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With any luck, they weren’t a doomsday device that would vaporize the Earth once activated. That would kind of suck.
“That loop needs to be untangled without disturbing the glassy planet thing,” I said, “but don’t tug on any of the pulsing strands. I made that mistake once already.”
Pel
lini’s eyes unfocused as he pressed both hands to the shard surface. “Gotcha. Pull from the middle then?”
“Sort of.” Pellini and I had worked together enough that I trusted him to understand my directions. I hoped. “Need to find the strands with the least amount of energy and then shunt power to them from the pulsing strands.”
He mulled that over for several seconds. “So I’m making a new connection to bleed off power, and that will make it a cinch to untangle?”
I breathed a sigh of relief that he’d grasped it so easily. “Exactly.”
For the next ten minutes, I located suitable strands while Pellini did the shunting and power-bleeding. With every success, the tangle loosened.
“Okay, last one, you little fucker,” Pellini growled. “Not you, Kara. I mean, not at this moment.”
“Har har,” I said with a grin. “C’mon, get it done.”
Pellini pulled the final strand into place. The loop resolved into a perfect chartreuse Möbius band sigil with a pinpoint streak of potency running along it in a never ending circuit. Before I had time to gawk at its beauty, it expanded to fill the confines of the rotating glass planet. Power thrummed through the crystals, shaking my bones.
“Is that good or bad?” Pellini said through gritted teeth. “It doesn’t feel good.”
“Hold on.” Arms numb to the shoulder, I splayed my hands and pressed harder. “There’s something else. I can almost sense it. Just on the verge of . . .” A whisper like wind through leaves passed through me, and a feather touch fluttered across my lower back. I laughed as I realized the simple clarity of it. “I see it! It has eleven. Needs to be twelve.”
“I can’t hold this much longer! What has eleven? Twelve what?”
Eleven lords plus one. It was so obvious. “Faces. On the glass planet thing. It has eleven. Need to merge it with the loop to make a twelfth face.”
“Got it.” Pellini cocooned the polyhedron with a blanket of potency, then drew the loop outward to meld with it. Power flashed white hot, and we both yanked our hands away and retreated. The Spires flickered with lightning as their tones rose to a crescendo, then they went silent and dark.
Panting, I bent to brace my hands on my thighs. “Well, we didn’t destroy the world,” I said once I’d caught my breath. “But I still don’t understand what it . . .” I trailed off and straightened. Standing between the Spires was a wide-eyed young man—Hispanic, with a slight build, and dressed in demon realm clothing.
“Paul?!” Paul Ortiz was an incredibly gifted hacker who’d nearly died from accidental arcane damage inflicted by Mzatal during the Farouche Plantation conflict. It was only through Kadir’s efforts that Paul survived.
Paul spun toward me, confusion melting into relief. “Kara!” He started my way then stopped at shouts from the barricade, smile vanishing. I turned to see half a dozen soldiers running up, weapons trained on Paul. Beyond them, the compound seethed like a stirred-up anthill.
Shouted commands rattled the air. “Get on the ground!” “Keep your hands where we can see them!” “Get down NOW!”
“Stand down!” I yelled at the soldiers, pissed when they completely ignored me and continued to fling orders at Paul. He stood frozen in place, face paling. I jumped in front of him, spread my arms and glared at the weapons pointed my way. “He’s a friendly! Stand the fuck down!”
I might as well have been speaking Greek for all the good it did me. Pellini gave the soldiers a black scowl and joined my human shield. Paul shamelessly huddled behind us while the soldiers kept their weapons trained in his direction as if we weren’t even there.
“Great to see you, Paul,” I murmured over my shoulder, “but how the hell are you here?”
“Accident,” he replied in a hoarse whisper. “I was at the gate in Kadir’s realm when it activated just a minute ago.”
The squad leader barked into his radio, “We have a confirmed intruder at location alpha niner.”
“Hold that thought,” I said to Paul then turned my best commanding look on the squad leader. “Sergeant White, I outrank you, and I’m ordering you and your men to stand down!”
“With all due respect, ma’am, my orders come from General Starr. All intruders are to be taken into immediate custody, and any resistance is cause for—”
“He’s not resisting,” I snapped. “I am! I suggest you take a fucking pause and let your higher-ups know that this man is under my protection.”
White’s glare could have burned a hole through the Spires, but he gritted out an order that had the soldiers easing fingers off triggers, though they kept weapons aimed at us. White pulled out an arcane-shielded satellite phone, probably to call someone who could give him the okay to shoot my annoying ass.
That settled for the moment, I shifted to look at Paul. “A gate? Like, a way to travel between the realms? That’s what these crystals are?”
