given up there and then, tossed in the towel knowing what I’d done. All but for my son who smiled up at the grim and worried Order soldier and shook his blond head.

  “No,” he said with such surety I instantly believed him over Oliver’s fear. “I am the Gateway and for as long as the veil holds and the Universe remains, I won’t allow it.”

  And in that instant, holding my son against me like the boy I still thought of him, I understood at last just how gigantic my kid was. How huge and all encompassing, how Universal. That he could simply stop the Order from coming to our side of things with a simple decision to make it so.

  Proud Mama right here. Terrified, shaken. But proud.

  Oliver knelt before my son and smiled at him. “So you’re the Gateway,” he said before looking up at me and winking. “Stealth mode?”

  I had to laugh. No other option seemed to fit. “I learned from the best.”

  And while I was sure Gabriel had no idea what we were talking about, he smiled too and my world was all right again.

  It was only then I remembered the yard was full of people who hovered, anxious to see us, to find out what the hell happened. I smiled with a dazed feeling at my mother and Gram, next to whom stood a happy man with a cherub face and curling white hair.

  “Demetrius!” I lunged for him, hugged him, seeing Piers then, the beaming smile on his face.

  “You did it, Syd,” he said, voice wavering, tears in his eyes. I released Demetrius, a small hand firmly holding mine when I stepped back. Piers grinned down at Gabriel, reached out as if to ruffle his hair and thought better of it. “You both did.”

  “I don’t understand.” Demetrius felt clean, not a trace of the Brotherhood in him. “What happened?”

  “When we replaced the piece,” my son said. “Everything started reverting, Mom. All sorcery finally reset back to the way it was supposed to be. No alliances, no camps. Just the power that was and the power that will be.”

  Control over sorcery. That was how Jean Marc was able to steal the Steam Union for his own, using the arm of Creator to do it. But if no one was affiliated with anyone anymore, that meant freedom for all sorcerers. “So putting the piece back removed their influence?”

  Piers shrugged like he didn’t understand it. I was beginning to, the edges of it. Each piece wasn’t just in order, it had a connection, didn’t it? To the different magicks of our Universe. Not only were they pulling the planes into the void, they were drawing the magic tied to them along for the ride. I was the only one, it seemed, who was able to maintain the powers that were vanishing into the void. Me and, from the magic pulsing inside him, my son.

  You’re learning, Gabriel sent, the veil in his eyes. The order. It’s important. More important than you know.

  I let it go in favor of happy hugs and welcome homes and the excitement of our success, despite knowing we had a long way to go. But having reassurance this was supposed to happen… well, I’d accept that as a win just to give me a bit of time to not feel like everything was falling apart and it was my fault. Peripheral me clung to two things I had to handle, though. One loomed in a corner of the yard in his shining armor, watching at a distance, looking out of place but willing to wait. And the other clung to my wrist in a band of black ribbon that was the soul of a drach I both didn’t know at all and loved desperately.

  “So no more Brotherhood.” We’d finally migrated inside and I found myself sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee in my hand, munching cookies while the packed space spilled over with my family and friends.

  Piers grimaced, though he looked the most relaxed I’d seen him in ages. “And no more Steam Union,” he said, though he instantly waved off my shocked protest. “It’s all good,” he said. “We’re figuring it out. And, to be honest, I’ll take it.”

  Demetrius nodded with a happy smile. Okay then. Let them work things out.

  “How long?” I had a vague inkling we’d been gone at least two days, but had no idea for sure.

  “A week.” Gabriel perched next to me, clinging to my hand. He hadn’t let me go yet. The only real disappointment was my daughter’s refusal to come out of her room, to hug me or talk to me or even acknowledge my presence. Fair enough. I’d left Ethie behind once too often, made her secondary to the things I needed to do. I could only imagine how hard that had to be for her. I’d find a time in the near future to be alone with her—just the two of us—and let her beat me up over it. For now, she could have her hissy fit.

  Who was I to judge her?

  It took me a second to process what Gabriel said. Wait a minute. I shook my head, sighed. A week. How long had I lost to Dark Brother’s inquest? So much time. I did my best not to linger over the days gone and deliberately sipped my coffee.

  “Are you going to tell us what happened?” Mom fidgeted in her chair, gaze drifting nervously to Oliver. At least she hadn’t called him out as the enemy they had to all be thinking he was. Not yet, anyway. I was sure she was holding that in reserve for later. But it was Varity who grumped and sat back with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “She’d rather keep us in the dark,” the old Enforcer leader said with a wink.

  She had no idea.

  I took a moment to gather my thoughts, realizing as I did the room felt different, the people in it far more connected to me than ever before. And, with a quick check through as to why, gasped and looked up.

  “You all have it now.” They�
�d been sharing while I was away, clearly, the white sorcery their mutual connector.

  “Thought it would come in handy if.” Gram shrugged. No telling what “if” meant. Not when Gabriel’s hand tightened on mine.

  “Don’t tell me you were going to come after me.” Idiots.

  They all grinned, murmured denials. Terrible liars, the lot of them.

  When Oliver spoke up, I twitched. For a moment, I'd forgotten he was even there. But it was hard to miss him and his metal suit standing in the doorway to the kitchen, the way every pair of eyes locked on him after avoiding looking in his direction. Like they could pretend he wasn’t the elephant in the room. I almost laughed at their nervousness, the way they perched so precariously on the edge of panic despite his quiet demeanor.

  To be fair, they didn’t know him like I did. Like I knew him at all. Except anyone who would willingly sacrifice themselves to save me had to have some good in them, right?

  Right.

  “You’re talking about that power you used on me,” Oliver said, wonder in his voice. “What is it?”

  “Let me show you,” Gabriel said. And before I could stop him, before Mom’s gasp of fear or Piers’s soft cry of denial could put an end to the idea, my son leaned over and touched Oliver’s answering outstretched hand. A flare of white and the pale flames raced over him, diving down into the base of his feet. Oliver’s armor shone like a star for an instant, so bright we all had to look away. When I finally turned back, it was to the most amazing smile on his face.

  “That’s…” he shook his head, smiling at me, his soul in his eyes. Clean, white, joyful.

  “The true evolution of all power in the Universe,” Gabriel said like it was no big deal as my family and friends stared in utter horror. “Cookie?”

  ***

  They finally left me when I insisted, departing for their own continuing problems with hugs and love and relief at our return though I know a few would have liked to stay. To keep an eye on Oliver, no doubt, despite their fading fear of him.

  Mom’s was the most powerful embrace, her anxiety showing through as she let me go at last. Syd, she sent. Are we safe having him here? Like this…? She couldn’t seem to go further, to grasp the words she needed beyond her deep and crushing concern for me. For all of us.

  “We’ll talk,” I said. “I promise. I just need a shower and a change of clothes and I’m good to go.”

  She laughed, her fear fading as she touched my cheek with one shaking hand. “Syd,” she said. “Can you trust him?”

  No need asking who she was talking about. “We have to, Mom,” I said even as I wondered then felt guilty for considering it. “Fate does.”

  She didn’t say anything but I knew she’d do enough worrying for the both of us.

  The fact my son had given an Order soldier the power he needed to defeat us if he ever managed to share it with his people didn’t freak me out. Not at all.

  Okay, a little bit. Yeah, a whole lot. Still.

  Sigh.

  I took my son’s hand, unsurprised when Oliver joined us on our journey to the Stronghold. I let Sass glare at the still armored soldier as the cat in man form held his lóng girlfriend’s hand all the way there. I’d done enough angsting in the last little while to last me.

  Piers was right. It was all good.

  Oliver stood silently beside me, an unreadable look on his face when Gabriel finally returned Creator’s heart. He accepted the small, plastic toy into his hands, its transformation instant when it touched his skin. I felt it leave me, let it go when he crossed the stone floor and climbed into Creator’s lap.

  “This is what the Master is truly afraid of.” Oliver’s whisper might not have been meant for me, but I glanced at him where he stared down at his bare hands, his gauntlets tucked into his helmet at his feet. When he looked into my eyes, there was wonder there and I knew he didn’t mean Gabriel’s action. “This power, Syd. This is the truth.” He let me feel him, did it on purpose, linking our magic together. I didn’t stop him in time, felt the connection form between us, similar to that I’d always held for my loved ones. The connections I’d once severed and had rebonded on their own. I barely knew this man, and yet, in that moment, knew in my soul it was the right thing to do.

  Yes, I could trust him. With anything.

  I reached out on impulse and grasped his arm when the Stronghold shook at the placement of the heart. It was violent this time, much more so than ever and I did my best to ignore the collapse of the veil as it cried out in pain at its own dissolution. I couldn’t help so I instead held rigid next to the man who should have been my mortal enemy and simply stood witness to the rapidly approaching end of everything, our magic supporting each other.

  Two pieces left. The eyes and Creator’s soul. It was only going to get worse. I couldn’t even imagine.

  Gabriel rejoined us, the Universe in his gaze. I hugged him, though he seemed at peace with what he was doing. Some comfort, at least.

  We left the statue as a group when the shaking was done, when the veil finally settled into its new and reduced form. There was someone I needed to see, reminded keenly as the drach soul who guarded the heart rose behind me, whispering his joy at his freedom. Who was he? Didn’t matter now. The one who needed to bear witness to his return had fallen. And right now I just wanted to see Max. To reassure myself I’d done the right thing letting him come with me.

  Mabel showed us to the chamber where Max rested, a swarm of drach feeding him power as they sang to him the song of their people. I left Gabriel and Oliver, Sass and Jiao at the entry and strode inside, feeling as I did a presence stir and reach for me.

  Light One. The Stronghold’s voice was as slow and deep as ever, eternity in his tone. I’ve been sleeping. He sounded irritated at the fact.

  You have. It was nice to know he was back, that he hadn’t rebooted or anything. Or disappeared with the return of the heart. How was it?

  Boring, he sent. I’ve slept long enough. What has happened to the drach lord?

  I showed him what we’d done as best I could as the Stronghold’s personality firmed up and woke the rest of the way.

  I will assist, he sent with the firmness of stone. Power pulsed from the very structure and into Max in visible threads. The drach looked shocked by the help but their song never wavered. He will live. By sheer force of the Stronghold’s will, apparently. Excellent.

  Thank you. I wiped at fresh tears as the drach parted and let me through. Max was in full dragon form, his wings still gone, though the charred stumps were pink and pale grey. The ichor running was no longer yellowish and sickly but clear. Maybe there was hope for the other Mabel and her people. If things worked out.

  They’d better damned well work out.

  The ribbon on my wrist flexed as I bent over Max’s big head and kissed his muzzle. “Scared me,” I whispered over his scales.

  “Thank you for not leaving me behind.” His voice was soft, low, the music of it returning. “Despite my request to the contrary.” One diamond eye winked. “We succeeded?”

  I hugged his muzzle, leaning against him while he sighed deeply. “Always,” I said. “We’re unstoppable.”

  “You know now what you wear?” He’d known all along, hadn’t he? And not told me. I stroked the black ribbon and remembered the beloved face I’d seen in the veil.

  His face.

  “I do,” I said. “No wonder I could trust him. He’s you.”

  Max sighed again. “I will always be there for you,” he whispered, voice fading as his eye closed and he drifted into sleep. “No matter from which Universe.”

  The ribbon flexed and fell still, in agreement.

  How lucky was this girl? So lucky. I hugged Max long after he’d gone to sleep and cried in relief he was still with me.

  ***

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Weird to be living back at the house again. And yet, it was like full circle in many ways. I’d taken my old bedroom from when I was a teenager,
deposing my daughter who wasn’t here full time anyway. I missed seeing her, hugging her, my chance to talk to her privately gone. Dad had come when I was at the Stronghold, taken her to Harvard. She’d be safe, if more angry than ever, protected behind the walls of the NAWC. I’d see her tomorrow, once I had some sleep and a chance to process everything.

  Yeah, bad mom. But I didn’t think she needed this kind of mother in her life right now. One that couldn’t get a wink without starting awake with a scream on her lips and Dark Brother’s weighty shadow haunting her.

  My bed called, pulled me in, hugged me tight. And sleep came easily and quickly.

  ***

  The armor is heavy on my shoulders but I barely feel it, the pressure of building power pushing against me, burning through the metal and scorching my skin. I scream in defiance, using a voice already parched and cracking, and magic pulsing with the need to reach them before it’s too late. The glowing, white sword of light hangs over my head, clenched in my gauntlet, lighting the savage spines of the dragon beneath me, his massive head arching backward, fire spouting in a cascade of heat and ash blowing past my cheek. My helmet is gone, I don’t know where, but it doesn’t matter. We’re almost there, the building juggernaut of destructive force between the armies hurtling toward each other narrowing by the instant.

  We soar into the barest crack that remains, the bellow of my companion the trigger for the power that bursts from us, the sword over my head erupting into a massive outward explosion of white sorcery that devours everything. Peace engulfs me as I die in the crushing press of the violent clash of their magic and mine.

  ***

  I woke standing next to my bed, arm over my head, a hoarse shout dying in the back of my throat before it emerged. The house felt quiet, contained. So my little nightmare hadn’t stirred anyone up. A wonder I hadn’t wrecked the place. Talk about intense. And terrifying.