Page 149 of The Sundered Realms

Liris didn’t need him to tell her there was nothing there he could use. Whatever anchor Jadrhun had to magically locate Serenthuar no longer existed, and without that—

She was desperately hoping she’d been wrong in her assumption he’d depended entirely on demon senses to find it, but his visible despair was its own answer.

And worse, all he was seeing now was endings, not beginnings. With his plans in tatters around him, he wasn’t in any state to find new options.

“We have bigger problems right now,” Vhannor said. “The longer those portals are open, the more magic drains from the world, and the more demons can come in, especially in the realms whose Gates you destroyed. Get the demons out of here before they overwhelm those realms and use the Gates to travel to the rest. Once there’s too little magic to hold the realms together, you really will have completed the Sundering.”

Liris wanted to scream. The longer Serenthuar was sundered, the less chance there was of saving it.

But neither she nor Jadrhun knew how to do that, and Vhannor wasn’t wrong.

Jadrhun didn’t hesitate. He pulled back his sleeve, exposing scabbed lines Liris couldn’t see in their entirety. With his spell pen, he jabbed himself in the arm, completing a circle and activating the emergency spell he’d carved into himself.

And then he vanished.

Liris’ heart dropped all the way into her feet.

Oh, void everything. He’d brought demons as backup, not trusting other casters not to sabotage him, because the demons would protect their ‘investment’ in him—or so he’d thought. So that transportation spell was only meant to look to them like an emergency escape for him, so they wouldn’t suspect—

Vhannor stared aghast. “He ran?”

“No,” she said, feeling sick. “I messed it up. There’s another transportation spell on the tapestry, and I reversed it so he couldn’t get away when this was all over. He must have meant it to transport the demons if we didn’t get rid of them—“

“Transport them where, Liris?”

She shook her head. “That’s not on the tapestry. It would be on his arm, if he had an anchor—“

Vhannor’s desolate gaze met her own.

Jadrhun was probably lost to the void now.

Demons zipped toward them on either side, and Liris and Vhannor tore away from each other to throw up shields. No time to hang onto each other now: their hands had other business to be about.

“Keep reinforcing the shield for a minute,” Liris yelled, and Vhannor answered with a new multi-layer protection sphere he’d apparently been saving up for when he was actually next to her. Still, it was only seconds before a demon smashed through the outer layer, but Liris trusted Vhannor to keep them safe and turned away to see what he couldn’t.

That was why she was here.

She took in everything around them. Serenthuar’s anchor still lost. The magic still waiting. The portals still active. Demons still rampant here, converging on them—they knew Liris was the threat now.

“Special Operations may be able to banish these demons eventually, but only if the portals are closed and they stop multiplying before our strength gives out,” Vhannor said. “I’ll watch your back while you take care of them.”

Slowly, Liris said, “No.”

He looked at her sharply.

“What then?” Liris asked. “All this magic will still be lost, and all the realms will start to fall, one after another. It will only be a matter of time. How will you protect me from the Sundering, Vhannor?”

Vhannor opened his mouth, closed it. Tried again: “You’re not suggesting giving up.”

“I am in no way suggesting giving up,” Liris said. “I told you before, I’m not leaving you. And I’m done running.”

She punched through the last of Jadrhun’s barriers, stepping into the center of the spell pattern.

“I’m fighting. And I’m going to win.”

Vhannor braced himself, spell pad ready, and asked,

“What do you need from me?”

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