She looks around at the assembled group. “Fossil fuels will be next. We’ve got to figure out how the hell we’re going to get rid of them.”
The room goes quiet. Even the babies have stopped crying, worn out from all the stress.
“Get Phoenix.” Kharon’s statement is simple, direct. The voice of someone used to giving orders and having them followed. “She brought them. She can send them home.”
Sabra turns to look at him, and I can see her weighing how to deliver bad news to a creature who could probably snap her in half without trying. “She can’t, actually.” Her voice is gentle but firm. “We can’t use the same kind of summoning circle to send them back as we used to bring them.”
“Why not?” Kharon’s tone suggests he’s not accepting that answer.
“Because it’s not built for that.” Sabra stands up, and I’m simultaneously impressed and terrified by her courage as she gets in Kharon’s face. She’s literally half his height, but shedoesn’t back down. “Well, itwas, until Grandpa Vlad went off script and used your blood to supercharge Phoenix.”
Kharon glowers down at her. “What difference does that make?”
“All the difference, actually.” Sabra’s eyes flash. “You’re the plane-crosser. Can’tyoutake them back to where they came from?”
Kharon’s mouth actually drops open. He stares at Sabra like she just suggested he could fly to the moon by flapping his arms. “It doesn’t work like that!” His shout makes everyone jump. “I can only cross to the deathly plane.”
But Sabra just shakes her head, undeterred. “I doubt it. Have you eventriedgoing to other planes?”
Kharon scoffs, and there’s genuine anger in the sound now. “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do. What do you know of me? My father explained my role to me?—”
“So just because your dad said you could only go to the human death plane, that’s the only place you ever tried?” Sabra sounds distinctly unimpressed. “I’ve never heard of a plane-crosser who can only cross to a single plane. It’s far more likely that was just the first plane you crossed to, and then you stopped looking because you thought that was all there was.”
Kharon opens his mouth to argue?—
Sabra holds up a hand, cutting him off. “The fact that Vlad drinking your blood helped boost Phoenix’s power to bring the Devourers over is proof. If your daughter has inherited any of your powers, I bet she’ll be able to travel to more than just the one plane you regularly go to.”
Kharon and Ksenia exchange a look. A long, complicated look full of things I don’t understand.
But I remember the helicopter ride from Russia. I remember watching their newborn baby—tiny, helpless Luna—do something impossible. Something that makes everyone in theroom who was on that insane helicopter ride through the mirror in the sky into a realm that was nothing like this one suddenly go very, very quiet.
I suppress a shudder and don’t quite manage it. Remus’s hand finds mine, squeezes.
“Fine.” Kharon forces the word through gritted teeth. “But if I can’t access that power, it still doesn’t help us, does it?”
Sabra breathes out slowly, looking around like she’s hoping someone else will have a better idea. “We need Phoenix. Since she reached out there once with her mind at least—to call the creatures here—maybe she’ll be able to help you...” She waves a hand vaguely. “I don’t know,connectwith it? Maybe together, the two of you can figure out how to cross to their plane. Get them back once they’re done eating up all the nuclear power on this planet before they move on to all the other energy sources we have left on Earth.”
The weight of that settles over the room. The temporary reprieve we just got—saved from nuclear war by interdimensional creatures—comes with an expiration date.
“I don’t think Earth is the immediate problem.” Ksenia’s quiet voice cuts through the tension.
Everyone’s head swivels toward her. She’s sitting on the couch, calmly breastfeeding her daughter like we’re not discussing the end of the world. Again.
“What do you mean?” Sabra asks.
“Look at the screen.” Ksenia nods toward the TV with her chin, both hands occupied with baby Luna.
Our heads all turn in unison, like we’re choreographed. Layden grabs the remote and turns up the volume.
“Everything that’s happened in the past hour has been absolutely unprecedented.” The newscaster has that slightly manic energy of someone who’s been on air too long with too much breaking news. “And this new unfolding situationcontinues in that vein. The creatures who have descended on many nuclear facilities across the globe appear now to be... retreating. Into space.”
The feed switches to a wide-angle view of the sky. And there—oh god, there they are. The Devourers, glowing from within like bioluminescent deep-sea creatures, forming a long never-ending line that stretches up and up and up into the atmosphere.
“Space?” Kharon sounds genuinely confused.
“Oh my god.” Layden breathes it out like a prayer or a curse.
“What?” I lean forward, trying to understand what I’m seeing. “Why are they going to space? It’s not like they’re actual aliens.”
