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“Doesn’t make sense,” Logan agreed.

“Maybe they were tricked?” Tanner offered.

“The Basilisk was known to do that,” Roark said. “The serpent kings are creatures of the Void—the oldest and most cunning. The Basilisk was one of the most powerful creatures in the universe, but not the most trustworthy. While the Nameless cannot lie, if you miss a detail or a loophole in whatever trade you choose to make, if you don’t read the fine print, so to speak… Well…”

“You’re fucked, basically,” Jack concluded.

Roark nodded. “Basically, yes. Whichever way we choose to go about this, we need to act quickly. If we cannot get the Veil back up…” He didn’t finish his sentence.

“How long will the forcefield contain it?” Darien asked.

“We don’t know.”

“So, we’ve got days to figure this out,” Jack concluded with a hard chuckle, his lips curling with a frown. “Lucky us.”

“Days until Yveswich is engulfed, yes, but it will take longer than that for the Veil to fully fall,” Roark said. “The Veil extends clear across Terra, so it won’t fall overnight. We’ve got time yet.”

“Do you have an estimate?” Darien asked.

“Weeks, maybe. Months. I really don’t know. In the meantime, containing it with a forcefield is truly the best course of action. But…”

Loren held her breath. She’d seen that look before.

“I’m afraid the imperator has taken it upon himself to move forward with another plan, which further limits the time that we have. The forcefield, it…it might have helped us for longer, if hehadn’t approved a new strategy that was recently proposed by the military.”

“And what strategy is that?” Darien pressed.

“Three days from now, at Witching Hour, the military will fire anima mundi missiles into Yveswich in attempt to close the portal.”

The floor tilted beneath Loren’s feet.

“Missiles,” Tanner mused. “But— Won’t that just kill everyone who’s trapped in there?”

Jack said bitterly, “Doesn’t sound like he gives two shits.”

“Why missiles?” Darien demanded. “What’s the reason? What makes them think this’ll work?”

“They are under the impression that the pressurized magic in the missiles could potentially seal the portal,” Roark explained. “They’ve been analyzing video footage from the street cameras, and what they’ve concluded is that the Control Tower is the reason Yveswich is still standing. The magic the tower is pulling up from the anima mundi is the only thing holding back the darkness of the Void. Without it, the whole city would have been destroyed the minute the bomb went off. No one would have survived, and no street would be untouched by the darkness. It would have been…a very different outcome.”

“Yeah, the cops showed me the footage,” Darien said. “But here’s the problem with their little plan: The magic they’re looking at is notnormalmagic.”

Roark’s forehead creased. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s not magic from the anima mundi,” Darien explained. “It’shers.”He gestured to Loren.

All eyes fell on her.

Roark’s brows went up. He pointed a finger at her. “Yours?”

“I went to the Control Tower before the replica blew up,” Loren began. “I poured as much of my magic into the tower as I could. I managed to shield parts of the city, but… Therewere some areas I couldn’t cover. I tried, but…I wasn’t strong enough.” And because of her, countless people had died.

Because of her, the Veil was falling.

Because of her, the imperator had blown a hole in the fabric of the universe and unleashed the worst dimension of all.

“Is the imperator aware?” Ivy’s question was for Roark. “What I mean is, does he know it’s Loren’s magic and not the tower doing it, or does he believe the same as everyone else?”

“I’m not certain,” Roark said. “All the imperator cares about is finding the real Arcanum Well. So, as far as this operation goes…I doubt he’s hung up on the details.”