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Purple Hair smiled and straightened his black shirt that read,The reapers are coming, call your local Shepard. “Well met, fellow adventurer! You may call me Dungeon Master Jase, a true Dragonborn.”
Juniper had redirected our portal; only she would be dumb enough to try to save this random dude over herself. I sighed and glanced at Ram.
“She sent us here so she could be a self-sacrificing hero.”
I could strangle her for it because it wasn’t just Juniper on the other side of that portal. She was in Free Jinx. She must be holding the dimension together somehow, which meant the Eclipses were safe for now.
But it wouldn’t last in a collapsing universe. So why the fuck hadn’t she helped us get her and my people out? Why the shit did she worry about saving that random gamer instead?
“Really? Self-sacrificing hero is the angle your mage went with?” Jase said. “Doesn’t she know that never works? Better hope she’s not some side character and has some hardcore plot armor. Speaking of, before you portal hop again, any chance you could help me get out of here? Any longer and I may be at actual risk of losing my mind. I would be beyond ever so grateful, pretty please with sugar, sprinkles, and cherries on top?”
Moe was going to become best friends with this guy.
As though to prove me right, Moe threw his arm around Jase’s shoulder. “Consider yourself part of the party.”
Jase’s eyes lit up. “Thank you so much, my brother.” He tossed an arm around Moe’s shoulder. “Whenever we get out of here, and you find yourself in a little town called Silver Springs, hit me up at the arcade. We have an amazing console room that I think you’ll love. My friend also hosts a bimonthly edutainment class that you would like. He invited a real pirate to talk about sea shanties!”
Well, at least we’ll get one person free of the bubble dimensions—assuming I could open a portal to Silver Springs and not another random world.
I glanced around for something I could use to draw a magic circle. The water wouldn’t help. The dock hit the horizon a few meters away. Jag was already there with his hand against the starry sky like it was a painted wall.
Okay, I guess I was wood burning then, carefully, so as not to drop us into the lake.
Kneeling, I burned the magical circle into the dock, reveling in the smell of singed wood. As I finished, the dock creaked like an old ship on a rough ocean.
I thought it was the dock, but the sound grew louder and louder until the whole universe seemed to be groaning.
I glanced up to see the galaxy shudder as though cold. “Oh, shit.”
The halos of stars peeled away and zoomed downward, smashing into the lake and throwing water into the air. The collision shook the dock so hard, I fell onto my ass.
“The universe is collapsing again!” Jag shouted.
Chapter 25
“Sonofabitch!”Jase cried. I looked up to see large purple wings had exploded from his back.
As the stars crashed down around us, Ram waved his arms, magic dancing on his fingertips. The purple sheen of a shield enveloped us. A star smashed into it and burst in a flash of light so bright, it seared my eyes.
“Why do the universes fall apart when we arrive?” Elliot shouted.
I scrambled to the edge of the magic circle. “Probably because our spells are fucked up. Every broken spell has a price… ours seems to be destroying entire bubble universes.”
“I don’t want to destroy universes!” Moe wailed. “What if people die? Or animals?”
Guilt stabbed at my chest, but I ignored it for now. I had to get us out of here. Glancing up, I met Ram’s eyes. I couldn’t cast the spell on my own, but one of us had to hold a shield to protect us from the storm of falling stars.
He nodded once. “I can do it.”
I bit my nail and hoped he was right. Placing my hands on the circle, I repeated the spell, imaging Silver Springs this time. When Ram tangled his magic with mine, it was strained, like muscles pulled on a rack. He was reaching the limit even of his powers.
The world exploded around us, lights flaring bright enough to blind me. I shouted the spell, thought of the forest outside Silver Springs, the feel of the magic there wild, unclaimed, and—
A portal swirled open, sickly yellow this time. Long purple tentacles shot out of it toward us. I tensed, but I couldn’t use my magic to fight them while I held the portal open.
“Watch out!” Jag roared and grabbed my shoulders as though to pull me aside.
“Stop! I need to—” Hold the portal, I was going to say. Before I could get the words out, a tentacle wrapped around us, pinning Jag to my back so tightly, it squeezed the air from my lungs. Tentacles grabbed Elliot, Moe, Ram, and Jase, then yanked us through the portal.
