The Finn shooting the blue fire lances had a different reaction. When he saw me, his expression filled with anticipatory glee. There was a cruel cast to his mouth as he focused on me.
He lifted his hand and shot a blaze of fire.
Finn knocked him aside, tackling him.
I yanked the knots free, dousing the fire a half-second before it speared me.
“Now!” Primus yelled.
I tugged all the knots free, unraveling the cruel Finn’s illusion.
He ducked the other Finn’s fire swords. He may not have illusion, but he still had all of Finn’s skill.
“Both of them,” Primus growled. “Remove both of their illusion. Now!”
It’s a terrible fact that even with my revelation of good and love and the brightness of the world, I was still compelled to sweep aside Finn’s conjuring.
I untied his knots and left both of them bare.
Primus laughed jubilantly when Finn’s fire swords disappeared. But what did Finn care? He’d spent twenty-five years of his life without illusion—he didn’t need illusion to fight. He yanked the twin metal swords free from his back and lunged at the cruel Finn.
Primus twisted his hand and opened a pit beneath them. At the same moment, a massive, thunderous roar ripped through the night. Across the water, east on the horizon, a giant red fireball rose into the sky and then was swallowed by darkness.
“The Smiths,” Last said. “The leggerock did it! He blew up the Smith estate.” She laughed hysterically, clapping her hands. “I knew he would!”
I raced toward the hole in the ground, but Jacob had reached it before me. He soared through the air on a thin metal sheet and then dove into the abyss.
Before I reached the edge, Jacob and the two Finns catapulted from the pit. They somersaulted in the air and slammed across the ground.
The good Finn and my brother leaped to their feet and stood back-to-back.
“Figured it out finally?” Jacob asked.
Finn made a noncommittal noise, eyeing both Primus and his other self. Then he looked at the horror, and beyond that, the red-tinged horizon. His home was burning.
“The better question is . . . what are we going to do about that?” Jacob pointed at the horror.
Finn’s eyes narrowed. “How quickly can you get to my home?”
My brother raised his eyebrows and then shoved a wall of wind at Primus. “Why?”
“Get Darin and everyone else. Tell them to come. We’ll be able to cage it if we all—” He ducked then slashed at the cruel Finn.
“I’m the Ward, not your—” He tossed another blast of air at Primus.
“Truth seer!” Primus roared. “Remove the Ward!”
Jacob glanced at me. He smiled and then said to Finn, “All right. I’m going. Have fun?—”
He leaped away, diving over Primus’s wall of maces and boosting himself over the horror. Right before he escaped the Silencer’s ring, Celia launched herself from the horse’s back. She landed next to him, grabbed his gory shirt, and yanked him close.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow. “To save the day?”
She huffed a laugh, and a small, fuzzy thing—a dog?—poked its head out of her shirt.
“Be careful. Darin’s a hothead?—”
