Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Ty, wait!” I ran after them.
Ty dragged Agwusi into the room with the machine. I got to the doorway right as he shoved her against the wall and let her slide to the floor in a heap of clinking gold.
He circled the machine, peering in the glass cases at the relics. “This looks different. Are there more wires on the relics?”
“I told you,” Agwusi said. “It's too late. The condenser has united the relics and made them a part of the machine. All you can do now is connect the cloak.”
“Not happening,” I said.
“If you don't attach the cloak, as soon as you leave this territory, the machine will destabilize.”
“No, it won't. Because we're destroying the machine right now,” Ty growled.
He bashed a fist against a glass case. I jumped and then hurried over to see him reach past the broken glass to grab a huge iron ring.
Several ancient keys hung from the ring.
But they weren't just lying in the case.
There were wires attached to the keys, each of them, and those wires pulsed as if they were alive.
For a second, they looked like umbilical cords. Shivers of warning ran down my spine.
“Wait!” I grabbed Ty's wrist. “What if the keys disintegrate?”
“They probably will, but what else can we do? Isn't it better to lose these relics than to lose the realms? Or should we try to save these things by letting the machine have them? Either way, they are lost.”
I grimaced. He had driven home the fact that objects should never be more important than people. God relics or not, they were just things. I nodded and released his hand.
“All right, but let's be smart about this.” I motioned at the wires. “Why don't we destroy the wires first? Maybe if we break the attachments, we can save the relics.”
Ty pulled back his hand. “How?”
I raised my index finger, and a flame appeared on the tip. “Fey power—it comes in handy.”
Ty chuckled, finally showing a little of his old self. “Fucking dragons.”
I pointed at a wire, directing a thin line of fire at it.
“No!” Agwusi shouted even as the machine screamed.
It screamed. The machine screamed like a person, setting my ears ringing. As it screamed, the burned wire withered and withdrew into the machine like a witch's foot curling up beneath a house.
My flame went out. I stepped back, something in the air triggering my beasts.
As Agwusi sobbed and animal roars filled my head, the room trembled.
The air shimmered. My belly bulged. I gaped down at myself as my belly and breasts enlarged.
My hands went to my stomach, and I felt a kick.
Holy crap, I was pregnant! What the hell was happening?
Ty yipped.
I looked over to find him in wolf form, his body shaking and eyes wide. He curled up and whimpered. Agwusi had gone strangely silent. When I turned to check on her, I found a skeleton in her place, gaping at me with open eye sockets. Gleipnir was gone.
“Stop!” I screamed.
In an instant, reality snapped back into place. Or was it time that had faltered? Panting, I rubbed my hands over a flat stomach—okay, a slightly rounded belly. Ty was back in his man form, his blue eyes wide. He yanked me into a relieved hug.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I pulled away.
“Fine. I'm fine.” He looked at Agwusi and frowned.
I followed his stare. Thankfully, she was alive again. But she had the creepiest look on her face. As if she knew too much. An ex-skeleton shouldn't be smug.
“Do you believe me now?” Agwusi leaned forward, rattling her chains. “You can't disrupt the machine while it's running. It's integrated into reality.”
“If that's true. Why did everything return to normal?” I shot back.
“Because you commanded it to, Vervain.” She looked at the machine and then back at me. “It's aligned with you now. It listens to you.”
“Does it?” I looked at the machine. “Destroy yourself!”
“No!” Agwusi shouted again. She cringed, but then lifted her head when nothing happened.
“You see?” I waved at the machine. “It doesn't listen to me.”
“It listened,” she insisted. “But you went against it's safety programming, so it chose not to obey.”
“You're saying that it wants to live,” I scoffed. “A machine.”
“That is no ordinary machine.”
“There goes that idea,” Ty muttered.
“All right.” I went to stand before Agwusi. “I want to talk to God.”
“What?” she whispered.
“God. You said that you talk to God. He's behind all of this. So, summon him. Do whatever you normally do to get him here. I want to talk to this being.”
“I can't summon God, Vervain. He comes when he wishes.”
“Show yourself!” I shouted. “If you are real, and you're the one commanding Agwusi, then show yourself. I want to talk to the idiot who's been fucking with my life!”
You know I'm angry when I use the F-word.
But God didn't seem to know or care how angry I was. He didn't show up. Didn't strike me down. Didn't so much as flicker the lights.
I looked at Agwusi. “Now do you believe me? You're insane. There is no God.” Then I strode out.