He was going to die protecting her. Going to burn through what little power he had left, holding them off while she did nothing.
The shells crashed against the barrier. Each impact sent visible shockwaves through Dante's shadows. Through him.
She had to find another way.
Her ward-sense flared suddenly, that instinct she'd always had for reading locks and barriers. But this wasn't directed at any physical restraint.
The entire facility hummed with ward-work. Ancient patterns woven through every surface, every pipe, every extraction chamber. Architecture her ancestors had built, corrupted but still familiar.
She could feel it. All of it.
Power flowed through the refinery like blood through veins. From extraction chambers to collection spheres, from those spheres to a central nexus. And from that nexus, a massive pipeline streamed upward.
To Caelum's paradise.
That was his power source. That was what fueled all of this. If she could reverse the flow, overload the system, give them a chance to escape...
It was what she did. Find the mechanism. Apply pressure. Turn.
"Dante." Her voice came out raw but determined. "I can collapse his power source. Give me thirty seconds."
Caelum's head snapped toward her, surprise flickering across his features before smoothing back to that patient smile. "I wouldn't recommend that, my dear. You don't fully understand?—"
"Thirty seconds." She cut him off, eyes locked on Dante's back. "Can you hold them?"
He didn't hesitate. Didn't question.
Just trusted her completely.
"Do it."
His shadows surged outward with renewed force, reinforcing the barrier. The dome around them solidified, buying her the time she needed.
She pressed her burned palm against the floor, ignoring the waycharred flesh screamed in protest. Reached deeper with her ward-sense, following the pipeline to its source.
The regulatory valve. Complex ward-work that controlled flow and direction. Patterns she understood instinctively.
Just like picking a lock. Find the mechanism. Apply pressure. Turn.
"No!" Caelum lunged toward her, grace forgotten. "Stop her!"
The shells redoubled their assault. The barrier shuddered, cracks spreading wider. She heard Dante's rough breathing as he poured power into maintaining it.
She grabbed the valve with her magic and twisted.
The ward-work resisted, ages of balance fighting against her, then yielded. Flow reversing. Power that had been streaming upward now rushing downward at double the volume.
The extraction chambers around them flickered. Collection spheres began to glow brighter as they overloaded. The shells attacking the barrier faltered, movements becoming less coordinated.
"Brynn, stop!" Caelum's voice rose, composure cracking. "You don't understand what you're doing!"
She pushed harder, forcing more power backward. Building pressure. Overwhelming the systems.
The barrier around them shattered completely.
Shells flooded in, but they were slower now. Uncoordinated. Dante's shadows kept them away from her while she worked.
She felt the valve giving way, restrictions breaking down, the flow becoming a torrent?—
