Page 147 of The Sundered Realms

Of course she knew that even as fast as she could go, this was taking too long, that this was all a horrendous distraction. The portal spells weren’t designed just so that they wouldn’t have backup to deal with the demons, but also so that she personally would have to go through them. Jadrhun might not have planned on Shry being here, or Special Operations—but what if he had?

What if every second she didn’t take to get to the center, he could put another piece of his real plan in motion?

She couldn’t stop dispelling all these demon portals that no one else would be able to. That was the trap, designed for her, a person who desperately wanted to help people and wanted to feel like she, personally, mattered.

You can’t fight every battle. I can’t be sorry about the one you chose.

It was like she’d cursed herself. Liris hoped Vhann would forgive her.

All along she’d been playing Jadrhun’s game, doing exactly what he’d known she would, because it was just like how she’d played the elders, thinking if she was just good enough, she could win.

The only way to win was not to play—or to change the rules.

Liris finished dispelling one last portal, and then she stopped.

She closed her eyes; breathed.

Opened them: focused anew.

Liris looked at the world the way she’d been trained, to take in all the information around her at a glance.

She looked around her the way only she could, processing the patterns.

“Liris, look out!” Vhannor screamed.

She dove fast and far, and the descending demon just missed her.

No: demons.

All of them.

“Keep moving!”

She shook her head, staring around the spell pattern.

“Liris!” he roared. Probably thought she was trying to die again.

“This matters,” Liris whispered, and barely even tracking the thought as she spoke: “You promised.”

Vhannor stared at her in confusion, and as she kept scanning around, taking in angles and curves and shapes, she could practically see the moment he remembered.

You promised not to hold me back. You promised you could keep up.

Vhannor swore as he disengaged Jadrhun to defend her, and Liris breathed easier, even though she knew it meant Jadrhun was free to act.

Vhannor had her back. He believed in her and supported her and would make sure she could do what she needed to do.

And what she needed to do was see what no one else could, and understand what it meant.

That was why Jadrhun wanted all her attention directed elsewhere.

Each individual spell on the outer border had a different shape: that had been the key.

She’d whirled around the edges of the entire spell pattern, but focusing on the spells on their own and what they had in common she’d missed the shape of it.

The entire pattern wasn’t a circle. That mattered.

It would be a map. Not a physical one, but a magical one.

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