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I had a moment to see a wall of creatures leaping for us, some human, if grotesquely oversized, some animal-like, with slavering jaws full of teeth and slitted pupils, and some things that must have come from other worlds I’d never seen, because my brain broke to look at them—

Then everything slowed way, way down.

It looked like I’d cast a slow time spell, giving me the chance to see the fluttering of silken robes, the glowing of tiny motes of power in the air, the fury and confusion and growing fear on godly faces as they realized something was wrong—

Then the faces were gone, eaten away while still halfway through the leap by a tide of golden light.It swept over the group like a tsunami, eating its way up outstretched arms, across faces caught between fear and fury, through bodies of all descriptions, and instead of growing weaker as it went, it glowed all the brighter.It’s feeding off their energy, I thought, feeling the heat on my face; it’s feeding off them!

When it had fed enough, it swept outward, burning through the room of ancient magical beings like a scythe through wheat.Then surging beyond, fueled by the energy they’d provided to take on the rest.I didn’t know if it was Bodil’s abilities or if I was still connected to the spell, but I could see it flooding the hotel, surging up the walls of hallways, crashing over beings that suddenly turned the other way and tried to run, only it caught them before they could.

And just like water, bright, sunlit, beautiful water, it kept on going, rushing out into the street like a churning golden tide, swamping the masses of gods converging on the casino, dissolving ancient creatures full of power into sparkling nothingness, like foam on the sea.And then it was flowing away through the city, running down ruined streets like a flash flood, catching any stray godly forms and eating through them, too, dissolving them between one step and the next.

And before I could recover from that, something rippled through the air, something great and grand and powerful, and I crouched down, wondering if this was their retaliation.If Zeus was right on their heels and boiling towards us, bent on revenge.Because it sounded like a 747 taking off, right overhead, so loud and so strong that I cringed before it, for I had nothing left.

But someone else did.

“Come on!”The witches were crowding around, tugging me back up, and giving me what strength they had.It wasn’t much, just tiny hits of power on all sides, which made me feel less like passing out, but it wasn’t going to be remotely enough to fight with!

Only maybe fighting wasn’t needed.

“Your father’s spell!”Billy was yelling in my face.“Come on, Cas!He’s leaving!Get it together!”

I got it together.And sent everything I had, all that the witches had been able to give me and all I still had in my suddenly starved veins, outward like a lasso.Straight at the massive spell screaming by overhead—

And caught it.

Yes, it felt exactly like a 747, I thought, as I was jerked off my feet as if I’d roped a whirlwind.Or maybe worse, I didn’t know, as I’d never tried to ride one of those!But it must feel something like this, I thought, fighting with the spell, which seemed to know we shouldn’t be there, and was bucking like a Bronco, trying to throw us off.

But while this wasn’t a shift in the normal sense, there was something about it… a taste on the wind, a familiar song in my ears, something that resonated with me like an old friend.I knew shifts.They were my very best thing.

And I was damned if I wasn’t going to make this one work for me!

Billy was there, laughing in my ear.“Ride ‘em, cowboy!”he said, and I looked around to see that Pritkin had scraped up enough power from somewhere to encase the others in his shields, and they were coming, too.Including the witches who weren’t remotely supposed to be there, but who had earned a ticket if anyone had.

The ride smoothed out after a minute, like the takeoff of a jetliner when it reaches cruising speed.I didn’t see Dad, up ahead; I didn’t see anything but the cascade of falling years, peeling away from us on all sides, and peeling fast.

This wasn’t going to take long, I thought, and I guessed the same thought occurred to Billy.

“I gotta go, Cas,” he told me.

“What?”I looked at him and saw him already growing transparent.“No—”

“You know I can’t go back with you.I got people waiting on the other side, just like you got yours here.”He glanced at the bunch trailing behind us, and his lips quirked.“You’re determined to have this mage, aren’t you?”

I looked back to see Pritkin straining to hold onto the shield, red-faced and swearing at it, but somehow keeping it intact.“Yeah.I’ve even been thinking about, you know, proposing, assuming we all don’t die.”

Billy’s head tilted.“Isn’t that the guy’s job?”

“Normally, but he has issues around marriage.Do I have your permission?”

“Since when did you need my permission for anything?”

“Your blessing then?”

“Well, since you put it like that...”he hugged me swift and hard.“He’s still not good enough for you,” he whispered in my ear.“But for what it’s worth, yeah.Go get the goober.And deal with this shit!You wanna be doing this sort of thing forever?”

“No,” I said emphatically, and he smiled.

“That’s the right answer.”And for a second, I thought I felt a ghostly kiss on my cheek.“Knock ‘em dead kid,” he told me, for the second time.