“We have two of the three Keys right here,” Logan said. Interesting. If they could only find the third.
Mercy shook her head. “I won’t be a Key.”
Adare’s dark eyebrow rose. “I don’t think you have a choice in that.”
“Yes, I do.” Mercy took her marker. “Before I start, please make a mental note not to be insulted by anything I say.” She worried her bottom lip with her teeth, looking like an incredibly sexy librarian. “You just don’t have the knowledge we do.”
No. That wasn’t insulting at all. Logan bit back another grin.
The back door slammed open, and Benjamin Reese, the final member of the Seven, stomped inside wearing his size eighteen combat boots. “I was fucking on a nice weekend with my nephews, trying to beat some sense into them, and you call me back here?” He came around the corner, looked at the group, then dragged out the remaining chair next to Grace. At six feet eight, with brown hair and blackish-green eyes, Benny looked every bit as dangerous as he was. He smiled, all charm, his frown disappearing. “Well, hello. I’m Benjamin.”
Mercy blushed. “Mercy O’Malley.”
“It’s so very nice to meet you.” Benny’s voice dropped to pure gentleness.
Logan cut the vampire a look. “Mercy was just going to explain why we can’t complete the final ritual.”
“Well now. That’s just silly.” Benny’s eyes twinkled.
Logan rolled his eyes. “Go ahead, Mercy.” He’d deal with the pain-in-the-ass later.
She cleared her throat. “Have any of you studied bubble theory? It’s the human theory that universes are like bubbles that collide, creating black matter.”
Logan nodded.
“Humans, of course, are way off, but the bubble theory is an easy way to explain dimensions. Demons teleport through space and time—different dimensions—landing somewhere here on Earth that they’ve been or at least know about. We travel the same way, but we can stop at different dimensions.”
“Like dreamworlds,” Logan said, giving Garrett a look.
Garrett nodded, his sizzling gray eyes finally clear. Their siblings had met in dreamworlds during childhood. Was it possible they had been in different dimensions?
Ronan leaned forward. “When we created the prison world for Ulric with the two securing worlds outside it, we moved dimensions out of place?”
“Exactly.” Mercy slammed down the marker. “You can’t move dimensions without serious repercussions.”
Ronan nodded. “All right. That explains the ritual I undertook that kept my place stable.”
Well, that made some sense. “Ronan’s bubble broke,” Logan said. “We’ve assumed the other two will as well.”
“No.” Mercy’s eyes turned yellow and then back to blue and green. “That’s what you have wrong. The dimensions are finally stabilizing, and you have to leave them alone. Those two worlds won’t burst. They’re going to remain right where they are.”
Adare held up a hand. The welts were already fading. “You’re wrong. We’ve researched this extensively, and Ivar had new intel before he was taken. These dimensions, or bubbles, are going to fail. They’re lopsided now that Ronan’s has blown.”
“Not true. Our science says otherwise,” Mercy said, her hair tumbling with her agitated movements.
Logan frowned. “You really believe the bubbles won’t burst?”
Her slim shoulders finally relaxed. “Not if you remain unmarked.”
“Unmarked?” Logan asked.
Garrett kicked back. “She means the Seven. The marking on our backs and the fusing of our torsos.”
Mercy nodded emphatically. “Thank you. Yes. If you leave the Seven incomplete, then the prison world will never blow.”
That made no sense. Logan looked around the table at the various expressions of disbelief. “Why?” he finally asked.
She shook her head as if they were all morons. “As the Seven, you have power. True, real, physics-defying power. You know that. You perverted, and I meanperverted, the laws of physics to create your bond in the first place. This is all about gravity.”
