The Orgh’kks had thought the mud imbued with the esoteric remains would make them powerful. That when the door opened, they’d be given the magic, the eleven promised.
Instead, it marked them for death.
Calling what entered my world a ball of energy was too simplistic. There was method to its fury. Cold calculation as it swept and gathered all its stolen pieces. For one stupid moment, the idiots on the ice cheered. They thought this was a good thing. That I’d brought their magic back.
Fools. What I’d actually done was given what was stolen back to its owner and then handed the thieves to the seething entity on a platter of ice.
The cheering stopped when the lake’s cold covering cracked. A chunk of it— with people still on it— disappeared below the water.
That was when the screaming started.
33
The cynical part of me watched the panic, unmoved. For fuck’s sake. What did they think might happen, having that many people on ice only a few weeks old? Then I remembered how they all stood there watching me going to my doom, rooting for my death.
Remember the Good-bye song? I would have sung it if I didn’t have more important things to worry about than drowning Orgh’kks. I was kind of busy holding open a door and trying to figure out how to let go without dying in the process.
The glow left the lake, and silence fell. Eerie silence that saw people not daring to move lest more of them plunge into the icy depths. Those that fell in the water and sank? I imagine hypothermia killed them before they drowned. But I didn’t have time to worry about it.
I might have peed myself a little when it exploded: a thing without true shape or sound, yet all could see it, a cloud of pure magic that spoke without words.
I AM WHOLE.
“What is that?” someone muttered.
The cloud suddenly had dark pits for eyes, a dozen of them, and it narrowed in on the speaker before it boomed. I AM GOD.
A whiner in the crowd also felt a need to speak up. “What happened to our magic?”
A different idiot pointed an accusing finger. “That thing stole it. Give it back.”
Big fog god loomed suddenly at the idiot’s level. YOU WANT. I GIVE.
The cloud fist slammed the speaker flat like a rock had dropped from space.
The good news? He didn’t feel a thing. The bad? The fog god wasn’t done. WHO. NEXT.
No one else said a word, but me.
“Listen here, demon fog monster, I brought you into this world, and if I have to, I’ll take you out of it.”
YOU DARE.
The fog god tried to intimidate me. Me, a woman who’d now faced down death numerous times and won. When would I be taken seriously?
I glared right back. “Don’t you sass me.”
I AM GOD.
“If you say so. I’d like proof.” I pointed to Kane. “Fix him.”
I DO NOT—
“I didn’t ask for excuses. I asked for proof. You say you’re god, then bring him back,” I snapped.
The fog suddenly invaded Kane’s pores in ways that were probably painful. His body jerked. Then twitched. I didn’t relax until I saw the whites of his eyes and he said, “What the fuck happened?” I’d take that over him asking for brains.
I wanted to throw myself at him, but I still had a god to deal with. Not to mention, I was kind of stuck in a door.
“So, um, god, now that you’ve gotten all your pieces back, you should go home,” I suggested.
NO.
It was like dealing with a stubborn child, or a middle-aged man.
“This isn’t your world.”
MINE.
The temper tantrum rattled the ice, and there was screaming as chunks splintered and people slipped under.
Why, oh why were they all standing there still? Did they not see everything had gone awfully sideways?
Kane rose to his feet and flexed before looking at me. “We need to close the door.”
How cute he said we. “I’m open to suggestions that don’t involve me dying.”
“Close it the same way your ancestors did it.”
“Any ideas how they did that?”
“Your magic.”
The magic, which was currently stuffed in the lock. Was it as simple as me yanking it out?
“I’m going to close it,” I felt a need to warn. After all, the last time my family shut it, we kind of cut off the fog demon’s hand, although I wanted to say tentacle because it had come through a small door.
NO.
I withdrew, closing the door slowly, wedging the shape extending out from