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“Run!”I breathed, scrambling to my feet.

“What?”Zara asked, her eyes huge, as I guessed she’d been distracted.

“Run!”I screamed, and we ran across an empty lot and behind a burned-out hulk of a building, which must have been built better than most, as it was still standing.

“What the—”

“Silence!”

“Shut up!”

That was Mircea and Pritkin, back-to-back, taking charge and pointing out the obvious as a furious, tricked god tore back out of non-space and started staring around.

Rebar, I thought dizzily, focusing on a few twisted pieces sticking out of a mostly missing concrete column.This was probably a parking garage at some point when, you know, people had cars.I hadn’t seen any since we arrived, not that I’d had much time to notice, but if anybody needed a place to park, Vegas could still oblige.

“Cassie!?”Purple Hair grabbed me and had Zara clap a hand over her mouth so fast that she only got the one word out.

Rebar and concrete had stood up to hurricanes before, so I didn’t know why I was surprised that this example had managed to do the same to the Apocalypse.But I was staring at it as if transfixed while a demon-looking thing that wasn’t a demon, that was far, far worse, tore around the landscape.And then roared, ear-piercingly loud, probably alerting everyone else that something was interestinghere, right here, just over here, before beginning to throw stuff around.

A car—and oh, look, they had one at least—sailed by overhead, with the rusted-out undercarriage blotting out the moonlight for a second.Then it was gone, and Hansen was back, looking as apologetic as a stump of a man could.And I grabbed him, and we were suddenly back in non-space again and moving.

And it seemed that my feet were smarter than my brain, which was still waxing lyrical about the advantages of good construction, even while we fled through the white night.But this time, our ghostly army was nowhere to be seen.Nothing was except for pale outlines of buildings and a barrier of—oh.

So that was where all the cars had gone.

I stared upward at an absolute wall of burnt-out cars towering over us for what had to be four stories before we fled through the middle of it.We didn’t have time to go around, and the only thing that mattered now was putting space between us and the asshole back there.Because he might be an idiot, but he was a loud idiot, and others weren’t so stupid.

And they were expecting us.

I didn’t know if Jonas’s plan was going to work because we’d just let everyone know that something interesting was happening in the city.But something interesting was happening outside, too, as the cavalry came to the rescue in the force of a dozen loud explosions from seemingly all sides.Maybe because theywereon all sides, as all of our allies attacked at once, giving the gods more to think about than some asshole having a temper tantrum.

At least, I sincerely hoped so.

I got a flash of Bodil’s black eyes in my mental vision and then of Jonas’s resolute face.He knows we arrived,she whispered.I managed to get that much through.He says to hurry.

“Then let’s not… disappoint the man,” I panted, although I didn’t know why I was so badly out of breath.

And then I did when we all tumbled back into real space the next moment, with a very apologetic Hansen looking at me with those huge eyes.

“I’m sorry!I’m sorry!”he said frantically.“But I can’t do it alone, and you’re not powerful enough to help me—”

“Help you do what?”

“Keep all of you skimming along the surface of real space.It takes too much energy.You either need to go farther in or stay out.But this won’t work, not with just the two of us.”

“But we can’t see where we’re going if we’re farther in!”

“I know!I know!I’m sorry!”

Goddamnit.

Chapter Thirty-One

Ipaused for a moment to take stock while we all tried to remember how to breathe.We’d left the car barrier behind, which from this side had clearly been put there deliberately—to keep the gods out fifty years ago?Or to keep us out now?

I didn’t know, but it was solid, the pieces having been welded together into an impressive partition.It linked up with other stretches of “wall” for as far as I could see in the darkness on either side, made up of anything that could be scavenged from the ruined sections of the city.That included pieces of broken buildings, ripped-up sidewalks, concrete offramps and barriers, light posts, roofing, an upside-down semi-truck and trailer, and what looked like part of a blue pool liner, now discolored and droopy, half-melted by fire and yet still bearing the imprint of a cheerful-looking, green turtle.

And what was inside said partition...well, that was different.