“You’re worth it, honey. Don’t die. I’d miss you.”
My chest tightened. “All good—I have no intention of leaving. I still have things to do.” But that she’d miss me was heartfelt. I hugged her and lingered in her embrace, inhaling her roses.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said as I stuffed the baggies in an empty slot on my belt.
“I will,” I promised. I didn’t look at her eyes because I could tell from the sound of her voice they’d be glassy. I needed to stay strong and focused.
Outside, the fog was starting to roll in. The edge of the parking lot nearest the building was shadowy, perfect for planar travel. Ori came around the back, keeping to the shadows, and spotted me. We met midway and crouched down.
“You ready?” she asked. I nodded, not sure if I’d ever be ready for this. Danger was pulsing in my head. But I took the eyebright and chomped down on a maca root and hoped for the best.
The plane movement turned the parking lot blurry and much brighter. I leaned against the wall while the transition passed, then I walked around the back. It was easy to spot the black tourmaline jutting out of the door frame. The door was gated, but locks didn’t bother me in the planes.
The fluidity of not-hands on non-metal was hard to get used to, but I got it open and walked through. The lounge area had empty couches, a TV, and a bunch of magazines. Why would they want a crash room or a waiting room? What would someone wait for? Stairs led to the upper floor, and there was a hall to the front. I tried to get a sense of Ranth and got nothing. But then, other than the skin link, I didn’t really have much to go on. I looked down at the tattoos on my arm, wondering if they would work, and they glowed back at me as if in answer. I pulled on the glow, and it was like Plasticine snapping back, directing upwards.
Upstairs it was.
About halfway up, the portal pop echoed in my head like a balloon.
Flipping Foxgloves. Demons had bad timing.
With my back to the wall, I continued up. Demons were not going to keep me away from Ranth. The peachy edges of the portal were blurred by the rainbow smudge of two Auruan demons spilling out of it. I crouched on the top stair, ready for the spring. But it didn’t come. The demons toppled out and tottered off down the hall on their two leg-like appendages. Auruan demons were minions you could put to work if you summoned them into a circle. They weren’t very smart, and it was rare to see them portal in by their own volition. This was truly bizarre.
I followed them.
They disappeared into a room that was far too big to be on the top floor of the building we’d scoped from outside. Then it occurred to me, I wasn’t looking at it from the normal-room point of view. This room was planar.
Holy hellebore. The Marahk understood planes—and maybe better than I did.
I needed to get out of here.
I walked backwards down the hall and bumped into something. Whirling, Fabra kicked me back against the wall with a sneer which reverberated through my head as I bounced.
“Well, look who’s come to visit. Did you forget to ring the doorbell?” I sidestepped her attack, but she grabbed my jacket sleeve. I slid out of it, leaving her holding the empty denim but rattled by how she was doing planar without magic.
I dropped to a crouch. Planar walking was a skill I’d spent the last eight years mastering. Ever since my mom let me do my first walk, I had pushed the limits of the mantra “Be safe, follow the margins, respect the natural forms, and don’t go through planar portals.” When I got to walk on my own, I discovered the rules Mom had set out could be broken, not just bent. After that, I’d looked at planar in a whole new shiny way.
Fabra whipped my jacket at me, at the same time a squeaky walking sound crawled up my spine. The demons who had wandered down the hall must have turned around.
I braced myself.
The Auruan demons pounced. I shot two silver balls, and they dissipated in rainbow droplets. Champing down hard on the maca, the last thing I saw was Fabra’s wide-eyed shock as I disappeared through the hole I punched in the floor. My fall was softened by a human body, which groaned under me.
Ranth.
“Chestnut, you’re here. You should not have come,” he rasped. His eyes were balls of chocolate with huge black chocolate chips in the center. He could see me—that was a good thing.
“You’re my annoying wizard, and nothing would stop me from coming for you.” I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up, but his weight was more than I could take planar. I spit the root out, and the world turned solid and regular-colored. “Did they drug you?”
He shook his head as if he were barely alive. “They gave me something, but it’s not that. Your distance has drained all the life from me.”
Concern stabbed me. I heaved him onto one shoulder, but his weight was crushing. There was no time to call for help.
I dug into my belt pouch and ripped open the baggy of areca slices.
The fibrous nut pieces splintered between my teeth, leaving behind a throat-closing bitterness. With a couple more chews, a power burst surged through me.
I forced the silvery energy into Ranth’s forearm. As long as we were touching, I could move some of my energy through him. It was dangerous, though, if something else touched us… but I was only thinking about getting him out of there.
