Stephen Dawes was ring at Henry. “So, is the firewall you created all smoke and mirrors, too?” he asked sharply as he sat forward on his chair in Cam’s office.
Henry shook his head. “No! That’s genuine science and technology at work. I’m proud of that.”
“Henry’s ability to get the most out of hardware is almost supernatural, and he can detect faultyponents far quicker and more urately than anyone I’ve met, but that’s the extent of his magic withputers,” Marisa stated categorically.
Henry smiled at her.
“Enough!” Nuru pushed the cowl back on her cloak and watched the two men look her way. She ignored the smirk on Huehuecoyotl’s face and the repressed lust on the Human’s. She looked to Cam. “You have preserved your mor even though you were exposed to the Wild Magic. How will we get our mors back?”
Cam smiled and nodded. “I was exposed to smaller doses. The… light-fall is saturated with Wild Magic.” She looked at Keshellion. “You have the knowledge of how to imnt mors.”
“But my abilities are being suppressed by the cursed Wild Magic!” the old Fae snapped.
“Cam, there’s a chance mors aren’t going to be sufficient after tonight,” Henry suggested, and expressions became grim.
“On that happy note, the pregnantdy needs to use the little girl’s room,” Marisa said as she made her way to the door. The soldier positioned there looked to Dawes for permission and got it. When he opened the office door, he froze in shock. Instead of seeing the small outer office, he faced a vast dark chamber. A young woman stood there with a wicked grin on her face, lit by candlelight.
She flicked her wrist, and the soldier flew backward to crash into his three squadmates, taking them all down. She made a second gesture, and Marisa squeaked as she was lifted off her feet and pulled through the doorway.
Henry was already on his feet, charging the door when Mab began tough. He arrived just as it mmed shut. He frantically yanked it open, but the other side just showed the reception area once more.
He didn’t stop to exin or ask permission. He simply opened a tear and jumped through into the red grasses of Eden as it snapped shut behind him. Beautiful morning sunshine lit the hillside he stood on and gleamed off the sides of the ss People collected a short distance further uphill. He saw Xiong and the others turning to face him as he dropped his mor. Connecting his mind to theirs through the magic, he sent them a quick sh of what was happening before he opened another tear and leapt through.
Henry’s hoovesnded in the white gravel on the office tower’s roof deck as he looked up at Mab’s castle. It was tilting at least ten degrees and under it were the crushed remains of the antenna arrays that originally resided on the rooftop. Unlike the mirror castle from her party, her real one couldn’t share the space. One side of the stone building had smashed through the roof’s structure, and the iron beams were piercing the wall of the castle. He moved closer and saw the damaged area was ckened, and the stain was slowly spreading outwards like a bruise, discoloring the stone.
He walked around to the front doors. They were double wide with huge ornate stained ss nkers. Each window was a priceless work of art. The entrance was shut, but he knew the doors would open to his touch. Mab wanted him toe inside. That didn’t mean he was going to make it easy for her.
As he walked up to the door, he lifted one big hoof and mmed it against the stained ss. While there was a protection spell on the window, it was no match for an enraged Satyr’s fury and will. It exploded into a rainbow of small shards of ss. A few more kicks were all it took to make the rest fall away. He carefully stepped through the opening and looked around.
“You MONSTER!!!” Mab’s voice shrieked from all around. “That panel was created by a master artist millennia ago!”
“You are the very definition of a monster,” Henry growled as he pulled a spear-tipped halberd from the grip of a set of medieval armor in the entranceway and used the metal-capped butt of the shaft to smash out the second panel of stained ss. He then proceeded to sh every painting on his way down the hallway towards the stairs. Mab’s screams of incoherent rage were music to his ears. He knew he had to keep her concentrated on him. It might make her forget Marisa.
He had no idea what he was going to do when he actually reached her. He was aplete novice when it came to magic while she was the reigning heavyweight champion.
The foolishness of his headlong rush after Mab was bing abundantly clear to him, but no matter what happened to him tonight, he was going to end her.
-=-
Nate looked at Xiong in confusion as he rested his human hand on the shoulder of the ss Being. He could barely pick up Xiong’s thoughts but what he saw was that Henry had appeared moments ago, gave them a message, then jumped back to Earth. It was the message that Nate was having trouble deciphering.
“Can you slow it down?” he asked.Text ? owned by N?velDrama.Org.
The memory suddenly reyed, but this time he clearly saw Marisa being pulled through the doorway, he clearly heard Mab’s sickughter, and he caught the sh of the castle atop the office tower in Manhattan.
Nate yanked his hand back and fell on his ass as he stumbled away from Xiong in fright. Mab’sughter echoed in his ears.
“She-she has Marisa! I’ve got to-” he began, then his tongue locked up. He was too terrified toplete the sentence. He knew what he had to do, but his mind was shying away from the idea.
“Fuck!” he snapped at himself. He’d been so sure of himself this morning after he found the dagger. Then just seeing a memory of Mab sent his nerve racing away. He knew Henry wasn’t hesitating. How could he do less! It was Marisa at risk, for fuck’s sake!
He pushed himself to his feet and dusted off the clothes he’d made for his mor. The dagger was safely tucked into an inner pocket of his jacket. He reached inside and gripped the handle. His resolve firmed up once more. He could do this!
“I need to get back to Manhattan. Can you open the way for me?” he asked as he ced his hand on Xiong’s shoulder once more.
He saw an image of Henry approaching an office tower. Likely a memory they had from Henry. Maybe it was the building Henry was running to!
“Yes, there!” he eximed.
He picked up from Xiong that he’d have to jump through as opening a gate was draining. He nodded and stepped back as Xiong and another of his group stood a short distance apart and faced one another. A tear snapped open, and the moment the opening wasrge enough, Nate leapt through into a green ground fog. He immediately picked up the tingle of Wild Magic swirling around him. Gentle music wasing from it.
Hands grabbed his arms to pin him in ce, and he gaped in surprise at the two Silver People in tattered US military uniforms.
“Nate?”
He turned his head to look over his shoulder and saw Roy and Mary approaching, thetter covered in blood and gore while Roy’s mor was clean. “What-what happened?” he asked as the Silver Soldiers released his arms, allowing him to turn and face the group. His eyes widened further to see more of the soldiers.
“Mab sent a squad of Ogres at us. Tough bastards!” Roy growled.
“Not so tough,” Mary scoffed and got a grin from Roy.
Roy turned to Nate. “Weren’t you on Eden?”
“Yeah, Henry sent me to Eden. Listen, he just shot through on his way to attack Mab at her castle,” Nate said anxiously. He was still shaky about it.
“What?!?” Roy roared. He reached for his cell but saw Cam and the others rushing out of VRL’s front door.
“Mab opened her magic door in my office. She has Marisa, and Henry went after her!” Cam cried out.
“That bloody fool!” Roy snapped.
“What’s happened?” Sigrid asked anxiously as she and Minkah rushed up to join them. Again, Sigrid was spotless, but Minkah had a few blood streaks on her, though she had no visible injuries, so the blood wasn’t likely hers.
“Mab grabbed Marisa, and Henry went after her on his own!” Meixiu eximed. “We must help him!”
A ck SUV pulled up to the entrance, and the back window rolled down. Mahati looked out at the gathered people nervously. “Cam? Can I speak with you?”
Cam rushed over to the car. “Mahati! What are you doing here? You can’t be out in this!”
“I’m afraid it’s a little toote for that. I went down to our building’s lobby to check for mail, and I saw Lorelei standing outside the building. I opened the door for her, and she let me know what was happening. We called for a car. I had to walk through the light to get to the car. I-I’ve lost my mor. Where’s Henry?” she asked, looking around nervously.
“He’s gone after Mab. She took Marisa,” Cam said with a shaky voice.
“Let’s go get them!” Mahati insisted.
“No one is going anywhere!” a Human military officer barked as he approached the car. “This night has gone from strange to freak show! I mean, what the fuck were those things we just killed?” He pointed down the street. Then he spun to point that finger at Mary. “No one can survive getting beaten so brutally, and they certainly don’t get back up and tear their way through their opponents barehanded! What the fuck are you?”