Myron started to say something, but Marci wasn’t listening anymore. All this talk about Julius and death and things being ruined forever had only reminded her of how much was at stake. She didn’t care what it took or what she had to do—shewouldbecome a Merlin, shewouldfix this, and shewouldget home. She was going to make this right for everyone, and then, when it was over and she finally got back to Julius, she was never letting him go again.
With that certainty burning in her like dragon fire, Marci marched across the stone to the wide-open Merlin Gate, stepping over the threshold without hesitation out of the dark and into the streaming light.
***
At the same time, back in the DFZ, in the sealed-off cavern beneath the Financial District locals called the Pit, Algonquin clutched her water.
She didn’t even need to look at Myron’s still-unconscious body lying face down in the circle to know things weren’t going well on the other side. Her magic was there, too. She’d felt it just like everyone else. Something had broken in the Sea of Magic, something huge. Myron, however, had not woken up. He was alive, his chest rising and falling beneath the Phoenix’s head, but that didn’t mean much. Whatever was going on, he clearly hadn’t made the jump to Merlin. His spirit, though, was sweeping through the magic like a battering ram, which meant they were now in a worst-case scenario.
“Lady Algonquin!”
The human voice was more fearful than usual, so Algonquin forced her water into a passable semblance of a mortal face and turned to deal with the problem, which turned out to be one of her commanders. Which one, she couldn’t say. All mortals looked the same to her, and they died so quickly there was no point in learning their names. Fortunately, she paid her troops enough not to care about such things, and the armored woman didn’t even hesitate before she gave her report.
“Lady,” she said, saluting. “The mages are reporting that Sir Myron is no longer in control of his binding. The circle itself is holding for now, but no one knows how long that will last. The mage commander is requesting your permission to move the binding circle away from the city center to avoid infrastructure damage and civilian casualties.”
That was a sensible request. Mortals were easily replaced, but Skyways were expensive. Moving the silver circle made from the Phoenix’s innards would make it infinitely more difficult for Myron to find his body again, but if he’d failed to become Merlin as it appeared, then he was as good as dead anyway. Algonquin was through with him in any case, but as she opened her mouth to give the order to fall back to the wastes beyond Reclamation Land, the ground began to shake.
Algonquin bolted, abandoning her watery body under the Pit entirely as she rushed back to check on her lakes, but her fish were calm. This was no earthquake. Whatever was shaking, it only seemed to be affecting the city. It was still going when she returned to the Pit, animating her water there once again in a terrified rush.
“Evacuate the Skyways.”
Her commander’s head snapped up. “Lady?”
“You heard me,” she snarled, flowing over the ground to the unmanned circle that still contained Myron’s sleeping body. “I want everyone out. Empty the city.”
There was no backtalk this time. The commander didn’t even salute. She just started running for the trucks, yelling into her comm that they were now in Evac One, and this was not a drill. Algonquin shut her out after that, focusing all her water on the magic she could now feel rising from the ground beneath her like a fist.
This will confuse your history,the Leviathan whispered, his deep, alien voice sliding through her water like oil.They will call you merciful.
“What do I care how the humans remember me?” Algonquin said, expanding her water to surround the silver circle. “I’m not doing this to save them. I’m evacuating the city because a city without people is nothing but a shell.” And given the size of the magic bearing down on them, she was going to need every advantage she could find.
You can’t win, you know,the Leviathan said, creeping closer through the dark.I warned you at the beginning that this was a losing battle. The humans are too many, and their fears are too strong. They will destroy everything you love. Only I can stop them. Only I can save you.His tentacles rose to wrap lovingly around her.Rest, Algonquin. Let me fight for you.
“Not yet,” she growled, shoving him away as she called her water, raising Lake St. Clair to burst through the protective walls she’d built to stop the contamination and flood the Pit once more. “I’m not beaten yet.”
You will be,he whispered, his tentacles brushing her once more before sliding away.But I am patient. I will wait for you, and when the time is right, you’ll be mine.
“Good,” she said, pulling more water in. “Because until that happens, you’re stillmine. Now keep your promise and help me hold this down.”
The monster chuckled.As you command, my Lady of the Lakes.
His whispering voice was mocking, but Algonquin had nothing left to put him in his place. Everything she had, all the water she could safely pull without stranding her beloved fish, was focused on pushing down the magic that was rapidly building toward critical inside the unmanned circle.
“Not yet,” she whispered, bearing down with all her strength. “You haven’t won yet.”
The trapped Mortal Spirit howled, an earsplitting cry of rage and vengeance that shattered every piece of glass on the armored convoy that was still peeling out of the Pit. Algonquin answered in kind with rage of her own, making the whole Pit tremble as she crushed it under a ten-foot wave of violent, rushing water.
And far, far away, farther than even spirits could comprehend, the Leviathan bided its time.
Chapter 9
When he’d jumped down the bolthole in Bethesda’s closet, Julius had fully expected to end up in a panic room. Powerful as his mother’s paranoia was, though, even she couldn’t control physical space. The cramped quarters that came from living inside a mountain peak simply didn’t allow for a private bunker. As a result, Bethesda’s emergency exit dumped Julius, Fredrick, and Chelsie into Bob’s room one floor below.
Through the ceiling. Of a dragon-sized cave.
Naturally, Chelsie and Fredrick took the twenty-foot fall just fine, landing on their feet as dragons should. Julius’s descent wasn’t nearly so graceful. He didn’t quite plummet like a rock, but it was close. Thankfully, there was plenty of junk around to break his fall.
He landed in a pile of old magazines, dusty Post-It notes, and at least a dozen boxes containing T-shirts for the New Mexico Carrier Pigeon Appreciation Society. He was struggling to get his feet under him when Chelsie grabbed his arm.
