46 ❤ Kat
Brenda holds me close. All I can feel through our connection is her , her love, her power, her intention surging warm and gentle and kind where our hands meet.
I forget about the Ritual, about the pending crashing city above, the waiting mages below.
Elation runs through me, a surreal sort of happiness I never thought I’d find.
“I love you, too,” I whisper, leaning in close.
Brenda meets me in a kiss, just as forward as she was the first time.
The spell rages on all around us, and I think about Brenda and the future she imagined, the two of us traveling the world and ice-cream kisses, her insistence that everything is going to be okay.
Brenda kisses me back, and I fall into the comfort of her love surrounding me.
I run my hands through her hair, kissing her fervently even as the storm of magic fades and calms. I pause to catch my breath, and Brenda smiles at me, soft and wondering.
“Hey, we’re back on the ground,” she says.
“Are we?” I still feel like we’re floating.
Behind us, where there was a jagged tear in the fabric of reality, is a portal, vibrant and pulsing. It looks solid, a perfect arch set into the wall. Through it is another Central Library, a familiar clock ticking on the wall and shelves of disheveled books from the earthquake.
“Is it over?” Alvarez asks. “Did it work?”
Gravery Kirkpatrick stares at the glimmering portal and then back at us. “Perhaps,” he allows.
One of the academics raises an astrolabe. “Esteemed Councilmember, I believe the mana fluctuations have all indeed stabilized.”
“With the cornerstones intact,” another murmurs.
I push my hand through the portal. I feel only air, a waft of wind.
“We need to research this carefully—”
I step through.
It feels different than the times I’ve walked to Brenda’s universe before, having to rush through a frail connection before it faded. This one feels solid, like an oak tree growing steadily in a forest.
Not an ephemeral portal.
A door.
Brenda appears behind me. “Huh,” she says. She gestures at me to turn around.
Dad peers curiously through the arch, along with the council and other cornerstones, who still look incredulous that the Ritual is complete.
Shannon looks absolutely furious. Her arms are bound in bright cords of green magic—looks like she lost the duel with Dad.
Kirkpatrick turns his watery blue eyes on her. “Now, what’s this I hear about sabotaging the previous Rituals?”
“How is it possible that the water is so much bluer?”
Brenda elbows her friend Ryan. He’s staring out at the Pacific in awe. In the waves, Erica is attempting to teach Hannah and Jamie how to surf, much to the disappointment of Adib and his crumbling sandcastle.
“There’s less pollution here,” Brenda says. “Obviously, with no cars—”
“Yeah, but there’s so much horse poop! Come on, that stuff is toxic. And you guys have so many horses.” Ryan eyes me.
I laugh, feeling a lightness that I haven’t felt in years. There’s no prophecy, no impending doom, no more mana surges.
It’s been a hard few weeks since what people are now calling the Connection. I only caught one recording of the trial proceedings, Shannon’s haughty face refusing to take accountability. “I protected all of you from this!” she insisted.
And yes, there was panic and chaos and confusion, but for the most part, the governments of both worlds are working with their counterparts, figuring out this new normal with the eighteen established Doors open all over the world.
But the earth is calm, and for the first time mana seems to be at peace, flowing naturally.
At first, the Mages’ Council asked me and Brenda and her friends to give input on the new developing field of research about our two worlds and how they’re connected, as honorary emissaries or some other ridiculous title they gave us since we’d been aware of the dual-world nature longer than most. We sat in on endless meetings with them and with various scientists and members of government from Brenda’s world.
After one such meeting where Brenda brought up the worry about people unfamiliar with magic attempting to use it to do harm and the conversation devolved into how international conflicts will be handled in both our worlds, I realized it wasn’t the best use of our time.
“We’re just kids,” I said. “It was absolutely ridiculous that you put all these expectations on me as the Chosen One, only to realize that this entire time it could have been anyone.” I had more to say, but I wasn’t willing to waste any more time than I had my whole life worrying about what others expected of me.
“Go on and figure this out, but just because we were there doesn’t mean it’s our responsibility. ”
Gravery Kirkpatrick had laughed, wheezing as he ushered me and the others out. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m sure all of these politicians have nothing better to do than chase their tails around for years. And now there are twice as many!”
They’re not doing a bad job, and with more widespread knowledge about the origins of the spelltech factories, there’s a new revival movement to teach new mages to channel magic naturally; it turns out that decades of storing mana artificially has not done any wonders for the earth, with all that pent-up energy.
It’s been exciting, too, seeing both worlds come together to see what the other has to offer, to see opportunities and take advantage of new perspectives.
After the long wait of establishing new kinds of passports and tons of bureaucracy, people have finally started to travel freely between the two worlds.
People are flocking to Brenda’s world to learn about computer programming and prospective mages are planning to study here.
It might not be the balance we imagined, but it feels right.
Los Angeles was the first to approve interdimensional travel through its Door at the Central Library, and it’s been nice, getting to spend time with all my friends in one place.
“Help me with my back?” Brenda asks, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
Yeah, it’s been real nice.
Brenda’s brown skin is warm and supple under my hands as I rub sunblock on her shoulders and under the straps of her swimsuit.
She leans back when I’m done, sighing under our umbrella.
Ryan and Aiden have joined the idleball team in their pickup game, and are floundering to play with an invisible ball, but it looks like they’re having fun.
Behind us, Fancy is grooming herself, a barrage of children clambering on her back and giggling happily. Wherever we go, she attracts the most attention, which pleases her indefinitely. She has no shortage of people to pet her and scratch her and marvel at her size and fluffiness.
“Do you want to watch the trial today?” Brenda asks me softly.
I shake my head decisively. I’d already done my part, given as much evidence as I could about Mom, but it turned out that Shannon had more people to answer to than just my family.
All the spelltech mages went on strike and even formed a union with the mages working in Brenda’s world to demand fair working conditions and compensation for the years of life force drained without their knowledge.
Family members of cornerstones for decades back are holding the Order accountable for the loss of their loved ones, as even if those cornerstones volunteered willingly, they didn’t truly have all the information they needed to make those decisions.
“You okay?” Brenda asks. “You miss her, don’t you? It’s okay if you do.”
I sigh. Shannon had been such a big part of my life after Mom died, and it’s hard to untangle how I feel about her betrayal.
She’d chosen her business over her friendship with Mom, and there’s a huge part of me that will never forgive her.
But she was also the one who stepped in to spend time with me, make me feel special—even if it was to her benefit.
“I don’t know how to feel about it,” I tell Brenda. “She was always there for me, you know?”
“You know, she could have loved you and also been cruel to your family. I know it doesn’t make sense.
” She cocks her head, considering. “I can see why you admired her so much—I did, too, from how she presented herself in my world—she’s got that charisma, and she thought she was doing what was best.”
I snort. “Oh, keeping magic secret from everyone?”
“Maybe,” Brenda says, drawing patterns in the sand. “I’m glad we stopped the Ritual, but the slow, easy transition to ‘there’s another world’ maybe could have been easier.”
“Too late for that, after a dragon was spotted over the freeway,” I say. “I can’t believe she thought there would be coming back from that.”
Brenda hums in response, and we sit there in the sun together, listening to the seagulls and the laughter from our friends and the waves curling in and crashing onto the shore.
“Did you get the travel approved to come back next week for the funeral?”
Brenda nods, putting her hand on mine and squeezing.
We did finally get Mom’s body, and as I suspected, her death had nothing to do with the life force drain that was typical for Ritual cornerstones.
Preserved, she looks as young as she did in life.
They don’t know the exact cause of death yet, but it’s not Ritual related.
There was a magical force of impact from outside the circle, and Shannon is under investigation for foul play.
“Heads up, Kat!”
I laugh, catching the invisible ball by instinct.
Jamie heads over with a welcoming smile. Since meeting Brenda, she’s been much more chill, although I can’t say we’ll ever be super close. I think she still remembers me accidentally kicking a ball into her face once during a game when I was still at San Pablo.
“Come on,” I say, jerking my head toward the game. “I’ll teach you to play.”
Brenda laughs. “Absolutely. I’m going to be amazing at all the magical sports, just you watch.”
“We’ll see. Losing team buys the coffee!” I say, rushing off to join my friends, Brenda laughing as she follows.