by Emma Holly
If he’d ruled here, he’d have assumed an invasion was underway. He’d have been mounting a defense, sending out squadrons, establishing alternate means of communication between city and provinces. None of that seemed to be happening.
Georgie’s grip on his waist tightened. “I don’t remember that geodesic dome.”
The enclosure was glass and metal. It topped what he had thought was open space. “That’s the courtyard’s sky, I believe. The magic must hide the structure from underneath.”
“It’s the only thing lit up.”
“We’re lucky it is. If your spell had knocked out the portal nexus, I don’t know how we’d recharge it.”
“I didn’t think of that. I didn’t mean to shut down the entire grid.”
She sounded sheepish. “Every choice carries risk,” he said. “Good soldiers—good generals, for that matter—deal with consequences as they arise.”
The kiss she pressed to his smoky cheek wasn’t soldierly. The buzz of her lips surprised and warmed him. His gratitude that she was with him, and that Connor was as well, hit him forcefully. No doubt he’d face a reckoning for deceiving her at some point. For now, their alliance held steady.
“Will the frame support us?” Connor asked from Georgie’s other side. “If it’s strong enough, we could land and peek in.”
Because this seemed worth a try, Iksander followed the suggestion.
The faux sun floated at the dome’s apex. They settled farther down, where the lower rim met the roof. They were less likely to be spotted there if the sky-seeming slipped. Iksander couldn’t tell if the illusion were active. From outside the glass, the dome was transparent and nearly free of snow.
Fortunately, their landing didn’t set off alarms.
“Damn,” he said as he surveyed the area under them. “I should have expected this. The courtyard is full of people. Including the regents. I guess Eleanor recovered from Connor’s sleep whammy. The court hangers-on have gathered here for the light. Either their personal magic is wiped out or not rising to the challenge.” He clucked his tongue. He spotted a large security force: both the black garbed soldiers and the froufrou-y guards in striped pantaloons. “Too bad we can’t count on being missed if they shoot this time.”
“This time,” Georgie repeated. “We were shot at?”
“You slept through that part. The guards at Hodensk lost their night vision from your spell, but their weapons retained their charge.” Iksander shrugged. “Perhaps this city’s firearms carry extra protection.”
“Something’s happening,” Connor said, drawing their attention back to the scene below. “It looks like the courtiers are confronting Henri and Eleanor.” He leaned closer and turned his ear toward the sound. Apparently, he’d absorbed the trick of sharing abilities. Though he didn’t do a spell that Iksander noticed, suddenly—despite the barrier of the glass—they could hear clearly.
“This is too much,” a tall female declared. Dressed in ruffled sleep attire but poised like a battleship, she stood at the forefront of her colleagues. “We’ve given you our loyalty. Toed every line you drew. Why have you taken our power away?”
Cool as rain, Eleanor flipped butter yellow locks behind one slim shoulder. “What nonsense. Of course we didn’t take your power away. This is a temporary problem. An accident blacked the grid, or perhaps an agent of our old enemy moves against our great empire. We’ll find who’s responsible and squash them.”
“If you believe our enemy is responsible,” the djinniya challenged, “why are the soldiers here, protecting you?”
Iksander smiled at the woman’s logic, but Eleanor had an answer for this as well. “Should we not protect ourselves? What is the empire if not Henri and myself?”
Henri took her hand and nodded in support. “We shield you by doing this.”
“Convenient!” another emboldened courtier declared, striving to match the first’s brashness. “You make a virtue out of covering your asses.”
“Watch yourself,” Henri warned. “You forget how luxuriously you live here, how we’ve graced you with our presence and showered you with gifts. Remain calm now and you’ll enjoy that bounty again.”
His argument stole the wind from his opponents’ sails. The last thing most of them wanted was to give up their privileges. Though more dissatisfied murmurs rose, Iksander sensed the resistance losing momentum.
“They’re not going to fight them,” Georgie said, echoing his conclusions. “Don’t they see they’ve been played? Most of the ‘gifts’ Henri and Eleanor hand out are stolen, including from the courtiers!”
“They’re part of the system,” Iksander said. “They benefit more—or believe they do—from leaving the status quo in place.”
Georgie grimaced but shook off her annoyance. “Okay, what is, is. We need to do something to drive these folks from the courtyard. If we don’t, we’ll be killed trying to get in.”
“I think we can access the portal from here,” Connor said, “without sneaking through the palace. If we climb the dome and remove the pane above it, we could slip through the hole. I know flying around would make us a target, but maybe we could drop straight in.”
Georgie turned to Iksander. “Could we do that? We wouldn’t plummet to the floor?”
“The portal will suck us in if we drop near enough. The challenge is getting sucked where we want to go. Guaranteeing that could take a few minutes.”
She frowned as she mulled this over. “If that’s the case, we’re still better off emptying the courtyard. What about . . . You saw the demon cloud up close. Could you impersonate it in your smoke form? That’s something they’re afraid of. Even the soldiers probably, considering the corpse we found in the conduit. With the power mostly out, they might believe the demon could get past the protections.”
Iksander saw the irony of making the lie this city was taught the truth. Luna and the regents had demonized him—casting him rather than themselves as their people’s worst bogeyman.
“Hold on,” Connor interjected. “What will happen to Iksander if the soldiers fire into his smoke form?”
“That’s a lesser concern than insuring the portal is keyed correctly,” Iksander said. “I can survive more hits in my smoke form than if I were physical.”
“More hits—” George said in alarm.
“Don’t forget how fast I am in that state. Your idea is good, and we don’t have a better. I shall put it into action.”
“But—”
He bussed her cheek and then checked Connor to make sure he was on board. The angel appeared uncertain but didn’t object more. Iksander smoked before he could lose his nerve. As best he could, he assumed the demon cloud’s monstrous appearance.
“Blacker,” Connor suggested, studying the result. “And maybe spread out so you look bigger.”
“I’ll do that once I get inside.” Iksander drifted toward the pane he wanted to go through. Despite the general power outage, magic was lingering there. “Georgie, could you place your hands here and send out energy? I’d like you to make a hole in the anti-infiltration charm.”
After a brief hesitation, she laid her palms flat on the surface. No matter her occasional doubts, she was gaining confidence. Her human influence pushed the ward aside neatly.
“All right,” he said. “As soon as the crowd is distracted, you two monkey up the dome. Odds are, the portal is already programmed to reach my city. The patrols who were searching for Luna’s body would have no reason to reset it. I think it’s best if you’re prepared to drop in on short notice.”
“With you,” Georgie clarified.
He wondered how his demon face looked smiling. “If at all possible.”
“Good luck,” Connor said.
Creator willing, he wouldn’t need too much of that.
His smoke vibrated with heightened edginess. As ready as he was getting, he dropped through the opening Georgie made. Unseen as yet, he spread out and blackened and raised threatening demon paws. He began to ca
st a shadow the sun’s rays couldn’t penetrate. As people saw it, heads turned upward in alarm. When he had a quarter of the crowd’s attention, he clarified his threat.
“Feed me,” he roared in the cloud demon’s rasping voice. “Feed me or be damned to you!”
His brief experience at the Variété must have given him a touch of the acting bug. Causing the courtiers to shrink back was satisfying. Faced with his frightening visage, Henri and Eleanor were no braver than the rest. Their mouths formed O’s, their already pale faces graying with terror.
Deciding he might as well throw himself into the performance, he amped the glare of his yellow eyes and dashed at the crowd again.
“WHOA,” GEORGIE BREATHED as she watched Iksander swipe and snarl at the frightened djinn. She’d have cowered if she’d been down there. “He’s really convincing.”
Eleanor thought so too. She reached for her protective medal, jerking with fresh horror when she discovered it missing. The shock that rippled across her face said she might have deduced the handsome man she tried to make her lover had stolen it.
Henri was too busy with his own fear to notice his twin’s reaction.
“Shoot that thing,” he cried in a high quaver to the guards. “Shoot it, you idiots!”
Georgie flinched as two separate streaks of lightning shot upward toward the sultan. “Shit. Their weapons are working.”
“Hahaha,” the Iksander-demon laughed. “I’ll eat all your life force for that!”
Were the soldiers buying it? Their aim was wild, but they hadn’t turned tail yet. Iksander evaded another volley. Mostly anyway. A couple wisps of his cloud form were smoking.
“Come on, Georgie,” Connor said, giving her sleeve a tug. “Iksander will be smart. We can’t sit here watching.”
He was right, but it was hard to tear her gaze away.
“Up,” Connor urged, tugging her again. “And watch where you put your feet.”
That advice was also sound. If this had been a salvage job back home, they’d have worn safety harnesses. As it was, she simply tried to be careful.
The metal was cold enough to make sweaty hands stick to it.
She pulled her sleeves down to shield her fingers and clambered upward behind Connor. The ersatz sun was too bright to see past. Being blind made the bursts of fire and screams that much more unnerving.
Then again, as long as the djinn were screaming, Iksander was still scaring them.
As she climbed, she scanned the metal frame that held the panes in place. Big steel screws secured each triangle’s points. When she reached the top, she braced over a stretch of glass as tall as she was. More or less balanced, she pulled the chain with Eleanor’s stolen and otherwise useless medal off her head. Breaking the pane—assuming they could—risked drawing attention. Her plan was to free a strut using this as a makeshift screwdriver.
Her first attempt to turn the screw nearly gave her a hernia.
“Ah,” Connor said, noting the task she was grunting over. “Shall I do that? I think my arms are stronger.”
She didn’t argue, just handed the coin over. He strained too but with better results than her. Pretty soon he was lifting off a long metal length. Georgie climbed around to help him slide out the glass. Once it rested atop a neighboring pane, they swung their legs into the opening. Uncomfortably aware of how high up they were, Georgie gripped the frame two-handed. Only then did she lean to look at the bright portal.
From this distance, the pretend sun was as big as a minivan. It wasn’t hot, fortunately, and they certainly wouldn’t be able to miss dropping into it. That was a leap she wasn’t looking forward to. The way the orb spun and sparkled dizzied her. She didn’t realize how much until Connor caught her elbow to steady her.
“The screaming has stopped,” he said.
He was right. Silence reigned in the space below.
“Iksander?” she called softly.
“Maybe he’s chasing them down a hall. Let’s say a prayer while we wait.”
She let him choose one. Her mind was too jittery. The words calmed her enough that she didn’t fall off her perch when Iksander suddenly popped into being beside her, fully physical once more. Inexplicably—to her, anyway—singe marks smoldered on his court costume.
She hoped this didn’t mean his body was burned as well.
“I finally broke their nerve,” he said breathlessly before she could ask if he were okay. “They ran like Iblis was after them. The courtyard is clear.”
“Should we drop into the portal now?” Connor asked.
“I think we’ve got a minute for me to ensure it’s coded the way we want. I’m going to hover over it. Don’t jump until I signal you.”
He puffed out of physical again. Georgie told herself this probably meant his power reserves were fine.
IKSANDER HOPED HE HAD sufficient juice for the task ahead. He’d taken more magical hits than he wanted to dwell on.
Focus, he ordered. His remaining strength would serve him better if he marshaled his mental force.
Because his smoke form didn’t have lungs, he imagined drawing a calming breath. He tried not to fret over his previous attempt to code a portal. He’d landed in Georgie’s world in a place he hadn’t intended days too early to join his friends. Back then he’d let himself get distracted. This time he had practice.
He sent his senses toward the glittering sun, picturing his city as it likely appeared now—bright and balmy, minarets gleaming, palms waving gracefully above Victory Park. Though it was painful, he visualized statues too. If he pictured his citizens walking, he risked arriving before Luna turned his populace to stone. Admittedly, the chance of that happening was small. Unlike the departed empress, his magic was too humble for lengthy time travel.
Iksander cursed as he realized his thoughts had wandered off track again.
Think of the park. It was one of his favorite places; his people’s too. They were proud of its verdant beauty, and that every rank was welcome to stroll its paths. Iksander knew how the sun hit the Arch of Triumph where it straddled the avenue. He knew how the grass felt beneath jeweled slippers or a coarse wool blanket at a picnic. The scent of the flowers that bloomed there was as familiar as the faces of his friends. God grant they meet in the park again. Iksander missed Arcadius and Joseph especially. Arcadius was his city’s guardian, Joseph its chief magician. In the years they’d lived and worked together, he’d grown so used to relying on their strength he wondered he’d got along without them.
He hadn’t got along alone, of course. Thanks to Georgie and Connor, he’d accomplished useful things—enjoyable ones as well. Simple fun had become foreign to him. Certainly, he hadn’t expected to experience it while trying to save his people. What would his old friends make of his new? Joseph would be fascinated, especially by Connor. Arcadius might disapprove at first, but the upright commander would come around. Human or not, angel or not, Georgie and Connor were lovable. In the end, Iksander’s friends would love them as completely as he did.
His heart flared brighter within his energy. He loved them. He loved Georgie the human, and he loved Connor the angel. The epiphany made him feel wholer, not just happy but strong again. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t perfect or that he’d made mistakes.
He was good enough to deserve this good fortune.
He didn’t scold himself for his straying thoughts. In truth, he couldn’t. He had a distinct impression of clicking into place, of every particle of his being occupying the state it was meant to. He was the key to coding the portal. Turn him, and the door would lead where it ought. He looked back at his dear new companions, their legs dangling through the hole in the frame above. Georgie gnawed her lip nervously, but Connor beamed at him. Behind Iksander, the portal pulsed differently. No longer spinning, its rhythm matched his heartbeat.
He didn’t have a shred of doubt what that signified.
“The portal’s ready,” he said. “Hold hands and jump together. You’ll push me in with you.”
CRAP, Georgie thought, wishing she felt ready.
Connor took her trembling right hand. “We’ll be fine, Georgie. Just remember to grab Iksander on our way down.”
We won’t plummet to the floor. We won’t—
Fearless per usual, Connor scooted forward on the strut, grinning. She scooted too, sucked a deep breath, and jumped with him.
They dropped straight into the glare. She’d flung her left arm out, possibly to grab Iksander or maybe in a forlorn hope of balancing. Luckily, his smoke hand caught hers. They continued falling together, first through a suspended silver hoop and then into black silence. That was startling. Georgie had braced to be disoriented. She hadn’t anticipated she’d suddenly be nowhere. Though weightless, she remained physical. She felt the others’ hands in hers, floating beside her invisibly.
To the best of her recollection, her previous journey through a portal only lasted a few seconds.
“Uh,” she said. “We’re still in the portal, right? We haven’t gotten where we’re going.”
“We’re still in the portal,” Iksander said. “I suppose Luna designed hers differently.”
Georgie would have preferred he not suppose. “Are we moving? I feel like we’re just hanging.”
“I believe we are,” Iksander said with the same unsureness as before.
“I’ll call up a light,” Connor volunteered.
A small blue glow ignited in his palm. Seeing what it revealed made her gasp so hard she choked. They were moving all right. Though she’d felt like they were floating in place, a twisting tunnel’s black shiny walls whizzed by them. Ebony scales covered the curving sides—not quite stone but not quite animal either.
“Whew,” Iksander said, so she guessed this surprised him too. He shook himself. “I’m pretty sure nothing’s wrong, but we should probably keep a tight grip on each other.”