Hastily, I vacated the premises, leaving the door open for Ranch and Ani to exit before Cove arrived. Ani poked his tiny black head out from behind the door moments later, trotting up to say hello with a shove of his head against my shins.

“It’s only been a minute,” I told him. It didn’t seem to matter. He pawed at my leg, his claws catching in my khakis. I unhooked his claws from my pants, careful not to let them catch on the threads, before gathering him in my arms.

Ranch arrived soon after, trotting out to wait patiently in the doorway. Cove wasn’t much later, picking up his cat as he met me in the hallway.

“You’re still here?”

“I figured the sooner we report to your father, the better.”

Cove nodded in agreement, and we walked the few extra steps into the departure room, clutching our cats like lifelines. I shifted Ani to one arm, grabbing Cove’s wrist with my other as he pulled us along and into the portal closest to our workplace. The sun had just been rising in Agartha and was just setting here. The sunlight was rapidly dimming, but the lamps hadn’t kicked on yet, and the bioluminescent particles in the waterways were steadily glowing brighter as the sun grew dimmer.

Jacob was ready for us when we knocked on his office door, ushering us into our usual chairs as Ani and Ranch were released to wreak havoc wherever they may go. We took the chairs gratefully as Jacob waited patiently.

“How did it go?”

Cove grimaced and tilted his hand in front of his face. He got the more difficult subjects in the air first. “Hayden and I got the portal set up with no issues.” The unspoken ‘but’ in his statement was obvious even to Jacob, who’d expected all to go well.

“But?” Jacob encouraged.

Cove’s next words came out measured. “But on our way out, someone altered the portal. They limited it, so only one person could use it at a time.”

Jacob clenched his hand tightly around the pen. “Did you reverse it? Did they discover the culprit?”

“No. The Agarthians told us to leave it. As for the culprit…” Cove trailed off, looking at me.

I picked up where he left off. “We believe it was a human mage. I sensed them in the area before we set up the portal.”

Jacob’s pen shook with the force of his grip, betraying his tension. “A human mage? Do we have any idea who it might be?”

They both looked to me for answers. Keeping my uncertainties to myself still, I said, “No. When I initially discovered him, he felt like a flame. His presence changed as soon as he noticed me, blending in with the local Agarthians.”

Jacob’s hand loosened its grip on the pen. “He must be quite the powerful mental mage, then. Are you sure they were male?”

“Yes. Ani caught him sneaking into Agartha and shared the memory with me.”

We all turned to look at the cat in question. He crashed to the floor on his side, dismissing the myth that cats land on their feet. Noticing our stares, he began grooming himself innocently, acting as though that were the plan all along.

Cove coughed, covering up a laugh.

“I see…did your familiar happen to catch the method the mage used to sneak in?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I thumbed over the ridge of my kneecap. “He walked through the door. Not the doorway, but the door.”

Jacob whistled appreciatively. “If that’s true, then he must be almost as powerful as you, Cove, to bypass Agarthian wards.”

“We have evidence,” Cove added. “The Agarthians sealed the portal off behind us,” Jacob’s fingers twitched at Cove’s words, “yet the mage somehow managed to enter through the physical door and the seal to alter the spell.”

“Both of you are sure the human Ani saw is the culprit, and the real culprit didn’t just use the new portal to enter and exit unseen?”

Actually, I wasn’t. I’d been so focused on assuming the human I’d seen sneaking into Agartha was the culprit that I didn’t think about the other possibilities.

Cove nodded anyway. “If Hayden says so, I believe him. We’ll check the security cameras for the portal for any suspicious activity on this end though, just in case.”

“Good,” Jacob’s eyes met mine, and they crinkled slightly in a smile. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Hayden, but we must be thorough.”

“It’s fine.”

He leaned in. “Did you catch a glimpse of his face as he entered Agartha?”

“No. He had the hood of his cloak up.”

“Are there any other defining features you can give us?”

Somewhat guiltily, I answered “No,” again.

“I know you’re tired, so I have one more question for you two, and then I’ll let you go.”There was a dramatic pause. He broke it with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Did you get to see the city?”

Dreamily, Cove said, “It’s a gem of a city.”

“It was beautiful.”

Jacob let the pen fall to his desk and pushed himself up to a standing position. “That it is. I’m glad you got to go on a tour. Hayden, Cove, good work on the portal. You should already have an email containing important details for Zenith Online in your mailbox to review before you leave in a few days. Get some rest, and I’ll see you then.”

“Wait,” Cove protested, stopping Jacob in his tracks. “At Hayden’s insistence, the Agrthians mentioned a vision they had. Of great darkness, clouding the future, and fading stars in the sky.”

“Did they know what it meant?”

Cove shook his head. “No.”

A considering look crossed Jacob’s face, followed by a quickly suppressed quirk of his lips. He turned to me. “I’ll have some of the spaciotemporal mages in the research department look into it. Very well done, Hayden. I knew this job would be the perfect fit for you. Do either of you have anything else to add?”

Neither of did.

We rose to our feet and said our goodbyes as Jacob closed up his office for the evening, locking the door behind us and dropping the key into his pocket. He turned to Cove. “I have some other important business to attend to, so I’ll leave you to it.”

Cove moved to follow him. I didn’t. Noticing this, Cove asked, “Aren’t you going home?”

“I need to charge my phone and text my sister. If my neighbor texts her first, I’m dead.”

Cove laughed, thinking I was joking. I smiled along and waved them off. Once they vanished down the hallways, I headed to my office, where I kept a spare plug and phone charger. I read the aforementioned email as I waited for my phone to charge, absorbing the information and noting pertinent details in shorthand in my notebook for easy lookup later.

My phone finished charging around the time I finished going through the report, and I shot Ember a quick text before shoving my phone into my pocket and collecting my cat and my pack.

I’m heading home from the airport now.

She responded seconds later, causing me to pause and slip the phone back out.

Kk.

Relieved and reassured that Ember probably hadn’t broken in to search my house again, I did just that and headed straight home to read some of Zenith Online.