Jeremiah hugged her with one arm, keeping his other with the staff pointed at me. "It's okay child. I told you he was dangerous. You need to listen to me."

Ivy bawled, burying her face in his robes.

Her "grandfather" scowled at me, and released her. He came closer, and whispered in my ear. "I have no quarrel with you personally, boy. But you are interfering in my plans, and I will not have it. There is more going on here than you could possibly understand."

I tried to speak, but my vocal chords suddenly locked up.

He shook his head. "Not another word, do you understand? Now, leave Ivy alone, and stay out of my way, or I will finish you off. Nod if you understand."

I wanted to glare at him. I wanted to tell him he'd already tried to kill me and failed. I wanted to remind him there were hundreds of eyes on us at this very moment, and killing me would be a mistake. But I saw Ivy crying, and all I wanted to do was cry, too. She probably hated me now. And I'd been so close—so damned close to—" My vision blurred with tears. I nodded.

"Good boy," Jeremiah said. He flicked his wrist, and the lights went out.

Chapter 41

"Justin?" said a calm voice. "Are you alive?"

My eyes flinched open and found a serious gray face looking at me. "Cinder?"

He nodded. "We waited for some time in the house. I feared something had happened to you, and found you passed out here."

I looked around, and saw I was lying on the lawn of a fraternity house. Several other prone figures lay nearby, empty cups and alcohol bottles still grasped in their hands. "How long before you found me?"

"From the time we thought you were entering the house until now, it has been an hour." He held out a hand. I took it, and Cinder hauled me to my feet.

I felt a bit groggy, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. "Let's go to the house," I said. Bitter anger and sadness filled my heart as I thought back to Ivy's face. She was going to help me! I fought back depression. Jeremiah Conroy was always one step ahead of us. Even if he had lived in the mansion before, how could he have gotten past the eavesdropping wards?

The minute we stepped inside the house, Shelton stormed from the planning room, muttering. He looked up and saw me. "What the hell happened with Ivy?"

"Jeremiah Conroy," I said.

His jaw tightened. "Dammit. Nothing's going right today." He motioned me inside the planning room where a silver plate covered the rune, presumably to keep someone from accidentally triggering it. An image of the arch floated above the table. Shelton turned around. "Bella and I scoured the arch for wards. We found only one, but it's a doozy."

"Can you remove the ward?" I asked, wondering how much worse my day would get.

Shelton rolled his eyes. "And risk killing ourselves? Hell no."

"What do we do?" I asked. "Just evacuate the place and let it blow?"

"I don't think that's an option anymore," Shelton said. "In case you hadn't noticed, there's been no news about Dad's death. There's also been no evacuation order."

I couldn't stop thinking about Ivy or the look in her eyes when Jeremiah told her about my betrayal. Fury superheated my blood when I pictured him. I wanted to kill the old bastard for ruining everything. For ruining the fledgling relationship with my sister.

"You okay, buddy?" Shelton asked, looking at me with some concern.

"I had her, Shelton. She was going to help me. She was going to heal Nightliss." I dropped into a chair, my breaths ragged as I fought back the tears. "She told me she loved me."

"Ivy?" he said, eyes disbelieving. "But she thinks you're evil."

"We connected somehow," I said, fitting my fingers together. "We connected." I couldn't hold it off anymore. Couldn't fight off the pain. "I've got to go," I said, and raced from the room.

A figure emerged from the foyer as I crossed the den. Dirt covered Elyssa from head to toe. She looked tired and unkempt, and I detected a slight odor coming from her dirty Templar armor. She smiled at me, and it was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

We met in the center of the room. My lips pressed tight to hers. She let out a little moan, I emitted a little groan, and my worries seemed to melt away.

Sometime later, we lay in bed together, smiling at each other.

"I missed you so much," I said, pushing negative thoughts of Ivy away.

"I didn't even wait around for the ending ceremony," Elyssa said. "I was in the middle of nowhere, but I got to the closest arch and took it straight here." She smiled. "Nobody wanted to stand near me on the shuttle."

I laughed. "You were a bit ripe."

She kissed me again. "I couldn't stop thinking about you. I couldn't stop thinking about how meaningless everything would be without you, and how stupid it was of me to leave you for the Cho'kai."

"I wanted you to do it," I said. "You're strong and independent, and I love that about you."

"If Meghan hadn't given you that potion, I never would have gone," she said, looking with dismay at the dark veins in my leg. "It's still spreading, Justin. Are you sure the potion is working?"

"Yes. But getting the crap beaten out of me daily hasn't helped."

She made a cute growling noise. "I'm not gonna let that happen anymore." She kissed me. "You need to tell me everything."

So, I did.

She was visibly upset by the time I finished. "Oh, Justin, I'm so sorry about Ivy." She wiped away tears, even as her teeth clenched with anger. "I'm going to personally beat the crap out of Jeremiah Conroy."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "The world might end, Queens Gate might blow up, but you're the most upset about Ivy?"

"You have a chance to connect with your sister." Her anger melted to sadness. "I'll never have that chance with Jack again."

I could only imagine her pain at losing her brother during our fight with Vadaemos. I hugged her tight and said nothing. It seemed like one of those moments where there really was nothing to say.

When we came downstairs, Shelton jumped up from a chair in the den where he and Bella were playing Scrabble. "I figured it out," he said, excitement in his eyes. "I know how we can defuse the ward."

"How?" I asked, caught off guard by this happy version of my usually grumpy friend. Apparently Bella had improved his bedside manner.

"Your incubus sight," he said. "You can see magic, right? That means you can see the ward, and we can figure out how to get rid of it."

I snapped my fingers. "Brilliant plan."

"First thing tomorrow," he said.

"Why wait?" I asked. "We need to act now."

"Are you kidding me? I nearly burned myself out fighting Bigglesworth yesterday. I'm exhausted." His eyes looked me over. "And I know you're not up to snuff yet either. What if something else unexpected happens?"

I sagged. He was right. We needed to be fresh for this. "You're right."

He tilted his head to the side. "You okay—I mean emotionally and all? I know it was rough with your sister."

Meghan and Adam came through the front door. Meghan looked exhausted. "Making drain wards is a lot harder than I remembered," she said, sinking into a chair as Adam massaged her shoulders. She caught Shelton's troubled gaze. "Is something the matter?"

I told her about Ivy.

"Do you think there's a chance you can convince her to help?" Meghan asked after I finished.

"By now, I'm sure Jeremiah has filled her with lies," I said. "Ivy probably hates my guts."

Meghan thought for a moment. "If there's a chance Ivy will help, I need to know. I'll have to bring Nightliss here because it doesn't sound like Ivy will go to her."

"Don't forget this place is about to go boom," Shelton said.

"I haven't," Meghan replied, eyes hard. "As you well know, Nightliss will probably die one way or the other." She made an angry wave with her hand. "I also need to evacuate the children. For that I'll need to spend most of my time planning." Her eyes found me. "Should I bring Nightliss or not?"

Meghan's words echoed in my head. She'll probably die one way or the other. Really, we had no choice. "Bring her," I said.

"Okay." Meghan's shoulders straightened. "I need an evacuation plan for the children. It won't be easy."

"I can help with that," Elyssa said.

"That would be very helpful," Meghan replied. "Thank you."

Thursday already. My head felt like a big alarm clock attached to sticks of dynamite, relentlessly ticking down to detonation. Elyssa went with Meghan while I made like a ninja and slipped down to the Burrows. Thoughts of Ivy plagued me. How I'd failed Nightliss. How I'd failed to convince Ivy to help me rescue Mom. The countdown on my own life still ticked away. I squeezed my eyes shut. Took a deep breath. Willed it all away.

It's not working.

"Hello, Justin," Cinder said when he saw me at the bottom of the stairs where he and Zagg had created something of a makeshift workshop. "We are examining several texts I discovered after repairing flaws in damaged ASEs. It is possible Ezzek Moore left instructions regarding the rune should an emergency arise."

"More like a bunch of meaningless personal diaries," Zagg said, sighing deeply. "Most of this is so dry, I don't understand why he even kept a log."

"I am also uncertain why Moore kept a log detailing laundry day," Cinder added, turning his serious face toward me. "He also recorded his favorite location to take lunch, and his frequent conversations with someone he refers to as the Lady of the Pond."

I shuddered. "Yeah. I've met her. Weird woman."

"Isn't this kind of a bad place to be reading?" I asked, nodding my head toward the entrance where the dungeons started. "Because of the magical radiation, I mean."