I'd worried that Lote might not appear, but he'd arrived within the hour, and had honored the order to come alone.

As soon as he entered the court and saw all of us standing before the king, his eyes narrowed.

"Your highness," Lote said as he bowed slightly. "I see my would-be assassins have paid you a visit."

"Yet another thing you failed to report to the crown," the king said. "I've heard about what you've been doing."

"It was for the kingdom, your highness. I planned to come to you in due time."

"You're a traitor," the king said and beat his fist against the arm of his throne. "What did you plan to do once you had this power? Perhaps, you thought you might like to be king."

"No, your highness. I would never think such a thing. I only wanted to make us stronger to protect against our enemies. Our guild is the best equipped to lead this kingdom into the future, under your authority."

"You've lost your right to speak. Your aggression and corruption has tainted what could be a mutually beneficial relationship. Do you really believe that going to war in their world was your best course of action? We could gain just as much through peaceful means."

"They tried to kill me and still I offered peaceful means."

I rolled my eyes. "Your highness, I can't trust him. I did try to kill him and my only regret is that I failed."

"We have a means for handling crime in our kingdom. Elias, Ashton, and Jax should have minded that."

"Your highness," Jax said. "The Silver Moon Guild has discussed with you before that some of the problems between our guilds are best handled discreetly, away from the king's court. We felt it was safer to handle this on our own."

The advisor shifted toward the king and spoke quietly.

"We'll discuss this further at a later time," the king said.

That didn't sound good, but the others looked calm. So it must have been a political reality they could handle. The king seemed aware of his limitations and might have secretly appreciated that they were handling it on their own so it didn't endanger him.

The king gripped the arm rests of his throne and looked down on Lote. "I've seen the evidence of your crimes. I will honor your right to a hearing before I sentence. You're now under arrest and you will be stripped of your titles and authority until such a time that I see fit to return them. Which I must say I anticipate not happening."

"Your highness," Lote said in a gravelly voice. "You're making a mistake. I understand that you need to deal with my indiscretions, but you need to see the advancements we've made and are working toward before you–"

"I've seen enough. In this kingdom, we follow the laws of our land, and we will not operate in the shadows like you have been. You know how I feel. I'll give your guild the chance to make a case for you. You'll be at the mercy of your leaders and me if you are proven guilty."

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"And what about Elias? He lied as well."

"I'll deal with Elias separately. He hasn't killed anyone, has he?"

Lote snarled at Elias and wheeled around toward Ashton. "You'll regret this," he seethed.

"That's enough." The king was standing again. "Your power has been bound and now it's time for you to be remanded to a jail cell."

Lote's hard eyes found mine. "There will be no mercy."

He lifted his hands and light carved through the vines that wrapped around his fingers and hands and wrists. In the same moment the bright beam of power lit his fingertips, I teleported to the king and dragged him instantly to the other side of the room with me.

A smoking hole replaced the throne.

"A machine," Elias said.

The guards all were screaming and rushing for Lote. Jax and Ashton both shot energy at him, but it sizzled against his skin.

I covered the king with a shield and reached for Lote to try sealing this power he wielded. He sneered and disappeared, leaving behind only the image of his haughty face in my mind.

The power had felt strange, like it had in his room.

"Someone find him," the king shouted. Breathing hard, he looked to me. "Thank you."

I didn't have time to talk to him. Instead, I sprinted to Elias, caught his hand, and reached for Ashton and Jax. "Hurry," I shouted. "He's gone to my world."

As soon as we all had a hold of each other, Elias unleashed a surge of power, ripping us between the worlds. We landed in the courtyard of the Sacred School with the heat and pain I'd grown used to from traveling swelling over me.

"How the hell did this happen?" I snarled and pointed at Jax. "You and Ashton try to search out his power. Elias, go with Piercey to the White Room and look through the code for him in case we don't find him. I'm going to gather people."

Ashton held her head with both hands. "He inserted the machine beneath his skin. We should have thought of this."

"It doesn't matter," I said. "He's in my world. That's all we need to think about now."

"Lote is here alone," Jax said. "We can kill him."

"We can't assume he's here with no one," Elias said. "I'm sure that he shared the technology with his allies. It's possible he even left to get them first. We need to prepare for the worst."

I stormed through the halls of the Sacred School and sprinted for my apartment where Nash had planned to wait on me. "Nash!" I screamed his name before even reaching the door. He burst into the hallway, drawing his swords in a flash.

"What happened?"

"Lote escaped. He tried to kill the king. We think he's in our world."

"Fuck." He slammed the side of his fist against the wall.

I closed my eyes and sent a message to Piercey and Gael. We needed their portal system to start gathering allies, except I wasn't sure where to take them.

"Elias," I said through the neural connection. "Have they found him?"

"Not yet. Maybe he's back in his world gathering people or machines."

It might have been hasty to leave Elias's world when I had no idea what Lote was thinking. I just needed to be here in case of an attack.

Everyone began gathering in the courtyard. We returned to Jax and Ashton there.

"Anything?" I asked.

"No." Ashton paced with her eyes clenched tight. "I don't feel him. I can only search out so far though. We may want to get to a more central location in the valley to seek him out. I'm sure that he would have transported somewhere in Skia Hellig. It's all he knows."

"Or he wanted us to think he came to this world so we'd leave. He might be staging a coup back home right now." Jax turned to the three comrades he'd brought. "Decide now. Are you fighting here with us or returning to the guild?"

One of them spoke quickly. "We'll go wherever Lote is. He's the priority. I think he'll come here. Too many people will be seeking him out at home."

"He's leading the rebellion. He's the one we should fight." Another comrade agreed.

"Max," Piercey's voice came through the neural connection. "We found him. He's near a village. I'll use the alarm system to send you the location."

"Everyone." I reached my hand out. "Hurry. We have him."

I would not hesitate to kill Lote as soon as we made it to him.