Zia… Location unknown

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An undulating serpent of different vibrant primary colors encroached on her line of sight.

The eyes were otherworldly and not to be denied. The mystical presence held her vision in rapt obedience.

Ever changing kaleidoscopes of sparkling flecks and facets beamed through intelligent eyes. They drilled into her soul. Unable to move away from the tremendous being, Zia braced herself to be devoured.

Words, symbols, and sounds refused to form as the serpent held its position in the center of her mind’s eye. Its gaze was too much to endure for long. The intensity of concentration needed to confront the probing orbs forced Zia to relent and close weary eyes.

A stillness escorted Zia to a place both in and around her body. It was deeper than any meditation she’d ever attempted before. These simultaneous positions offered Zia new views of herself and the space around her.

Once again, deep knowledge appeared. It formed as if it had always lived within the folds of shadows from a compendium of all the iterations of her lives. She allowed her essence to experience what she could only imagine a software upgrade to be.

The more she gave into the fearsome experience of the great serpent, the more her current situation paled in its ability to keep her in fear or captive to a cage.

Awareness bubbles burst to spread new and hidden knowledge. Sweet like delicate honey and refreshing to the dividing of her bone and marrow, wisdom and insight massaged away tension. They allowed her to relax into what happened and embrace the event.

The journey of a lifetime began.

Only vaguely familiar with a few mentions in passing, Zia wasn’t acquainted with the different levels of consciousness. Like an invisible assistant meeting every request before being asked, a cascade of memories flashed before her. Zia gave into the pleasant sensations of remembering her mate.

Greg’s previous teaching on chakras came to her in total recall. She reminisced about how he’d opened her passion chakra during their joining as mates.

From that brief overview of a small section of the different states of consciousness, the serpent began to spin a tapestry of intricacy. Interwoven truths, facts, events mixed with theorems, histories, learning disciplines of math, science, philosophy, psychology, literature, history, and more moved to overtake her in a swirling maelstrom.

Zia drank in the information with an almost unquenchable thirst. Precept upon precept built the complex infrastructure of her experiential journey. More data flowed in to support and add to the new concepts and higher levels of knowledge. The notion of who the serpent was and what happened to her became clear. She now understood that the great serpent was the force and guide to her Kundalini awakening.

To help with her understanding of Kundalini, the serpent telecast images of its human-created representation. The great walls of Egyptian pyramids long forgotten, the story of Eve in the garden, yogic traditions, spiritual teachings, and neuroscience illustrated the various ways others had experienced and recorded the momentous event.

She learned of how it was the original teacher and tutor of the feminine wisdom and creative energy. How ancient texts, unable to understand it’s role in the cosmic script, had turned it and everything it represented into a symbol of vileness, fear, and deceit. The serpent coiled and moved in a graceful serpentine arc as it revealed esoteric and arcane knowledge only trusted to few.

Zia gasped in shock at the gravity of this visitation.

Her quick thought of unworthiness evaporated from the serpent’s presence in the flick of a wisp of smoke. Intricate details of portals rushed in like the waves. Portal locations, their origins, impact on atmospheres, their construction, and creation of new ones overtook her.

She felt a smile cross her face. The mysteries of how to get precious resources like gaiata were at her fingertips. With the power, gift, skill, and permission there wouldn't be a need for endless suffering. Her ability to craft direct portals to universes was existence-changing.

Caution flooded in to wash away all the human-limited thoughts of what she could do. In their place, altruistic desires sprawled before her in an enticement to think bigger and of all worlds.

Again, awareness of the great honor of this rare knowledge filled her to grateful humility. Zia doubted many had been afforded the view and place she’d been brought to observe.

Affinities for things she’d only had a passing ability for in prior situations evolved to show themselves as mastered elements of her database. More realizations began to click into place.

Zia had never been as passionate about baking. Her interest was in creating the recipes and mixing the ingredients. She loved to produce a new creation. Hindsight helped her understand that her love of baking had been one limited expression of her gift as a Sorceress. Sorcery was always there in how she knew what to mix on an instinctual level to get unique outcomes.

The new level of consciousness she experienced allowed her to consider and understand chemical formulas, elements, spices, elixirs, metals, crystals, gems, and many other items. Formulas, processes and even recipes of new creations danced before her. Sacred knowledge invited her into its hollowed realm. Zia accepted without reservation. It showed and taught her new ways to mix and generate new things, thoughts, and concepts.

For all the physical pieces of her Sorcery ability, as many sounds, notes, sacred music and geometry flew into her mind, too. As if pushed in whole, she felt like The Matrix with how she knew things now.

All at once, Zia knew why the Siren Call was powerful and better yet, how to use it. The proper frequencies to attract or repel laid themselves bare before her. Sacred patterns, numbers, and shapes became basic information. She observed the constant flow of information siphoned into her awareness.

Zia offered thanks for this gift. Respect for the great serpent’s process of distilling vast amounts of information, made her pay focused attention to every part. Layer upon layer, the updates to her knowledge database grew and formed new connections. Her synapses fired with the joy. The information laid out both the creative and destructive applications of using the knowledge. It unveiled itself in rapid succession.

She craved more, and the serpent didn’t disappoint.

Her cosmic scholar refused to stop pushing information and understanding into her. The feeling of fullness put up resistance. In an effortless modification, the serpent expanded her capacity to hold knowledge. It made the breadth and depth of the change known in her awareness.

Zia’s hunger remained. Her desire for more found its reward. The collective awe of the primordial creative drew close. A mighty magnetic force pulled her into the great benevolent all. Love washed over her. Zia began to accept that no one person would ever be able to understand or contain all mysteries, knowledge or wisdom.

Source energy began to flow within to her cellular level. Every meaning she’d assigned to anything recalculated. Grounded in the foundation of all that is, Zia basked in the wonder of life.

Joy caressed her as the serpent noted her reaction. Her serpentine sage began to partition and cache information. Established order of the avalanche of intelligence began to take shape. Zia sensed every shift and allotment. The data sorted itself into orderly packets. Her database expanded as she connected to the network repository of higher consciousness. Her teacher grafted and worked her into the omniscient frequency of creation.

The serpent was the greatest guide and teacher she’d ever encountered. Zia basked in the glow of knowledge and intellect. Her mind processed data in the ultimate overhaul of functionality. Mind blown was too simplistic. Forget remodel, Zia had a rebirth. The education settled in to become the priceless navigating foundation of her being.

Ancient and arcane knowledge from ageless times, realms, and peoples hovered in the periphery of her awareness. Then she knew that as a repository, the information she’d learned would be here for her to access. She didn’t need to hoard or try to consume it all at this moment.

That revelation ushered in her satiety.

A complete message created by the Goddess force zoomed forward. It positioned itself in front. The other knowledge continued to stream and upload in the background.

Zia willed herself to evolve to receive and fully understand the message prompt.

A voice full of many rushing waters, love, nurturing and delicate power formed in her head and all around her to speak.

In due time you will understand all. This event is your awakening, your introduction to understanding your purpose.

As the mate of a Wisdom Gryphon and as a Siren Sorceress, your ability is the capacity to grasp the mysteries of the galaxies, as needed.

As a being of harmonic balance, your task is to help maintain the delicate scales of opposites. Behold and honor your calling.

To fulfill your purpose, you have access to the annals and archives beyond time.

Marvel overwhelmed her heart as the message came in an instant. Zia no longer needed to use words or symbols. They fell away to reveal the true objects and concepts they’d always represented.

Knowledge of the Tree of Life, Akashic Records, Gryphon books of Wisdom, ancient holy texts, the lost alchemical records, timeless technological wisdom to span all ages and worlds, and too many more reference and resource documents took root and blossomed in her knowing.

Truth marched forward to share its bounty. There would have been no way she would have ever received that message without this awakening.

Zia looked around to see a distant Etheric realm with an even more distant Astral plane beyond it. Perched above those other realms meant that she now resided in the superior dimension known as the God-realm.

Her being had ascended to the gateway of the divine.

Rare air caressed her entire being from the beginning of time as she acclimated to this mystical place. The God-plane was more than real. It was life. A note of somber awe stilled her to revel in the knowledge that she existed in the plane of the Creator beings, the Divine gateway.

A face comprised of the most beautiful attributes of any person materialized. It formed in a translucent holographic-like projection. The span was larger than her body, with the vibration of the creative thread of all life humming through every part.

Do not be afraid. You have not passed into a new expression of existence. This is a necessary encounter to recalibrate your frequency. Welcome to source energy and your original mandate of being.

In that moment Zia knew the voice and image the Goddess had chosen to present to her. This construct was the image Zia could accept within the limits of her human brain. It evolved to look like all the beautiful Kemetic-Egyptian Goddess deities on through to Ma’at African creation, Hindu Goddesses, images of the Mother Mary, Greek Goddesses, and primal representations and expressions of the creator energy. The cycle continued until the face of a great and powerful lioness roared and stilled before her.

Zia bowed in recognition of the honor the Goddess bestowed on her in this audience with the divine.

It is time for your return. Your expression of form and creation was not meant to sit in spiritual realms in repose. There is much work to be done. You walk between the realms to right the wrongs of anomalies and transgressions.

Your power, gift, and calling have been made manifest. The knowledge, wisdom, and insight you have been granted has limitations and will only come as needed. There must be balance and harmony in all things.

You are the divine representation of that balance and harmony. When your realm is out of balance, use your access to wisdom and Gryphon mate to restore harmony.

The eyes of the lioness transformed into those of the serpent once more.

The serpent of learning, who has taught all the great wombed beings across the realms, calls for you to return to your rightful plane of existence.

You have had a full Kundalini experience. Its culmination with a transcendental out-of-body state of consciousness brought you here. Your expansion has afforded you the capability to communicate with the eternal. Through the evolution of your consciousness, thought, and form you can pierce realms.

Use your Kundalini awakening to help navigate your way to your assigned plane. Your visit here has ended. Embrace your calling and bring order back to your realm.

The force of the explosion of the cage in the far away distance rivaled the torque of a shooting bullet. It was laughable at how feeble the cage was now that Zia knew herself and her purpose for being. She was created to walk between the realms.

Nothing could contain her.

Her cage disintegrated and fell away as Zia was ushered to a high place of the rare air of this hallowed existence. Not sure if she still breathed or not, Zia took a moment to enjoy the life-affirming feel. The gentle sway of atmospheric movement of this plane was the eternal loving womb.

It carried a sweetness like that of what she thought heaven might smell like. As she looked down, spans of time, history, and information moved in unhurried streams of light. They flowed from one direction to another, in circles, and points of ending.

Zia stilled herself to feel the love especially coded to her heart. The pure high-pitched hum of her baby reached her first. She turned in the direction where it originated and knew in an instant that it wasn’t time to meet him. Yes, she was to have a baby boy, a Gryphon Warrior like his father and all the Gryphon before him.

She sent as much love and thanks to the concentrated stream of connection tethered to her in an unbreakable bond. Her baby had been with her through all this. Zia felt with new respect how strong he already was. As if in answer to her thanks, her baby sent the knowledge that it was with his help that the Kundalini awakening came to her.

Without encumbrances of trivial cares back on earth, Zia focused and concentrated. She pulled on clarity to know the fullness of thought and insight. Zia coaxed understanding of a matter to her. Had the Kundalini energy not come forth, she wouldn’t have had the true gateway opened. This was the gateway to creation and the knowledge it held.

“I love you so much and wait with great anticipation to meet you, my strong and mighty son. I know that you hear and understand me. Thank you, precious one, for your wisdom, help, and love. I’m beyond humbled to be blessed to be the vessel by which you enter our realm. You and your cousin are the first of many who will come to our realm through the gateways blessed by the Goddess. Your charge to help all realms return to harmonic creative power is greatly needed. I vow to do whatever I can to help your journey succeed. Please know that I’m in awe of your beautiful being, my precious baby.”

A smile emerged as a tiny flutter bloomed in her womb. He’d received her message. Zia laughed to herself when she felt her baby urge her in another direction. Turning to locate the distant object that resembled a tiny star in this vast Divine-frequency, Zia willed herself to return.

Before she worked on getting herself to materialize there, she took a moment to speak to her baby again, “I feel you. I’m ready to go see your father too.”

No words formed. Refreshing and pure energy caressed and repaired lingering effects of her ordeal.

A memory of something Greg said to her zoomed to the forefront of her thoughts. Zia still wasn’t used to how this database of wisdom worked, but she was grateful for it all the same. With accurate recollection, Greg’s wisdom to see herself back at the Lair replayed.

This time Zia focused on seeing Galiena’s bedroom where she was in front of her parents and not in that pitiful cage.

Nothing happened.

She tried to envision the room once more. The stinging presence of the great serpent moving along her spine switched her sight. A scene of her ripping apart the threaded fabric of realms and stepping through emerged.

The epiphany slammed into her. Zia wasn’t just capable of being a portal. She could make them without having to sacrifice herself to do so.

“It is so on, bitch.” She sent waves of focus to bring about Galiena’s end of terror. Only after it was out, did Zia remember she was in the holiest of realms.

To her relief, no morality police came and issued a judgment or summons to appear before a supreme court of divine justice. Zia allowed herself to get the message—don’t take herself or life so seriously.

Reverence shone in her actions. Zia wouldn’t make light of the situation, though. She recalled the flash of knowledge from the great teacher to open a portal. Once again, she thought of where she wanted to go. The Kundalini energy guided her to release the tension of trying to recall every detail.

Instantaneous knowledge settled in. To focus on exact details would cap her ability to only going to places of total recall. Sticking to that plan would hinder her place in the grand scheme of things.

Zia would think bigger and believe that new ways of expressing her calling would come to her.

Immediate knowledge confirmed that she could go to more places. If she could imagine it, she could go. Realms held in timeless suspension and limitless galaxies laid themselves bare before her. The Goddess had hooked her up with the equivalent of an endless power card with no spending limits. Wisdom from her mating, higher knowledge to self-manage and control were her constraints.

One by-product of this wisdom event was that Zia now understood that she was destined to mate with Greg. From the known beginnings of creation, many paths lead them to each other. For such a time as this, their joining and family were meant to be.

Free of the cage and floating unhindered in the realm of the Gods, Zia extended her hands in front of her. She positioned them at level with her waistline. This was about comfort, too. Her palms pressed against each other. She added the necessary ingredients of faith and hope to her desire to go to where her mate was.

It dawned on her that Greg took precedence over her parents and brother. It was true, her family order shifted. Greg, their baby, then equal distributions of her parents, brother, and the Dragofin Clan were the new order.

Creative energy to make new openings and portals sizzled and popped. The force enveloped her hands with a purple glow. Zia allowed internal knowing and wisdom to guide her on when the right time came to make the next move. The purple glow intensified to a light bright enough to make her squint.

The moment was full and ready.

Zia pushed her hands outward feeling the give of atmosphere relent to expose the thinnest sliver of scenery from another place. An opposing force of the universal law of homeostasis bounded forth to maintain the status quo of the realm.

Nothing worth creating came for free.

Tricky wasn’t the word to describe how precarious the act of getting a good grip on a portal opening was. Time after time Zia’s fingers lost contact with the edges of the seams of her proposed portal rip. She finally stopped to reconsider how to proceed.

Zia reviewed each step with her new expansion of insight. The issue began to glare at her. Stability and steadiness to support the weight of opposing forces from both ends of the portal needed to be used. Thanks to the geometry upgrade she’d received, Zia knew that a triangle would be the best way to open a sustainable portal.

Seeing the visions of how to create portals proved to be easier than the application. Knowing and doing were two different things. Her doing was in need of major help.

After another five unsuccessful attempts, self-doubt tried to approach. Zia saw the vile thought from far-off and repelled it farther away from her.

Being on the God-plane made everything that comprised her fleshy, corporeal, nature useless. Zia realized that logic, reasoning, emotions, and feelings were on the lower levels of the Tree of Life. This process of trying to open her first portal required far more. Every thought, emotion, word, image, and other mental processes lived in lower frequencies.

Portal mechanics resided in the higher levels of knowing.

That’s when the answer slammed into her. She couldn’t use base level thinking to do upper consciousness work. Instead of trying to think and logic her way through opening a portal, Zia became one with the outcome. She created the vision to see the portal open to where her mate was.

She’d been floating in the vastness of lights, love, and possibility of this realm. Zia repositioned herself to face head-first in the direction of the small star of the earth-realm. This was where her mate was.

With her head positioned, her body became stiff and straight as if she was about to go through a tube head first. It wasn’t until her arms and legs opened to mimic the position of DaVinci's Vitruvian Man did she understand.

Her arms extended out to her sides and her legs opened to create a generous space between them. The sense of the rightness of the position buffered her determination. Zia would crack the code of portal creation.

This had to be it. She’d make a bridge with an assembly of triangles.

In confirmation of the revelation of her body position, translucent designs and blueprints of triangles snapped into place. She looked on as illustrative triangles whizzed by. They arranged themselves to form arches, bridges, and other architectural wonders.

When the see-through shapes began to snap into place, Zia noted the latticework of numbers from the Fibonacci sequence. The virtual projection formed spiral stairways. They swirled to build the multitudes of golden spirals spanning out in all directions. Like the seashells she’d collected as a child, the three-dimensional swirls extended outward. Cosmic spiral super highways connected points in different dimensions.

Grand and majestic, the tightly packed overlapping passages fell away to clear her line of sight as Zia focused on where her mate was located. Renewed focus forged a path for her to succeed.

Zia tapped the omniscient power that resided in plenty around her. She gained insight on how to use this posture. She would break barriers and jump time and space.

Able to see herself from outside of her body, Zia studied her form as a whole and in sections. When the images revealed themselves, the significance of her posture came as a shock. She’d gained vast body wisdom.

Zia looked back at herself. Three triangles stood out. Her body divided itself into three sections. Thin outlines of each of the triangles superimposed themselves over her form. Her neck and head formed the first triangle. The base of the triangle formed at the base of her neck and reached upward to a point well above her head. The expansion of mind, soul, and spirit that the Kundalini experience provided presented three points of her new awareness.

Then Greg’s chakra teaching revisited her. She willed a layer of the auric field to reveal itself to show the chakras in relation to her body. As expected, the seven prominent ones lined up from the genital area up to the top of her head.

It was the extra glowing orbs of light out to the sides of her chest and shoulder area and then above the top of her head that gave Zia pause. There were way more chakras than the seven she’d been introduced to.

To keep herself focused on the task of opening a new portal, Zia focused on the seven that were contained in the triangles covering her figure.

The two other triangles were made from the rest of her substance.

The second triangle was inverted. Her arms extended out perpendicular to her sides. She beheld the outline of the triangle’s base. It ran along her arms and tapered down to end at the point of entry of her vaginal area. A bright red aura of the root chakra glowed at the point where the tip of the triangle rested.

The third triangle’s top sat abutted to the top of the second. It flowed down and outward to encompass the span of her opened legs.

Upon closer inspection, a circle with a square encapsulated her body. The physical representation of the golden ratio expressed itself in the human form. It projected itself like a beacon of shimmering light. The outlines sparkled with the magic of this plane.

Like the north and south poles were to longitude and latitude, her body mirrored itself with the two main triangles from her neck downward. Various significant meanings raced around in an intelligent suspension outside her head.

Zia took a second to examine some of the less cumbersome explanations. The geometry illustrated the meaning of all. Before the desire could form to know more, answers assembled themselves in order before her. If only it had always been this easy.

Again, her understanding expanded. Zia knew this realm was free of opposing forces of dissonance. Whatever she wished, desired, asked for, or expected flowed in without restraint. That is if it was for a benevolent intention.

The frequency and polarity of this realm forbade anything other than moral, noble, good, and altruistic pursuits to prevail.

Her will and desires met no friction or resistance as the knowledge came to her in a fluid grace. Wisdom, knowledge, and intellect flowed like a smooth liquid into her understanding.

The circle represented the globe of the earth that contained the earth-bound humans. The square represented the physical attributes of their world. The four winds and directions, four seasons and phases of the day, and the four peoples danced about the square. They showed their obedience to their containment within it.

The continuous line of the circle brightened. Portals were constructed with innumerable points. Zia had tried to open the path with a few horizontal and vertical pulls. No wonder the opening was so unstable. She hadn’t correctly prepared the space. A superimposed trinity of triangles with a four-pointed square encircled by, well, a circle, was needed. The structure was complex in its simplicity.

Sacred geometry was the beautiful execution of life’s mysteries, mercies, and miracles.

Flashes of Galiena positioning her body into different shapes rushed in. Realization of the other woman’s actions crowded in to paint a new narrative. As a sorceress, Galiena had used similar postures and gestures to open enough of a riff to cast Zia into that awful prison space.

While she’d been clueless about what happened, Galiena had used a fight to stall for time. She’d made contact with Zia’s corporeal form. She’d spouted her incantations and performed a version of shapes to activate the spell.

Zia had been cast into that cage and was none the wiser—until now. Her recall of what Galiena had done showed that the other woman still worked with a limited understanding of the workings of existence. The casting she’d done was dangerous, unstable, and vile. Dark essence infused every part of her incantation and movements.

A shroud of disgust glided through Zia as the truth broke through. Galiena had needed the added power of the demons to pull off her spell. That’s why there were so many of the possessed humans there.

Galiena’s deceit continued to wind through a dark and treacherous path. That woman knew no humanity. She’d made deals with devils to carry out her revenge.

Zia shook off the revelation to concentrate on her portal manipulation. Gratitude of being gifted the knowledge and power to do this overwhelmed her. Wisdom provided the necessary information for her to keep at it.

What she attempted took skill. Skill took practice, and practice took time.

In answer to her unspoken question, Zia was rewarded with the understanding that this realm moved slower than any other. She had almost unlimited time to rejoin her mate back on earth. It was her legendary lack of patience that might be her undoing.

Se realigned herself to the task at hand. Her spirit was washed with the extraordinary gift from the divine. How wonderful that serpent had been to allow her to sit at its feet and learn the hidden knowledge of life.

Significance of the trinity of triangles poured over her ability to comprehend. When Zia knew she’d grasped the reason why this was the way to start, she girded herself up. It was time to complete the initial portal jump. Unlike Galiena, who could craft a stationary place to trap her, Zia could move through portals to all the realms.

The triangles within her body were the legal gateway into the universes. She could make bridges between existing portals. Zia could create new ones where she desired. Echo visions many golden spiraled pathways whispered their presence as routes for her to explore.

Zia shook off the allure to go down another rabbit hole of shiny new intelligence. Nevertheless, various layers of meaning continued to bombard her love of knowledge.

The first triangle of her head represented the upper consciousness. High consciousness came as a gift to her by the Divine. Through her Kundalini awakening, Zia had touched bliss. She was imbued with the esoteric truths of life.

Realized higher consciousness was the primary ingredient followed by hope, faith, and love. They were needed to supersede the lower levels of the base nature. Without them, evil shortcuts, and bastardizations of the process were the only ways to operate outside of an assigned realm.

Bending the elements of the earth to her will required divine understanding, wisdom, and knowledge.

The first triangle was the foundation of truth, fact, and wisdom. It was mandatory to make her pursuits successful. If she knew the foundations of a portal, she could open it. Higher awareness and consciousness were components of all foundations.

The second triangle covered her upper body to her posterior region. It represented her creative power. As a wombed being able to birth beings into a world, she was blessed with a legal and natural physical gateway into a world. Her womb gave her privileges to pierce the veil of portals into and out of worlds.

The third triangle that contained her hips, legs, and feet represented her body. This was the legal right that grounded her physical being in the earth’s plane of existence. This triangle also proved the propulsion to enter and leave realms. The strength of her legs would propel her or whatever she wanted to transport into the next realm.

Zia would continue to marvel at this sacred knowledge later. In the meantime, she had a particularly pesky Sorceress to deal with. Once she’d positioned herself with the intention of breaching the earth-realm, an opening appeared above her head. On the other side was the unmistakable scene of Galiena’s bedroom.

Another thought of intention propelled her forward. Zia’s body made another upward motion toward the opening. Awareness of her physical body began to wreak havoc on her progress.

The worst roller coaster ride wouldn’t be enough to describe the disoriented feeling of it all. Zia didn’t know if she wanted to throw up, succumb to her intense migraine headache, or strip. The stripping might be a way to relieve some of the pressure on her body. That and the itching feeling of clothes against her skin.

For the first time since being here, she was aware of her corporeal form. And, it did not like portal travel. By the time Zia’s head was inside the opening, the real danger faced her.

There was nothing but a blank void between her and Galiena’s bedroom. Gone was the can-do spirit that she could traverse any distance. Fear of death and failure swallowed hope. An eyeball calculation of the distance between her and the other side and her height was confirmation. Zia was between a void and a hard place.

There was no way she could make that distance as a sense of intense suction began to weigh her down. Intent to push back down and try her entry again, Zia met with the sinking sensation of doom.

Zia managed to look down enough to see that she was no longer in the God-plane. A quick assessment returned no values of frequencies. Somehow she’d bypassed the Etheric and Astral planes to land here in nothingness. Zia was stuck in a completely and utterly space devoid of life or energy. The nothing clung to her body and sucked away all hope of escape.

Zia had pushed herself into a void-filled black hole.

She looked back up in time to see the opening beginning to shrink as a glimpse of Greg’s face flashed before her mind’s eye.

Had all this been an elaborate final event? Was this her mind’s intricate attempt to find a way of dealing with death as she’d slipped away within Galiena’s cage?

Zia looked at the shrinking connection to her mate. The circled opening’s edges lost their sharp definition. Ruled by the law of time from the earth realm, the portal opening could break the rules of that plane. But, for only a limited amount of time. Zia’s body ached and wept for relief. She clamored to keep her position through the onslaught of force from the void.

Zia thought of her baby and how hopeful she’d been. Pressure began to make her outstretched hands and legs tremble. The void weighed down and closed in to envelop its prey.

Had she attempted to take on death itself to come back to her mate? Was the void the great Reaper of souls? A wall of protection to guard against her wavering mind would have been nice. Instead, she only had enough strength for a thin veil of the belief that she’d make it back to her Greg.

Faith faltered as another impassioned force of will to cross the void failed. This was it. She had no more gas or skill to make it back to her love and life.

Reluctance to give up was the last bit of fuel she tapped to cross back over. The circle had become smaller than the span of her shoulders. This was it.

Galiena’s revenge had been served.

Her last prayer to the Goddess was to grant her beloved Gryphon victory over Galiena’s evil plan.