Seemingly oblivious to her peril, she had yet to shift from her pose of head tipped back and arms outstretched. I struggled upright, but Eilahn seized my arm in an iron grip.
Jill gasped and stiffened. An instant later dozens of luminescent blue-green potency strands snaked from her waist to her feet and then outward to the edge of the valve. While I stared in astonishment, they moved like living things and interwove with the failing border to reinforce it. Within seconds the fiery orange around the valve changed to a less-ominous yellow-green, and the column of energy dissipated in a shimmer of purple.
Jill took two steps forward and off the valve, then swayed. Eilahn released me, and I sprang up to wrap my arm around Jill’s middle “You okay?” I asked, heart pounding as I anxiously searched her face.
She leaned against me and extended her hand toward the valve. “Made Zakaar’s valve better,” she said in a strangely lilting voice. “Not finished. You’ll have to do it.” She dropped her hand and lifted her face to mine, smiled. “Rhyzkahl cries for you, but don’t worry, I didn’t say hello.”
The fuck? “Um. Yeah, that’s good,” I said, totally weirded out. This particular valve was one Zack had created off the arcane trunk that originated in Rhyzkahl’s realm—which I knew only because Zack told me so. Maybe standing on the valve had allowed Jill to pick up impressions of that information? But that still didn’t explain why or how she was out here in the first place. “Jill, what did you do?”
She sagged against me, eyes fluttering. “Kara?”
“The one and only.” I carefully eased her to the ground then glanced toward Eilahn. “Where the hell is Steeev?” I hissed.
“Here,” he said, standing demon-still only a few paces behind me. Had he been there the whole time? If so, why hadn’t he intervened?
Jill sat up straighter. “How did I get out here?”
“That’s what inquiring minds want to know,” I said. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
The whine of the valve deepened to a thrum, and the ground shuddered—a not-so-subtle reminder that there was work yet to be done. Steeev crouched beside us, scooped Jill into his arms and stood smoothly. “I will care for her,” he said.
My questions clamored for answers, but this wasn’t the time. Jill’s eyes drifted closed, and her head lolled against Steeev’s shoulder as he turned and strode toward the path. I watched until they disappeared between the trees, then dropped to my knees beside the unstable valve and got to work.
? ? ?
Even with Eilahn’s help, it took over an hour to get the damaged border back to smooth coils and a blue-green glow. Mostly. An occasional flicker of orange remained, but I’d exceeded the limits of my knowledge, skills, and stamina. It didn’t help that odd percussion waves distracted me while I worked, as someone else tampered with the valve system either on Earth or in the demon realm. I had no way to tell if they were stabilizing a valve or cocking it up. One thing was clear: I was out of my depth when it came to valve repair.
Weary beyond measure, I dissipated my support sigils then went stock still. Rhyzkahl. His aura swept over me—so eerily strong that I had to look around, pulse hammering even as my eyes confirmed he wasn’t there with me. In the next breath the feel of his aura faded, leaving me wondering if I’d imagined it. Still, another dozen seconds passed before my heartbeat returned to normal.
Jill’s words whispered back to me. Rhyzkahl cries for you. Had she felt the same thing?
Pushing the weirdness from my mind, I closed down my work then collapsed, sweaty and exhausted, beside the valve. Sometime later Eilahn prodded me up, and as we walked back to the house she gave me a status update on the now-sleeping Jill. The last thing Jill remembered before she “woke up” at the pond was walking out the front door after my phone rang. Moreover, Steeev reported that he’d sensed nothing of Jill leaving the porch and going to the woods—which was, according to Eilahn, impossible. Wonderful.
Eilahn saw me to the back porch then headed to her nest. I flopped on the chaise lounge and considered the incident with the valve. As with any complex network, screwing around with one part affected everything else as well. When the four Mraztur came through the valve node at the Farouche Plantation, it fucked everything up. No way was mine the only valve at risk of destabilization. Clearly, I needed to check the known valves and add preemptive reinforcement. The gigantic hitch in that plan was the pesky fact that working on one little valve had kicked my ass—and at least half of what I’d done was guesswork. Not to mention, I doubted I’d be efficient since didn’t know enough about valves and how they worked.