42. Chapter 42

It was just a repair. A tiny little patch. I had created an entire damned pocket world. So this was nothing. Piece of cake.

Right.

I stood in front of the pinhole in our plane of existence, with my hands on my hips as I studied the faint, shimmering outline of magic that I could see when I really focused. It was like an enormous bubble in my mind"s eye, arching up from the far edges of the property and into the sky, where it eventually faded from view because of its size.

"Are you sure this is the only one?" I asked Bis. My gaze traveled upward to where the shimmer of magic disappeared into the weird, not-quite-right sky above. There could be more holes anywhere. I couldn"t see the whole thing at once. I could only sense it, trace it in my mind the way I had the day I brought this insane idea to life and ripped a sizeable chunk of the estate, the house, and everyone in it into a different realm of existence.

Bis chirped a comforting sound and patted my cheek from his place on my shoulder. "This is the only one. We"d both be able to sense it if there were more. And," he added in a no-nonsense tone, "if there were more, it would have collapsed by now because of the instability in the magical currents."

I drew in a slow breath and tried not to panic over things that had not happened. Yet. "Right."

Bis patted my cheek again. "You can do this, momma. You made this place. And you have Dyre and Sunny. And the others. And me to make your magic steadier. It"ll be okay."

I narrowed my eyes at the place where the pinhole in the wards containing the pocket world had turned into a sucking black hole the size of a golf ball. "You"re right," I muttered. "I can do it. There are not a lot of other options."

Zero other options, to be exact.

The problem was, I was terrified that fucking with the bubble in any way was going to destabilize the whole spell and kill us quicker than the ever-expanding hole.

"We"re more than strong enough to fix this," Dyre said from beside me as he straightened from setting out the last of the spell components. He had carefully added bones to each of my anchor points. I didn"t ask where he had obtained them. I understood that while my own magic found anchors in the earth"s energy, Dyre and Sunny both strengthened their magic bindings with the symbols of death. This bit, at least, appeared to be from a bird, a tiny bone, delicate and yellowed with age.

"Right," I said with a firm nod. "Ready to do this?"

Dyre didn"t comment. He just took my hand, lacing our fingers together and giving me a squeeze as he gazed out at the magical borders, his gauntly handsome face showing nothing but calm and focus. His ability to shut out all worries and lose himself in his spellwork was awe-inspiring. Even if it was probably just a trauma response…

"We"re here," Hasumi said from behind me, reaching out to give my shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Call on us all the moment you need us. Do not hesitate."

I nodded, blinking rapidly when my eyes watered at the water weaver"s words. They were all here. My crazy found family. My lovers. The people I cared about most in the world. They would lend additional power if or when it was needed, just like they had the day I created this place. Only today, it would be easier to pull from them, since I was connected to them through our new magical bonds. I was always hesitant to pull power from others because there was always a risk of taking too much or doing them some harm. But theoretically, this little patch would take far less energy than the creation of the pocket world had.

Piece of cake. Easy as pie.

It had to be. Otherwise, I was about to kill myself and everyone I held dear.

I opened my mouth to tell them all that I loved them one more time before I blew us all up or got us sucked out into the dark nothingness between realms. But Aahil interrupted me. "Don"t," he warned from my other side. "Do not go all sappy again, witch. Just cast your spells already, so we can all go back inside and eat lunch."

But his overly warm fingers brushed mine, and I knew he would be clinging to me right now, if no one else was watching.

"We have faith in you, master," Zhong chimed in. "In both of you. Or… all three of you, I suppose."

Niamh huffed impatiently, not one for wasting time when one could be attacking a threat. Ambrose was a dark, silent presence nearby. And Elijah"s charm was warm with his essence where it rested against my chest.

I squeezed Dyre"s hand one more time, pulled on my magic, and began to craft our patch. Dyre and Sunny"s magic was there too, readily twining with mine, bolstering and amplifying the power that flowed between us as I sank into the working. The rest of the world faded from my awareness, every ounce of my being focused on bending and warping the magic to my will, shaping it into something resembling magical duct tape.

My spellcasting had never been elegant or technically correct. I hadn"t been drilled in technique and etiquette all my life like most other powerful witches. I made it up as I went. And in doing so, I created something new. Something powerful and effective, inventive, and entirely mine. Once upon a time, I had been embarrassed for others to see how I worked, afraid of messing up or being judged. But now I cast with confidence. My well was deep. My ability to tear things apart and build something new was a talent that others both envied and feared. And today, it was going to save our asses.

It was a struggle. Forcing magic to behave always is. But eventually, I felt the patch settle into place. It wasn"t pretty. I could "see" where the rough fix lay against the smooth arc of the bubble of magic in my mind"s eye. But it was something. The hole was covered. The sucking outward flow of magic stopped. For now.

I paused for a breathless moment, my eyes still closed, still sensing the magic that Dyre, Sunny, and I had just woven, waiting for it to fail. But it held.

And then I felt it… warp. The patch was sucked outward, bubbling like a weak spot in a balloon that might break at any second. Ripples of reaction spread throughout the entire fucking bubble that contained the pocket world, as it threatened to destabilize. I gasped and poured power into it, pulling, trying to smooth out and strengthen the patch while keeping the world together and anchored in our little corner of space. I felt Dyre and Sunshine working alongside me, a dark shadow of combined will that echoed my actions. My magical well was fathomless. So was theirs. But we were both fading.

Then power flowed into me from everywhere, every element and flavor of magic the world had to offer dancing through me, twining together, and hardening the patch, reinforcing it like adding some sort of cross-weave to a piece of fabric.

The magic of all of my lovers, surging through our bonds, bolstering my own. Making it into something more.

When it was done, I let out a sob. The patch held. It didn"t buckle or break. And the bubble of magic around us had quieted. "It feels steady," Bis whispered in my ear. "You did it, momma. We did it."

My knees buckled and my head spun. My blood sugar was probably low, depleted as the cost of magic working kicked in. But the cost was mitigated, spread out through all of us, so I didn"t collapse into a diabetic coma this time. "We did it."

It wasn"t a permanent fix. I didn"t know how long it would last. But for now, at least, there was one less thing trying to kill us.

A long arm snaked around my waist as Dyre knelt beside me. He wasn"t as depleted as me, thanks to his necromancer constitution, but his exhalation was shaky. He knew how close we had just come to dying.

The others piled in around us, surrounding not only myself, but Dyre and Sunny as well, as we all clung to each other, seeking reassurance that we were still alive. Bis squeaked and muttered something about getting back to his research in the library as he scuttled off to avoid being crushed. But I just basked in the awkward tangle. A laugh escaped me. Then another. Relief bubbled up from deep inside and soon I was shaking with it, gasping and clinging tight to the people around me. They joined in, one by one, until we were all nothing more than a jumbled heap of tangled limbs and unhinged laughter.

We were alive. For now, we were alive. And no matter how much the fates seemed to enjoy toying with us, I was determined to keep it that way.

Now all we had to do was steal an artifact from the angels—again—get the Supernatural Alliance to stop hunting us, and help my crazy sister stop the war that was about to break out. Piece of cake, right?