Haoxin was standing on her own two feet now — and appeared to be interrogating Mory. The necromancer was still working to untangle the final strands of magic connecting the guardian to the gateway. By my count, about half of the remaining elves had already crossed back through the dimensional portal.
I just watched, in a bit of a daze.
Apparently, my job was done.
Warner was talking to me, but I only half-heard him. He had carried an unconscious Gabby out to the witches and the sorcerers, bringing back the news that Kett and Jasmine had helped tip the balance in a secondary battle I hadn’t even known about. The elves had been fighting the witches, the sorcerers, and the necromancers, which was why the witches hadn’t managed to open the promised egress. Even though everyone was banged up, they’d survived the secondary assault.
As far as anyone knew, Benjamin was still hanging on. But Kett and Jasmine had already disappeared with him. It was only a couple of hours away from dawn. Much more time had passed than I thought.
And it was all going to be okay.
I moved through the wounded with Alivia and Kandy, helping those we could to get to their feet. Those who couldn’t walk, we ferried over the barrier so they could have a chance to cross through the gateway home. Once the immediate area was clear, all three of us started working our way up the barrier. I’d paused at the crest, crouching to check the elves sprawled there for signs of life. All of them were already decomposing, though.
Still riding the adrenaline high that was insulating me from the destruction I’d wrought — that we had wrought — I closed my eyes. Then I hoped to God that it wasn’t ever on me to thwart an interdimensional invasion again.
The crash from this fight was going to be a bitch.
I was already certain I wasn’t the same person as the Jade who’d danced at her own bachelorette party, just two weeks ago. Hell, I wasn’t even the same Jade who’d torn the gemstone from her forehead, the same Jade who’d chosen to stand between Mory and hundreds of elves. The Jade who’d trusted an oracle.
I opened my eyes, seeking and finding Warner standing with Mory by the gateway. He held himself slightly between the necromancer and the almost freed guardian, but his gaze was on me.
I smiled.
An answering grin softened all the hard edges of his face.
We’d won.
Assuming that everything around us was what winning looked like.
My father stepped up beside me, brushing his fingers against my shoulder. “I should sweep the rest of the building for stragglers. Should I ask the elf to come with me? To mitigate any reactions should I find any of her people?” He nodded toward Alivia, who was still moving among the fallen elves on the far side of the barrier. They were decomposing steadily now, but I really couldn’t blame her for checking again. Too few were crossing back through the gateway.
“Alivia. And yeah, that might be a good idea,” I murmured.
He touched my head lightly, then stepped away to speak with the ward builder.
Kandy slumped down next to me, still in her half-beast form. The taste of bittersweet chocolate with a rich red-berry finish flooded my mouth as her magic whirled around her and she transformed into her human visage. Her torn and stretched T-shirt was hanging off her, and she had to cinch her belt tightly to keep what remained of her shredded jeans in place. She was rail thin, having lost way too much muscle mass while in the elves’ not-so-tender care.
Perhaps that was why Mory was being so careful, so particular. Why she hadn’t wanted me to slice through the gateway magic she’d held, even when our lives might have depended on it after the metal beast came through the gate. Was she hoping that carefully releasing the life force that fueled the gateway might somehow return it to those it had been forcefully siphoned from? I was fairly certain that the gateway would have burned through all that stolen life. That was why Reggie had systematically switched out the prisoners, aka her dimensional fuel cells.
“I wanted to come for you myself,” I said quietly.
Kandy snorted. “Of course you did. Because you think you’re responsible.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Rochelle pretty much told me I was going to cause an apocalyptic event if I didn’t follow her plan.”
Kandy glanced to her wrist as if checking a nonexistent watch. “There’s still time.”
“Hilarious.”
My werewolf BFF rested her head on my shoulder. “Your ass looks fucking fantastic in those pants.”
“Priorities. Right.”
“Right.” She cleared her throat. “I knew … I knew you’d make it through, Jade.”
“I missed you desperately. There is no one else I would want with me, no one else I would want to face anything like this with. You, Warner, and Kett.”
Kandy laughed quietly. “Lucky for you I ain’t the marrying kind. So I plan to stick around. But …” Kandy knocked me with her shoulder playfully, holding her arms out, then lifting her bare legs one at a time. She was covered in a thick layer of crusty elven blood. “I think I might be over the green thing.”
I chuckled. “Some things do change. How about purple hair? Ooh, no. Pink.”
“Screw you, dowser.”
“Aw, just think how cute you’d look when you were in the bakery. Pink hair, cupcakes —”
“Speaking of which, have you got any chocolate?”
That perked me up. “No. But Mory does.”
Kandy sprang to her feet, dashing down the broken concrete and somehow managing to not skewer herself on jutting rebar. “Finders keepers, loser!”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Crouched among dozens upon dozens of the dead — a goodly portion felled by my own hand — I threw my head back and laughed at my werewolf BFF.
Over by the gateway, Haoxin keyed in on me. “You!” the guardian of North America bellowed. Her magic somehow rode her rage, crumpling the jagged concrete between her and me.
Kandy darted to the side, narrowly avoiding being taken off her feet.
Haoxin’s ire rumbled the makeshift barrier under my feet. “Jade Godfrey! Wielder of the instruments of assassination!”
The guardian lurched forward.
“Wait, wait!” Mory cried, seated at Haoxin’s feet, still holding her knitting needles before her. “I’m almost finished!”
“Haoxin waits for no one.” The petite guardian’s magic lashed around her as she stepped over the necromancer. And suddenly, she wasn’t so petite anymore.
Haoxin was … growing … stretching … expanding …
I stood stock still, completely unsure of what to say, of how to calm the irate guardian. I’d be pissed too if I’d been taken down by the centipedes — especially when wielded by a supposed friend. An ally. Me.
“Haoxin,” Warner said, stepping in front of her, “the wielder was —”
The guardian — now standing about six inches taller than the sentinel and still growing — backhanded him.
Warner flew across the stadium, slamming into and through at least three sections of the elves’ white-walled maze.
Instantly incensed, I reached for my necklace, brushing my fingers across the chain. Magic welled under my touch. Then I hesitated.
Haoxin and the instruments shared a destiny. Namely, her death by strangulation. And I wasn’t going to be … I couldn’t be the wielder who brought that destiny to fruition. I dropped my hand from the necklace, allowing the anticipatory trill of the instruments to fade.
“Stand forth for your reckoning, dragon slayer!” The guardian was easily eight feet tall now, but her arms and legs were longer and thicker than the rest of her body. She was still expanding, stretching.
My father abruptly appeared, dancing in front of the irate guardian, hands held up and forward. “Settle, my friend. All will be well. Let the necromancer finish —”
Haoxin slammed her fist down, attempting to smush my father with a hand that was now the size of a tiny car.
Yazi rolled away.
The blow created a massive crater in the floor, throwing anyone still on their feet to the ground. Including me.
I tumbled down the other side of the barrier. The rebar wasn’t kind to me. I smashed my head at least once. Then I just lay where I’d fallen, twisted around jutting concrete.
I’d been fighting for hours. I was drained. I wasn’t certain I had the strength for another fight.
Mory screamed. “Stop! Stop!”
I made it to my feet. Jesus Christ. I could see Haoxin even over the freaking barrier. She was reaching for the roof, and tall enough to almost touch it now.
Mory screamed a second time.
Her terror flooded through me, leaving an aching fear in its wake. I closed my eyes and tried to focus. “Toasted marshmallow. Toasted marshmallow. Toasted —”
Magic flowed out from my necklace, wrapping around me, pinching, squeezing, wrenching my guts.
I teleported to right beside Mory. She’d been dragged a few feet away from the gateway. Thick tendrils of magic still connected her and her knitting needles to the raging guardian and the elves’ gate.
About twelve feet away, Haoxin raised a foot the size of a freaking minivan and tried to stomp my father.
The gateway slipped.
Tilted.
Haoxin was pulling on it by way of the magic still connected to her. Following my father, she took another step, yanking Mory with her.
The necromancer was sobbing, but she was trying to hang on, trying to loosen the last of the magical ties connected to Haoxin.
A large hunk of concrete shifted a few feet away from us as Kandy freed herself from the debris Haoxin had stirred up. She rolled to her feet, shaking her head. She was bleeding from a head wound. Badly.
I reached for Mory.
She strained away from me. “No, Jade. No, Jade. No!”
Warner appeared beside us.
“Kandy,” I cried. “Get Kandy clear, please.”
He cast a grim gaze around us. The last dozen or so elves were frantically dragging their wounded toward the unstable gateway, desperate to pass through before it collapsed. Literally.
Jesus.
No.
The gateway couldn’t collapse.
That would mean it had all been for nothing. Everything Rochelle had seen would come to pass.
Haoxin took another step, distracted by my father attempting to talk her down. He was shouting in Mandarin now.
Mory was yanked forward with the guardian’s movement. She screamed in frustration and pain.
I palmed my knife, darting forward between the necromancer and the rampaging giant guardian.
Haoxin spotted me, whirling my way far too quickly for any creature her size.
Warner lunged, grabbing Kandy before she got crushed under the guardian’s foot. Then he was gone, carrying my wolf to safety.
I sliced downward, intending to sever the final strand connecting Haoxin to the gateway. I remembered Pulou saying that the former warrior had never been the same after he’d walked through the gateway’s magic. Haoxin was still fueling it. So getting her free might help contain her.
But before I could cut it myself, the thick tendril of magic loosened, snapping back toward the guardian.
“Got it,” Mory grunted with satisfaction.
I dropped my knife, scooping Mory up in my arms.
Then Haoxin brought the roof down.
I clearly saw her reach overhead.
I saw her wrench two of the white metal pylons free, breaking off large chunks of concrete and shattering an epic amount of glass.
I wasn’t going to be able to clear the area in time.
I hunkered down, covering as much of Mory as I could with my body. Then I prepared myself to take the hit, to hold whatever fell for as long as I could.
I felt the roof come down, dampening the light all around us.
Then … nothing.
I cranked my head, looking up over my shoulder. A barrage of twisted metal, glass, and hunks of concrete was suspended above me. Magic rippled across it all, tasting of apricots.
Alivia’s magic.
I straightened, frantically looking for the ward builder and finding her off to one side of the gateway. Her hands were flung forward, her face etched with determination and pain.
“Oh, my God,” Mory whispered.
“The gateway!” Alivia screamed.
One of the metal pylons was just above the gateway. Inches away from hitting it. The gate was tilted at a sharp angle, with the last of the elves still trying to cross through it, dragging the wounded. One at a time. Seven left, including Alivia. Six …
Something heavy slammed over my head.
Alivia moaned. Everything she was trying to hold aloft — an entire section of a freaking stadium roof — slipped down a couple of inches.
Another hit from above. More slippage.
Haoxin was trying to get through to us. To me. She was trying to crush me like a bug. And everyone along with me.
Five elves left.
“Stay here, Mory,” I said. Then I sprinted toward the gateway.
“No, Jade,” the necromancer shrieked behind me. “You can’t! You can’t close it!”
“I’m not closing it. I’m holding it.” I knelt as I slid to a stop, shoving my hands into the magic. Turning my face away as best I could, I placed my hands on either side of the elf tech. Then I tried to hold it in place.
The next elf in line grunted, shifted the warrior he was dragging up over his shoulder, and stepped over me. He fell into, then through, the magic boiling over my head.
Four elves left.
Alivia’s ward took another hit.
The gateway shuddered, pressing against me. A biting, twisting pain shot through my arms, but I held on. I looked up, catching sight of Haoxin — her body huge and distended — beating against the ward. A flash of gold informed me that my father had resorted to unleashing his sword.
“What a fucking mess,” I murmured.
Three elves left.
Two.
I looked over at Alivia. “Can you move? And hold?”
She nodded. “I believe so. If I tighten the aperture.” Then her gaze dropped to Mory. The necromancer was watching us with massively wide eyes, holding her ankle. “But … you need to clear the area first.”
Haoxin hit the ward over us again. Hard. Like she might have resorted to kicking it. The magic cracked. Pieces of concrete and glass began to fall.
“We’ll time it,” I said, trying to focus despite the fact that I was starting to feel off. Stretched thin. As if the gateway might have been draining me now, fueling itself from my life force. “I’ll get Mory out.”
Alivia nodded, carefully stepping toward me while still concentrating on the shield she was holding overhead.
Haoxin swiped the area above me clear, shoving the debris of the roof aside so she could peer down at me.
I couldn’t see my father anywhere.
The guardian grinned, cartoonish and maniacal. Then she reared back, raised her foot, and slammed it through Alivia’s magic.
“Jump!” I screamed to Alivia, even as I rolled away from the gateway.
Something hit me on the back, then across my head.
Everything went black.
Someone was crying.
It wasn’t me.
Mory.
Mory was crying.
I opened my eyes.
I was on the ground … on the metal … the concrete … the glass all around me. Blood was dripping into my eyes. Panicked, I wiped my forehead, but I could still feel the ridge of scar tissue there. I was bleeding from my skull, not a gemstone embedded into my brain.
I had killed Reggie. I’d freed myself from her, then killed her. I was bleeding for an entirely different reason now.
Something shifted on the edge of my blurred vision.
I blinked.
Hands.
Toasted marshmallow magic.
Mory.
The necromancer was crawling toward me.
I tried to twist toward her, but … aside from my arm, I couldn’t actually move. I was … pinned? And something was tugging at my legs?
Right.
The roof had fallen.
Mory pulled herself over a hunk of concrete, making eye contact. Then she let out a terrible sob that sounded as if it tore through her heart and soul.
“Hey, Mory,” I croaked. “Shh, shh …”
Something rumbled nearby, the debris around us shifting. Magic exploded all around us, tasting of spices and chocolate … and tomato. A combination of Yazi and Haoxin. Maybe Warner.
Mory squeaked then pulled herself closer, finally able to brush her fingers against mine.
“You’re hurt,” I managed to say, realizing with the words that something was terribly wrong with me … with my legs, my back and lower rib cage. Something was squeezing me, making it difficult to talk.
But there was no pain. Shouldn’t I have been in pain?
“… Jade?” Mory asked, her tone suggesting she’d been talking to me and I’d missed it. “Jade? You look hurt. Bad.”
“I’m okay. How about you? It’s your leg?”
“Yeah, I think I broke my ankle …” She glanced at me worriedly, mumbling the rest. “When you dropped me. But, um, now the other leg … won’t …” She sobbed, then got herself under control. “They’ll come for us, yes?”
“Yes. Sure.”
Except I had just figured out what was tugging at me, what was pinning me, above and beyond the hunk of roof.
The dimensional gateway.
It must have collapsed over me. And now … and now … I thought it might have been tearing me in two.
I cleared my throat, tamping down my panic. “Mory. Can you see the magic holding me?”
Mory’s eyes widened in fear, then flicked over my head and shoulders. “No,” she cried. “Is it the gate?”
“It’s okay.”
The rubble all around us suddenly rose up, then slammed back down as if an earthquake had just hit the city. Or a large body had just been thrown to the ground.
Pain exploded in my upper chest, my left arm, my head and neck.
Mory cried out. Then, even as wounded as she was, she started to try to dig me out.
Metal creaked and crackled overhead. I could see a sliver of lightening sky above us. It was nearing dawn. But I couldn’t turn my head to see what was making the noise. The rest of the roof coming down, most likely.
Mory was grunting and sobbing, struggling to lift something off my back even though she couldn’t stand herself.
“It’s okay. It’s okay, babe.” I grabbed for her with my left hand. “Listen, listen. I’m going to try to teleport us out of here.”
Mory panted through her tears, calming down enough to listen to me. “Yes. Yes.” She gripped my arm.
And I tried … I tried to call the magic forth from my necklace, tried to wrap it around me and Mory. But I couldn’t make it move lower than my upper back. It was as if it couldn’t grab onto my lower half. The half the gateway was holding.
“Nothing is happening,” Mory whispered. “Jade?”
A large chunk of the roof broke off and crashed to the ground about ten feet behind me.
We were going to die. Mory and me. And even if some miracle occurred and I survived the rest of the stadium collapsing on me, and if whoever found me could get me out of the gateway in the end …
Mory wouldn’t make it.
Mory would die for certain.
“Help me,” I whispered, reaching for my necklace.
“I’m trying. I’m trying,” Mory cried, on the edge of hysterical now.
“No. Help me get my necklace off.”
“What? Why? Why?”
“Mory!”
The necromancer slipped her fingers underneath the heavy gold chain. I helped as much as I could with my left hand, but the instruments protested, bristling and pulsing with displeasure.
“Shh … shh …” I whispered.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” Mory murmured. She eased the chain off over my head, then left it pooled underneath my palm.
I panted for a moment. It was becoming difficult to breathe. And the instruments were already fighting my unvoiced intention.
“Now put it on,” I said.
“What?”
“I need you to put on the necklace, Mory. Leave it loose, please. So I can touch it.”
“I’m not putting on your necklace!”
“Put on the necklace,” I snarled.
Mory snatched up the chain, then remembered that I needed to keep in contact with it. She leaned over me, close enough that her hair tickled my cheek, and looped the chain over her neck.
The instruments screamed, shrieking their discontent.
Mory sucked in a breath.
“It’s okay.” I petted the chain as best I could with my torso, shoulder, and one arm pinned.
Another huge chunk of the roof fell. This one even closer.
“Stay with Mory,” I said, speaking to all the magic contained in the necklace. “Protect Mory.”
“What are you doing, Jade?”
I didn’t answer the necromancer. I had to keep all my attention on the magical artifact. I had to calm it, direct it. “The treasure keeper will come. Everything is going to be okay.”
“What do you mean?”
The magic of the necklace and the instruments settled. Keeping my fingertips on the lower two wedding rings, I called the teleportation spell forward. Then I looked up at Mory.
“Tell them I love them,” I whispered.
“Who? Tell who?”
“All of them.”
I brushed my fingers along the chain, feeling the comforting magic dancing underneath them. “Promise me, Mory. Promise me you’ll make them understand.”
“Understand what?” Mory cried, grabbing at my hand, grabbing my arm.
“To Warner,” I said, speaking to the power of the necklace while I recalled the taste of Warner’s magic — dark chocolate … sweet cherry … “Take the necromancer safely to Warner.”
The magic balked at my command. It was an easy guess that the disgruntled instruments were impeding it.
“What?” Mory was sobbing now, tugging at my arm, trying to pull me free but getting nowhere.
I could feel myself truly fading now, numbness spreading over my shoulders and up my neck.
“Don’t leave me, Jade. Don’t leave me.”
“It’s not me leaving, darling. It’s time for you to leave me.”
I took the last bit of magic I could summon. I shoved it all at the necklace. “To Warner. Safely to Warner.”
The magic of the necklace expanded. Somewhat pissily, I thought.
Mory shouted something.
The magic contracted.
And the necromancer was gone.
I sighed, finally able to rest my head in the rubble. I could hear voices shouting somewhere in the distance. I felt guardian magic. And the gateway, tug-tug-tugging at me.
And I understood. This was the future Rochelle had seen in her sketch of the Buddha. I hadn’t needed the power of the sorcerer’s amulet to escape the dragon nexus. I had needed it for this. For Mory.
Another hunk of roof collapsed. Debris pelted me around the head and shoulders.
Freddie appeared. As the shadow leech moved over me, its magic tried to grab hold. I tried to brush it away, but I couldn’t move my arm anymore.
“Freddie,” I murmured thickly. I realized that I was leaking blood from my nose and mouth. “Leave it. Go to Mory. Mory will take care of you. The … the bakery wards. I give you permission to take magic from the bakery …”
Freddie chittered indignantly, still trying to grab me. To transport me, maybe. As the leeches had once been able to transport Shailaja. But the rubble and the gateway held me fast.
I closed my eyes.
Then someone was screaming. Shouting. The sound coming closer.
Mory.
Oh, God.
Had something happened? Had something gone wrong with the teleportation?
I struggled to lift my head. And there suddenly was Warner, just on the edge of my sight line, climbing over the rubble. Mory was slung across his back, jabbing her finger in my direction.
I met his gaze.
I smiled. So, so glad that I’d had the chance to see him one last time.
I love you. My mouth wouldn’t form the words, so I thought them over and over and over again.
I love you.
I love you.
Warner shouted.
Freddie shifted, latching onto my head and neck, spreading out across my shoulders.
The taste of burnt cinnamon toast filled my mouth.
I love you.
The roof collapsed.
Taking what remained of me with it.