Jason blinked. “Kae, I’m game, too, but do you want us tagging along?”
Relief swept over me. Grateful for the offer, I said, “You’re welcome to come, but I don’t want to put either of you in harm’s way. But…I would welcome the company.”
“We’re with you, Fury.” Tam shifted his weight to one side, and suddenly he seemed to glow, his glamour running strong. I realized it was more than skin deep. Under the night sky, he seemed luminous and regal.
“I don’t consider this just your fight,” Jason grumbled. “Lyon is getting too big for his britches, and the Order of the Black Mist is dangerous. We’re all in this together.”
“Right.” I glanced over at Tommy-Tee. Crap. We couldn’t take him. “What do we do about…” I jerked my head toward him. “And our things? I don’t want to be dragging around a change of clothes through the Tunnels.”
Tommy-Tee didn’t seem to notice we were talking about him. He was staring at the sky, his eyes lit up like a kid staring into a candy shop.
Tam gave him a long look. “Tommy-Tee is trapped inside his shadow. He’s in there, but it would take a skilled shaman from my people to bring him back out.”
That threw me. “You mean there’s hope for him?”
With a gentle smile, Tam caught my gaze and held it. “There’s hope for a lot of the Broken. Humans just don’t know the right techniques and your government treats them like lost causes rather than ask the Otherkin for help.”
Otherkin was the term the government used to include all those not of human or Theosian–human blood.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Too often, it isn’t the body chemistry gone wrong as much as the spirit has gone wandering. We’ll head toward the Tunnels after we go where I was taking us to begin with. We can leave our things there, along with Tommy-Tee, and he’ll be safe.”
As we crossed the last divide separating us from the fences surrounding the Sandspit, my stomach worked its way into my throat. The very aura of the drifting dunes reeked with chaotic magic, and with danger. During the day, sometimes the dunes shifted so you could see the World Tree from the edges, but at night, especially when the clouds were covering the sky with their thick, gray masses, you could barely see your hand in front of your face.
There were no streetlights on the sidewalks that surrounded the two-hundred-acre vortex. They shorted out so often the city had removed them. Instead, a row of lights lined the opposite sides of the streets, leaving the fence surrounding the roiling pit swathed in darkness. But the Sandspit had a glow all of its own. Faint, but unmistakable. The dunes emanated a pale blue light, shifting as the great piles of sands moved in the continuous wind that rattled the area.
As we came to the fence, I stared into what had once been a thriving industrial sector of town. What had it looked like originally, I wondered. What had it looked like the day before Gaia turned it into a twisted heap of scrap metal, and then—dust and sand? The fury in her strike, the fury of what had happened, hit me to the core. We couldn’t face her anger again. One more time and it would be the end of civilization for good. We couldn’t chance the Order of the Black Mist raising enough hell so Gaia would rage down and wipe every trace of human and Otherkin off the face of her body.
“We have to find the Tunnels,” I whispered, staring into the seething pit.
Tam, standing beside me, slid his arm around my waist. “We will. We’ll find them.”
“I don’t want to go in there. But I have no choice.” I had been in the Sandspit a few times, but never very far. Two hundred acres might not seem like much, but when every step was fraught with danger, the prospect of two hundred acres was daunting.
“The World Tree is in there. Think of it, Fury. We have a branch of the World Tree right here. Your ancestors would never have believed it possible. They didn’t even know it existed until Gaia uncloaked it.”
Something about the way he said it made me stop short. “My ancestors? What about yours?” I turned to him. “How old are you, Tam? Jason is two hundred and twenty-four years old, but I have no idea how old you are.”
“Does it matter? Would it change the way you act around me?” He searched my face and I realized he really wanted an answer.
A funny feeling settled in my stomach. I knew very little about Tam, even though I had known him over half my life now. I realized I knew nothing about his family or background—it had never come up in conversation.
“I like to think I wouldn’t react differently. But this isn’t the place for a heart-to-heart conversation, is it? We’d better get moving. Jason, do you have Tommy-Tee? We don’t dare let him wander loose in the Sandspit. It would eat him up.”
With Tommy-Tee in tow, we walked along the fence until we came to one of the openings leading into the magical zone. There were large readerboards warning people of the dangers. As with the Bogs, the boards stated that no rescues would be mounted, no searches made, no recovery efforts undertaken. Enter at your own risk, basically.
I sucked in a deep breath and, because this was my fight no matter what Jason and Tam thought, I was the first to step into the Sandspit.
The shift in energy was immediate. Once through the gate, the winds picked up to a steady, brusque clip. The air shifted, taking on a cool, harsh feel, and stinging grains of sand began to pelt my face. The winds never died in the Sandspit. They never fell silent, but ceaselessly howled, their voices clear with warning.
Here, the elements were alive in a way they weren’t out in the rest of the world. They had sentience—and emotion. And tonight, the winds were angry. I could feel the energy surround me, sweeping up my own emotion and heightening it. Something had happened, and the spirits were pissed. Was it the earthquake? Or something different? That, I couldn’t tell, but I stopped, wanting to hear what the winds were whispering.
“Can you feel it? The winds are trying to tell me something.”
“I can hear it, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.” Tam turned, his back to me. “I’ll watch behind us and to the right. Jason, you watch to our front and left. Fury, do what you need to.”
Jason took hold of Tommy-Tee’s wrist, holding him steady. “Go ahead, Kae. Whatever you need.”
I stepped between them so that I was protected and raised my hands. I couldn’t go into the Crossroads here, there was no intersection, but I could work with my own magic. Fire and flame wouldn’t do much and there wasn’t much to exorcise, but my powers of divination would help.
I stretched out, opening my mind to the sounds riding the wind. The voices formed a tapestry of music, catching me up in a melody so faint I could barely hear it. As it began to grow, I opened myself to the sound. Suddenly, I was in the thick, dancing on the haunting tune that rode the currents of air. I whirled in the middle of the voices, which appeared as sparks bobbing and weaving. The dancing lights grew stronger as the voices grew louder, and fainter as they faded out. I drifted with them until the music turned into words, and I could hear what was being said beneath the thrum of song.
“The tree is awake, the tree is alive,
The roots are thick, the portals thrive,
The doors that are closed buzz like hives,
As the bleak magician strives…
To open, to open, to open the way
As the threads of destiny fray…”
Abruptly, I dropped out of my trance. “The winds in the Sandspit know about Lyon and what he’s trying to do. Whether they are actual spirits or whether it’s an air elemental, I don’t know, but Lyon’s doing his best to change the path of fate and destiny. Tam, take us to where we can safely leave Tommy-Tee and our things. After that, we have to get to the Tunnels as quickly as we can.”
I still had no idea how we were going to infiltrate the Order of the Black Mist and retrieve the Thunderstrike, but I knew we had to—and soon. Or the World Shift would be a pale comparison of what Gaia would rain down on us this time.
Chapter 19
Tam led us into what seemed like an indistinguishable mass of dunes. The sand was ochre in color, but it sparkled with lights, as though somebody had dumped a ton of glitter in it. But as pretty as it was, I knew that glitter represented rogue magic and was hella dangerous. Because let one good gust blow it into your face and boom—something was guaranteed to happen.
“Don’t scuff your feet. Don’t kick up sand. Do your best to take steady, easy steps. Try not to breathe too deeply. It’s a bad idea.” Tam kept his voice down.
I brought up my Trace and checked for any Aboms that might be in the area, but saw no signs. The aerial Abomination we had seen earlier was nowhere in sight—it was long gone.
“We’re clear on Aboms for now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other creatures prowling around here.” I shivered. My legs were cold, but it was the Sandspit giving me the creeps.
“This way.” Tam skirted a large dune that was mounded over a scrap heap of rusted metal, and turned to the left.
We followed him as he wound through the dunes. I realized I had no idea how deep we were into the Sandspit. From here, none of the exits were visible. The sides of the Sandspit seemed to be swallowed up by unending dunes. We might as well be in the middle of the desert instead of downtown Seattle. The noise of the streets was muffled as well, and I began to wonder if the Sandspit was off in its own dimension, nestled in the midst of the dark city streets.
After a time—it could have been five minutes or it could have been an hour—Tam stopped. He pointed ahead. There, rising out of a crater so deep that its top was almost level with the sand, was the World Tree. The tree was over one hundred feet tall, which meant the crater had to be at least that deep.
“I had no idea it was actually inside the crater. Was that formed…”
“When Gaia shifted the world? Yes. All over the world, she summoned the branches of the World Tree. This tree, and others like it, are just limbs of the one that connects all the realms together.” Tam stared at it reverently. “Whether it was birthed out of her anger or her love, the Tree is a beacon to all who travel through the different dimensions and worlds.”
“Like the Abominations.”
“Yes, it’s a beacon for them, unfortunately. And for the Devani, which is equally unfortunate. The two are mirrors, but they are both so far out on their respective ends of the spectrum that they’re not really all that different.” Tam paused, his gaze darting around the area. Finally, he seemed to see what he was looking for. “Come. This way.”
We followed as he skirted the crater. About halfway around it, he paused by one particularly sharp-looking heap of scrap metal and then cautiously approached the edge of the crater.
“We go down here.”
“Down?” Jason asked. “We’re actually descending into the crater?” He sounded just about as thrilled as I felt.
“We have to, yes. Don’t question. Follow single file in my tracks. There’s a hidden stair and it is steep and treacherous, so be cautious. Jason, you could probably fly down but I doubt that Tommy-Tee can make it on his own, so if you could stay in human form to help him, it would probably be best.” And with that, Tam vanished over the edge.
My stomach knotted. I waited for a moment, then gingerly followed his tracks to the edge of the crater. In the dark, so it was hard to see the path he was taking, except for the luminous glow emanating from the World Tree. The incandescent green light lit up the air. Tam’s footsteps leading down the slope toward the crater glittered with sparkles.
Hesitantly, I stepped over the side. Beneath the sand, I could feel the steps hidden under the dunes. They were slick because of the sand, but I was able to follow the sparkling pattern of his steps. I cautiously began to make my way down, one step at a time, holding my breath. A hundred-foot tumble down into a crater of sand would still smart.
“Crap, I hate this,” I muttered to myself. But I fell into a rhythm and the descent grew easier. Take a step. Pause, make certain I’m on a firm foundation. Take another step. Pause.
The minutes wore away and I lost track of the time because the descent was so slow. There would be no hurrying, no rushing. We couldn’t afford to make a mistake. We were so close to the World Tree that I could see the portals from where I was. They were flat against the trunk, swirling vortices of energy plastered against the bark. Where they led, I didn’t know, but the last thing I wanted was for some Abomination to come zipping through while I was trying to keep my balance on the side of the crater.
A shower of sand poured around my shoulders, startling me, and I heard Jason’s muffled curse from up above. Tommy-Tee muttered something. I didn’t look up—I didn’t want sand in my eyes—but I could guess what had happened. Tommy-Tee must have slipped and Jason caught him. As we descended farther into the crater, the rest of Seattle seemed to fade. Even thoughts of the quake vanished as I focused on my steps and my breathing.
“Fury?” For once Queet’s voice was soft. “I don’t want to disturb your thoughts, but I wanted to let you know I’m here.”
I was counting the steps by now to keep my focus. The sparkling sand scared me. The glittering grains were rife with rogue magic. For some reason, the thought of falling into it frightened me more than the thought of an Abom coming in off the World Tree.
“Thanks,” I said to Queet. I paused in mid-step, not wanting to mess up my coordination. “How long have I been moving? Hours?”
“No, but time in the Sandspit runs oddly. It’s not like time outside. Think of it like being out on the Crossroads. You can be there for what seems like an eternity but only a blink of an eye might have passed back here. I’ll be quiet and let you finish.” And he was good to his word.
I went back to descending the hidden stairs until I happened to glance over at the tree and realize that I was nearly at the bottom. The sound of the winds was cushioned down here, with only a light breeze to shift and move the sands of the dunes. As I stepped off the last stair, Tam was waiting. So relieved to be down safe, I fell into his arms, holding him tightly.
“I feel like I’ve come through another world,” I whispered, my head on his shoulder.
“You have,” he said, his words a whisper in my ear. “You’re okay, Fury. The descent affects everybody that way. We all feel it when we come down here. You’re traveling through history, through layers of magic, through worlds dying and being born. I can’t explain it, but you are no longer where you started out. That may sound obvious, but…”
I looked up into his face, shivering as his silver gaze held me fast. I wanted to kiss him, to feel his lips on mine again. His arms were warm around my shoulders and I wanted his fingers to linger over my skin, to caress my breasts, my stomach, my…
“Later. I promise. Later.” His words shook me out of my reverie and I blinked.
“How did you—”
“I feel it, too. But right now, we should focus on what must be done.” And with that, he slid his arm around my shoulders and I turned to face Jason and Tommy-Tee as they stepped off the stairs. Both looked shaken, though Jason more so.
“Everybody okay?” I asked. “I thought I heard someone almost fall.”
Jason nodded somberly. “You did. I slipped and Tommy-Tee managed to grab me when my boot slid off a rock. I hope we didn’t hit you with too much sand on the way down.”
I shook my head, surprised. That Tommy-Tee managed to not only think fast enough to grab for Jason, but actually managed to catch him, surprised me. I was suddenly grateful Jason had insisted we bring him along.
“Look at that—the tree is on fire.” Tommy-Tee pointed to the trunk of the World Tree.
The tree wasn’t actually on fire, but it was glowing with flickering waves of energy—of magic. Green and blue, orange and purple, all entwined like snakes in a mating dance. The flames ringed the trunk, crackling softly in the night. The roots of the giant oak dug deep into the earth, and as I looked down at the roots that trai
led near my feet, I could feel the pulsating energy flow through the lignified veins that dug deep into the earth. I knelt, holding my hand over the wood. The radiance swirled around me, catching me up in the warm resonance of magic.
“I could stay here all day and just float in the waves.”
Tam and Jason joined me, and after a moment’s hesitation, Tommy-Tee crossed to my side. A blissful look swept across his face and he let out a sigh.
“I remember this,” he whispered.
“Remember what, Tommy?” Jason tilted his head, seeming as loath to move as I was.
“I remember the night this happened. I remember when the Tree was born.”
We all stared at him. Tommy-Tee couldn’t possibly remember the World Tree’s birth. It had happened centuries ago, long before my time. Long before Jason’s time. I wasn’t sure about Tam.
“Tommy-Tee, are you sure you remember when the Tree arrived?” I asked.
He nodded, the blissful look spreading across his face. “I was down here, hanging out on the tracks with some buddies. The storm…it was terrifying.” His voice took on an anxious tone. “We tried to run, and I managed to get on top of one of the railroad cars. Then, the lightning hit, and the world went sky-high as metal twisted and screamed. Everything shifted and a lightning strike hit the yard and formed the crater. The Tree was born that night. I remember crawling to the edge of the crater and looking in, and there it was. The doors opened, and then…”
He paused, holding his hands out toward the tree in a beckoning gesture. “Then I don’t remember anything…not for a long time. But I do remember crawling down into the crater. I sat here for a long time. So long that the world seemed to turn to stone around me.”
His eyes suddenly clouded over again and he pressed his lips shut, the vacant look returning. He pulled his hands back as a tear rolled down his cheek. “I’m sad,” he whispered. “I want… I don’t know what I want. I need a hit.”