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“It worked there once, in extremis; whether it will do so again is unknown.Without my other half, part of the spell is missing.And you know what happens when a piece of a spell is removed.”

“But part of you, most of you, is still here!”

“That doesn’t mean the spell will work, Cassie, and if it does, it will be glitchy and unreliable, possibly even dangerous—”

“And what Jonas is planning isn’t?”I stared at him.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”Æsubrand demanded in a very unprincely-like screech.His reputation as a stone-cold badass was taking a beating tonight.

“I would like an answer to that as well,” Bodil said.Because I guess she couldn’t read through the storm of emotions I was currently dealing with.

“I already gave you one,” I said.“There may be another way of generating the power we need, but he’s back in Vegas, too, along with the only person who might know what happened to cause all this.Or did you forget that we need Rhea for more than just power?Unless Jonas knows how the gods got in, and where, and exactly when?”

“No,” she said simply.“It was the first information I looked for.”

“Then no one else knows, either—except possibly for a talented clairvoyant with the Pythian powerwho lived through it.We can’t stop an invasion if we don’t know what happened, and Rhea can give us that.”

“Ifwe can reach her,” Æsubrand said.“Andifyou can generate this power you haven’t bothered to explain with a malfunctioning spell.And if and if and if!When right here, right now, you could—”

“Do nothing but blow myself up!”

“You don’t know that!”

“I know a damned sight more about it than you!”

One aristocratic lip carved itself into a sneer.“What I know is that you’re a coward.”

“Well, shit,” Alphonse said.

“It’s all well and good, being the hero when you have the power of a god backing you up,” Æsubrand continued relentlessly.“When you can manifest whips of golden energy that slice through any defenses, when you risk nothing—”

“You can say that after tonight?”Enid said.“She saved us—”

“She savedhim,” he said, looking at Pritkin.“Her lover and protector, or she tried to.She had no idea what she was getting into—Bodil saw!”

“None of us did!”Enid said.“But when she realized, she didn’t run—”

“Run where?”he demanded.“There was nowhere to go!And the mages got us out of there, not her.And now that she could be useful and save us all—”

“Save you?”I cut in, my voice low and savage.“Saveyou?”

“Yes, save us!Get us back home and out of this hellish nightmare!Give us a chance tofight—”

“If you want a fight, you’ll get one in Vegas.”

“I’ll get nothing of the kind!”he said and started for the door, only to find the path blocked by a bunch of pissed-off witches who had just arrived.“Get out of my way!”

“And since you like talking about ifs,” I said, coming up behind him and causing him to flinch and whirl around while reaching for a sword he no longer had.“If you are thinking about running to Jonas and telling him any tales, consider this.Even if he could give me enough power for a shift, which I assure you he can’t, it would be enough forme.Myself.I.

“The Pythian spells require exponentially more power to take another along for the ride, so I wouldn’t be taking any passengers.And that is also true for those dark mage spells you seem to like the idea of so much.”

I tilted my head.“Do you understand what that means, Prince Æsubrand?It means whatever spell I use,you stay here.If we follow your plan, you, Lady Bodil, Enid, Alphonse, and Pritkin will all be left behind.Waiting in this hellscape for the timeline to reform around you.If I die or fail to stop the invasion, you will wait forever.Or until a god comes by and wants a snack.But if I succeed...

“Well, I’m afraid it doesn’t get any better for you,” I said as he stared at me.I didn’t know where my anger had gone or if it had.All I felt was ice.“You don’t go back home.You simply cease, along with this entire branch of time’s family tree—”

“Cease?”He looked confused, although whether because he didn’t understand much about time travel or because he was unfamiliar with the concept of his own demise, I didn’t know.

And didn’t care.