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One of those men glanced at Quinton, tossing his head in the direction of the Divide. “Shucca,” he said, voice hushed.
Loren stepped back. “What’s a Shucca?”
The man smiled at her. “You’ll do best to shut your eyes if you hear their howls, girl.”
Erasmus was watching her, eyes wide with fear. “Are you c-certain this is where we should go, Loren?”
Loren shook her head. “I don’t know, I— Can someone please tell me what the Void is? What are we looking at?”
“The V-void—,” Erasmus began.
Quinton interrupted. “The Void is just another of the many sections in Spirit Terra.” He faced her. “If this is where you say we will find the Well, then we need to lower this wall.”
The memory vanished with the opening of her eyes.
“It’s my fault,” she said.
Darien uncrossed his arms and sat forward.
“I remember now,” she whispered. “I didn’t want to tell the imperator where the real Well is, so…I lied.” She swallowed, her heart tripping a beat as she concluded, “I told them the Well was inside the Void.”
When Roman walked through the front door of his house, Shay and Paxton at his side, he had the sense that he was interrupting something important.
The others were crowded around the kitchen table, either sitting or standing, Darien reaching for Loren as if to touch her.
Of course he didn’t, opting to rest his fist on the table instead, torturing himself in good old-fashioned Darien style.
Loren was staring at her hands that were folded in her lap, her eyes downcast, bright blonde hair hanging in her face like a curtain.
Roman shut the door. “What’d I miss?”
Travis shot to his feet. “What did you miss?” Rage transformed his features, hands curling into fists at his sides. “What did you miss? What the fuck happened to your face?”
“Dad beat the shit out of me, Trav,” Roman stated matter-of-factly. “Don’t act surprised. Are we really going to argue about this right now, or are you guys going to tell me what the hell’s going on and why you all look like you’re afraid the planet’s going to blow up?”
Malakai pushed out from the table and stood, picking up his and Aspen’s plates as he went. “Way to hit the nail on the head, Devlin.”
Roman blinked. “Okay—explain. Now.”
“The Arcanum Well,” Tanner began, his eyes bolted to his laptop, “is the only one of its kind. All replicas are cursed. It was a replica that blew up Angelthene on Kalendae. The imperator has created another replica and brought it to Yveswich. We need to find it and make sure he doesn’t turn it into another bomb, or it’ll cut through the Veil and…well, we’re screwed if that happens.”
“Why would someone want to blow through the Veil?” Shay asked.
“Because they believe the real Well is in Spirit Terra,” Darien said. “In the Void, to be precise.”
Roman said, “Okay, and what’s the Void?”
Darien gestured to the living room—to the old man sitting in the armchair, reading the Daystar paper as if life as he knew it wasn’t about to end. “Arthur can explain it better than me.”
Arthur looked up. Folded the paper. “I’ll get my color wheel.” He heaved himself out of the chair and set the newspaper on the coffee table.
“Color wheel?” Roman and Shay blurted in unison.
Darien merely said, “It’ll make more sense when he starts explaining.”
“You might want to have a seat,” Tanner advised without looking up from his screen. “It’ll probably take a while, but as soon as we’re done, we should go to Silverway.” His eyes flicked up to Darien, who stared at him in question. “I have an idea.”
All this shit about color wheels and Spirit Terra was enough to make Roman’s head spin.
