Chapter 6
Sydney bolted upright, her heart hammering against her ribs. For one disoriented second, the high ceilings and unfamiliar shadows of Carrick and Ginnie’s guest room made her panic.
“When did I fall asleep?” she mumbled.
Wiping her eyes, she gasped, “Garrett!”
Her hand flew to her chest, fingers clenching at the fabric over her heart. Her raw instinct was to rip open every single one of her mental shields and blindly barrel down the Mating Bond.
She pulled a fistful of fabric into her hand, gripping it so fiercely that her knuckles turned white and her fist shook. Time stood still. Her mind was awash with thoughts, emotions, and… fear.
“Do it. Don’t do it. Do it. Don’t do it…” She thought the words aloud. It was like a demented game of He loves me. He loves me not. And it was driving her right out of whatever mind she had left.
“Young Sydney would have plunged into the dark without a second thought,” she grumbled. “But this Sydney… me, well, shit, I have had to learn so many things the hard way.”
“And because of all the trial and error, this Sydney… you,” Kara paused and tilted her huge head to the side. “… know that reaching out recklessly could expose both of us to the very enemy holding him captive.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Syd sighed. “Go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you.”
Waiting until she was sure Kara had gone suspiciously quiet, Syd sat in the middle of the bed, quieted her breathing, and leaned into the tether.
It took so much longer to find it. She’d almost given up…
then there it was. Just barely hanging on.
No words. No images. Not even a stray emotion.
Just a tiny, fragile, warm pulse of existence.
He was alive. And after the chaotic Magic that had exploded right before she crashed into sleep, she knew either Garrett or Aodhan had answered her.
“You’re still there,” she whispered into the quiet room.
“Of course he is,” Kara chimed in, her mental voice dripping with sleepy smugness.
Sydney furrowed her brow. “You weren’t asleep.”
“I never said I was.”
“Do not start.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking loudly.”
Kara’s brief amusement faded, her presence turning suddenly serious. “Something changed when we touched his energy, my girl. The connection is stronger.”
Sydney’s stomach dropped. She knew exactly what that could mean. If the bond was stronger for them, there was every chance whatever had detected her before could sense it more clearly, too.
The grim reality sobered them both instantly. The bond was a lifeline, but it could also become a target.
Then, cutting through the heavy tension, Sydney’s nose twitched. Sighing blissfully, she whispered, “Ahhhh, coffee.” Then she frowned and huffed, “Time to face the people downstairs.”
The scent of dark roast led Sydney straight into a tactical war zone disguised as a kitchen. Books with crumbling leather spines stacked high on the counters. Yellowed parchment and handwritten notes covered every square inch of the oak dining table.
At the center of the chaos sat Carrick, a steaming mug cradled in his calloused hands. His jaw was shadowed by salt-and-pepper stubble. His eyes were bloodshot. Beside him, Ginnie was aggressively sorting through a stack of modern printouts, her brow furrowed in deep concentration.
Sydney stopped at the threshold. “Did you sleep?”
Carrick looked up. His expression was completely blank.
Sydney glanced at the sea of research, then back at his face. “Stupid question, huh?”
A faint, tired smirk touched Carrick’s lips, offering a microsecond of normalcy before the gravity of the room once again crashed the party. He set his mug down with a heavy thud. “Gunnar got back to me an hour ago.”
Sydney froze. “What did he find?”
“Whatever he sensed where they’re holding Garrett, it isn’t just a cage,” Carrick said, leaning forward.
“Whatever Gunnar sensed has two completely distinct Magical signatures. One is designed to hold something– or someone– immobile in Space and Time. The other is a dormant trigger. It’s designed to activate, open, or release it. ”
Ginnie looked up from her papers, her finger tapping a translated text. “I’ve been comparing Gunnar's readings to everything we know about ancient tethers and blood-bound seals. It’s a dual-mechanism lock.” She met Sydney's eyes. “An anchor and a key.”
The air left Sydney’s lungs. She went entirely still. Across from her, Carrick’s eyes narrowed, his gaze locking onto her face as he felt the sudden shift in the room's energy.
Deep inside her mind, the constant, background hum of the Dragon Queen vanished. No warmth. No light. Only total, chilling silence.
“Kara?” Sydney thought, her mental voice spiking with panic. Nothing.
“Drakara!”
After an agonizingly long beat, the first Dragon Queen finally spoke, her tone stripped of all its usual theatricality and smugness. It was hollow. Terrified.
“I know this Magic,” Kara whispered. “Syd... I know what this is.”
For the first time the Special One could ever remember, Kara’s voice sounded…
fragile as she telepathically spoke to Syd while using the young woman’s mouth to speak to Carrick and Ginnie.
A tremor moved through their shared soul, carrying something Sydney had never felt from the first Dragon Queen before: memory sharpened by fear.
“There are primeval forms of Dark Magic that cannot breach certain sacred barriers. Darkness cannot activate portals or artifacts forged purely from Light. It is physically impossible.”
Sydney kept her eyes on Carrick, but her attention was entirely focused on the Dragon Queen. “Go on.”
“To bypass this, Darkness corrupts,” Kara explained, the weight of centuries pressing into every fiber of Sydney’s body.
“It traps a powerful being of Light, forcing their pure energy to serve as a baseline. An anchor. But to actually trigger the threshold, to open the lock, the magic requires a second, separate source of extraordinary Light.”
She paused, blew out a sharp breath, then added, “I watched Magic like this destroy kingdoms before your species had names for them.”
The pieces clicked together with sickening precision. Syd’s gaze snapped to the papers on the table. “Garrett is the anchor.”
Carrick’s jaw tightened. “We think he is. The signatures Gunnar found align with a captive Guardsman’s baseline.”
Sydney looked inward at Kara, then back at the legendary Guardsman. Her voice didn't shake. “And I’m the key.”
“No,” Carrick said instantly, his voice a low, protective growl. “We don’t know that, Sydney.”
“That wasn't a question, Carrick.”
“She’s right,” Ginnie cut in softly. She didn’t look happy about it, but her hand rested firmly on a translated text. “The evidence fits. Garrett is a Dragon Guardsman sharing his soul with an ancient Dragon King. Sydney is the Special One, sharing her soul with one of the first Dragon Queens.”
Silence stretched across the kitchen. King and Queen. The cosmic symmetry of the trap hung heavily in the air.
“A Dragon King to hold it shut,” Sydney whispered, the horror of it settling into her bones. “A Dragon Queen to open it.”
“Or close it,” Kara telepathically corrected sharply.
Sydney froze.
Across the table, Ginnie’s sharp Necromancer eyes caught the sudden stillness. “Syd? What did she say?”
“A key doesn’t only open a lock,” Sydney murmured, a dangerous spark finally igniting in her chest. “It can lock it, too.”
Suddenly, Sydney’s exhausted brain went into overdrive. The lethargy vanished, replaced by cold, hard calculus. Leviathan thought he was running a brilliant game. He thought he was dangling Garrett as bait, luring his perfect, unsuspecting key straight to the door.
“Fine,” she thought. “Let him.”
She would go to him. She would walk right up to his unholy door. But she wouldn't play the victim. She would turn that primordial key in the lock and trap the bastard on the wrong side of it.
She didn't know what nightmare Leviathan might be trying to unleash from behind that barrier. She didn't need to know. It was primeval, terrible, and it could never be allowed into their world.
“Great. Let’s assume you’re right,” Carrick said, firmly planting his palms on the table. “We still don’t know where the damned door is. The Chihuahuan Desert is a vast expanse, Sydney. We can’t just knock on every canyon wall.”
The words door, lock, key, threshold bounced around Sydney’s exhausted brain, suddenly striking a hidden spark. Her breath hitched. The memory didn't come as a nebulous prophecy, but as a razor-sharp image from her time in the Hall of Knowledge.
She closed her eyes, visualizing a side text she had frantically skimmed. On the yellowed parchment, there had been a detailed drawing: a black, serpent-like Dragon curled tightly around a massive stone doorway. It was the same symbol she and Kara had encountered earlier in their search.
Beneath the drawing sat a very old inscription she hadn’t understood then.
“What is bound by blood may be followed by blood,” Kara translated in her mind, her voice laced with heavy dread. “What is joined by Fate may cross where none may tread.”
Sydney’s eyes flew open. “I don't need to find The Abyss.”
Carrick frowned, leaning forward. “What?”
“I don’t need to find the physical door, Carrick. I just need to find Garrett.”
And she already had him. The Mating Bond was still there, pulsing against her chest. The problem before was that she kept trying to use it like a window to see him or a phone to call him. But the text suggested it was much more than that.
“What if I use it as a road?” Sydney asked inwardly.
“Sydney…” Kara warned, her mental presence turning cold.
“You know it’ll work, Kara.”
The Dragon Queen went silent, but the admission was there. It would work. And Kara absolutely hated it, because walking down that path meant delivering the key straight to Leviathan's doorstep. It was exactly what the monster wanted.
Sydney’s lips curved into a dark, determined smile. “Then let’s give that Demon Lord what he wants.”
Carrick groaned, rubbing his temples. “I really hate when you smile like that.”
"We keep it simple," Sydney said, laying her palms flat on the research-strewn table opposite Carrick. "No armies. An assault team means too much Magic, too much noise, and way too much risk. Leviathan will see us coming a mile away."
Carrick crossed his arms, his expression unyielding. "Then how do we get in?"
"I’ll use the Mating Bond to forge the path directly to Garrett. Kara will shield our Magical signatures for as long as she can.” Sydney turned to Carrick. "You’re coming with me, because you're the Dragon Elder and I know there's no universe where you let me do this alone."
Ginnie stood up, adjusting her glasses. "And what about me?"
"You stay here," Sydney said firmly, cutting off the protest before Ginnie could even start. "Not because you can't handle it, but because we need someone immensely powerful to anchor our return line. If the door slams shut behind us, you are our only way back to Earth."
Ginnie looked at Carrick, then nodded slowly, accepting her crucial role as their lifeline.
The renowned Guardsman leaned forward, his bloodshot eyes locking onto hers. "And the most important part, Sydney. What happens when you actually reach Garrett?"
"I free him."
"Without opening the door."
Sydney offered a tight, small smile. "That’s the plan."
"That’s not a plan," Carrick grunted.
"It’s the part of the plan I’m still working on," Sydney countered, trying to inject a bit of humor into the suffocating weight in the room.
But underneath the brave face, Sydney knew the only parts that truly mattered. Reach Garrett. Find the threshold. Figure out how to use her Light to reverse whatever Leviathan intended before he could use her to complete it. Free Garrett and Aodhan. Then get the hell out.
The details?
She'd figure those out when she got there.
They abandoned the mountain of research and moved out onto the soft Bermuda grass in the backyard, careful to be far enough away from Ginnie’s gorgeous garden.
"Why are we out here again?" Carrick asked, adjusting his stance.
Sydney offered a tight grin. "Because I don't want to accidentally blow up your haunted mansion when I crack this open."
Even as one of the most powerful Magical Beings in the universe, she wasn't taking chances. After all, she had no idea what she was going to open or find on the other side.
Ginnie immediately went to work, raising her hands to knit together a shimmering, secure anchor point in the air for their return. Beside her, Carrick closed his eyes, his pure Dragon Magic flaring to life like a physical wall of heat, ready to shield their approach.
Sydney took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Let's go, Kara.”
For the first time since she had locked it away, Sydney deliberately reached deep inside her soul. Grabbing the Mating Bond with both hands, she ripped it open with an audible, “Oomph!”
Instantly, a wall of pure agony slammed into her chest. It was pitch black, suffocating, and freezing cold. Garrett. The sheer despair of his condition nearly swallowed her whole. Her instinct screamed at her to throw herself blindly down the link.
“Focus, Mo Nighean Shònraichte,” Kara commanded, her voice acting as a steady anchor in the dark.
Forcing her emotions down, Syd gripped the tether with raw, unyielding Magic instead. She pulled. Nothing. The world around her vanished into ink. She planted her feet and pulled harder.
Then…
Thump-thump.
Somewhere beyond that impossible doorway, Garrett was waiting. He might not remember her. He might not even know his own name.
But he was alive.
And that was enough.
A faint heartbeat echoed down the line. Sydney’s lips curved. "Found you."
No sooner had the words flown across her lips than the tether exploded into a brilliant, blinding light. A jagged, flashing vertical rip tore through the desert air, splitting the very fabric of Time and Space.
But there was nothing normal about it. It was completely wrong. Beyond the ragged, toothed tear lay dead stone, swirling gray mist, and a terrifying primordial rumble that shook the ground.
Carrick’s eyes went wide. "That's not a portal."
Sydney stared straight into the dark void. "No. It's a door."
"Sydney…"
But before Carrick could finish his warning, Sydney stepped through the threshold.