Skydance

by Katherine Rhodes

  “What do you need, Brent? I’m not going any farther until you tell me what you are looking for.” Amy clenched her fists where he couldn’t see them.

  “I need the Killing Rock back.”

  Lifting an eyebrow, she stared at him. “What?”

  “The Killing Rock. Balagancizk’s Rock. You know what I’m talking about, Amy. Don’t play stupid. You’re not a stupid woman.”

  “You didn’t think that when you were cheating on me with that woman. You thought I was blissfully stupid and totally disinterested in your activities.”

  “Ashka and I are necessary,” he said.

  “Oh, here we go. It’s the one paranormal playing for the other team, and you have to fuck her to keep up appearances. Or your side of the deal, or whatever excuse you want for dipping the dick.”

  “Ashka Theophylacti is my very human wife.”

  WIFE?

  Max’s echo in her head was exactly the tone she almost unleashed on him. Instead though, Amy managed to keep her tone even and just raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, that’s interesting. I guess I should be stereotypical and ask if you ever loved me, but I don’t even know that I care.”

  “I was going to hold off marrying Ashka so I could get my hand in the proverbial pants of the black Sectorum and drag all the information and networks back into the hand of the real Sectorum Esse.”

  It was quiet a moment while Amy digested what he had just said. “The what? What did you call us?”

  “The black Sectorum. You’re stained, ruined. No one in the Esse wants you there. But you have our information. It was all taken in the name of the Esse, and it’s ours and you’ll give it back.”

  “It is not yours,” she whispered. “It’s not yours at all.” The realization that the very organization she had been raised on was considered black—an insult if there ever was one was from the old order—meant that they hadn’t been working for the same goals for centuries. Full, long centuries.

  Brent grabbed her arm. “Help me get all that information back to the true Sectorum, help me retrieve Balagancizk’s Rock, and I will help you escape this place, these freaks and rejects. Come back to the real world.”

  Realization ripped through her: this was the moment. The one she had been waiting for, cataloguing and hoping she would get to see in her life. Except she was front and center—this moment would be recorded in first person. This was the breaking point of another tether of the Omphalos.

  She was a locus.

  And it was time to loosen the navel of the world.

  Tell Carl I’m sorry.

  He knows already, mój cenny. Do what you must.

  She dusted his hand off her arm and stared at Brent. “I am part of this freak show. You know that, because I told you time and again, I’m a dreamwalker. And two, I belong here because I’m part of the Onyx Sectorum.”

  Onyx. Nicely done.

  Snorting, Brent fingered the gun, flicking the safety on and off. “The Onyx Sectorum has cut ties with their original purpose.” He circled slowly to her right. “But the original purpose was the correct one. There should be no magic, no deviation from the norm. These…beasts could kill all mankind and take over the world.”

  She folded her arms. “You really think that’s what they want to do? Has it occurred to you they just want to live?”

  “They are evil. Cruel. They will make themselves into the overlords of our world.”

  “You are twisted, Brent. The ketea are older than almost all the religions on this plant. They come from a time when humans were still trying to figure out the whole hunter-gatherer thing. Nothing a manmade dictum says can ever, ever override the fact they allow us to exist. All of them. Do you know how ancient the kitsune are? Or the ravens? They are the rightful owners of this planet and we are just here because we produce children faster than they do.”

  “You’ve already fallen for their lies,” he stated, and it was clear that he was backing off, planning on raising the gun to shoot her.

  Amy stepped into him. “I have been raised on their lies. I have documented and organized and catalogued all their lies. I am Onyx Sectorum and you are in for a big fucking surprise if you think you can take down this magical world!”

  From behind her, she felt the whoosh of four sets of wings as they swooped up and over the cliff. The massive dragons hovered in the air for just a moment, then landed gracefully just behind her, their colors all sparkling and sparking in the dying sun: purple, red, blue, and green.

  Each of them let out a quick, small gout of flame, and nestled their wings back. Amy cocked her head at Brent, who was standing there with his mouth wide-open.

  “Go back to Ashka, your rotten Theophylatci family, and all the bullshit that is Sectorum Esse and tell them that the second locus has broken her string. Tell them they will not possess the knowledge of the Onyx Sectorum, and we will destroy Balagancizk’s Rock once and for all.”

  She stepped into him again and pulled the gun out of his grip. “Go, Brent. You lose this time.”

  He spun away and started running. A small fireball landed well clear of his heels, but it sped him along.

  Amy looked back and up at the red dragon, who gave a very human-like shrug with a smirk on her face.

  “Carl, I’m so sorry—”

  He held up a finger. “Not another word. No apologies. You’ve done something we’ve been talking about for years. Something that should have been done years—no, centuries ago.”

  “But—”

  He put a finger to her chin and lifted her gaze to his. “You are an essential part of the Sectorum. And I have been playing by the rules of the wrong one. We aren’t Esse. We haven’t been.”

  “I destroyed the connection.” Amy was heartsick.

  Snorting, Carl took her elbow and dragged her to the kitchen table. “How long have we been trying to reconnect with the rest of the order? Decades? Before I was born. My grandfather had gone to Europe to try and find them. And this”—he motioned to the four dragons behind her, and the mess on the table—“is how they first choose to reconnect? By telling us what we have to do? By demanding all the work my family—all the families have put into this?” He raised an eyebrow. “Homie don’t play that.”

  Raissa choked back a laugh and pushed her way into the room. “Homie, eh?”

  Carl raised an eyebrow, but ignored her. “I have been talking to the other Eminences, and the families that work with us. We’ve been ruminating on the idea of just officially cutting out of the Sectorum Esse. And you just did it as neatly and expeditiously as I could have hoped.” He grinned. “And I even like the name.”

  “You’re sure you’re not angry?”

  He flapped his hand. “I’m so not angry that I’m making you the first official Eminence of the new order, The Red Eminence Amy Marie Hogan.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I can’t! I’m not human anymore.”

  “The Onyx Sectorum will have new rules. And one of those is that you do not need to be non-magical to be a full participant. This organization wouldn’t run half so well if it weren’t for you, Amy, and it’s time to acknowledge that. There are a few others that I am going to make fully part of the new Sectorum, too.”

  She could hardly stop staring at him. “Are you serious?”

  “Me and most of the others. It was time. We’d been talking. And now we can go ahead.” He glanced over at the four dragon shifters in the kitchen. “And, I do believe that we are going to move our headquarters here. I’m tired of having all my shit spread all over the state. We need a single place, a single repository that maintains the records.”

  The front doorbell rang and beyond the decorative glass, Amy could see the silhouette of her mother. She shot out of the chair and raced to the door, a moment behind Niko.

  Before he even had the door all the way open, Amy yanked Patricia into the house and into a huge embrace.

  “Mom…”

  “My stars, dream girl.” She gasped, hugging her back.
“What is going on?”

  “I was worried about you, Mama,” Amy whispered, using the endearing form of mom. “I’m so glad you came out here.”

  “I wasn’t going to stay when you told me what was going on. This has to do with Sectorum, doesn’t it? You and your daddy always tried to shield me from the goings-on.”

  “Esse wants to destroy us.” Amy leaned back. “They threatened me. They’re trying to kill the paranormals here. Brent hit and killed someone already in the town. I got used…” She felt the sobs in her throat, choking out her words.

  “Hey, hey, now,” Patricia said, putting a hand on her cheek. “I’m safe. You’re safe. That’s what really matters here, right? I’m sure that you and Carl will figure all of this out.” She lifted her head and stared straight at him. “Right, Carl?”

  “Right,” he answered.

  Amy felt a weird tension in the air between all of them, and she stepped back from her mother. She glanced between her mother and Betsy’s father a few times and waited.

  “Are you okay, Trish?” Carl asked, shoving his hands into his pockets, hard.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I’m here in one piece with just a few things in tow. A proper Southern lady doesn’t like to travel so unprepared.”

  Amy snickered. Her mother liked to play at being a Southern belle, but the woman had the soul of a Viking warrior hiding underneath. Her Bless carried the weight of all damnation behind it.

  “How much do I owe you for the plane tickets?” Patricia asked.

  “You don’t,” Carl said.

  “Carl—”

  “Fuck this,” he mumbled and pushed past Amy to gather Patricia into his arms. “Are you okay?”

  Flushing red, Patricia nodded. “Carl—”

  He crashed his mouth down onto hers for a kiss that made everyone—especially Amy—uncomfortable. Still, she was so taken by surprise that she couldn’t do anything but gape for a long moment.

  Patricia let out a sigh. “Are we done pretending?”

  “Yes. Jesus, yes. I didn’t know if I was going to explode before you got here,” Carl said.

  Amy raised her hand. “Hi. What?”

  Patricia chuckled, the red flush back in her cheeks, but she didn’t pull back from Carl. “I’m sorry, Amy.”

  Carl put a finger on her lips. “No. I’m not sorry. Amy, your mother and I have been dancing around each other for a few years. We’ve spoken about this just once, early on, thinking that it would somehow affect me and the Sectorum, and you and Betsy…but now. There’s no reason to hide what we feel.”

  “You…” Amy’s eyes went back and forth between her mother and her boss. It made an insane amount of sense that the two of them had been making googly eyes at each other all that time. She shrugged. “Ah, fuck it. Why not. Enjoy.”

  “You’re not mad? That this might screw up Sectorum?” Patricia looked between Carl and Amy, and Amy saw both herself and Carl cringe. “Uh-oh. What’s happened?”

  “Brent, and a break from the Esse,” Amy answered. “You’re standing with the new Black Eminence of the Onyx Sectorum.”

  Just about all of Patricia’s emotions and thoughts passed over her face in the next few seconds and she finally turned to Carl. “Really? So that means…”

  “That means that I don’t give rat’s ass about the rules the Esse use. We’re making up new ones. And you and I are going on a date.”

  “Oh, we are, are we?” Patricia teased.

  “Now that you’re here and safe, yes.” Carl grinned and Amy couldn’t remember a time in the past five years that she had seen her mother or her boss smile quite that widely or look that relaxed.

  Niko laughed from the doorway. “They keep that up and you and my mate will be stepsisters.”

  “Gonna need that house sooner rather than later, Henry.” Carl laughed. “I’m quite sure my son-in-law doesn’t want me and my girlfriend hanging around.”

  Henry nodded and stepped forward. “There’s some old houses up the main road toward Oak Ridge. I’m sure we can look into buying and maybe refurbishing one of those. They’re probably closer to the warehouses I was thinking of for you anyway.”

  Amy was confused, but Max walked over and wrapped his arm around her. “Henry Zhang is one of the biggest real estate magnates this side of the Canadian border.” Max shrugged.

  “Yeah, until you reach the end of town.” Henry snorted. “But still, I have connections and I can find good places. I helped the vampires. I also—”

  All of their phones went off on the alert.

  This time, Amy could feel the drain of the power. She hadn’t really been able to before she mated Max, and even after, it was only just a little bit. This time, there was no doubt. A portal started to form in the corner of the kitchen.

  “Oh my God,” Max whispered. “The power is going out—”

  Amy dropped herself into sleep, trusting Max to catch her.

  —and popped her eyes open in the dreamworld, watching the portal grow. She could see Keni on the other side, getting ready to carry a few volumes of books through.

  Shoving into the portal of magic that wasn’t hers, and grated against her skin, she stepped past Keni as she walked into the portal. As they passed, Amy watched as Keni disappeared into the portal.

  It went black in the next heartbeat.

  “No!” she screamed.

  With a yank that caused her terrible pain—

  She sat up at the table and screamed, “I missed!”

  Henry yanked out his phone, his face going completely pale and horrified. He dialed a number and waited with the phone on speaker.

  “Do you have her?” Sia’s voice was hysterical.

  “Oh, God, no…” Henry whispered.

  Amy grabbed the phone as the earth dragon crumbled to the ground. “We don’t! She didn’t make it through! I tried to pull her back through the dreamworld, but we passed each other.”

  “Fuck!” Sia screamed.

  “Where would she have gone?” Carl asked. “If the portal died on this side…”

  “She’s stuck,” Poppy answered. “She’s stuck in between, if she lived.”

  “If?” Henry roared from his pile on the floor.

  The house was filled with a hateful silence as Henry crumbled even further in on himself. He punched the floor, hard and yowled in pain. “I can’t even fucking shift to fly this off! No one has any fucking magic to try and get her back!”

  Sia’s and Poppy’s quiet crying on the other side told everyone how bad this really was. “We’re going to rent a truck and drive back. We…we can’t…”

  “Where are you?” Max managed.

  “Carl’s house. We were just going to bring a few of the books he asked for straight to Niko’s house,” Poppy choked out the words.

  Amy couldn’t stop the tears from spilling over. “Is she really gone?”

  Henry’s fist hit the cabinet this time, and no words were necessary.

  “Fuck,” Carl hissed, screwing up his face. She saw the tears in his eyes too—and Amy remembered that Keni was a good friend not only to her but to Betsy as well. She had been nothing but a good person.

  Patricia laid a hand on his arm and saw that it was exactly what he needed. A moment later, the newly minted Black Eminence straightened his face, clearly swallowed his emotions, and took charge of the situation.

  “Niko, Max, get Henry off the floor and outside. Get his shoes off and bury his feet in the dirt. He’s going to need to fly as soon as the magic comes back.”

  Turning, he took the phone out of Amy’s hands. “Poppy, Sia. Fuck the books. Lock the house up, spell it shut, and we’ll worry about the rest of that shit later. Get on a plane and get back here. You’re going to need the whole coven to figure this out. The tickets will be waiting at Charlotte for you. Got it?”

  “Yes,” Poppy answered through tears.

  “See you then.” Carl ended the call as gently as possible. He handed the phone to Niko as he and Max were
heading out of the kitchen with Henry between them.

  “Why are they burying his feet in the dirt?” Amy asked, watching the door close.

  “Earth dragon,” Raissa answered, smearing away tears. “He needs to touch the earth to shift until he mates.”

  Amy gasped, and her eyes went wide. “You need your elements to shift before mating.”

  Raissa nodded and pulled out a Zippo lighter. “We do.”

  The woman needed to burn herself to shift. “Raissa, I didn’t realize that you—”

  “Doesn’t hurt, Amy. I am fire. If I were more human, it would be a problem. But I’m not.”

  “More human?”

  “I’m a hatchling. Both of my parents were hatchlings. Only one of my grandparents wasn’t. I’m more dragon than most dragons.”

  “Amy, I’m going to need you to book those tickets for the witches,” Carl said. “We have to hire a moving company for my house.”

  “I’ll talk to one of Henry’s associates to help you with the place for now,” Raissa said. “He’s not going to be in any shape to help anyone. For a while.”

  Carl glanced at the door. “What is the situation between those two?”

  “Not my story to tell.” Raissa shook her head. “I’m also not old enough to know it all or properly. Keni and Henry are older than me, Max, and Niko.”

  Amy nodded. “We’ll figure it out. I have ideas on what we can do to track her down. I don’t think she’s dead. I think she’s stuck—that portal didn’t hurt me, but it wasn’t a walk in the park.”

  Raissa pursed her lips. “Please. Anything you can. Keni is a well-loved member of this community and she needs to be back with her coven.”

  Pursing her lips, Amy tapped on the table. “There are ways for me to get to her in the dreamworld. Even if she’s dead.”

  “Amy—” Carl started to caution her.

  “She’s my friend, Carl. I will do what I can in whatever manner I can. And we need to get that damn Deadening Stone out of Raissa’s vault. As soon as…” She stopped and looked at the female dragon standing there.

  “I have an idea. I have a bad idea.” She glanced between Carl and Raissa. “When Lola is back, we’ll talk it out. It’s harebrained, but…”