“You need to take me with you to at least one of the jump-off points.” No way could he take her into the hell worlds because the wormhole was closing too fast.
He paused in the midst of pulling up his jeans. “Oh, hell no.”
“Yes.” She tried to sound conciliatory instead of commanding, but it was difficult. “I have to see what’s happening.” She needed to feel what was happening. This ability of hers, the one dealing with teleporters, enhanced her theories so well. “You don’t have a choice.”
His smile provided more warning than an outlandish neon sign. “You don’t want to use phrases like that with me, Professor.”
She shivered and failed to conceal it. “Is it just me, or are your possessiveness and authoritarian tendencies progressing to the point of being tyrannical?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Perhaps you’re just starting to notice.”
How irksome. She met his gaze directly. “You are aware, are you not, that I’m about to give you the possibility of entering Quade’s hell world?”
“I am,” he said, reaching for his shirt.
“Then you might wish to remember that you’ll need me to help you return.” She flounced toward the door. “Make sure I don’t decide to just leave you there.”
He flattened her against the door with a whisper of sound, his body bracketing her. “I guess we should get some things straight, then,” he murmured, his hands at her waist. Her shirt soon flew over her head.
* * * *
Ivar stirred more sugar into his coffee at the conference table, his body satiated after the discussion with Promise. Oh, there hadn’t been a lot of talking, but in between a couple of orgasms, he was pretty sure he’d gotten her to agree to stop bugging him about teleporting. Hadn’t he? He frowned. Maybe not.
All the members of the Seven, save for Quade, sat around the table along with Zane Kyllwood, Kane Kayrs, Emma Kayrs, and King Dage Kayrs, who led the Realm. Faith, Grace, and Mercy ate donuts or bagels with their coffee. It was a full group.
Promise stood up front by a large screen covered with equations from her laptop. She waited for everyone to see it, intelligence in her eyes.
“Oh, man,” Kane Kayrs said, leaning forward and staring at the notations. “That’s fucking beautiful.”
“Isn’t it?” Promise eyed the equations like most women would diamonds.
All right. It looked like a bunch of numbers to Ivar. “How about you explain, sweetheart?”
She clasped her hands together. “I know how we can reach Quade’s world.”
Ivar stilled, head to toe. This was happening. Right now.
She nodded. “All right. Here it is.” Her laser pointer glided to a bunch of the equations, and turning, she read the room. The laser zipped out of sight. “Um. Okay. Without math.” She breathed out. “The key, I think, is the ritual of the Seven and what you went through.”
Ivar frowned. What did that have to do with Quade?
She swallowed. “Demons teleport on earth; the Fae go elsewhere. But during that ritual to become one of the Seven, it’s different. As far as I can see, you actually existed in two different places. Both your physical being and your consciousness. It wasn’t split.”
Ivar took another drink of the too-strong coffee. “How?”
She swept her hand toward the screen. “You entered another dimension. I think.” Her grin was impish. “Yes, I know. I just said you managed to be in the middle of crossing dimensions.” She pointed at the solution on the board. “It’s only a hypothesis. But that’s the only way I can think of right now for you to exist in two different planes. They had to have combined somehow.” She waited for questions, but the room remained quiet. “And”—she was so animated, she looked delicious—“I think that teleporting paths are like brain waves.”
Faith sat back and whistled. “Of course. That definitely makes sense.”
Ivar scratched his back. There was some logic there, and now Promise had math that proved it? “Go on.”
Promise smiled. “The first point is that demons can only go where they’ve been before…or to places described to them. There has to be some sort of connection.” She nodded at Mercy. “The Fae can travel more broadly, but they usually take the same paths. One jumping point to another, and they’ve never hit that hell loop.”
“But I did,” Ivar said.
“Yes.” She nodded. “You were forced into a hell dimension by that Niall. Maybe it was the only one he knew of, and once you were there, you crossed over somehow.”