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Once we eli lio!" I whooped, h-five as we celebrated a ed Bella "Bloody fabulous!" she said with a grin

"Hold on," Shelton said "I don’t want to rain on your parade, but on’t know for sure if this one came from the Conroy residence until we scout it"

Our celebrations subsided as his sobering words sank in He was right And as to guarantee this was the only house the Conroys owned?

Shelton toyed around with the map application on his arcphone "The house is on Riverside Drive," he said "It has a steep driveway, and a wooded area around it Thatconventional ical," Bella added "I’m sure they have a substantial number of wards on the property"

"We have an o toacross their property until we get where ant to go?"

Shelton looked ireat idea"

Cutsauce yipped

I felt so pleased withhis use of the word "kid" "I figure if we get a detailed i areas, we can open a portal there, then find another point somewhere further in, close the arch, and reopen it on that spot"

"You’ll need to exercise caution," Bella said "If you open the portal in the middle of a tree, it will probably sever the trunk Not toliving"

Ithe portal will destroy anything in its path?"

Shelton shrugged "I’ic arch specialist"

"Shall we experi Cutsauce leapt fro his ears at her as if wondering as so i his nap Bella ether "I love experi"

We made our way down to the arch roo our steps Bella continued through it to the gauntlet room After a few minutes, she returned "I set up rows of bricks When I open the portal, it should open up in the middle of the stacks I’m curious to see if it will sever the bricks, or o watch the bricks," I said, taking Elyssa’s hand and walking to the gauntlet rooe, I saw several rows of the large cinder blocks we used for levitation practice arrayed in such a way that no matter where Bella opened the portal it would intersect with the bricks

"You realize we never finished ourmy hand a squeeze

I s"

"Oh, really?" She punched me in the shoulder with her free hand "Maybe we should settle that right now"

The air above the center of the cinder blocks shiht in the middle of a stack The bricks bent around the portal as if suddenly rendered insubstantial, clearing a space for the portal Cutsauce yipped at the portal, hopping around on his little legs The portal flickered shut a few seconds later, and the bricks snapped back to their for his head

"Cal him up

He licked her face

"Attention whore," I said

Our little contest forgotten for the moment, I walked to the formerly warped blocks and inspected them They seemed no worse for the wear It was as if the portal te else Bella joined us for a repeat of the experiment I touched the warped cinder blocks They felt solid as ever

"How bizarre," Bella said, obviously as puzzled as the rest of us

We repeated the experi the wooden melee dummy, chairs, and even a pool of water In all cases, the portalanything there Nobody volunteered to let Bella open a portal on top of them, but we felt confident it wouldn’t kill anyone Shelton wanted to test it on Cutsauce since the little hellhound kept following us everywhere, yipping excitedly whenever the portal opened Bella gave hi I’m concerned about would be Gloo "The silver circles around the Obsidian Arches and the smaller arches in the control rooical circuit There’s no circle at the destination portal, so what’s to prevent cracks froht create a temporary invisible circle around the area it opens in," Shelton said "I guess we’ll have to experih, it was late, and I wanted to go to bed We opened the omniarch back to Stacey’s residence, and saw Ryland, Stacey’s lycan boyfriend, on the other side wearing a chef’s apron and not h the arch and into his burly arms

Bella shut the portal in record tiot up extra early to go to Elyssa’s initiation ceremony for the Templars Bella, Shelton, Elyssa and I used the o the portal in a roo it open for our later return