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Power swirled and rose. She looked up and three flames of color twirled together; gold, red, and blue.
But the sensation began to feel uncomfortable for Grace and not quite right. “No,” she said. A headache crawled up the back of her skull and nearly imploded her brain. “No,” she said louder. “Please stop.”
“I … can’t,” Marguerite whispered.
“Jean-Pierre,” Fiona called out. “Help us.”
But it was Thorne who pushed between Marguerite and Fiona and broke the circle. All that power that had been flowing around and building now seemed to flow into him.
Thorne ended up glowing, but apparently that wasn’t unusual for his version of obsidian flame. Fiona, too, would glow. Grace remembered stories about Fiona—that when she was first learning to use her power, she would light up the Militia Warrior grid room in Apache Junction Two with her golden aura.
At least Grace could breathe again.
She stepped away from Thorne to look at him, to enjoy the silver light of his aura. She hadn’t seen him since his own obsidian power had emerged so many months ago. He lifted his arms wide and turned in a circle. “This feels like heaven.”
Grace’s headache worsened so that she half fell, half collapsed to a sitting position on the sawdust that covered the event grounds. Leto immediately dropped to his knees beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“My head. It really hurts.”
“Gideon,” Leto called out sharply. “Get one of the healers over here. Now.”
“You’re barking,” she said. She turned her head slightly and looked up at him, offering him a smile.
“You deserve a bark or two. You’re scaring me.”
“It’s just a headache, but it was so sudden. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Marguerite looked down at her. “I do. You need Leto to bust open your obsidian flame power. It’s no picnic to get it opened up, though.” She glanced up at Thorne, whose glowing skin was finally settling down. “But it has its perks.”
When Thorne’s eyes fell to half-mast and he once more cuddled with Marguerite, Grace looked away. The sight of her brother so much in love warmed her heart, but her head still really hurt.
Thank goodness the healer arrived. The woman dropped to her knees and asked Grace to describe the pain. When Grace told her, the healer put her hands just above Grace’s head; the result was almost instantaneous. Soothing waves of healing warmth began to flow through her mind, and the pain drifted away. Her lungs opened fully and she breathed deep.
She looked up at the healer and smiled. “That was wonderful. And fast. Thank you so much.”
“I’m training to work with the Militia Warriors. They don’t have enough women in the healers division yet, but we’re getting more assigned to the training program every day.”
Grace smiled. Things were changing everywhere. She knew that Horace, who took care of the Warriors of the Blood every night at the Borderland battlegrounds, had mostly men on his teams.
Leto offered her a hand and helped her to her feet. She swatted sawdust off the back of her skirt.
She was about to apologize when a short male ascender, bearing a clipboard and a headset, approached Leto. “Five minutes, Warrior Leto. All is ready for you.”
Leto thanked him then glanced around the group. “Ready for opening ceremonies?”
* * *
When Casimir folded to the gateway to Third Earth, he had half expected to see the park bench from his dreams. But no such thing. He stood in a large room with windows across one wall that had the capacity to see through a dimensional Trough, something he’d never experienced before.
He turned to look at the opposite wall, which held a set of thick-looking steel gates like something borrowed from a Mortal Earth maximum-security prison. Instinctively he knew that no one could fold into the space without prior permission, undoubtedly from the Sixth Earth gatekeeper.
The side walls of the space were paneled in a fine-grained wood but had no other adornments. The wall to his left, however, had a door that led to another room.
He moved back to the windows, which were curved and created part of the flooring. This portion of the windows could actually be walked on.
He moved there now and below, at a great distance, perhaps a mile, was what he knew to be the extensive White Lake Resort Colony that stretched the length of White Lake on both sides of the man-made body of water. Located on the west side of the White Tank Mountains, the lake was lined with over a hundred hotels and public gardens.
As he looked around, however, he caught a scent, something similar to Grace’s scent, yet different. He could smell a meadow now, yet this one seemed richer—as though it had blossomed with a thousand wildflowers all at once.
The trouble was, he liked the scent and the scent liked him so that he began to be aroused. He shook his head. He’d already had one difficult experience with the breh-hedden. He didn’t want another. But beyond that, what was the likelihood that he would be given a second chance at having something so profound as a breh?
He chose therefore to ignore the scent, believing it must be his imagination. As he looked through the window once more, he felt the presence of the Sixth ascender before he saw him.
When the old man materialized, he inclined his head to Casimir. “How do you do? I’m James of Sixth Earth. I’ve been the gatekeeper here for a few millennia.”
Casimir extended his hand, and James shook it.
He’d heard of James. Grace had told him the stories of Alison, who had met him during her rite of ascension. Apparently, this was the same ascender who had persuaded Leto to serve as a spy for the sixth dimension by appearing to defect to Greaves’s camp.
Casimir had several questions, most having to do with the portal to Third, so he launched in. “Were you the one who sealed off the third dimension from all the others?”
James shook his head. “No, that was Luchianne’s call. A bit before my time.” Luchianne was the first vampire ever and had ascended to Second Earth eleven thousand years ago. “When she saw the danger Third Earth presented to the rest of the dimensions, she made sure the portal was sealed.”
“Grace told me that Alison was destined to open the portal,” Casimir said. “Has the danger that Third Earth previously posed to the dimensions diminished?”
“No, the danger remains as grave as ever. However, what will be needed to secure Second Earth from the difficulties of Third is to have the portal fully opened. Your former friend Greaves has been slipping Third Earth death vampires through a breach in the portal that we’ve been unable to locate. If we open the portal, we can seal the breach and thereby ensure that no more of these extremely powerful death vampires can pass through the Trough from this point forward.”
