As we looked on, the shocks kept on coming, stilling not just us, but everyone, as amber sparks touched upon every Sanctus structure, all its matter invading our realm.
They spread quickly, morphing to sweeping semi-transparent shimmering blankets of amber, dematerializing them, bit by bit, clearly pulling them magically back into Sanctus itself, and breaking the connection to our realm, forcing it all back.
“No! Winter, cease!” Ruxnoth roared. “Cease at once!”
It didn’t stop, though.
In fact, it sped up with a sudden surge.
And within moments even the cracks and fissures were healing. Every mark of one of those things coming through disappeared as if they’d never been here.
Well, the carnage and destruction to the city remained, but the immediate threat… gone.
Screaming from Ruxnoth had Zayn and I swinging to see amber binds rising from the ground and snaking all over his body. A burst of amber shot out and disintegrated the remaining soldiers that psycho had formed. Not liquid. Not ash. Nothing remained at all.
And then amber smoke took Ruxnoth, force-teleporting him away.
It took a moment to move past the shock, and then cheers and elated shouts roared all over the place.
I jolted as something snagged my ankle.
Zayn was doing the same in the next second.
We both looked to see an amber thread running up our bodies.
Zayn jolted, then pulled the holoscreen from his pocket. We both looked to see another amber thread circling it. It sparked briefly and Vaxan’s citrine magic made itself known.
“Win’s connecting with us,” Zayn breathed.
I nodded. “He must be using the holoscreen to do the same with Vaxan.” To ensure it specifically had eyes on someone, you needed a part of that person imbued in it—magic, blood, essence, that sort of thing.
The threads that had been traveling along us reached the holoscreen, joining together. And then with a little burst, it magically forged an amber gemstone.
Zayn gazed at it in wonder. “Shit, is that—”
“A conduit to him? I think so.”
We smiled out at each other.
Winter had found a way to communicate between realms, outside of that fucking hellhole.
We sank into each other, and I looked out at our surroundings.
I saw Dad, Grandma, and Flame coordinating their fallout plan and cleanup, and giving orders for those who’d been struck by Ruxnoth’s magic directly when he’d sent out that brutal blast to be taken to the Guardian Compound where they would arrange for a Celestial being to heal said Celestial-inflicted wounds.
Torvek was holding Fanor to him, the two of them talking intently.
What he’d done here today had put him on the path from dangerous secret to indispensable asset.
And for Winter?
After what he’d done here today—from destroyer to savior.
Ruxnoth had unknowingly poisoned his own well.
And there was no antidote to that.
He’d failed here.
