“It isnotokay!” he shouted. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you! When you left me up there holding the dam together with my bare hands, you didn’t tell me you were going to shake the tank! That crack is as wide as my arm! It’s—”
“Myron,” she snapped. “Wegetit. Things are FUBAR. But we can still fix them, becauseyourspirit”—she looked pointedly at the rat behind him—“has already taken her chill pill, so why don’t you chill, too?”
“You’re still not understanding,” the mage said through gritted teeth, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the DFZ, who watched him back warily. “I’m very grateful to the DFZ for deescalating, but the damage is already done. The only reason a thousand years of magic isn’t falling on our heads right now is because I rigged up the world’s most ridiculously temporary barrier, and it’s not going to hold much longer. This is bigger than the DFZ. What you did here has sent tidal waves all through the Sea of Magic. If we can’t reverse them, the whole mountain’s going to crack.”
“What mountain?” Julius asked, thoroughly confused.
“He means the Heart of the World,” Marci explained. “It’s the place where the ancient Merlins put all the magic they sealed off during the drought.”
“Wait,” he said, horrified. “Merlinscaused the drought?”
“It’s a long story,” she said. “What matters is that all that magic didn’t just go away. It’s built up behind a seal.”
“And the seal’s cracking,” Julius said, nodding. “I got that part.”
“The crack is the least of our worries,” Myron said angrily. “Acrackcan be managed, which is exactly what I was doing when you reckless idiots started rocking the boat. We’re on the edge of catastrophic failure. Once my barrier fails—and itwill—we’re looking at a total shattering, and not just of the seal. The whole mountain could blow, releasing a thousand years of magic back into the world in a single blast.”
“Oh,” Marci said, pursing her lips. “That’s worse than I thought.”
“So how do we stop it?” Julius asked.
“I told you,” Myron snapped. “We have to calm the Sea of Magic down. I mean press itflat. If we can do that, there’s a chance Marci and I may be able to build some kind of housing around the seal before it reaches critical mass.”
“That’s a lot of ‘chances’ and ‘mays,’” Amelia pointed out. “But you’re forgetting a critical factor in all of this:us.” She turned to Julius. “Who did you say was keeping Algonquin busy?”
“Chelsie and Fredrick,” he answered at once. “And the Qilin.”
Amelia’s eyebrows shot up. “No way! The Golden Emperor’s in on this?” When he nodded, she whistled. “That explains a lot. I can’t believe Bob wrangled the Qilin into his deck. I knew that kid had talent!”
Julius stared at her. “You can’t think this is all Bob’s doing.”
“Who else’s doing would it be?” she asked. “How do you think I got here? Or you? Why doyouthink you were in the DFZ at the exact right moment to see Marci come back and get involved in this merry venture? Luck?”
Normally, Julius would say no, but with the Qilin... “Maybe?”
Amelia snorted out a ring of smoke. “You need to trust your brother,” she scolded. “We’re all pieces on his board, even me. I’m cool with that, though, because Bob alwayswins. That’s his superpower. He takes an impossible situation, and he makes it his. And speaking of impossible situations, I’m going to go lend my dear little sister and her golden boyfriend my godly assistance. That should buy you”—she turned her glare on Myron—“enough time to do your part of this job.”
“Weren’t you listening?” Myron cried. “Thereisno more job! Raven’s plan is a wash. The seal is far more—”
“Raven’s plan is all we have,” Amelia snarled at him. “That seal is nothing compared to what will happen if Algonquin goes to her End, get me?”
Julius didn’t at all, but whatever she’d said was enough to make Myron go pale. He was still opening and closing his mouth when the pile of trash beneath them began to shake.
“It’s not me,” the DFZ said when everyone looked at her. “I’m not—”
She didn’t get to finish, because at that moment, one of the flattened cars flew up off the ground like it had been launched, sailing into the dark to land with a distantsplash. The water was still falling when Raven flew out of the hole where the car had been, and behind him was…Julius wasn’t sure, actually.
It looked like a modern art statue made from spare bits of metal bound together with silver ribbon. Aside from having the right number of arms and legs, though, the only part of it that actually looked human was its head, which was that of a stern, middle-aged, dark-skinned woman, her brows furrowed in grim determination as she maneuvered her scrap body out of the muck.
“Sorry for the delay,” Raven said cheerfully. “I had to fix my favorite toy soldier.”
“Are you sure you succeeded?” Amelia said, looking the amalgam up and down. “She looks like a bunch of trash tied together.”
“I’m a scavenger,” Raven said defensively. “I made do with what I had. But that’s the lovely thing about my Phoenix: she may not look pretty, but she always rises from her ashes.”
“Sorry for being out of service,” General Jackson said, her voice creaking and rusty but unmistakably human. “I’m obviously not field ready yet, but Raven’s been filling me in, and when we heard you were planning to go fight Algonquin, we had to come out ahead of schedule.”
“Got jealous, did you?” Amelia asked, wiggling her eyebrows. “You’re welcome to come with.”
