My body began to rise, slowly at first, then faster, the water thinning, the moon and stars becoming visible overhead.
Your friends will die,Jonathan’s voice warned.You’re fighting me, and you’re leaving me no choice.
My heart skipped, but I pushed the fear aside again, still concentrating on the magic. I couldn’t falter, couldn’t lose my focus, or it would be over.
The little one will break first…
I punched through the surface of the lake just as his final words echoed, and I gasped for air, sucking in big gulps, spitting black water from my mouth as the sky began to spin, the world collapsing in on me from all sides…
Twelve
LIAM
I shattered into billions of tiny particles no more significant in size than atoms, exploding first, then reassembling in a violent collision that knocked me back to the earthly plane.
Gray had somehow expelled me. Whether she’d done it intentionally was another matter, but it was the only explanation for my current predicament.
I found myself deposited rather roughly into the woods that bordered the property of her current home. In the clearing where we’d begun today’s lesson, Gray sat in the lotus position undisturbed, her eyes closed, her body deathly still.
Her shield encased her in an iridescent dome, impenetrable to all, including the angry incubus presently hammering it with his fists.
I shifted into my human form and approached silently, but he must have sensed my presence, for when he rounded on me, his eyes were already black with demon rage.
“Dosomething,” he demanded.
“There’s nothing I can do until she returns.”
“Returns from where?”
“She’s in her realm. I assure you, she’s perfectly safe.” At least, I hoped that was the case. The fact that I’d been expelled didn’t bode all that well.
“And you’re creeping out of the woods looking like warmed-up shit with a hangover, so forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.”
“Death neither forgives nor—”
“Colebrook?” He stepped closer, sucking all of the oxygen from the air. “I’m only gonna say this once. Shut your damn death hole, zoom back into outer space, and bring her back to me. She’s been zoned out in there for two hours already.”
“Gray’s magical realm is not located in outer space, demon, butinnerspace,” I said. “Retrieving her is not that simple.”
“Why?”
“Time and space work differently there. It’s not a simple matter of packing a suitcase and catching an airplane, or—as you say—zooming.”
I hoped the partial explanation would be enough. Lingering on the earthly plane in human form was foolhardy enough; traveling back and forth now would severely weaken me in ways that could have a ripple effect on the entire cosmos. After Gray’s interference with the natural fabric last night—the overdose of necromantic magic she’d called forth—I couldn’t take that risk.
Not even for the Shadowborn herself.
“The shield protects her,” I said, calm and cool in the face of the demon’s fire despite my own very real concerns. “We’ll simply have to wait.”
He glared at me, but finally relented, returning his attention to Gray. Pressing a hand flat against the dome, he said, “So why aren’t you with her? I thought you two were working together today.”
“We were.”
“And?”
“And now we’re not.”
“What happened?”
