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His teeth sang. His muscles twitched and vibrated. Where he lay on the cold, hard ground, unable to move, he angled his head and saw the others doing the same, blood mixing with Venom as both leaked from their eyes.

By the time the wave of magic receded at last, Darien had almost passed out from the immense force of it. He blinked the blood and fog away to see the others struggling up from their various positions on the ground, looking as disoriented as Darien felt.

One by one, they staggered to their feet and came to join him. Lurching into pained crouches on either side of him. Darien pushed himself up so he was kneeling, and without saying a word, they took each other’s hands.

Panting, blood streaming from his nose, ears, and eyes, Darien tipped his head back, feeling something…else…rippling over his skin. Being on the flip-side of the adamant, he could see through it. Up to the city way, way above. Saw where the two cobbled streets intersected—the massive Crossroads where the Basilisk had once lived.

And, for a reason he couldn’t place, found himself looking toward the Control Tower…

Just as the replica exploded.

119

The Control Tower

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

Using her magic gave her an all-seeing ability.

Loren could feel her many-hued power rippling through the streets, as if she were reaching out and touching them with hands dipped in paint.

She stood there at the Control Tower, head bowed, both palms flattened against the cristala that thrummed and vibrated as it drew magic up from the anima mundi—drew magic from her. She saw the city in her head like a map, saw different streets and buildings and districts light up with the protection of her magic—the shield that would save as many people as she could from the replica’s explosion. She prayed it would be everyone, but…

Truth be told, she was already fading. The glowing tattoos in the center of her palms were dimming and cooling, the conduit that hung from her neck threatening to turn into a useless pendant, its heat waning too. The pain began, just like Malakai had warned her, a burning in her hands that spread up, and up, and up at rapid speed.

And she had not even managed to cover a quarter of the city.

Either way, the Well replica was going to explode. It was going to kill a large majority of the people who lived here, those people currently unaware that their world was about to end. Whether they were heading to work, just waking up, or deciding to sleep in, they had no idea what was about to hit. And it broke Loren’s heart.

With a raw, desperate cry that might’ve been from determination or defeat, she pushed her magic out farther, hoping with all her might that her conduit tattoos would keep her alive, acting as a buffer the same way as a magic stave, and give these people a chance. Another shot at the life that was about to be snatched out of their reach, if she failed to stop it.

She sensed the Reaper behind her, guarding her back while she poured her magic into the tower.

“Loren,” he warned.

“I know,” she gritted out, pushing herself harder, stretching that bubble of protection to its limits. She covered the northern districts, tunneling into the underground where Darien and the others might still be. She couldn’t feel them, but she hoped she would reach them with her shield. If she didn’t…

She did not finish her thought.

Out, her magic poured, rippling through more streets and districts farther out, the shield thinning the farther she pushed it. The Well rumbled the cement, stones clacking. The glass of nearby windows tinkled like wind chimes. As the tower shuddered, she thought of Darien, picturing that face she loved so much, needing to save him—

She had reached just over a quarter of the city, her face streaked with tears and dirt, when the replica detonated.

When the bomb went off, Darien lost his hold on the others.

The eruption was so horrific, he couldn’t breathe, not even with the protection of the bodysuit. Heat and light were everywhere, raw magic ripping through the chamber like a hurricane.

Roman, Tanner, Jack—he couldn’t see any of them. There was nothing but brightness and heat and terrible power.

And then the Veil fell.

120

Underground

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

The Void swallowed everything like a fucking black hole. Darkness blasted through the chamber with as much force as the bomb, threatening to rip Darien’s flesh right off his bones.