Calamity (Reckoners, #3)

“Depends on your definition,” Megan said, lying back on the floor. “David convinced me to do something stupid.”


“He’s good at that,” Cody said, leaning against the doorframe.

“We’re testing her powers,” I said to Cody.

“Ach,” he said. “And y’all didn’t warn me first?”

“What would you have done?” I asked.

“Gotten up and eaten some haggis,” Cody said. “Always nice to have a good haggis before someone accidentally destroys your hideout in a burst of unexpected Epic power.”

I frowned. “What’s haggis?”

“Don’t ask,” Megan said. “He’s just being silly.”

“I can show him,” Cody said, thumbing over his shoulder.

“Wait,” Megan said. “You actually have some?”

“Yeah. Found it in the market the other day. Guess they believe in using the whole animal round here, eh?” He paused. “The stuff’s nasty, of course.”

Megan frowned. “Isn’t it like a Scottish national dish or something?”

“Sure, sure,” Cody said, sauntering into the room. “Being nasty is what makes it Scottish. Only the bravest of men dare eat it. Proves you’re a warrior. Like wearing a kilt on a cold, windy day.” He settled down with us. “So what’s up with the powers?”

“Megan sent me into an alternate dimension,” I said.

“Neat,” Cody said, digging in his pocket and pulling out a chocolate bar. “You didn’t bring me a mutant bunny or something, did ya?”

“No mutant bunnies,” I said. “But Calamity wasn’t there.”

“Now that’s even stranger,” Cody said, taking a bite of the chocolate bar. He grimaced.

“What?” I asked.

“Tastes like dirt, lad,” he said. “I miss the old days.”

“Megan,” I said, “can you bring up an image of that world again?”

She looked at me, skeptical. “You want to keep going?”

“By the measuring stick of Epic powers,” I said, “this doesn’t seem too dangerous. I mean, you dropped me into another world, but I popped back in under a minute.”

“And if that’s a result of lack of practice?” Megan asked. “What if, in doing it more, it gets more dangerous?”

“Then that means you’re learning to affect things more permanently,” I said. “Which is going to be a huge advantage to us. It’s worth the risk.”

She drew her lips to a line, but seemed persuaded. Maybe I was a little too good at getting people to do stupid things. Prof had accused me of that on more than one occasion.

Megan waved at the wall she’d changed before, and it vanished, once again providing the view of an empty plain of grass.

“Now the other side,” I said, pointing at the wall with the doorway Cody had come through.

“That’s dangerous,” she warned. “Trapping us between two shadows means that the other dimension is more likely to bleed into…But you don’t care, do you? All right. You owe me a back rub for this, by the way.”

The opposite wall vanished, and it now seemed like the three of us were in a solitary building on the plains, with two walls cut out. The new perspective gave us a view of what I’d seen before: Ildithia in the distance.

“Huh,” Cody said, standing up. He unslung his rifle and used the scope to inspect the city.

“The city is in a different place in this dimension,” Megan said. “Not surprising. It’s easier to view dimensions that are similar to ours, so I should have guessed.”

“Nah, that’s not it,” Cody said. “Ildithia is in the same place in that dimension. But your window isn’t opening where our hideout would be there.”

“What?” Megan said, standing up.

“See those fields? Those are the eastern side of Ildithia, marked by that stand of trees. Same as in our dimension. The city’s in the same place; we’re merely looking at it from the outside.”

Megan seemed troubled.

“What’s the problem?” I asked her.

“I always assumed that my shadows had a direct location connection,” she said. “That if I pulled something through, it was because that was what was happening in another dimension, right where I was.”

“We’re talking about altering the shape of reality,” Cody said with a shrug. “Why should location matter, lass?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “It just…it’s not what I’ve always thought. It makes me wonder how much I’ve been wrong about.”

“No Calamity,” I said, walking as close to the invisible wall as I dared. “Megan, what if the shadows you grab are always from the same world, a parallel one to ours? I keep seeing Firefight during moments when you use your powers. That seems to indicate that the shadows you’re pulling are always from his world.”

“Yeah,” she said, “that or there are hundreds upon hundreds of different versions of him, and each world has one.”