“It’s not a vault,” I said, waking to find the shisa eyeing me, Ebrill and Steph both standing over me. “It opens the way to Avalon. A magical land, where—”

“Where Rianne will be waiting,” Ebrill said, eyes flooding with excitement as memories hit her.

“You remember?” I asked.

She nodded. “The rest of us… couldn’t make it back. When Avalon vanished, only she stayed.”

“And the attack here?” I asked, realizing that all was quiet. “What happened?”

“On pause,” Steph said. “Although it might be the calm before the storm.”

“Is that… it?” Ebrill stepped toward me, hand out, eyes on the Liahona.

“It is.” First, I connected with the building and moved our protective layer aside to get a good view around. No attacks came. In fact, it was a peaceful night. The moon shone large above and the twinkling lights of a business not far off reminded me that some people were simply going about their lives while mine had been completely thrown on its head.

I took a step toward the statue of Kordelia, memories flashing of the real her, and how odd it had been that I hadn’t known her at all when I went to sleep. So much had changed, while here it seemed that barely any time had passed. With a glance back at them, I held up the Liahona. “We’re ready?”

Ebrill nodded, then Steph. The shisa nudged my leg, reminding me that it was there. I scratched it behind the ears, impressed with how soft its fur was, then pulled up my screen. In part it was to get this going, and also to move my focus away from how creepily large the shisa’s red eyes were. My screen had the option to wake Kordelia, so I selected it.

Blue light glowed from the ball in my hands, then from her as the stone started to crack. Ebrill moved up next to me, hand on my shoulder, and the power flared. In an instant, Kordelia was free! She rose from the stone, roared as she stretched, and then turned to me, the blue light fading from her as she became a normal gargoyle.

Her eyes met mine, and she considered me. “Seems you were destined for greatness after all. What is this place?”

“The future,” I replied. “And… in a sense, Gertrude’s house. My aunt… I thought.” Turning to Ebrill, I added, “But—”

“She died,” Ebrill replied with a nod. “And yet, she was here…”

“My guess,” Steph chimed in, earning her a confused look from Kordelia, “is that although she died in our timeline, it didn’t affect the actual past where she once lived. Our timeline isn’t affected by going back in time, in a strange way.”

“So… not following the Back to the Future-style travel at all,” I said. Now both Kordelia and Ebrill were looking at us like we were nuts. I shrugged, realizing there was no way we could explain all of that to them at the moment. “Point is, Gertrude was still alive in my time, until recently. I don’t understand how that’s possible if she died in my past.”

“And you thought she was your aunt?” Kordelia asked.

I nodded.

“Too bad. She was always known to be good in the sack.”

Ebrill hit her playfully. “Don’t tell him stuff like that about his aunt.”

“If she even was his real aunt. We all knew she had no sister, and… judging by this time period, wasn’t from here.”

As far as I could guess at it all, she was right. Gertrude had managed to escape the curse and set out to find the others. Maybe her memory wasn’t all there either. Maybe it came back in bits and pieces as she found them. She hadn’t been my real aunt at all, but found a way to insert herself into my mother’s life—the estranged, well-off sister—after discovering a young boy was born with a magical connection that had the potential to turn this magical war around.

Or had she seen me in the past and been waiting all this time to find me when I was born, and then put the pieces in place to get us here? It was all a bit much to process, but I felt the puzzle coming together as though my transmutation magic formed the bonds, drawing lines and giving it light.

Kordelia turned to Ebrill and then Steph with a look of confusion. “I know one of you, and recognize this man.” She glared at Steph, then demanded of Ebrill, “Who is this, and where are the others?”

“Others…” I repeated the word, not as a question. It hit me that the others had indeed turned to stone as the spell finished and I was taken out of the heart of the mountain, transported back to this spot. “You think we can find them?”

Her glance my way was even more confused.

“We don’t know,” Ebrill admitted, turning back to me, then Steph. “Did you hear anything while under their influence?”

“Bits of my time under the curse are still with me,” Steph said. “But that side… no, they didn’t have the answers. If anyone, that’ll be—”

“Gertrude,” I interjected.

“I still don’t understand it,” Kordelia admitted.

Realizing that there was no getting around at least attempting an explanation, I traced a line in the air, using my transmutation power to make an actual line of blue light appear. “Imagine it like this. Even with going back in time, we only affect our time going forward. Never truly the past. But that doesn’t explain why I was able to fight, why I was able to take the Liahona.”

“Unless that’s how it always was.” Ebrill looked about as confused as I felt.

“Or she didn’t actually die back then,” Steph offered. “In either timeline, I mean. In that case, you did take the Liahona, and maybe had it in the other timeline, I don’t know. We’re dealing with magic here, so… your movies and the so-called rules of time travel might not make the most sense.”

I frowned. “We saw her, but…”

“Again, magic. Healing. Who knows. It’s possible, though, isn’t it?”

“Actually, we didn’t see her corpse,” Ebrill admitted. “Only her being absorbed by the stone.”

Wiping away my floating timelines, I grunted. Maybe my time explanation wasn’t right, but it was cool.

“What matters is that we know what we have to do,” I pointed out. “We need to get my aunt back.”

“So, she’s not dead?” Kordelia asked.

“We think she is.” I chuckled, realizing how ridiculous this sounded. “But in our timeline, the future where I met you all… she died. However, she left behind some sort of magical version of herself.”

“Perfect. Where?”

“That’s the not-so-perfect part. With… Fatiha.”

“She’s here?” Kordelia snarled, claws bared. “Can someone tell me what exactly is going on? What are we up against?”

I did my best to fill her in on what had happened so far, stressing the point that Steph had been under a curse and hadn’t acted on her own when attacking us, and that Ebrill hadn’t had her memory regarding Fatiha. About how my dreams had taken me back in time, to a world where Avalon had still been part of it, and apparently dark and very different types of people and creatures had roamed the Earth.

“We have the Liahona,” Kordelia said, processing it all. “Why can’t we simply open the way, find Rianne. and restore access to Avalon?”

“Only one person knew how to do that,” Ebrill replied.

“Gertrude.” Kordelia considered this, then nodded. “We have to go after her, then.”

“Exactly. And… how do we get her back?”

“And we don’t know where to find her,” I added.

Steph cleared her throat. “I might have an answer to that. And it… might relate to some of the rest of our problem.”

“Meaning what?” I asked.

“They’ve found the heart. The heart of the mountain, I mean. They haven’t been able to access it, but have certainly tried.”

“Right…You mentioned that the enemy knew of at least five, but didn’t know where. It would make sense that at least one or some remained at the heart of the mountain. Maybe the others were accessed later by some spell Gertrude put together, or maybe some were cast into our world by the initial magic that sent Avalon away. I don’t know.”

She nodded. “And whatever caused them all to become stone also put some sort of protective spell on it all.”

“Whatever caused them…” I shuddered, looking first at Ebrill, then Kordelia. “It was me.”

“What?” Ebrill asked.

“Me. I caused it. Or, rather it was the Liahona and the only way I could keep it safe.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Ebrill looked at me with confusion that slowly became a look of fascination. Kordelia had a hint of a smile, the type like one has after figuring out the answer to a riddle.

“Shouldn’t you be mad at me?” I asked.

“No,” Kordelia said. “Because it was the only way. If that’s how it happened, Rianne knew it was the way.”

Ebrill nodded. “She put all of this in motion, after all.”

Steph, too, was staring at me in a new light. “Break the spell and get them, or get them and break the spell—I’m not sure which comes first.”

“But breaking the spell might give the enemy access to the heart.” I frowned. “Do we know what that does? What it means?”

“Access to vast stores of magic,” Ebrill replied. “We’ve talked about it.”

“But, like this?”

She nodded.

“If you can make it there and free her, there’s one more for your side.” Steph glanced at Ebrill and then Kordelia, scrunching her nose as if trying to decide whether that was a good thing or not. “The enemy, as I knew them at least… we can access their hideout.”

“If we can access it and find the one behind this,” Ebrill’s eyes lit up with excitement, “we get access to Gertrude, and then restore Avalon.”

“And find the others,” Kordelia said. “Find Aerona, for one. She’s powerful, and we could use her on our side.”

“We could use them all on our side.”

Kordelia nodded. “No one’s denying the effectiveness of the rest.”

“We open the door, we find the others?” I asked.

“I’d actually bet that most are in there,” Kordelia replied. “We can speculate all day long, though, and it wouldn’t do any good. Best get on with it and go from there. So, if this girl says she can get us where we need to be, I say we listen.”

“Morning will be here soon, though,” Ebrill countered. “If we’re going to attack, we all need to attack.”

“She’s right,” Steph agreed. “We’ll need everyone to stand a chance.”

“It’s agreed, then.” I was actually relieved to not have to go on the offensive until the next night. “But… why aren’t they attacking right now?”

“I’m not complaining,” Steph said with a chuckle. “I’m famished.”

“Actually, I could eat,” I admitted, and had to take a wicked piss. After, I connected with the shisa, sending a request that the guardian keep watch on the house. The rest of us cautiously made our way to the kitchen. I paused from time to time to sense whether there was an attack or any of the enemy nearby, but we seemed to be clear.

Soon we’d each had chances to use the bathroom and our bellies weren’t empty. Ebrill looked at me thoughtfully and said, “Is it possible…?”

“What?”

“I’m just thinking out loud here. Maybe something to do with your last dream, or travel, caused them to pull back from the attack?”

“Like my helping back then caused their power to diminish now, too?” I licked some truffle mustard from my lower lip, still relishing the taste of the turkey sandwich I’d made for myself.

“It’s… maybe possible,” Steph said, but held her hand up and made a line of fire appear from her palm, tracing it around her fingers. “Although, it doesn’t seem to have affected me.”

“No need for assumptions,” Kordelia said, and then pushed her half-eaten sandwich away. Apparently, she wasn’t as into my ‘cooking’ as I was. The other two had devoured theirs. “We need to be sure of what happened. Go back and see…”

All eyes went to me.

“I’m not sure I can go back,” I admitted. “Or if it would be smart. It was getting pretty crazy in there.”

“We know,” Ebrill said. “We were turned to stone.”

“But we need to know what the enemy is up to,” Kordelia chimed in. “And this might be the best way.”

“Or be pointless.” I turned to Steph, hoping she would take my side on it, but she pursed her lips, looking to the window.

“Night will be over soon,” Steph pointed out. “We might want to take the opportunity while we have these two here to help guard, and to break you from your sleep, if needed.”

“Shit.” I held up the Liahona, frowning. “We’re sure we even want to open it?”

The stares from Ebrill and Kordelia were answer enough. I sighed, nodded, and followed them back to the bedroom.

“I just woke up,” I pointed out.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Ebrill stepped up to my side, lowered me to the bed and then whispered, “Gorffwys.”

Only, nothing happened.

“Huh,” Steph said, scratching her arm. “Maybe he’s growing strong against it?”

“Might be my transmutation,” I admitted. “Haven’t exactly learned to master it, and before I knew it was magic, this kind of thing would happen. More with sickness and stuff, but I could see how a sleep spell might be something my subconscious pushes back against.”

“Well, shit.” Steph eyed Kordelia, who shrugged and leaned against the wall, hands on her temples.

Ebrill joined her old friend. The two spoke in lowered voices.

As they did so, Steph approached, eyeing me mischievously and licking her lips. “Not all of it was me, but… I remember a certain way that helped you sleep.”

“Yeah?” I asked, not catching on at first.

“Maybe this will help.” Steph licked her lips again, then kissed me. She chuckled, eyes moving to mine as she caressed my abs. “Having been under a curse, this all feels so new to me.”

“You don’t remember any of that part of it?” Ebrill asked.

Steph blushed, as if having forgotten they were with us. Her head against my chest. “Somehow, there are… bits and pieces. Almost like I remember the sensation, the emotions, but like I was reading about them. I want,” she looked up at me again, “to experience it all.”

“And them?” I asked, eyes going to Ebrill, who eyed me, then Steph, waiting.

“You’re… with her, now?” Steph asked.

“I don’t… know. Ebrill?”

“As much as we want to be,” Ebrill answered. “And that doesn’t have to be exclusive.”

“Oh?” Steph eyed me, then Ebrill, and nodded. “Me neither, I guess.”

“Yeah?” Ebrill looked over at Kordelia, who was eyeing me uncertainly.

“I’m not ready for this,” Kordelia said, standing up and going to the door.

“Kor,” Ebrill said, going after her.

“Have fun,” Kordelia said, turning and holding up her hands. “I don’t want to get in the way of that, but… I just woke up to find the world completely changed. I can’t—not yet.”

She left, but Ebrill turned back to us. At first the look in her eyes was distant, but when they found me again, it was hungry.

Not yet. Those words stuck with me, my excitement rising at the thought that she would one day join us. I reclined and then with Ebrill and Steph coming to lie with me. My eyes were heavy and soon I was asleep, a protective hand on the Liahona in my pile of clothes beside me on the bed.

* * *

The dream travel wasn’t like the other times. Pulling, twisting… light swirling. Pain ripped at my soul, unlike anything I had ever felt, and then I was free of it, but floating in darkness that cleared in places as a heavy fog would to give brief glimpses of one’s surroundings.

“You don’t belong here,” a female voice said, and for a moment there was another form moving with me in the darkness.

The darkness gave me a glimpse of what I knew was the heart of the mountain, submerged in the water that surrounded the land that was Avalon. The forces of darkness were confined to sections of magical mist. The others moved about in confusion. Their world had been torn apart, pushed aside from its normal place to another plane of existence, a world of magic separate from our world, where magic no longer had a place.

And I had played a part in it!

“That’s exactly right,” the voice said, returning to my side, circling me and laughing. “You, Jericho, brought down the walls of this world. Is that backwards?”

“Who the hell are you?” I spat out, not in the mood for these games. “We did what was needed. We won.”

“Ah, but at what cost?”

While I didn’t want to admit it, this figure had a point. I hated to see this land of magic cast off as it was, and everything I was beginning to understand that it represented. And as she materialized further, her words rang even more true. Maybe that was the hypnotism of her beauty, this striking woman with her green eyes, red hair that flowed about her as if in a bath, and glimpses of nude flesh amid shifting darkness.

“Who are you?” I said, my voice almost slurring.

“I go by many names, none of which you need to bother yourself with. But come to my side, join me… and I’ll tell you one. A name you’ll enjoy, a name you can call out as I make you shout with pleasure.”

She came closer, body almost in full view, hand out to touch my face. But I pulled back, shifting and turning away from her.

“They will lead you astray,” her voice said, distant now, fading. “Mark my words. You want me at your side. You need my power.”

“All I have, all I need… I’ll figure it out without you.”

A jolt shot through me and I was pulled back from that place, leaving it all behind.

* * *

Ebrill was there, watching me. Steph was up against the wall with her arms around herself, while Kordelia stared out the window.

“It was bad,” Ebrill said, holding a cloth to wipe my forehead.

“I sensed her,” Steph added, a shiver running through her body. “The woman with the flowing red hair.”

“You’ve…” I pushed myself up, still shook from the pain and confusion of the dream. “You’ve met her? Before?”

Steph shook her head. “Only her power.”

It made sense to me, then. The curse—I would have been under its influence, had I given in. More power, maybe, but no freedom.

Kordelia turned back to me, then nodded. “It’s almost sunrise.”

Ebrill eyed the window and helped me up. “No more attacks, at least for now.”

“Fatiha might come during the day,” I pointed out.

“She might, but it wouldn’t do much good.” Steph shrugged. “Wouldn’t be able to do much against us. Her side’s power relies on darkness and shadows. She’ll come at night, I’d wager.”

“There you go.” Kordelia went to the window, flared her wings, and said, “Be sure to get some rest, but be ready in case she tries something. You never know.”

“Understood,” I replied, and offered a smile to Ebrill, then felt Steph wrap an arm around my waist. She nuzzled me as the other two froze. We watched the sunrise, Ebrill and Kordelia now stone nearby. Out of curiosity, I reached out to mentally check on the shisa. The creature was still there, patrolling the grounds. I had been curious how that worked, but apparently the guardian didn’t work like the gargoyles. That made sense, I supposed, since it was brought to life with my powers and the powers of the house, not some gargoyle curse.

My eyes moved to the way the orange light highlighted the curves of the gargoyles’ statues. The shadows made me wish they were alive so I could caress them again, hold them to me. I reminded myself that they would be back at night, but that seemed so far away. Funny how this time, they had each struck a pose before the morning light transformed them so that they had a fierce, sensual look of danger to them. I couldn’t help but let my eyes roam over their curves, now stone, before turning back to see Steph watching me. She raised an eyebrow.

“You and this one…” She walked over to Ebrill, running a finger along the stone of the gargoyle’s arm. “It’s serious?”

I laughed. “We barely know each other. But… it’s complicated.”

“Like how we’re complicated?”

“We are, aren’t we?”

She turned back to me, hand resting on Ebrill’s shoulder, the other moving along her wing, seductively. “I was trying to find myself, back then. Looking for ways to expand my magic. I wish I could say it was to bring my mother back from the dead or something, but she’s alive and well with my dad in the Peugeot Sound. For me, it was as simple as wanting power in the form of magic. I joined secret societies, a coven… all of that to find out I needed more. A journey to a land you never want to see earned me those wraith knights, and the fire was the result of a month in Turkmenistan. But this… everything I heard from anyone who knew anything about the Liahona pointed to more power than anyone could possibly comprehend.”

“We’ve all done things,” I said, not sure if I should be consoling her or what, but trying anyway.

“Before this,” Steph turned, eyes focused on mine. “I crossed lines, maybe, but always for the right reasons. Or, so I told myself. When I got the power I sought, I told myself I’d stand up for the little people, use my new power to, I don’t know, cure cancer or something.”

“Thought you said it wasn’t for anything like that.”

“Not directly, but… yeah, in part. Can you really imagine having that power and not doing some good with it?”

“Of course, I would do good,” I replied. “But then again, I’m not doing this for power.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” She scoffed, arms crossed. “There was a time, right when the curse hit me, and I was still more in control, when I would have hurt people.”

“And now?”

“No more crossing lines. It’s wrong, of course, but more than that—I set myself up to be susceptible.”

“To their curse?”

She nodded. “Never again, Jericho. Never.”

I took her in my arms. “You’re with us now.”

“I wanted power, and I got it.” She scoffed, pushing me away, but accepted my embrace when I wouldn’t let her. “At a price.”

With a laugh, I gestured around. “Hey, we talked about how it would be if you could come out here to D.C. with me. Here we are, living the dream.”

She allowed a smile, but then her eyes flashed red and she looked at the door. “They took that from me. Now… I want to see them fall more than ever before.”

“Let’s do it, then.” I held her hand and guided her out of the room. “We’ve let them lead the attack long enough. Now it’s our turn.”