With a shaky breath, Marci nodded. She turned away from the cliff where Amelia had vanished and walked back toward the others, who were still standing beside the cracked seal. “Myron,” she said firmly, “keep an eye on that crack. Block it with your own magic if you have to, but donotlet it break.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “It’ll be about as useful as putting my finger in the dike, but I’ll try. Just don’t take too long. And good luck.” He glanced nervously at the wild sea. “You’ll need it.”
In the strangest way, Marci felt like she already had it, because scared as she was, she’d never felt luckier in her life. She wasn’t sure if that was from knowing she was safe in Bob’s matrix or what, but the moment Myron said it, Marci knew from the top of her head to the tip of her toes that he was right. This was her lucky break, and she was going to need every bit of it.
“Ready?”she asked Ghost.
Rather than answer, her spirit jumped at her, turning back into a fluffy white cat just before he landed in her arms. When he was safely curled in a freezing ball against her chest, Marci turned back to Raven with a determined look.
“Take us back.”
It was impossible to tell, thanks to the beak, but she would have sworn the bird spirit grinned at her as he spread his wings. When he flapped them, his talons dug painfully into her shoulder, yanking her soul out of the Heart of the World and into the dark beyond.
***
Back in the DFZ, everything was going wrong.
Algonquin knelt at the bottom of the lake she’d made in the Pit. The lake that wassupposedto hold the monster down, but was now draining away. She didn’t even know how it had happened. The water was hers, pulled from all her bodies through rivers and lakes and storm drains, from the very bottom of herself. This entire section of the DFZ should have been under her absolute control. Hers to command, just like the beds of the lakes that gave her her name. And yet, somehow, it wasn’t.
Water had slipped. Magic had failed. Leftover spellwork from her mages had interacted poorly. The crazed spirit below had gotten a few lucky hits. Alone, none of it would have mattered. Together, though, it had been too much, and she’d been forced to let the water—herwater, her life, the essence of what she was—go. Now it was all flooding uselessly through her city in a wave of failure, and she didn’t know if she had the strength to pull it in a second time.
I told you it was lost.
“It’s not lost,” Algonquin said bitterly, looking back at the shadow that was always behind her. “It’s just bad luck.”
Bad luck like this doesn’t happen by accident,the Leviathan said.You saw the reports of the Chinese dragons’ arrival in New Mexico. You knew the Qilin was close. I warned you to be careful.
“I’ve been careful!” she cried. “I’ve killed every dragon that dared enter my city, but I can’t do anything about worms on the other side of the world. What would you have me do, flood China?” She rippled with rage. “I can’t exterminate their entire species by myself!”
I can.
“Yes,” she said, her voice quiet. “Yes, you can. But not yet.”
Why not?
“Because I’m not ready,” she snapped, turning back to the circle. “I’m not defeated yet!”
Black tentacles came out of the dark to curl around her.There, there,he whispered.You’ve fought so hard, but there’s no point in lying to yourself. You always knew it would come to this. That’s why you called to me. No one can say you haven’t gone above and beyond, but one spirit cannot stand against the world.The tentacles snaked through her water, wrapping through her like coils.Let me finish your work. Let me in, and I will devour all your enemies.
The words were cool darkness in her mind, welcoming as sleep, but Algonquin had already slept enough for an immortal lifetime. “No,” she said stubbornly, shoving his touch away. “Not yet.” Her water clenched. “I’m not beaten yet.”
But you will be,the Leviathan promised, his huge head lifting above her in the dark.It’s already coming. Listen to the wings.
She couldn’t miss them. There was no way to see the sky from down in the Pit, but this bird wasn’t in the sky. He was in the world that belonged only to them, a huge black specter flying through the Sea of Magic with prey in his claws. Raven, the traitor, was bringing someone back from the other side. Who or for what purpose, Algonquin didn’t know, but if he could do that…
Then the end is even closer than you thought,the Leviathan finished, shaking his head.There’s no stopping this, Algonquin. Every second, the trickle of magic pouring back into the world widens, and your dream of turning back the clock grows fainter and fainter, if it was ever possible at all.
His tentacles flicked over the circle Myron had made out of Raven’s construct. The one she was currently using to keep the monster they’d built at bay.Your would-be Merlin is lost, your city is in ruins thanks to the dragon’s cursed luck, and you have already given everything you have. You are finished. Now’s the time to give up. Let me help you. Let me save you while you still have something to save.
Algonquin clenched her water tight. But before she could tell him she wouldnevergo down, not so long as she had a drop left in her, the circle of spellwork she’d been keeping closed through sheer brute force finally burst open, sending what was left of her water flying into the dark as the spirit she’d been desperately holding back exploded into the world.
“ALGOOOOOONQUUUUUUIN!”
The name was a hateful cacophony, an ugly combination of car horns and gunshots and every other terrible sound the hideous city could make. The Lady of the Lakes roared back, slamming the thing trying to crawl out of the broken circle back down under a wave of pounding water, river silt, and raw determination.
“Not yet!” she screamed, hammering it again and again. “I’m not dead yet!”
She wasn’t even sure whom she was screaming at: the city trying to claw its way through her, or the shadow waiting like a vulture behind her. Either way, the words were true. Even like this, even now, she was still Algonquin, Lady of the Lakes. The only spirit who’d ever stood up to humanity and survived. Her fury had already drowned Detroit once. If the DFZ pushed her now, she’d gladly do it again, and this time, the city would never be rebuilt.
