Chapter 5
Marci had a feeling she knew where this was going, but she asked anyway. “What sort of idea?”
Julius grinned down at her. “I’m going to talk to Algonquin.”
She’d known it.
“Talk to Algonquin?” Amelia cried, jumping down beside them. “Seriously, that’s your plan?”
“Why not?” Julius asked. “She’s the reason all of this happened, and she only gave in to the Leviathan because she thought all was lost. There’s still water in her lakes, though, which means we’ve still got a chance to convince her that’s not the case. It might not even be that hard. This is basically a suicide, but vengeful as she is, I’m pretty sure Algonquin doesn’t actually want to die any more than we do. If we can find a compromise, something she can live with, I’m betting she’ll change her mind and choose survival. Once she does that, she’ll withdraw her protection from Leviathan, and the plane will kick him out, just like Amelia said.”
The Spirit of Dragons pressed a hand to her forehead. “No offense, Baby-J, but that’s the most Julius-y thing you’ve ever said.”
“It’s ridiculous,” General Jackson added, striding over to join them. “Do you know how many times we’ve tried to negotiate with Algonquin? It’s impossible. She will not listen.”
“That was back when she still had an ace up her sleeve,” Julius argued. “Things are different now. I’ve lived in the DFZ. I know how deeply Algonquin loves her lakes. She’s been watching the slow destruction of everything she loves for sixteen hours now. If she was ever going to be open to changing her mind, this would be the time, but she can’t listen if no one’s there to talk.”
“Fair enough,” the general admitted. “But how do you propose we get to her? The Leviathan is drinking her down as we speak, and we’re still stuck in this bubble.”
“I don’t think he’s going as fast as we feared, though,” Julius said excitedly. “The river and Lake St. Clair are gone, but if the other Great Lakes are anything like Erie, we’ve still got a chance. Before he left, Raven said we had two hours tops before the magic dropped enough to go outside. If the Leviathan doesn’t finish her off before then—and at the rate he’s going, I don’t think he will—we can go out there and buy time to find Algonquin and convince her to stop her monster for us.”
“Buy time?” Svena asked. “How does one buy time against a Nameless End? What do you intend to do, talk it to death?”
Julius smiled. “I was actually thinking of something more traditional. We can fight it.”
“Fight a Nameless End?” Amelia said. “Like, with claws and fire?” When Julius nodded, she threw her hands in the air. “That’s it. You’ve officially gone from crazy optimistic to plain old crazy.”
“Just hear me out,” Julius said. “I’m not saying we should fight the Leviathan himself. That is crazy. He’s the size of the entire sky. But we don’t actually need to defeat him. We just need to stall long enough to convince Algonquin to do it for us.”
“Stalling, huh?” Marci said, tapping her fingers thoughtfully on her bracelet. “You mean like make a distraction?”
“I was actually thinking we should go for the tentacles,” Julius said. “That’s how he’s sucking up her water. If we start cutting them off, it’s bound to have some effect.”
“Assuming they can be cut,” General Jackson said grimly. “I’ve fought the Leviathan before, and while I was able to damage him, he always healed immediately. The thing above us is infinitely bigger and stronger than the shadow we faced in Reclamation Land. He may not be vulnerable at all now.”
“I bet he’s vulnerable to dragon fire,” Amelia said with a smoky grin. “I’ve never fought a Nameless End, but until he’s big enough to haul the rest of himself in through the barrier, that thing is ninety-nine point nine percent Algonquin. That makes him spirit magic, and I know for a fact that spirits burn.”
“It’s true,” Svena said cruelly. “I’ve sent several back to their domains myself. They always burn so prettily.” She looked up through the hole in the Skyways where one of the Leviathan’s tentacles was passing overhead. “I could burn that.”
“But could you burn enough?” Chelsie asked. “Julius just said the Leviathan was the size of the entire sky. Given the number of tentacles I’ve already seen above us, we’re talking about thousands of targets spread out over hundreds, maybe thousands of square miles. That’s too much even for you, White Witch.”
Svena growled deep in her throat at the implied weakness, and Julius quickly jumped in. “We don’t have to get all the tentacles. Again, we’re just trying to slow him down, not cut him off entirely, and we don’t have to do it with only the dragons we have here.” He turned to the Qilin. “You said your clan was already on its way, and Fredrick can bring in the rest of the Heartstrikers with his Fang. That’s a lot of dragons if we all work together. More than enough to keep the Leviathan from drinking the last of Algonquin long enough for me to get a chance to talk to her.”
“Which I still don’t think will work,” General Jackson said. “I like the idea of burning tentacles to buy time, but the end goal of your operation is fundamentally flawed. We could buy you a year, and it still wouldn’t make a difference, because no matter what you say, Algonquin will not listen.”
“How do you know that?” Julius demanded.
“Because Algonquin never listens.”
The sudden booming voice made Marci jump. She hadn’t even heard him coming in, but Raven was suddenly right on top of them. The true Raven, landing on the muddy ground beside them in all his huge, feathered glory. In this form, his head rose even taller than the Black Reach, and his flight feathers were as long as Marci’s leg, each one shining with a black rainbow sheen like oil on water. He actually looked like a god for once, but his magnificence was undermined by the very mortal look of terror in his black eyes.
“I take it things on the other side didn’t go well,” General Jackson said grimly.
“They didn’t go at all,” Raven replied, shaking his huge head. “Algonquin’s not in her vessel.”
“What?” Marci cried. “But that’s impossible. Spirits are defined by their vessels. It’s what gives you guys your shape. How can she not be there?”
“I have no idea,” the spirit said. “But I know Algonquin’s shores below the Sea of Magic almost as well as I know my own, and she’s not there. Nothing was, except that thing’s vile tentacles.”
“Wait,” Amelia said, her voice shaking. “You’re saying he’s got tentacles inside a spirit vessel? As in at the bottom of the Sea of Magic?”
“He’s got tentacles everywhere. The other side’s filthy with them, and that’s not the worst of it.” The Raven Spirit swung his huge beak toward Julius. “I heard your plan through my Emily’s ears. Your idea of talking to Algonquin is utter rubbish. She’s never listened to anyone who says things she doesn’t want to hear. She’s certainly not going to start with a dragon. Not even you, Julius Heartstriker. I am well aware of your reputation for turning enemies into allies, but this is beyond even your powers. In case her wholesale slaughter of your kind a few days ago in the DFZ wasn’t clue enough, Algonquin hates dragons only slightly less than she hates Mortal Spirits. Even if you could somehow miraculously push through that millennia-old resentment, it wouldn’t matter, because you can’t talk to her. Not where she is.”
“Where is she?” Julius asked.
Marci was wondering the exact same thing. She still didn’t buy Raven’s story about Algonquin not being in her vessel. Spirits were always in their vessels. The hollows at the bottom of the Sea of Magic were the cups that held the magic that made them sentient. Even during the drought, they’d been in there, asleep. Algonquin’s vessel was the outline of her soul, as much a part of her as her water. If she wasn’t inside, where else could she be?
“There,” Raven said, looking up at the darkness that filled the sky. “The Leviathan isn’t just consuming her lakes. He’s consumed her. She’s withdrawn completely inside him, and there’s no way we’re getting her out.”
“There has to be a way.”
“Not without getting eaten yourself,” Raven said. “I know. I just tried. Why do you think I’m in this shape?” He lifted his massive head. “When I realized what had happened, I tried to bash my way inside, but he’s armored himself in Algonquin’s magic.”
“Then you should step aside and let someone bigger try bashing,” Amelia suggested.
“It’s not just a problem of power,” Raven snapped. “Out here, the Leviathan can’t eat us until he’s finished off Algonquin and gotten big enough to fend off the planar defenses, but the inside of his shell is his turf. It’s like being in a spirit’s vessel. He controls everything within his own domain, which means he can eat you at any time without worrying about tipping his hand to the rest of the plane, and as I just learned, his teeth are very sharp.”
Raven lifted his wing, showing them the huge chunk that had been bitten out of the top. “That’s why your plan isn’t going to work,” he went on, turning back to Julius. “The Leviathan might not be done sucking up her water, but Algonquin’s finished. She’s not technically dead yet because of the way spirits work, but she’s buried herself so deep inside her End that she might as well be. Even if you could somehow beat your way to her, the Leviathan would devour you before you could say a word.”
Julius’s face crumpled, and Marci’s heart went out to him. “It was a good plan,” she whispered, reaching out to squeeze his hand.
“Parts of it are still a good plan,” Amelia said. “I was never on board with talking to Algonquin, but burning tentacles is still very much on the table.”
“Agreed,” said General Jackson. “We all die the moment the Leviathan finishes off what’s left of Algonquin’s water, so slowing the draining of the lakes should be our number-one priority. I’ve already got every military jet in North America on standby. Add in Heartstriker and the Golden Empire, and we should have enough air supremacy to stop those tentacles cold.”
Raven shifted his huge clawed feet. “Not to be a naysayer, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough. When I was trying to find a way inside, I got a look at just how big the Leviathan’s body actually is. I couldn’t do a fly-by in the real world due to the still out-of-control magic, but I did nip into the Heart of the World to take a peek through Shiro’s scrying circle.”
Marci had forgotten all about that. “Of course!” she cried, smacking her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Don’t feel bad,” Raven said. “I have infinitely more experience with being tricky than you do. Anyway, the point is, I finally got a clear look at our enemy’s new guise, and it’s big.”
“How big?” Emily asked.
“Apocalyptically,” the spirit replied, scratching a quick map in the frozen dirt with his claw. “The Leviathan’s body spans the entire Great Lakes region. There’s tentacles from the tip of Lake Superior all the way to the eastern edge of Lake Ontario. The water alone is over ninety-five thousand square miles of territory, and he’s covering the land in between as well. That’s seven states with a sky full of giant flying End Times. Not squirrelly little East Coast states, either. Midwestern ones.”
Myron put his head in his hands. “Then we’re finished,” he said quietly. “Even if everything was ready to go right now, there’s no way we can guard that much territory.”
A horrible silence fell after that. Everyone, even Amelia, was looking at the ground. The only ones who didn’t look as though they’d just heard the drums for their own execution were the seers. Bob didn’t even seem to be paying attention. He was just sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, the lids fluttering rapidly as his eyes moved behind them. Marci dearly hoped that meant he was searching the new possibilities for an outcome where they didn’t all die, but he could have been lucid dreaming for all she knew. The Black Reach, on the other hand, was standing to the side with his arms folded as if he were merely an impartial observer to the end of this drama, which, considering he could leave at any time, Marci supposed he was.
“We can still run,” the construct said when the silence had stretched too long.
“You can run,” Amelia snarled. “We’re still screwed.”
“No one needs to run,” Julius said firmly, turning to smile at Marci. “We’ve got the best minds on the planet working together. We can figure this out.”
Marci blushed at the implied compliment, which was as sweet as it was inaccurate. She’d become Merlin because she had the right attitude for the Heart of the World, not because she was a particularly brilliant mage. That was Myron’s job, and he looked just as stumped as everyone else. It wasn’t that she didn’t have her moments, but for all of her academic aspirations, at the end of the day, Marci was just a regular old Yellow Pages mage. Aside from Ghost, the bulk of her actual experience with magic was in curse breaking, wards, and banishing obnoxious minor spirits like the female tank badger she’d pulled off her and Julius’s last paying client before—
Marci froze, eyes going wide. “What about a banishment?”
Amelia arched an eyebrow. “What about a banishment?”
“You can’t banish a Nameless End,” Myron said at the same time. “They’re not spirits.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Marci said, her voice trembling in excitement as she pointed at the black shape in the sky. “The whole reason that thing is able to be in our plane is because Algonquin’s been hiding it. If that’s true, then it doesn’t matter if the Leviathan himself is a spirit a not. He’s relying on Algonquin’s magic to keep himself hidden, and Algonquin can be banished.”
“That makes a surprising amount of sense,” Raven said, turning his head. “Myron, you’re our expert. Could we banish it?”
“In theory, I suppose it’s possible,” Myron admitted grudgingly. “But it won’t work in reality. There’s a reason Algonquin was never banished. She’s just too big. The circle required to suck all the magic out of the Great Lakes would encompass the entire northern hemisphere, not to mention the mages you’d need to actually use it.”
“How many mages?” Emily demanded.
Myron thought for a moment. “At least a hundred thousand, which is ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-two more than the current world record for largest casting team.” He shook his head. “It’s not a bad idea, but it simply won’t work on this scale.”
“Not if I did it your way,” Marci said. “But I’m not talking about a draining banishment.” Her lips curled in a smirk. “I’m talking about dropping the hammer.”
Myron’s eyes grew wide, and then he pressed his palm to his face. “You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?” Julius asked. “What’s the hammer? And why can’t she be serious about it?”
Marci opened her mouth to explain, but Myron beat her to the punch.
“There are two methods of banishing spirits from the physical world,” he said authoritatively. “The most common is a draining banishment, which is where you trap a spirit in a circle and suck out its magic until it either surrenders or can no longer maintain a physical form.”
“That’s what I used on all our spirits back when we had our business,” Marci explained.
“Precisely,” Myron said. “Draining banishments are a staple mage tool because they are a safe, reliable, and highly effective method of controlling spirits. Also, draining banishments don’t require you to have any magic on hand beyond whatever was needed to trap the target initially. Since you’re sucking power out of a spirit, the process is always a net positive for the mage, which is fortunate because you often need that magic to fix whatever disaster inspired you to banish that spirit in the first place.”
“But that’s not what she’s talking about doing,” General Jackson said.
“No,” Myron said, shooting Marci a dirty look. “Miss Novalli is referring to the second type of banishment, colloquially known as a ‘hammer banish.’”
“Why?” Julius asked.
“Because that’s exactly what it does,” Marci said, taking over the conversation before Myron talked them out of the idea she hadn’t even explained yet. “The whole point of a banishment is to reduce a spirit’s magic to the point where it’s no longer a threat. Draining banishments do that by sucking magic out, but hammer banishments do the opposite. They work by hitting spirits with so much power, their own magic is blown to bits. It’s like throwing a rock into a puddle. Get a big enough rock with enough force behind it, and you can knock every drop of water out of that sucker, leaving the puddle dry.”
Raven grimaced. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
“Oh, it’s horrible,” Marci agreed. “It also takes an enormous amount of magic, which is why most mages never do it. But if you can land a hammer banish, it works instantly, which is its key advantage here.” She glanced at Julius and Chelsie. “Remember when we were fighting Vann Jeger, and it took me forever to banish him?”
“How could I forget?” Chelsie growled. “We both nearly died multiple times.”
The Qilin turned to her in wonder. “You fought the Death of Dragons?”
Chelsie nodded as if that was no big deal, but Marci didn’t miss the smug smile she was struggling to hide. Neither did the Golden Emperor, who seemed to be falling in love all over again.
“Anyway,” she moved on. “That’s the downside of a draining banish. Vann Jeger was only a fjord, but I still pulled on him as hard as I could for over half an hour without making a dent in his magic. Assuming being consumed by the Leviathan hasn’t changed her size, Algonquin is much bigger. Even if we could somehow get a hundred thousand mages working together, the Leviathan would probably kill us all before we drained him down to anything like a reasonable size. If we use a hammer banish, though, we won’t have to touch his magic at all, which means he won’t see it coming until the hammer lands on his face.”
“But how are you going to get that much magic?” Myron asked. “A hammer banish requires at least an exponential square of the magical mass of the target. Cubed, if you want to be sure. Where in the world are you going to get that kind of power, and where are you going to put it?”
“Um, dude,” Marci said, pointing at the glowing magic that was still rising from the ground beyond Ghost’s barrier like a snowfall in reverse. “I don’t think magic is going to be a problem. As to where to put it, that would be an issue if we didn’t already have access to the biggest magical circle in the world.”
Myron looked confused for a moment. Then his eyes lit up, and Marci knew she had him. “The Heart of the World,” he said, his voice trembling with excitement. “Of course, it held all the magic in our plane for a thousand years. Assuming we could repair the seal, it would hold the magic necessary for a hammer banish, no problem.”
“So you’re saying it would work,” General Jackson confirmed.
“If we can gain access to the Heart again and fix the circle, it’s definitely possible,” Myron said. “But even if we could pull it off, I still don’t know if it would do any good. Even the hardest banishment is only temporary. You’re just sending a spirit back to the Sea of Magic, not destroying it permanently. All the Leviathan has to do is gather up enough magic to become corporeal again and he’ll pop right back in.”
“If he were a normal spirit, sure,” Marci said. “But as everyone’s gone to great lengths to point out, he’s not a spirit. He’s just hiding inside one. He doesn’t have a domain or a vessel or any of the normal stuff spirits have to catch them when they fly apart. If we banish all his magic, he’ll have no power left and nothing to hide what he really is. Best case scenario, we explode Algonquin’s magic, the Leviathan’s left naked, and the plane kicks him out like it always should. Worst case, we still disperse all the magic he’s gathered, which means he has to spend time picking it up again, maybe a lot of time. The bigger a spirit is, the longer it takes them to re-form after a banishment. I’m sure that cooldown is shortened now that we’re up to our necks in magic, but we’re still putting time back on the clock. That’s not small potatoes considering the death of everything we know might only be a few hours away.”
“Fair point,” Myron admitted grudgingly.
“Of course it is,” Marci said. “You think I didn’t think this through? Small banishments and curse breaking were how I paid my way through college. You just worry about fixing the Heart of the World. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Oh you will, will you?” Myron said suspiciously. “And how do you intend to gather that much magic before the Leviathan eats us all?”
“I’ve got a plan,” Marci said confidently. “You just make sure you’ve got your end.”
Myron looked highly skeptical, but Emily just nodded. “That’s settled, then. We’ll banish it.”
“Hold on,” Svena snapped. “You can’t just say what we’ll do. I don’t take orders from humanity’s dragon slayer.”
“Too bad,” Emily replied dryly, crossing her scrap-metal arms over her chest. “Because so long as our Merlins are the ones with the plan, humanity’s holding the cards right now.”
“Would you both knock it off?” Marci said. “We’re all in this barrel going over the waterfall together, don’t forget.”
“I forget nothing,” Svena said. “And I did not say your plan was bad, just that I would not take orders.” She glanced up at the Leviathan. “You will need time to pull this off, yes?”
Marci nodded. “Not as much as we’d need for a draining banishment, but it’ll still take a while to repair the circle and get the magic together.”
“How long?”
“To repair a catastrophic break in the greatest piece of spellwork architecture the world has ever known?” Myron blew out a long breath. “I’d have to do the math before I could—”
“More than an hour?”
When he nodded, Svena turned to stare at the Phoenix with unnervingly predatory ice-blue eyes. “Humans do not have all the cards, it seems. If you are going to do this, you will need our help.”
“I thought you’d already agreed to help.”
“They agreed,” Svena snapped, waving her hand at Julius and the Qilin. “But I alone speak for myself and my sisters.”
Emily heaved a long-suffering sigh. “What do you want?”
“Complete immunity for my clan from the UN’s dragon hunts,” Svena said without missing a beat. “And no more shipping through the Siberian Sea. That is my private territory, and the vibrations from the cargo ships disturb my magic.”
“Really?” Julius said. “You’re worried about this now?”
“I can’t make Russia give up its northern trade lanes,” Emily said at the same time. “I’m general of the UN’s Anti-Dragon task force, not queen of humanity.”
“If we help save the world, I see no reason why our demands cannot be met,” Svena said stubbornly. “I’m promising you the most magical dragons in the world. Surely that’s worth some international leverage.”
Emily ground her teeth. “Fine,” she said at last. “I just hope for everyone’s sake you’re not all talk.”
“You have not begun to see what we can do, tin soldier,” Svena replied, lifting her chin. “My sisters and I were burning spirits to ash back when your kind was still farming dirt with rocks. We will show that black slug what it means to trespass on our plane.”
Katya nodded rapidly at that, clutching Svena’s fluffy hatchlings in her arms. Amelia, however, looked less impressed. “How are you going to do that?” she asked. “Not to dig up old grudges, but you couldn’t beat me. What chance do you think you’ll have against Big and Ugly up there?”
“Why must you always be so literal?” Svena snapped. “I didn’t mean I was going to beat him. As the Phoenix just pointed out, that’s the humans’ job now. All we need to do is stall the creature. For that, we need dragons, and I know how to get us dragons.”
Amelia scoffed. “Where from? Because unless you’ve got a few hundred more puffball whelps you haven’t mentioned, your clan’s a little short to be making promises like that.”
“Please,” Svena said. “Only your mother confuses children with power. I was referring to this.” She reached out to poke Amelia in the breastbone. “You’re the one who set herself up as a god. Start acting like one.”
Marci had no idea what that meant, but Amelia was staring at Svena as if the white dragon had just shown her magic for the first time. “She’s right.”
“Of course I’m right,” Svena said. “I’ve always been the brains to your brute strength. That’s how our relationship works.”
“Shut up,” Amelia said, but her face was a huge grin as she turned to face her brother. “You need dragons to slow the Leviathan? I can get you every single one.”
“That would be amazing,” Julius said. “But how? Can you open portals straight to dragons now?”
Amelia sighed. “Sadly, no. I’m not that awesome, at least not yet. But I am connected to every living dragon’s fire, which means I know where everyone is, and I can talk to all of them.”
“Great,” Chelsie grumbled. “Of all the dragons, you’re the one with the megaphone.”
“You won’t be complaining when we save your feathers,” Amelia snapped. “I might not be able to bring in the dragons I call, but I don’t have to. As she just proved by teleporting through a magical disaster, we already have the best teleportation mage in dragon history right here with us.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Planeswalker,” Svena said with a sniff. “But feel free to go on.”
“I’d rather you show me yourself,” Amelia said, turning her grin on Svena. “You started this plan. Here’s how we’ll finish it. I can locate any dragon, and I know you can teleport anyone anywhere if you know where they are.”
Svena jerked back so fast that that her daughter, who was sleeping on her shoulder, nearly fell off. “How do you know that?” she cried. “That knowledge is top secret, the hidden weapon of my family!”
Now it was Amelia’s turn to look smug. “It was secret, until I read it in your fire.”
“What?”
Amelia placed a hand on her chest. “Hey, god here, remember? I see you when you’re sleeping, I know when you’re awake. I know if you’ve been bad or good, so do what I say, for goodness’ sake!”
Svena clenched her jaw. “First, that doesn’t even work with the song. Second, Santa Claus is not a god, so your comparison isn’t just stupid, it’s also incorrect. Third, this whole thing is invasive and disrespectful. I never gave you permission to read things out of my fire!”
“I can’t control what I see,” Amelia said defensively. “I just looked, and there it was. What was I supposed to do, not see it? Besides, this was your idea.”
“My idea was for you to do the shuttle service!” Svena roared. “Do you know how much magic teleportation takes? I just laid a full clutch of eggs! You can’t expect me to teleport hundreds of dragons thousands of miles through magical fallout!”
“You’re the one who’s always claiming to be the greatest dragon mage in the world,” Amelia reminded her. “It’s put up or shut up time. Your secret’s already out, so we might as well use it not to die. And speaking of not dying, we need to get on that, because we’re racing against an unknown timer, and we’ve been standing around talking for, like, three days.”
They’d been here for thirty minutes tops, but the point must have been well made because, after several angry huffs of icy smoke, Svena threw up her hands. “Fine. But this is not over, Planeswalker! I want to know exactly what you’ve seen of my abilities, and then I want to know about everyone else’s.”
Amelia snorted. “What happened to ‘Oh Amelia, how could you? That’s so invasive and disrespectful!’”
“It was,” Svena said. “To me. I don’t care if you disrespect the operational security of other dragon clans. That’s just good intelligence.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Amelia said, turning to give Julius a wink. “Ice Queen and I will handle the dragon delivery. Can you get Heartstriker here on your own, or should I pull them in too?”
Julius looked at Fredrick, who nodded. “We’ll take care of Heartstriker. You and Svena bring in everyone else.”
“Not my clans,” the Golden Emperor said. “As I said before, they should already be on their way, and I wish to speak to all of them before this begins.”
“Just make it quick,” Amelia said. “I know you’re luck incarnate, but we’re on a schedule here.”
With that, she walked over to join Svena, who was already staking out a large section of dirt in what would have been Marci and Julius’s front yard if they’d had a yard. Or a house anymore.
“I guess that takes care of that,” Julius said nervously as he turned to Marci. “We’ll get everyone together and stall the Leviathan for as long as we can. How long do you think it will take you to line up what you need for the banishment?”
“That depends on how quickly Myron can work and how much help I can wrangle,” Marci said, glancing at General Jackson, who was already back on the phone as Myron whispered frantically into her free ear. “But I promise we’ll go as fast as we can.”
“I know you will,” he said. “You always do your best.” He looked down at her for a long moment after that, his inhumanly green eyes nervous, like he wanted to say something else but couldn’t. She was about to tell him to just spit it out when Julius swooped down and kissed her.
Even after last night, the move took her by surprise. She was so used to walking a narrow line on her feelings for Julius, she didn’t know what to do with herself now that it was all out in the open. But Marci had always been a quick study, and she got with the program in a heartbeat, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. She was getting even closer when a cleared throat made them both jump, and Marci whipped her head around to see Myron waiting a few feet away.
“If you don’t mind,” he said, tapping the cracked face of his wristwatch.
Marci felt her face turn beet red, but she didn’t apologize. Instead, she kissed Julius again, holding him close one last time before she reluctantly stepped away. “Good luck.”
“You too,” he said, giving her the thousand-watt smile that only came out when he was really happy. “We can do this.”
“We can do this,” Marci agreed as Myron pulled her away. She was still staring at him wistfully when the UN mage grabbed her shoulder and yanked her around.
“Ow!” she said, smacking his hand away. “What gives?”
“Everything’s going to give if you don’t pay attention,” he said angrily. “This is the end of the world, not romance time with other species.”
“If I waited until the world wasn’t ending, I’d never see Julius at all,” Marci snapped. Still, Myron had a point. “Okay,” she said, sneaking one last look at Julius before she put on her serious face. “What are we doing?”
“You tell me,” he said. “You’re the one with the plan.”
Again, fair point. “Right,” she said, scrambling to regather the thoughts Julius had just scattered. “The first thing we need to do is get back to the Heart of the World.” She paused, frowning. “Um, how do we get back to the Heart of the World?”
“I usually just follow my spirit,” Myron said with a shrug. “The DFZ seems to be able to travel freely between both sides. For you, though, I have no idea.”
That made two of them. “Stay right here,” Marci said, backing up toward the house. “I have to have a quick meeting.”
“Make sure it’s very quick,” Myron said, raising his voice in warning. “You put yourself at the center of this, Novalli. If you can’t pull it off, we’re in trouble.”
They were in a lot more than that if she couldn’t figure this out, but Marci wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t entirely sure of the details yet, but after everything else she’d been through, Marci was positive she could pull this off too. She didn’t have a choice. Failure was not an option, so she shoved the nagging doubts out of her mind and ran up the broken porch steps toward her spirit, who was still valiantly holding up the barrier that kept the rampant magic from cooking them all.