Chapter 9
Jupiter
I focused on a spot about twenty yards ahead, between two massive tree trunks.
“Remember,” Phoenix said beside me. “Don’t force it. Feel the axis points and let your magic flow naturally between them.”
I pinned him with a look. “You know I’ve made plenty of successful portals in my day, right? I’m not exactly a rookie.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, but we’re going for distance now. What’s the furthest you’ve ever portaled?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe like twenty feet?”
“Exactly. We need you portaling multiple kilometers.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath as I centered myself.
A week had passed since I’d felt the Nightfall Shield retreat, heading back across the ocean.
Headmistress Winters had informed me yesterday that they’d been called back to Dominion officially.
The Assembly had apparently threatened to strip them of their rank officially, and with my parting goodbye, they successfully fucked off.
“You’ve got this,” Theo said from my other side. “Start small and slowly work your way up, you don’t want to burn out too quickly.”
I tried to focus, but it was hard. Starlight eventually gathered at my fingertips as I reached out, searching for the natural weak points in the fabric of space.
I tried to remember those equations we learned in Portal Theory, but honestly, gun to my head right now, I couldn’t tell you a damn one of them. Instead, I just felt for it.
“That’s it,” Phoenix murmured. “Can you feel it?”
I could. The axis points glimmered just on the edge of my awareness like silver threads, connecting everything.
I grasped two of them and pulled, watching as reality bent and folded.
A small oval of shimmering light formed between the trees, no larger than a dinner plate.
I’d made larger portals before, of course, but those had been maneuvers.
I’d portal from one side of a person, or a bane, to their other side, usually only feet away.
This was distance portaling, which was not as easy as I thought it would be.
“Good,” Theo said. “Now stabilize it before you try to expand it.”
Stability wasn’t my strong suit lately. Three nights ago, I’d fallen off the obstacle course during training.
The impact had been so jarring that my mental walls had temporarily crashed down, opening me up to a flood of emotions from the Nightfall Shield.
Their grief and regret had been staggering.
They missed me, needed me, ached for me with a hunger that had left me breathless.
I’d slammed my walls back into place so hard it gave me a migraine, blocking them out completely. I grimaced at the memory, my concentration wavering. The portal flickered dangerously.
“Stay with me,” Phoenix said. “Don’t let your mind wander or it’ll collapse. If you had to bring people through a portal with you, you’d need to keep it completely stable or they could get trapped in between.”
I shuddered at the mental image.
But it was hard to keep my mind from wandering.
Every night since the incursion, I’d been spending hours in the dreamscape with Jamie.
He didn’t talk much, but he listened, really listened.
We didn’t even have to talk about much. Just random stuff, things about our day, or even boring class stuff.
I realized I felt incredibly safe in those dreams, like I could breathe properly.
There was no pressure with Jamie, no expectations, just quiet isolation under dream stars.
“Focus,” Theo reminded me gently for the umpteenth time. I was actually surprised they’d indulged me this long.
The portal expanded slowly until it was about three four feet in diameter, large enough to step through if I ducked down.
“Perfect,” Phoenix said. “Can you hold it?”
I’d trained my stamina more than I ever had over the last several days, so I should be able to hold it for a while.
I’d been training every morning with the guys at 5am, and then we’d have breakfast together before going to our respective classes.
The routine was exactly what I needed, giving me structure and most of all distraction.
I’d also gotten to know some of the Scorpios living in my tower, and had even sat down to play a board game with them last night. They were fascinated with my American accent, telling me I sounded like a movie star. I’d laughed, telling them they sounded like they were from Hogwarts.
All in all, I really liked Imperium.
“Actually it’s not as hard to hold the shape. It usually takes all of my focus, but I think I could hold this for a few minutes.”
“The magic here is older,” Theo explained. “Your magic is probably responding to it, making it stronger.”
“Is that possible?” I looked at Theo.
He shrugged. “The same way you draw power from a shield, you can draw power from the things around you if there’s enough magic there. Imperium is saturated in it.”
Hmm, maybe I could actually do this for real then…
I called Lydia and Tye yesterday, telling them about my idea to try portaling across large distances.
They thought it was a good idea for me to start with smaller trips first, working my way up to potentially visiting them at Dominion.
Tye had been particularly excited about the possibility, already planning all the things we could do during my visit.
“Ready to try stepping through?” Phoenix asked, moving closer to me.
I nodded, my heart racing with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. “It leads to just beyond those trees, right?”
It was maybe thirty yards away at most. I could totally do it.
Theo nodded. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward into the shimmering light. There was a moment of disorientation, a brief sensation of floating, and then my feet touched solid ground again. I emerged on the other side, exactly where I’d intended, about thirty yards from where I’d started.
“I did it!” I exclaimed, turning to watch Phoenix and then Theo step through the portal after me.
“Brilliantly done,” Theo said with a wide smile, pulling me in for a side hug. I couldn’t help it, for just a moment, I allowed myself to smell him, and immediately knew it was a mistake. Theo smelled amazing.
Phoenix clapped a large hand on my shoulder. “That was perfect for a first attempt. How do you feel?”
“Good, actually. I could probably do a few more before I need to rest.”
“Let’s try increasing the distance,” Theo suggested, pointing to a clearing visible through the trees about a hundred yards away. “Can you anchor a portal there?”
I nodded, already reaching out with my magic to find the axis points. This time, the process felt more natural, more intuitive. Within moments, a new portal shimmered before us, larger and more stable than the first, maybe six feet tall now.
“You’re a quick study,” Phoenix said with an appreciative whistle, his copper-brown eyes warm with something that looked like pride, making something in my belly flip.
As we continued practicing, gradually increasing the distance of each portal, I felt more and more comfortable.
After no time at all, I was able to successfully portal to the other side of the garden, about three hundred yards away.
I couldn’t wait to text my mom later and tell her about it. She was going to freak out.
“Let’s try something different,” Theo suggested. “Instead of thinking of a physical location, try anchoring to a person.”
I frowned. “Is that possible?”
“In theory,” he said with a shrug. “Every person has their own unique magical signature that creates a sort of axis point in itself. If you know someone well enough, you should be able to use that signature as an anchor.”
“It’s more advanced,” Phoenix added, “and usually requires a strong connection to the person. But it might be worth trying.”
I thought about who I might use. Lydia or Tye would be the obvious choices, but they were too far away for a first attempt. My mind briefly flickered to the Nightfall Shield, but I shut that down immediately. No way was I opening that door again.
“What about Jamie?” I suggested, thinking of our shared dreams. “I feel like I know his… uh, energy pretty well.”
Theo and Phoenix exchanged a quick glance I couldn’t quite interpret.
“That could work,” Phoenix said. “But remember, if you succeed, you’ll be portaling directly to him. Might want to make sure he’s not in the shower or something. I texted him a half hour ago and he was heading to the changing room.”
I laughed, feeling my cheeks heat slightly. “Good point. Maybe not Jamie for the first try.”
“How about Lucas?” Theo suggested. “He’s probably in the combat hall right now. Predictable schedule.”
“That works.” I shut my eyes and focused on my memory of Lucas, the distinct feel of his magic when we’d trained together over the last week.
Finding his axis point was more difficult than locating a physical place. It was like trying to grab onto smoke. But gradually, I began to sense something solid, a fixed point in the magical fabric that felt distinctly like Lucas, the magical equivalent of a scent.
I pulled, watching as a new portal formed, this one with a slightly bluer tint to its shimmering surface.
“Did it work?” I asked, squinting my eyes to see.
“Only one way to find out,” Theo said with a small grin, gesturing to the portal. “After you.”
Taking another deep breath, I stepped through the portal.
The disorientation was stronger this time, making my head spin briefly before my vision cleared.
I found myself standing in the combat hall, exactly as Theo had predicted.
And there was Lucas, in the middle of a sparring session with a freshly-showered Jamie, both of them freezing mid-motion to stare at me in shock.
“Jupiter?” Lucas said, lowering his practice blade. “Did you just—“
“Portal in? Yes I did!”
Phoenix and Theo stepped through behind me, the portal closing with a soft whoosh as they emerged.