Page 148 of The Sundered Realms

Liris turned toward the center of the spell, toward Jadrhun, toward the wall he’d erected between them.

Liris snarled and flipped her spell pad to a shattering, while Vhannor followed behind her, close at her back to keep the demons off it.

Another barrier went up, this one activated by a spell on the tapestry, and she took it down.

But not before Jadrhun said, “You’re too late.”

And when Liris looked up, it was only in time to take in the sight of the spell Jadrhun activated as she watched.

Chapter 21

I know why the universe likes circles. There’s an elegance in the inevitability; comfort in the familiar.

Not for me.

This close, Liris could see the spell, beautifully clever and existentially horrific. Jadrhun had the ley power, and he knew how to magically anchor each realm. He had everything he needed to do what he wanted, and she’d been too late to stop him.

In one fell swoop, Jadrhun severed Gates in each of the four other realms Serenthuar had once been geographically attached to before the Sundering.

And at the same time, he sundered Serenthuar.

Too late to matter. She’d missed her chance again, all her efforts for naught.

Liris’ eyes swam as she forced herself to bear witness, clenching her teeth against the scream clawing up her throat like a spell she’d lost control of, chaos desperate for release or relief.

It took her a moment to realize nothing more had happened, dousing all her emotions like a bucket of ice water.

Jadrhun’s eyes widened at the same moment. That spell, untethering ley lines from each formerly contiguous realm, should have triggered the next layer of his pattern, directing them to Serenthuar, since at the time of the Sundering the magic couldn’t locate it on its own.

Liris scanned the sub-layers of the spell pattern as Jadrhun did, confirming the magic gathered from destroying those Gates was still held, still ready. Waiting, like a spell missing a variable that just wouldn’t go, except this wasn’t.

The spell hadn’t done something other than he intended. He hadn’t destroyed the realms, which would have been excellent news, except if his anchors were correct, and of course they would be, because he’d tested them after gaining the knowledge from—

Demons.

Jadrhun whirled madly to face them, and the world darkened as an enormous shadow loomed over them.

“What did you do?” Jadrhun screamed at the demon.

Liris looked up, stiffening as the demon’s shadows rearranged themselves into a rictus of a toothy grin.

Then a sound, like a whisper and a shriek and a wind, like nothing of the physical world:

“Your magic won’t work if there’s nothing to anchor it to, will it?”

The demon twisted, coiling around Jadrhun like it could speak—of course they could speak, of course it would be horrible, don’t think—directly into his ear.

“Even a sundered realm that gathers its magic can only hold out so long,” the demon hissed, taunted, screeched. “And we can work very fast.”

Demons could sense magic. A sundered realm, with its untethered ley magic, would be like a voiding beacon.

Jadrhun’s expression shattered.

Liris spelled, successive blasts of magic that blew the demon back away from him while he stood there stunned.

“Jadrhun, focus!” she screamed at him. “We have to reattach Serenthuar!”

He shook his head sharply and gazed around all his careful, beautiful, useless preparations with wide, glassy eyes.

---