Page 61 of City of Love

“It doesn’t mean anything,” she said, but Margot had unintentionally voiced her biggest concern.

Over the course of her contemplative week in Phoenix, Lexi realized that though she appeared brave on the surface, ready to face anything in the name of love, when push came to shove, she was truly frightened of the transition process. Terrified of the pain, of the possibility of… dying.

But it went deeper than that, this mucky swamp of indecision she was rapidly becoming mired in. Yes, she’d learned to control her visions and was happy about that, but they currently weren’t giving her any more information. She had no idea if the transition would be a success or not. And as Margot had just pointed out, Lexi feared that the lack of visions was a bad sign. Does no vision of the future mean no future?

Strangely, though she’d lived most of her life without any control of the visions and had been used to the idea that her destiny was out of her hands, now that she could ask for visions on demand, she’d become paralyzed by the idea of acting without the information of her foresight. She found herself unable to take a step without knowing what was around every corner.

Her curse, which had become a blessing, had now become a different curse.

Margot turned north onto Fifth, passing Independence Hall on their left. “Speaking of visions, have you had any at all? What about anything to do with that… what are they called… Orpheus something?”

“Prometheus Group. And no, I haven’t seen anything. But I assume the other world has a hoard of precogs and clairvoyants working on the case.”

Margot shot her a look, missing a giant pothole in the road as she did so. Lexi’s teeth rattled in her skull and she gripped the door harder.

“Really? I hadn’t thought of that, but you must be right. Have they found anything?” Margot asked as she shifted gears, her fingers white knuckling far more than the mild late-night traffic should’ve called for. “Can their seers even see what’s going on in our world though, across the dimensions like that?”

Lexi shrugged. Between the late hour and her friend’s relentless interrogation, she was growing fatigued, and anxious to be home. “I honestly don’t know. I assume so.”

She wasn’t altogether sure, however, if her own ability for clairvoyance across dimensions was a common gift, or if it was tied specifically to her telepathic connection with Gideon. She suspected the latter, but was far too sleepy at the moment to delve into the details of psychic parameters with Margot, who seemed to have downed a fair amount of caffeine late in the day and was becoming exhausting in her own right.

They pulled up at Lexi’s apartment, and though her friend was still plying her with questions and was ready to come inside to continue the conversation, Lexi thanked her for driving and begged off.

After reuniting with her cat, unpacking her suitcase, and changing into a nightshirt, Lexi grabbed a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream for dinner and sank onto the couch. That was when she realized something—she was depressed.

Now that the extreme adrenalin rush of the Fourth of July and following few days had died down, fear crept in. Fear of the transition, fear of leaving everything and everyone she knew, fear that her gifts were suddenly failing her with their silence. She couldn’t decide what to do, feeling too blind to make any decision, and over the past week she’d become thoroughly immobilized.

She knew she’d had no choice but to have gone through the portal on that fateful Friday night. If she hadn’t, the visions would have kept haunting her. And she loved everything about the wonderful world she’d found, loved that she could be at home there with her psychic gifts. More than anything, she loved Gideon.

Madly, deeply, loved him.

But somewhere over the past week—maybe in the face of her father’s goofy jokes and her mother’s warm hugs—her excitement had become anxiety, her anxiety had become depression, and now, her pint of Ben and Jerry’s had become empty.

Lexi tossed the carton and went to bed, telling herself she was just overtired and being silly. She didn’t have to decide anything right now, after all. Gideon had said so himself.

She had all the time in the world to make up her mind.

CHAPTER 27

“I’m sorry, Gideon, I truly am, but you’re out of time,” said Catherine Moss, Dean of the College of Psychic Arts, and now the recently elected Mayor of Philadelphia as well. She wore a sympathetic expression, but there was no changing her mind. “All portals are to be closed immediately per global agreement. You know this. No exceptions, I’m afraid, for personal relationships.”

Mayor Moss, along with several City Council and Portal Committee members including Gideon and Vikkras, stood in a quiet cluster at the back of Revolution Hall, where a Council meeting had just wrapped up.

In the two weeks since the Prometheus Group had revealed themselves on the Fourth of July, word of the threat had crisscrossed the globe, culminating in an international summit in London that took place the past weekend. The obvious decision to immediately close all the portals had been made, and a plan formulated to begin the process of investigating the mysterious, threatening entity from World Two.

Since, as far as anyone knew, the Philadelphia portal had thus far been the only location targeted, their local city government was taking the reins with the investigation.

Benjamin’s death left too many questions. Who exactly was behind the Prometheus Group? They’d already learned it was a World Two global conglomerate with a supposed focus on science and technology, though clearly there was a secret, likely illegal, underbelly to their activities. As Matthew had done his best to explain, there were layers upon layers of different companies and interests that made up the monstrous organization. It was going to be a monumental effort to put any individual human face on the people who had specifically been involved in the kidnappings.

Which begged the further question, who had originally been in contact with Benjamin? It had to have been someone with regular access to the Philadelphia portal, but Matthew had been using every resource available to him to find out about Prometheus without much luck. As well connected as he was, he could barely get a foot through the front door of the high-security facility located in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And with use of the portal now so restricted, the investigation would be that much harder.

It also posed a big problem for something equally important to him, and infinitely more personal.

“You do understand, don’t you, that the portals must be used to a certain extent in order to act as a pressure release valve?” Gideon crossed his arms over his chest, not so much a defensive posture as an effort to keep his emotions in check. Because what he was feeling right now seemed an awful lot like a slow-motion ride into panic. “Otherwise, we’ll end up with random thin spots and people disappearing through them again. We must continue a modicum of back and forth activity.”

“And we will,” the Mayor continued. Her black hair was pulled into a tight chignon today, and she wore a large aquamarine brooch at her blouse collar, over her communication chakra. “As we already decided at the London summit. All the portals will have routine crossings to their matching gateways on the other side for exactly that purpose. They’ll be regularly scheduled with authorized people only. You were at the meetings, Gideon. You already convinced everyone.”

Vik cast a concerned side glance at Gideon before taking a step forward. “The Philadelphia portal is going to need a bit more flexibility than that. We’re at the hub of the investigation, and we’ll need to access some of our well-trusted colleagues on the other side.”