Kaelith rolled his eyes as he brushed sand from his cheek. “Sure you can.”
Fenn adjusted his grip, already scanning the path ahead. “The presence in the orb is failing,” he said. “Whatever held this place together—her pain—it’s unraveling.”
“Not unraveling,” Kaelith countered between heartbeats. “Ending. The barrier, the enemy’s prison, is coming down now that the jailer is gone.”
Rynna’s head lolled against Fenn’s shoulder, the pounding in her bandaged arm syncing with the rhythmic jolt of each stride as they moved across the desert back to the Waygate.
“Jailer?” she rasped. “What are you talking about?”
Fenn vaulted over a dead stepping stone, landing lightly on the next one. “The matriarch. Last of the old shifter bloodlines. She offered herself as bait for the enemy. Her agony fed it, but it also kept it locked here. As long as she screamed, the cage held.”
Kaelith danced across the path behind them. “She didn’t believe anyone could win. She was holding the line until the world ended.”
“And now?” Rynna coughed, heat burning her throat. Overhead, the desert’s stars cut against the dark.
“Now she’s passed that duty to us,” Fenn said, his gaze flicking briefly to where the pavilion stood in the distance like a jagged maw. “And she’s finally allowed herself to stop.”
The glowing stones marking the trail flickered violently, some winking out entirely.
“The path won’t hold long.” Rynna dug into Fenn’s shoulder.
Kaelith bared his teeth. “Then we run faster.”
They pounded across the desert, boots hammering, as the glowing stones winked out one by one behind them, swallowed by darkness and shifting sand. Ahead, the pavilion’s monoliths loomed through the haze—tall, jagged silhouettes against the night.
Almost there!Rynna watched as the final stone flared and dimmed beneath their feet.
But Fenn and Kaelith pushed harder, leaping clear just as it vanished.
Hitting the pavilion, grit skidded under their feet as they barreled between the standing stones. Around them, the sand surrounding the pavilion began a gradual churn, as if the desert itself were coming to life.
For a moment, they simply stood there, hearts hammering, lungs burning in the dry night air.
“Staying on the path was likely a very good thing.” Kaelith licked his lips, watching the sand churn harder, lapping at the outer ring of their small island.
Fenn set her on her feet, his arm immediately sliding around her back to keep her upright as Kaelith moved in on her other side, his hand gripping her good elbow.
“Can you manage?” Fenn asked, his voice calm. “I don’t think we have long here.”
“No.” She swallowed. “But I’ll do it anyway.”
The air around the pavilion vibrated with unstable Source power, the corrupted Waygate crackling like a live wire straining against its bonds.
Rynna forced her shoulders back, bracing for what waited on the other side, and the three of them moved toward the gate as one, their steps falling into sync, as if they’d always walked side by side. Gathering her Will, she wrapped it around Fenn and Kaelith, holding them close in the way only she could, threading her power through their presence until they anchored inside her.
“Ok.” She gulped at the air, facing the gate, its foul energy raking her mind. “One more jump.”
Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as whispers of fractures and failure, and what would happen if the portal collapsed while they were inside.
No.
She pushed the fragments back, locking the fear behind her Will. One breath. Then another. And then, together, she pulled them through the gate’s crack in reality.
Chapter fifty-seven
ThegatescreamedasSource power warped and twisted in a sound like metal being peeled apart around them. The world inverted, and heat pressed against her skin, crushing air from her lungs.
Then, the world jerked back into place.
