Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

Drawing your essence out of your own body was no easy feat, even for an Ethera. It took months of study and practice to get something like this right, and though I'd done it a few times, it was only for short trips, and I'd never projected further than an adjacent room. This was much further away, and to find the crown I'd need to be in there much longer; but I was in the deep end, now, and I was going to have to swim…or drown trying.

"I have you," said Lucien, his hands wrapped around my waist.

His voice helped make me feel anchored, tethered. I was going to need that. "I'll be right back," I said, "Unless I get lost in there."

"I won't let you."

Lucien tightened his grip around me, and that feeling of sure-footedness got a little stronger. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and began to mentally search for the entrance to the Ether. It felt like trying to find the edge on a peel-off sticker, after a few moments my mind caught on a small spot that felt more like jello than the surrounding, solid world.

I had found the entrance to the Ether. Now, came the difficult part; the part that required effort, and a strong, forceful will—I wasn't entirely confident that I ticked both those boxes. In order to cross into the Ether, I had to push past a kind of spiritual membrane; a thick layer of ephemeral stuff designed to keep things where they were supposed to be—material beings on this side, and ethereal beings on the other side.

Punching through it was difficult, my aunt Persephone's amulet turned this crossing into child's play, but without the amulet it was like pushing through river rapids, whilst also trying to stop the mud from sucking up your shoes. I felt stuck, caught in the membrane between worlds for hours, until finally, I opened my eyes and realized… I was floating.

As my senses reasserted themselves, I realized I wasn't exactly floating, I only felt like I was. I was still on the rooftop, only everything was a little different.

The sky was a shade of shimmering green, the buildings around me seemed to shift, and warp, their features twisting and reshaping themselves as if I was living inside some kind of impressionist painting.

There, standing only a couple of feet from where I was now, I saw myself and Lucien. We were only shapes; dark, unmoving figures existing inside a shifting landscape.

"This is so trippy," I said.

"What is?" I heard Lucien's reply. It sounded like he was speaking directly into my ear.

"You can hear me?"

"You're talking."

"Woah…"

"Where are you?"

"Next to you. Next to us."

I saw the dark shape that was Lucien turn its head left, then right, as if it was scanning for me. "Where?"

I waved. "Beside you."

"I can't see you."

"Good. Let's hope they can't, either." I walked over to the edge of the building. One of the first things I noticed as I reached it was the total and complete silence. I couldn't hear the cars honking below because there were none. Beneath us was an expanding abyss of near total darkness that seemed to stretch on to infinity.

"That's not meant to be like that…"

"What isn't?"

"It's hard to explain. Hold on."

Casting my gaze across, I saw the rooftop of the building I was meant to get to, but I saw something else, as well. A shimmering field of light surrounded the building's outer walls. It looked like an updraft of wind and sparkling lights that hugged the walls and rushed upwards, dissipating as they reached the top.

"I can see the magic field around the temple," I said.

"Can you breach it?"

"I won't have to. The rooftop is unprotected… except for the door I need to use to get inside. There's magic around it."

"Come back. I don't want you crossing the threshold if there's magic around it."

I shook my head. "No, I can get inside."

"You can?"

"What I'm seeing aren't the magic wards themselves, but the reflection they cast on the Ether. The wards won't have any power over my ethereal body."

"How do you know that?"

"Same reason your father needs the amulet to get into my house. Not even Ethera magic can survive in the Ether."

"Are you sure the Recondites don't have some kind of power you don't?"

"I'm not, but there's only one way to find out."

"Bee, stop. I don't want you going over."

"You can boss me around in the bedroom, but not out here. Standby."

"Beatrice!"

I didn't listen to him. All it took was a thought, barely more than a wish, and I was able to cross the distance between buildings. I found myself on the other rooftop in an instant, standing next to the shadow of the Recondite guard stationed here.

I watched him carefully, got close to him, waved my hand in front of his face. If he could see me, he wasn't reacting.

"He can't see me," I said.

"Who can't?"

"The guard." I backed away from him and turned around. Ahead of me I saw the door that led into the temple. "I'm going to try to get inside."

"I think this is a terrible idea."

"It might be, but I'm pretty confident about this."

"Will we lose contact once you get in?"

"I… don't know," I said, as I walked toward the door. "I don't see why we would."

"If we do… don't do anything stupid."

"Thanks."

"What I mean is, don't get caught, and don't get hurt."

"If we lose contact and you don't hear from me in five minutes, wake me up."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know. Slap me, pinch me, be creative."

I could feel the magic ward's power as I reached the door, but I already knew, it wasn't going to affect me. Not while I was Ethereal. All it took was a thought, and a bit of intention, and I went through the wall of magic and the physical door itself, appearing on the other side of it, inside the Recondite temple building.

"Wow," I said, "I made it."

"Wow?" I heard Lucien ask. "You're surprised?"

"A little bit."

A pause. "You should know that I hate… all of this."

"I'll be careful, just keep my body safe until I get back."

Lucien fell silent, and I started to explore the building. I tried feeling for the crown's power, but I wasn't having any luck. I couldn't sense any magic whatsoever, not even the ward I had moved through. I could see it, and I figured that meant I would be able to see magic auras or active spells, but not being able to sense them meant I was flying blind.

I exited the stairwell on the next floor down, and quickly moved into the adjoining corridor. I couldn't have been more disappointed to find that the inside of the building looked remarkably like the office complex it pretended to be. There were cubicle rooms, meeting rooms, watercoolers, vending machines, computers, even a small kitchen with a coffee machine, but it was entirely empty. Every room, every corridor, not a single person working or loitering. "What the hell is this place?" I asked.

"What‘s going on?" asked Lucien.

"Why go through all the trouble of making your building look as mundane as possible when the inside of the building is just as mundane as its fa?ade?"

"I… don't understand."

"This place, it's all cubicles, desks, and espresso machines."

"What?"

"Exactly. There's nothing magical going on up here, only boring meetings nobody wants to go to. No wonder that guy last night looked like he was up to his tits and needed a break. I would be too, if I worked in this graveyard of an office."

"None of this makes any sense."

"It doesn't. I'm going to check the next few floors."

"Be careful…"

A thought occurred to me then, as I stood in the middle of what looked like a small break room. If I could phase through doors, I could phase through floors, couldn't I? I looked down at my feet, concentrated, and made myself slip through the floor.

I felt myself fall, as if I had made myself suddenly heavier and lighter at the same time. I saw the space between the floors, all the tubes, and cables, and steel beams that held everything together. I had to stop myself from falling any further when I reached the next floor but all it took was a thought, and I was there, anchored on solid ground again.

Well, kind of.

This room wasn't a conference room or a break room, but it was equally dull: a gymnasium. There were treadmills here, punching bags, and stationary bicycles, but still, no Recondites. Stepping out into the adjoining corridor, I found no evidence that there was anyone on this floor either. There were still many floors below to explore, but this was starting to get weird.

Things got even weirder when I found the bedrooms.

"Bedrooms?" Lucien asked.

"Yep. With bunks, too," I said. "Looks like they all live and sleep, here."

"I haven't seen anyone leave or enter, not since we got here."

"Maybe they don't?"

"They have to… they can't spend their entire time in that building."

"Coming from someone who spent her entire life locked up in a mansion, yes, you totally can."

"Alright, but it isn't normal. Is there anyone there?"

"No, that's the even weirder thing. I'm going to check the next floor."

I was about to phase my way down when I spotted it; a small burst of sparks coming up through the floor at the end of the corridor I was in. Magic! Someone must be casting down there. I moved to get closer to the sparks, concentrated again and made myself fall between floors… only to land in a room full of people.

I was standing at an altar, behind a golden pulpit, staring at about three dozen darkened shapes who were all kneeling before me. I backed up in sudden panic, staggered a few paces, and went straight through the man who was standing at the pulpit, occupying the same space I had been occupying a moment ago.

I backed up another step. None of the Recondites had reacted to my sudden drop in so I watched for a moment, realizing that I could hear nothing that was being said. I also couldn't hear Lucien. The connection I'd had to him a moment ago had been severed—how, I didn't know. That didn't seem to matter right now, though. Right now, I needed to get out—I had definitely overstayed my welcome.

And I was about to, but then I felt it.

A dark wave of demonic power crashed against me like a cold wave. I turned quickly to locate the source; a small, ornate, wooden box. Whilst most of the objects I had seen so far in the Ether were impressions, reflections—shifting, dancing, and changing—this box was in complete focus. The outside looked like it had been mauled by a bear, and it was covered in black chains that undulated, and moved around like a snake.

I felt whispers wrap themselves around me and draw me closer to the box. It took every ounce of strength I had in me to fight that power and break free, literally ripping myself away from the box and staggering in the other direction, going through the figure standing at the pulpit once more.

Only this time, I was sure he looked at me.

Directlyat me.

I shut my eyes and shook my head, like I was trying to wake myself up from a bad dream. An instant later, I felt lips press against mine, and when I opened my eyes, Lucien was there. I broke, then, and began to shake like a fig leaf, tears stinging my eyes, my chest entirely unable to expand so that I could take a solid breath.

"I've got you," he whispered, "It's okay. You're okay."

Only it wasn't okay.

It absolutely wasn't.