I shook my head. “Later, Hol .” I focused on Kyran again.
He stood with his hands in his pockets, al his weight on one leg, the other knee slack, as if whatever decision I came to made no difference to him. “What wil the nightmares do in the mortal realm?”
He shrugged. “The same thing they do here. Cause terror. Fear nourishes them.” He glanced at the hourglass.
Only a thin line of sand remained in the top globe. “You are running out of time.”
I looked at the hourglass. “What happens when the sand runs out?”
He smirked. “Ah, final y, you’ve asked three times,” he said, and I remembered too late that three was often significant. A weight stretched between us. It wasn’t quite the same feeling as when a debt opened, but it was the same sort of magic. “The hourglass counts the moments until al doors open when the planes merge—or the moment in which that is prevented. Hard to say which, but one way or the other, it wil happen soon.”
Damn. He real y had been screwing with me this whole time. I glanced at the hourglass. At the rate the sand was fal ing, it had maybe twenty minutes until the top globe ran out of sand. And then the world as we know it will change.
out of sand. And then the world as we know it will change.
Or someone will stop the ritual.
I swal owed the bitter taste in my throat and stared at the shadows surrounding me. A few hours of nightmares, or a world where all known and unknown realities converge. Or maybe I was overestimating my evolvement. Maybe the col ectors would stop this al on their own. Or the cops. Or some random good citizen who just happened to stumble by. But can I take that gamble?
I looked at Falin. “What do I do?”
He shook his head. “I would say the lesser harm for the greater good, but I cannot make this choice for you.”
“I’m voting for stopping the bad guys,” Hol y said. She was a DA—her life was al about putting the bad guys away. She wiped her palms on her silk PJ bottoms.
Nervous sweat? “I guess this wil be a little more hands-on than my normal approach,” she said, flashing me a weak smile. “But someone deserves a hefty serving of revenge.”
Nightmares it is. Except one problem. “I don’t know how to open a door.” I’d tried before; it hadn’t worked.
“Yes, I did see your attempt in the shadow court,” the kingling said as he circled the hourglass.
“Yo u saw?” That meant he’d been watching me long before I’d fal en through that nightmare. For al I knew, he’d sent my bad dreams.
He clasped his hands behind his head so his elbows framed his face. “The planebender bent Faerie—hence the name. He took two places that normal y don’t touch and shoved them until they col ided and a door could be opened between them. Very messy and very forceful. Your power is not. It is not your nature to shove realities around. Your power is to weave planes together.”
“And why do you know so much about planeweavers?”
Kyran only smiled. “This shadow exists both here and in the mortal realm. They sit directly on top of each other. Al you need to do is tie them together so you can walk between them.”
them.”
Oh, yeah, real easy.
But I had to try.
I handed PC to Hol y. I didn’t want to be holding him while I tried to manipulate unfamiliar magic. If something went horribly wrong, I didn’t want him caught in the side effects.
Then I lowered my shields and focused on the shadow closest to me. I mental y reached for it, touching it with my power and trying to concentrate on the fact that it not only existed here but also was being cast by something in the mortal realm. At first al I saw was a shadow over sand.
Then the shadow deepened, darkened, and I could tel it was being cast by a tree. Actual y, more than one tree. I could see them. It worked?
A chattering sounded in the dark around me. Then the darkness surged forward. Somewhere behind me Hol y screamed, but the nightmares weren’t after us. They were aiming for the door and there was no stopping them. The nightmares poured through the door I’d opened—dozens, hundreds. Maybe thousands.
I swal owed, watching the monsters I’d released escape into the unsuspecting mortal realm. Let this have been the right choice. Then the nightmares were gone, the darkness strangely empty without them.
“What were those?” Hol y asked, stil breathless from screaming.
No one answered. Falin scowled at the opening, and I wondered if he stil thought the reaper and accomplice’s threat was more dangerous than what I’d released. But it was done now.
Kyran lifted the hourglass, using the pole it stood on as a walking stick. He damn near skipped as he headed for the door. “Coming?” he asked, glancing first at me and then at the hourglass. Only a sliver of sand remained. “Looks like the end, one way or the other, wil be soon.”
Chapter 37