“Why in tarnation was Deka grinning like a fool?” Yolanda asked, the slightest of creases marring her brow.

“As if you don’t know,” Babette snorted. “Surely, you’re not that dense, Mother?” Just in case, she might have done a hip sway and sung a few bars of Bow-chica-wow-wow.

The exaggerated sigh was totally worth it.

“Who was the naked man behind her?” Aunt Xylia asked.

“Who do you think it was?” Then again, the scruffy beard made it hard to tell. The fact that they’d seen anything at all was a surprise. With the empty farm field a bust, they’d regrouped at the hotel. It was Aunt Xylia who returned at the insistence of Aunt Valda to set up surveillance in case there was an entrance to a hidden underground base. Those existed a lot more than people realized.

The tripod and camera they’d left behind hadn’t caught a single thing but buzzing bees and butterflies until the interdimensional rip opened!

That caused quite a stir.

“We should have set up base camp in the field,” Xylia grumbled, miffed they’d not stayed behind. However, in their defense, they’d not exactly expected a portal between worlds.

When the dark doorway opened unexpectedly, with a crackle of lightning in a cloudless sky, it set off the alarms on their video surveillance system. Shoving each other out of the way, jostling for position, they’d crowded around the laptop, only to gape in astonishment as the very air itself turned into an opaque portal that gave a glimpse into another world.

A hellish-looking world with a stormy sky split with jagged branches of lightning, ancient-looking monolith-type rings of stone, and the hint of a castle beyond it.

So freaking cool.

A figure, the eyes a bright red, the cloak billowing in true super-villain fashion, swept through the rip.

“It’s that bitch who delivered us Anastasia’s head!” Babette remarked.

As if any of them would ever forget those glowing red orbs.

The woman in the cloak, which danced around her like ephemeral strands of smoke, paused only a moment to look behind through the portal at the world she fled. A doorway that showed—

“There’s Deka!” Babette pointed to the silver dragon that flowed into view.

“Shhh.”

They kept watching, and through the shitty video feed saw Deka pause instead of coming through. Shifting to her human form, she glanced over her shoulder as if looking for someone. Then, instead of stepping through the door, she waved and mouthed something.

The portal shut. But Babette would have wagered Deka was fine with that because she’d found her Golden prince. Actually, Deka’s exact mouthed words were—as Aunt V later deciphered through the use of video replay and lip reading—“Having the time of my life. Tell Mom not to worry.”

But that was later. In the here and now, they sat around staring at the screen, showing once again a cow field with scraggly grass and flitting butterflies.

Of the red-eyed woman, nothing. Of Deka, also no trace. As for the doorway, examination by the finest equipment couldn’t detect it.

Later that day, hands on her hips, Babette’s mother surveyed the field. “I hate to break it to you, Xy, but I don’t think we’re gonna be able to crack it open.”

Aunt Xylia grimaced. “Bloody magic. Give me a good ol’ potion with actual ingredients any day over metaphysical crap.”

“Auntie!” Babette gasped. Just because it was fun to watch her take out the flask and swig from it.

“Good thing you told your daughter to stay away from that Gold.”

“So predictable, eh?” Xylia retorted. “Nothing like forbidding a child to make them do the opposite.”

Yolanda snorted. “You’re telling me.”

The meaning of the words jolted. Babette eyed her aunt. “You did that on purpose? You wanted her to find Samael?”

“Of course, we did.” Her mother smiled slyly. “Just because Zahra doesn’t want Samael found on account of her daughter being married to a half-breed Gold, and because she’s allied herself with the king, doesn’t mean we don’t want the same prestige for our daughters.”

“Um, I don’t want to marry a guy.” That had been an awkward conversation a few years ago. Babette thought her mother understood her preference.

“Not you, silly. Deka. My girl could be queen.” Aunt Xylia rubbed her hands, and the glee practically dripped from them.

“I can see why Auntie would want to do this, but why are you helping?” she asked her mother.

“You’re Deka’s best friend.” Mother shrugged. “Have I taught you nothing about grabbing power? When you spot a chance, always ensure your hierarchy in the Sept.” Because much as it was about family, even within the family, there was an echelon, and remaining in the top spots took maneuvering.

“I’d say given the lack of clothes on her, and his definite displacement of them”—giving them all an eyeful of his assets, enough to make Babette happy she went another route—“that things are going well.”

“Think he’ll manage to impregnate her before they figure a way out?” Yolanda asked, tapping her chin with a finger.

“Knowing Deka, she’s already screwing him and making sure he doesn’t even think of opening that door,” Babette declared. “But I have to say, aren’t you guys worried at all about the fact that the crazy red-eyed chick is back?”

“Bah. What can one female do?”

Words they would come to swallow as that one chick, and her blazing orbs, sent out her army of humans armed with guns, her wyverns armed with teeth and claw—and Molotov cocktails—to start an Armageddon.

The Septs hadn’t been this excited in years. Decades. Centuries. And the old leather armor and light metal plates were dug out and polished for battle.