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Returning to her desk, she returned the Twinometer 5.0 to its cradle and remained standing.Carefully lifting the lid of the wooden box, she slid her hand under the silk bag and let out the breath she’d been holding.

Untying the knot with her hand, she pinched the corner between her thumb and forefinger, ready to feel the cold weight of the stone against her flesh.No sooner had the Volcanic Bloodstone fallen into her hand than did streaks of crimson and black shoot up her arm.

“Oh, my little beauty,” she breathed.“You and I are gonna created beautiful chaos together.”Kissing the flat surface on the top, she snickered.“Won’t dear old daddy be surprised when he sees what I do with his gift.”Bouncing her shoulders up and down, she added a wiggle of her hips to the mix then added, “It’s the only thing I got for being the first-born twin.Can’t let it go to waste.”

With the Volcanic Bloodstone in one hand, she lifted the Twinometer 5.0 with the other and paused for a moment of silence.When she could stand it no more, Einn turned around.Inhaling as deeply, she held the breath to the count of three then stepped off the platform and headed toward the door.Stepping over the threshold, she stopped and stood at attention until the mechanical whirring of everything in her private sanctum stopped and the door slid shut.

Walking toward Tveir, she stopped when the heat of the Black Iron bars touched the tip of her nose.Holding her twin’s terrified gaze, she lifted the Volcanic Bloodstone and mockingly declared, “This was my prize for being firstborn.When Father gave it to me, he said it was very important to my future.”Letting her head fall to the side, she feigned indecision then cackled, “Boy, he had no fuckin’ clue, did he?”

Head upright, she lifted the Twinometer 5.0, flipped open the chamber on the top with a flick of her thumb and snapped the Volcanic Bloodstone into place.Pointing over Tveir’s left shoulder, she bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from laughing when her twin jumped off her hard, metal bunk, fell to her knees and army crawled to the corner.

Snickering sarcastically, she taunted, “Oh, T, I would never shoot you.Lock you up, gag you, and leave you alone for the foreseeable future…” She shrugged.“Yeah, that I would do, but I would never kill you.”Motioning with a nod, she added, “Oh, and I would put my target behind your cage to scare the shit out of you.”Another shrug.“Sorry, I found long ago that I don’t forgive and I don’t forget.Sue me.I like a bit of revenge, even where you’re concerned.”

Taking aim at the giant globe, floating midair right behind Tveir’s cage, Einn took aim a small green isle in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean–Dreki Island.Letting her index finger hover over the trigger for exactly two beats of her black heart, she pulled the tungsten lever back as far as it would go.

Heart pounding, sweat beading atop the orange whiskers covering her upper lip, she exhaled as a strong incandescent stream of Black Magic shot from the muzzle of the Twinometer 5.0 hitting dead center of Dreki Island.Wave after wave of Sorcery filled the air as Einn’s invention started to whine.

Louder and louder, more shrill with each passing second, the sheer magnitude of Alchemy was more than she’d could have imagined.No longer able to hold the Twinometer 5.0 steady.She clasped her left hand around the opposite side of the grip and slid her feet shoulder width apart.

On and on, there seemed to be no end to the power Einn and her invention could create and it was intoxicating.She never wanted it to end.Her mind was reeling with the possibilities.She wouldn’t stop at Dreki Island.After Hel, Hope, and those Amazonian Dragon Freaks were gone, she would take Asgard, and then the Nine Realms.Nothing and no one would be able to stop her.

The shaking of the Twinometer 5.0 pulled Einn from her plans.The massive barrel had turned a bright red and steam was pouring from the chamber housing the Volcanic Bloodstone.

Switching the Twinometer 5.0 off with a slide of her thumb, she couldn’t resist celebrating the completion of step one.Shimmying her shoulders and shaking her hips, she waved her invention overhead and cheered, “Oh, yeah, I’m the shit.I’m gonna kick ass.Oh, yeah.I’m Einn.Numero Uno.The best.No one can touch my finesse.”

Stopping when she’d boogied her way to the back of Tveir’s cage, she snapped the gangly fingers of her free hand and pretended to blow a kiss.When the massive, Mystical globe disappeared, she pointed the Twinometer 5.0 at the empty space and pulled the trigger.

With a bolt of red lightning and a flash of eerie, black light, a huge swirling portal opened, revealing a vast glow that could only be the Primordial Magic of the universe.Whooping with joy, Einn jumped up and down and pumped the air with her fist before looking over her shoulder and laughing, “Hasta la vista, Sis.See ya’ when I see ya’.”

ChapterSeventeen

Throwing open the huge double doors at the front of the Mansion of Belief, Hopper stopped at the top of the steps and snapped his fingers.In the blink of an eye, he and Pat stepped on to the banks of his favorite place on all of Dreki Island, the jetty next to the gorgeous meadow of flowers he would always think of and his and Hel’s special place.

Caught in a moment of revelry, his trip down Memory Lane was cut short when Pat tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “I don’t remember this place being this quiet.”

Looking left and right, he opened his mind and pushed the Magic he’d been given by the Big Four to the far reaches of the island.There were little blips on his Mystical radar, but nothing magnanimous enough to be the Amazonian Clans.They had to be there?They couldn’t have left without either he or Pat lifting the protective Enchanted sphere they’d placed of that part of the island all those centuries before.

Turning in a complete circle, not even Pat’s whispered, “Afe playing Ring-Around-the-Rosies by yourself, or are you winding up for something big?”

“Neither, Asshole,” Hopper huffed.“I am tryin’ to find…”

Then he felt it.The eerie, creepy feeling of Dark Sorcery, or incredibly evil intentions, of hate.That was it.It was pure, unadulterated hate.

And it was pointed right at him.

“Do you feel that?”

“Oh, yeah,” Pat immediately replied.“That’s bad juju.Real bad juju.And it’s strong.”

“There’s something familiar about it,” Hopper murmured.Slowly traversing the flat, wet rocks that formed the banks of the jetty, he thought aloud.“I’ve not felt that exact Sorcery before, but something like it.”

Swatting at his arm, trying to get rid of the feeling that ants were crawling over his flesh, he stepped off the stones onto the lush, green grass.Opening the unique mental link he shared with Empress Scathach, Queen Doireann, and Princess Rionach, he called,“Hello.Ladies.Where are you?”

Not his usual, cheerful self, but nothing was normal or how it should have been.With every passing second of silence, a fierce sense of dread filled his soul.

“Sorry for eavesdropping,” Pat prompted.“But I must ask, have they ever not answered?”

“No,” Hopper deadpanned.“Never.”Pointing towards the highest peak on the island, he added, “That’s where we’re headed.It’s…”