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The four of us ran out the front door I motioned them down the street, and we made our way to a strip htI wondered if the look of horror on Shelton’s face et out of the bubble?" Adahts "Soh I’ot there"

"Who the hell were those god-awful singing wo an arch," Shelton said "Singing the thing fro rock"

"Where e?" Adam asked

"No idea," I said "When we ended up in that black void, I realized as happening to us was the sa that happened to me when I ended up in El Dorado the first time"

"And then we showed up in El Dorado," Adanized it immediately"

I nodded "Same here I just wanted to be anywhere but there"

"And it took us to freak land" Shelton rubbed his jaw "Those people didn’t look like Seraphim," he said "What if they’re really the ones responsible for creating all the arches?"

"They looked like sirens," Adam said, his tone a mix of wonder and terror "Did you see their hair? It looked alive"

"Nothing good co up a loose stone and tossing it into the woods on the side of the parking lot

"I ondering if they were the ones whoI knee appeared next to that huge Alabaster Arch"

"You think that was the Grand Nexus?" Shelton said

I nodded "It seems the likeliest explanation But we’ve never seen it before, so how did the portal know to take us there?"

"Maybe because there’s only one Grand Nexus, so you don’t need a specific ie in your mind?" Adarim "Well, we knohy Daelissa hasn’t fixed the arch The control roo foot in there again, that’s for daround zero for the Desecration," Adam said

The control roo, but it didn’t trouble ht not be the worst thing in the universe we had to worry about

Chapter 22

Elyssa

Elyssa watched the live feed from the ASE she’d positioned outside the Darkwater HQ froures plunged through the liquid glass on the front of the Darkwater corporate building, their bodies phasing through the rippling material in lieu of a door Elyssa felt her heartbeat quicken as a baldtransport, his every er

"That’s Kassus," Stacey said, pointing to the e as projected by Elyssa’s arctablet Elyssa repressed a shudder Kassus was probably ordering his minions to trap Justin like a rabbit She wouldn’t let that happen She called to warn hi up

She shook her head at his cavalier tone, but kneith the combined skills of the other et away easily

Bella set a timer on her arcphone "They should be back in the et o when they arrive"

As the time ticked by, Elyssa loaded her coear, and tried her best not to worry Even so, her mind calculated the time it should take Justin and the others to run out of the La Casona way station, cross the road to the safe house, and coh the portal Christian Salazar would order the Obsidian Arch shut down at the way station, and trap the Darkwater people in Bogota for several hours

Even at a non-supernatural pace, it shouldn’t take Justin and the others h the portal But what if the perimeter had sohtened anyway

Elyssa huffed, and looked over her gear again

"It’s ti off a coale arhtingale ar to her curvy fra the movement of her hips as she prowled about the room, obviously as restless as Elyssa "About bloody time," she said, her British accent thick with tension

The three women went down to the arch room The arch appeared inactive, but the lances with Bella and Stacey

"The portal is closed Shouldn’t the boys be back?" Elyssa asked

"Justin did say they ht stay there if they needed to keep the Darkwater people occupied longer," Bella said

"Yes, but the portal would still be open, right?" Elyssa asked

"Maybe they cao somewhere else," Bella replied