I stepped through the Ripping and my breath was knocked out of me when I made the transition from moist, warm air to sub-zero frigidity. The glare of the sun against the endless snow of the North Pole snapped my eyes shut, and I put my hand over them until they could begin to adjust. My drenched clothes hardened into ice.

When I could manage a squint or two, I saw Hood to my right, shivering uncontrollably, the Bender Ring on the ground by his side.

“I did it, Hood!” I yelled, and walked over to him.

I expected a pat on the back or some other subtle hint from the wordless wonder, but instead he grabbed my arm and pointed frantically to the east. I followed his direction.

A lone Shadow Ka was flying straight toward us.

It was still a few seconds from reaching us, but I could see that the evolution of our enemy was close to complete. The skin was almost purely black now, and its arms and legs no longer resembled any aspect of humanity. Its massive wings flapped with a vengeance as it flew at us, and its familiar cry of death rocked the air.

“Why is it alone?” I asked.

Hood shrugged his shoulders, but then halted and pointed again.

It was not alone after all—it was just the leader. Behind it, a cloud of hundreds of other Ka followed in a tight pack. Their eruptive cries became audible now, as if by seeing them, we'd made them real.

“Well, whatever, let's get out of here,” I said.

Hood made no argument. He bent over, grabbed the Bender Ring, and moved closer to me so we could travel back to my family.

But we had underestimated the speed of the flying Ka. In a sudden terror we saw that there wasn't enough time to even raise the Ring to where it needed to be. On instinct, I grabbed Hood's arm to protect him with my Shield.

The Ka swooped down, straight for me, screaming again and again. It reached out its shadowy talons, intent on grabbing me or ripping me in half. But how could it possibly be stupid enough to think it could get past the Shield? For good measure, I shot a ball of Ice right at its face when it got to within ten feet.

The Ice disintegrated inches before the Ka. I hurried another shot—the Ka now only five feet away. It didn't touch the beast, disappearing in a poof of mist.

“What—” was all I got out.

To my terrified surprise, the Ka's talons ignored the Shield and closed around my shirt and gripped me into its clutches. Hood, ignored, fell to the ground in confusion. Pulling me to its chest with a vicious squeeze, the Ka flew through the Ripping of the Black Curtain.

I was right back in the Blackness.

My Gifts had failed.

The next moments were a blur of movement, color, and fear. The brightness and snow evaporated into the darkness, and then the familiar images of the Blackness formed around us. The Ka was crushing my body, and it took every effort to keep breathing. After bursting through the opening of the Rip, the Ka banked hard to the left and flew out over the silvery water of the sea. It pulled to a stop twenty feet from the marble path and hovered in place with a rhythmic beating of its wings.

The hundreds of chasing Shadow Ka had also entered the otherworldly realm, and were swarming around us, gathering to devour me. The Ice. The Shield. What had happened? Why had they failed? An eating dread consumed me, and the thought of what kind of death was about to come my way was sickening and unbearable. A writhing cyclone of shadow spun around us. The lone Ka holding me was turning in place, scanning his brothers who surrounded us, communicating with its lightless eyes, readying for my final doom.

The Ka, now almost fully transformed from human to dragon-like beast, with barely any tattered human clothes remaining, swiveled its head down to look at me. Its eyes were the darkness of deep space, but there was an odd shift in them that made me suspect it had some feeling in its black heart. Shattered by the loss of my Gifts, I hung in its arms without struggling, too confused and scared to attempt an escape. The Ka's stare lingered, and then it screamed its furious roar. The pain of it pierced my ears, and I closed my eyes, knowing it was really going to end—after all the wasted efforts to save my own world.

The Ka threw me back toward the black path.

I flipped through the air and landed on the path with a slight surge from the Shield lessening its impact. The Shield. It had worked. What …

The Ka screamed one more time then dove into the sea, the water too heavy to make much of a splash. The mass of other Ka above it screeched as well and dove for the one who had just thrown me away.

It was at that moment that I understood.