her legs and voice trembling. “Father Enoch! The sacrifice has arrived!”
The onslaught of energy pushed Elam back. He set his feet and leaned into the flow, suffering pure torture every second.
Enoch pointed at Acacia. “Create the pyre for our sacrificial lamb! We will go to battle with the only energy strong enough to counter this monster!”
Her body erupted in brilliance. She pointed into the halo with both arms and sent dazzling streams of light into its center. Although the radiance streamed into the oval, it didn’t come out on the other side.
Steadying her voice, Acacia spoke into the portal. “I am here. The sacrifice must enter alone, for as it approaches, the light will become flames and consume everything in its path.”
The energy particles thrashed Elam’s body mercilessly. His skin burned. His bones ripped against his muscles as the onslaught flogged him with thousands of electrified lashes, stinging, piercing, stabbing at every pore.
As he kept his pain-riddled arms outstretched, he shouted, “I can’t last much longer!”
“Elam!” Naamah cried. She broke away from Dikaios and rushed toward him.
Elam heaved violently. Breath and life drained away, and darkness bled into his mind until he knew no more.
Cradling Listener, Timothy sprinted into the woods. As he leaped over brush and dodged protruding branches, he imagined the spindly limbs of altered ones stretching out to grab his ankles. He ran faster, stomping heavily on every moving shadow.
When he reached the tunnel, he set Listener down at the entrance and shouted into the cavity. “Oracle!”
The call echoed back. “Oracle! Oracle!”
Timothy cupped his hands around his mouth. “I have come with the sacrifice. Are you there?”
The tunnel’s light flashed on, so bright, he had to leap away.
“I am here,” came the lovely voice, reverberating through the woods. “The sacrifice must enter alone, for as it approaches, the light will become flames and consume everything in its path.”
He looked up into the sky. In a flurry of wings, Albatross skimmed the treetops and disappeared toward the edge of the forest.
“They are landing at the river,” Timothy said, caressing Listener’s cheek. “There were two riders. I’m pretty sure they were Abraham and your mother.”
As Listener nodded, her brow furrowed once again.
He pulled her into an embrace. “Don’t worry. Neither one of them will be able to stop us.”
As she rose from her knees, Sapphira helped Karen to her feet. Far above in the heavenly dimension, yet closing in on their world, Elam jumped toward a blue wall and stood in front of the tunnel of light. Sparks flew everywhere, veiling his face. The tunnel flickered and dimmed.
The giant yelled toward the floor. “Mardon! Someone is standing in the circuit. The connection is breaking, and I am running low on power!”
Mardon cupped his hands around his mouth. “Send one big wave of photons! That should kill him!”
Bagowd heaved in a breath. “Here it comes!”
A new blast of shining particles roared through the tunnel. Up above, a woman in a white dress ran toward Elam and jumped in front of him. She spread out her arms and blocked the light, shielding him from most of the new explosion of sparks. Riddling her body with bullets of electricity, the beam shook her like a rag doll.
Sapphira gasped. “That’s Naamah!”
Karen bent low, snatched up Excalibur with both hands, and charged at the giant. “You wanted me?” she yelled. “You got me!” With a mighty lunge, she swung the sword and sliced into the tunnel’s outer wall. Excalibur swept through Bagowd’s ankles, cutting off his feet.
The blade welded to the tunnel’s wall on the other side. Karen stiffened. As her fingers locked around the hilt, blue and yellow bolts of electricity arced across her body.
Letting out a scream that shook the entire turbine, the giant crumbled into a heap. His stump of a leg kicked Karen’s hands, knocking Excalibur several feet away, then his arm slapped her down, pinning her to the generator’s roof.
A second burst of energy rode up the beam and smashed into Naamah, lifting her into the air for a moment as her arms spread wide. Electricity shot from her hands and streaked into several men standing nearby. The men vaporized and disappeared. When the pulse dispersed, she dropped to the ground.
Although the waves of sparks had died away, the connecting tunnel itself remained, leaving a shimmering rope between Earth and the world above. The rope slowly contracted, pulling the two worlds closer every second.
Sapphira dashed to Karen. Lifting with all her might, she pushed Bagowd’s arm away, exposing Karen’s