Alice smiled, nodded at Vali’s desk, walked over, pulled up a chair, and slapped the massive report she’d been holding under her arm onto the wood.

  Without a word, I shifted around and sat in Vali’s chair. It should have been too big for me – Franklin Saunders’ body was a lot taller and broader than mine. But somehow, as if the leather seat was alive and not just a dead chunk of matter, it had molded itself to fit me. While the headrest was still too high and the arms too wide, that didn’t matter. As I sat in it, it felt so right.

  It reminded me that I had the power to decide what happened next. All I had to do was ensure I made the right decision.

  Alice pushed the report over to me. “This is absolutely everything I’ve been able to find in the library on the Drift, the fake gods, the gates, and the White Witch.”

  Though there shouldn’t be a thing in the library on the fake gods and the true nature of reality – as Vali’s entire point had been to hide the truth from humanity – that had all changed when I’d inherited his power. The information had always been there – it had just been blocked off from everyone.

  Yesterday, after returning from the fight, after being so weak I should have crumpled, I’d still been strong enough to explore my ability to open up different rooms and different powers within this building.

  It hadn’t taken long to figure out I could access the full extent of the library.

  I’d given the task of scouring it to Alice.

  Though technically there should have been any number of people in Vali’s senior command who would be more competent than Alice, I knew that wasn’t true. What she lacked in experience, she made up for in determination. More than anything, I trusted her with my whole damn heart. I knew that meant something now. My grandmother had told me as much when I’d briefly entered the Drift during the fight in the museum.

  Sure enough, Alice proved her worth as she partitioned the massive document and started pushing it toward me. “I know you’re going to want a summary – I know you don’t have time to read the entire thing – but here are the full documents anyway for your reference.”

  I nodded, a smart and determined edge to it, one that was worlds away from the slightly ditzy, selfish waitress I’d been barely a month and a half ago.

  … Shit, it’d only been a month and a half since I’d found the Drift box at Vali’s function. I knew now that even if I hadn’t come across that box and opened it, my destiny would have caught up with me anyway.

  After my grandmother’s death, she’d left a hole in the protective barrier that had sheltered me my whole life, and anything would have been able to creep through. I was just lucky that Vali had been the one to find me.

  That brought my attention back to the box, and my jaw naturally stiffened.

  Don’t ask me how, but I swore Alice was so damn attuned to me at the moment that she knew exactly what I was thinking.

  She grabbed a stack of documents she’d been keeping close to her and pushed them toward me. “This is everything we know about the box.”

  My cheeks paled and my jaw stiffened, but I managed a nod. “What have you found out?”

  “That Vali was right – it’s intrinsically linked to you. It’s been passed down through your family line forever. The full library you managed to unlock with your power – it had journals from Vali, too,” Alice revealed.

  My eyes bolted open wide as if someone had set off mini-explosions behind them. “What did they say?”

  “Mostly just theories and ruminations. But it’s clear from reading them that his warning to you was right.” Her voice dropped down low.

  I’d already shared with Alice most of what Vali had revealed to me before the fight in the museum, but not everything. I couldn’t… admit to what I’d done.

  Alice knew about the box, just as she knew that Vali had warned it could be used to kill me.

  Alice gave a short, sharp nod. “If the ruminations in his journals are anything to go by, he wasn’t lying. That box can be used to access your power completely.”

  My brow twitched down as my lips tightened. “Completely access my power? What does that mean?”

  “I think it means several things. In the wrong hands, if someone were to find a way to destroy the box, they would destroy you,” she stated flatly.

  I shivered, but I didn’t let it show.

  “And in the right hands – your hands, to be specific,” Alice said as renewed hope infiltrated her gaze – which was saying something, as Alice was so severe, hope was the last thing I would associate with her. “In your hands,” she repeated, “you can use it to access the power of the Drift fully.”

  My bottom lip wobbled down, but it wasn’t a weak move, just reflexive. “What? Did he expand on that? What does he mean fully access the power of the Drift?”

  Alice shrugged. “We don’t have too much detail, but it seems critical that we get the box back. Not just to save you, but to end the war with the fake gods.”

  I’d been pressed so close to the desk, it had been like I was trying to meld into it, but now I pushed back and relaxed into the chair, though relaxed was the wrong word. I pretty much fell against it, thankful that the yielding leather was there to support my suddenly weary body. I brought a hand up and clasped it over my eyes, allowing myself to stare into the darkness for several seconds until I forced the hand to drop and I faced Alice once more. “But how do we get the box back? We don’t even know who has it. All this on top of the fact we have six days to stop the fake gods,” I began.

  I didn’t need Alice to bring up a sharp hand and look at me directly to stop the spiraling dread sinking through my gut.

  I forced my teeth together, clenched them hard, and sucked in a steeling breath. “Do you have any clues? Any leads?”

  Though it had only been a day since the fight in the museum, and I’d spent most of that recovering from not just my physical injuries, but my emotional ones, I’d still had enough of a mind to send Vali’s forces out to do what they did best – to investigate the city, hold peace, and, more than anything, to give me a head start.

  I was sure that more of the fake gods were out there. I was sure more of them had pushed through in an attempt to secure the gate locations. Hell, I was sure the White Witch was still out there, too. The last time I’d seen her, she’d transformed from her glistening, blue-white dress that looked like it had been spun from stars into a pencil suit and heels. It was obvious she’d been trying to fit in, and just as obvious that she’d intended to make this city her home, if only for the next six days.

  There was one thing I was thankful for – she hadn’t contacted me again. Not since the fight in the museum. She obviously thought that when I broke down – when the stress of losing Vali became too much for me and the power of the fake gods made it certain I would lose – then I would contact her.

  … Would I contact her?

  It was in moments like these, when my mind was pulled back in on itself, that that question slammed into me with all the force of a continent being uprooted and thrown from the earth.

  Would I call on her power? Would I align with her, even though it was selfish, even though all I wanted was to find Vali?

  Or would I… forsake him?

  The White Witch had already promised that she would stop the fake gods from coming to Earth. All she wanted was my help – my body – to destroy them. If I gave her exactly what she wanted, not only would she return Vali to me, but she would protect humanity, too.

  … So wasn’t it exactly what I should do? Shouldn’t I stop busting a gut for the next six days, go directly to her, and let her use me?

  Alice had been watching me for the last several seconds. She leaned back, crossing her arms. “I told you already, kid – don’t let your thoughts destroy you. One thing is for sure right now – we don’t have enough information to make an informed decision. So what do we do? Do we ruminate? Do we let our thoughts destroy us from the inside out?”

  Though I shouldn’t have been able to find the strength to smile, I did. “No,” I said, “we find more information,” we both said at once as if we were a chorus line.

  Alice stood up from the desk. “I think it’s time we go and investigate Vali’s storeroom personally.”

  I rose.

  “The information on exactly what was stored there is a bit sketchy,” Alice admitted as she neatened the files she’d placed on my desk then nodded at the door, “but I’m pretty sure your box wasn’t the only thing stolen. Just as I’m sure if you find out what else was taken, we can start to figure out who has your box. And then?” She turned to me, half a smile on her lips.

  I let the other half of that very same smile press across my lips. The Drift sword that I’d called to me before our conversation had begun was still hanging by my shoulder. It could do that – and more. Jesus Christ, after my fight in the museum, in many ways, I felt as if I was unstoppable. Not only could I now fly – enshrouding myself with the power of the Drift as a blue glow lifted me up from every direction – but I could transport, send pulses of the Drift through my sword, and, more than anything, fight to the death.

  With a wave to the side, I let the Drift sword disappear back to where it belonged. I brought my other hand up and ticked my left finger half an inch to the right. Vali’s office door opened.

  “It’s time to get back what was stolen from me,” I said, meaning more than the box – meaning Vali, meaning my world, meaning my goddamn destiny. “And it’s—”

  “Time to make those bastards pay,” Alice added.

  Indeed.

  Six days from now someone would pay. Either it would be the fake gods or me. Or maybe?

  Maybe it would be everyone.

  2

  The storm was still out. It had dissipated a little since its height during my fight at the museum. It was no longer snowing, for one, and nor were the winds so goddamn violent that they could tear every building down and send cars toppling into the river.

  It was still there. I knew it wouldn’t leave until this week was up.

  As Alice and I made it to her car, I could hear the storm howling, even from the relatively protected car park.

  Alice could hear it too, as she shot a dark look up the ramp that led to the street. “Lucky these cars have been upgraded with magical protection – or we’d be blown away,” she commented as she shoved a hand into her pocket and grabbed her keys.

  I’d already reached the car door and went to open it before she could unlock it. That would be when we both realized it was unlocked. From the back seat, someone popped their head out.

  It was Cassidy.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Alice roared, her voice strong and loud enough to ping around the concrete walls of the car park.

  Cassidy was as pale as fresh new snow, and even though she’d only been injured two days ago, it looked as if she’d lost a significant amount of weight, her cheeks sallow. The poison the gargoyle pumped into her must’ve been insidious, and the very fact she’d been injured instantly made my stomach curl with anger.

  Despite how weak she looked, Cassidy still managed to give one of her trademark goofy smiles. “Hey, kids – ready to save the world?” she said with the kind of irreverence I could only associate with her.

  Alice had one white-knuckled hand on the open door, and her face said it all – she was more than ready to gag and bind Cassidy and drag her back to the hospital. “There’s no way you can come along. Get back to the clinic before you fall down.”

  Cassidy brought her hand up, and though it was weak, the look in her eyes told me she had more than enough determination to overcome that. She shrugged. “You honestly think I can sit this one out, Alice? We talked about this,” her voice dropped and her usually cheeky tone was replaced with one of seriousness, “and I can’t pass up this opportunity. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” she said as she gave a whistle, though it was halfhearted. I could see that serious look still in her gaze, and it was obvious that for once she didn’t want to play down what she was saying. “And I’m not going to pass it up. I’ve done wrong, Alice,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper now, achieving such a somber note, I would never have associated it with Cassidy. “And I want to make up for those sins. So don’t you dare take this opportunity away from me. Don’t you dare hog the limelight.”

  Alice looked like she wanted to hit Cassidy on the term ‘hog the limelight,’ and she took a stiff breath. “I ain’t hogging anything, Cassidy. And this isn’t safe. It’s not worth burning up the rest of your life just to pay for your sins.”

  Cassidy looked directly at Alice, and Cassidy, momentarily, looked like a completely different person. I swear there was so much distilled wisdom in that glance, she looked like some all-knowing sage. “Firstly, Alice, that isn’t your decision to make. And secondly? You’re wrong. This is worth wasting my life on. Because it won’t be wasting my life – it will be using it in the most honorable way possible. If I can give up my corporeal existence to stop the fake gods from ruining everyone else’s, then I will.”

  Prickles passed up and down my back at Cassidy’s soft but extremely powerful words, and I darted my gaze to Alice just in time to see her shoulders cave in and her fingers fall from the door. “Fine,” she said, but as she did, she looked at me, obviously waiting for my all-clear.

  I didn’t have time to appreciate that Alice, of all people, was deferring to me; I just nodded. “It’s great to have you back on board, Cassidy. Sorry… sorry I let you get hurt,” I said genuinely.

  In an instant, Cassidy was back to her old self. She snorted, and the move gave me a fine view of the insides of her nostrils as she tipped her head all the way back. “You didn’t let me get hurt. I was stupid, and I was fighting a goddamn gargoyle.” She sounded impressed with herself. “I did pretty good. Next time?” She brought up a hand, balled it into a fist, and tapped it against her other hand. “I’ll be ready for them. Now you two, for the love of God, get in the car. We have to save the world, remember?”

  I shot Alice a grin as she walked around to the driver’s seat and I got in the passenger side. “We remember,” I said with a chuckle.

  Alice gunned the engine. We shot up the ramp and joined the main road outside.

  I hadn’t been wrong – the storm was still in full swing. Though it had lost the preternatural edge it’d developed when the gates were opening, I could still sense its power. I could sense it more than ever – for I was finely attuned to it now. Ever since my fight at the museum – and, most importantly, my conversation with my grandmother – something had changed within me. Though I’d had extended senses because of my magic ever since I’d returned from the realm of the gods, this was different. This was… it was like I was attuned to the world around me. It was like, now that I had accepted responsibility for it, it pushed into me and I pushed into it. In a way, we were now one connected organism. And yeah, I get it – I know that sounds ridiculously hippie, like I’m singing a song from Pocahontas or something. But it was the only way to describe it.

  It gave me this sense… this niggling sense that the Drift was more than I had ever assumed it to be. I now no longer trusted what anyone had told me about it – apart from my grandmother.

  Everyone along the way had lied to me at least once. The White Witch had told me that only if I helped her would I be able to get my grandmother back – but it had been a lie. As for Vali? Did I really need to draw up a score sheet of every time he’d told me a fib?

  And as for the fake gods, everything they did was a lie.

  But now… now I was starting to appreciate that I could come to the truth myself – if only I pushed away my ego, pushed into my power, and delved into this connection with creation.

  It was such a strong and distracting sense that I brought up a hand and rested it over my sternum.

  Despite the fact Alice was currently negotiating tricky traffic as the rain pounded down around us, she still jerked her head toward me. “What’s happening? Do you feel something? Don’t tell me another gate is opening this soon?”

  I shook my head tightly. “No, I’m pretty sure the White Witch didn’t lie about that – there’s definitely not enough magic in the storm to open up another gate anytime soon.”

  “So what’s wrong?” Cassidy leaned forward and clapped a hand on the back of my seat.

  I took a tight breath. “Nothing.”

  Both of them snorted.

  “Do you really think we’re going to let you get away with that?” Alice said as she locked her full attention on me, obviously being such a good driver that she didn’t even need to see the road anymore.

  “Alice is right – don’t we deserve more?”

  It was Cassidy’s comment that made my stomach suck in and my gut twist as if someone were trying to tear it in two.

  “Fine. I just feel… I feel more connected to the Drift than I ever have before. I think that fight at the museum… I think it changed me somehow. I think it gave me access to a new level of power,” I said, and as I did, as I forced myself to make sense of this concept out loud, I swore I came to a new understanding.

  Cassidy shifted back, and out of the rearview mirror I saw she brought a hand up and tapped it on her chin. “That makes sense. You should delve more into the feeling – trust it, see where it will take you.”

  Alice growled. “Is that really a good idea? Though I’ve done as much research on the Drift as I can, we still don’t know what it is – how exactly it interacts with the other realms. Though it’s clear you have an unrivaled ability to access the Drift’s power,” Alice looked at me directly, “we still don’t know what the consequences of that could be.”

  “Oh, pish,” Cassidy said, now locking her arms around her middle, the color having almost completely returned to her cheeks. While ordinary people would require rest, recuperation, and medicine after enduring what she had, all Cassidy really needed was an opportunity to express her true bubbly self. “I say throw yourself wholeheartedly into that feeling of the Drift. I say that’s going to be key. I also say,” she scrunched up her lips and shot Alice a direct look, “that I trust Lilly. Trust her completely. I know you’re smart enough, dedicated enough, and goddamn powerful enough to control this process. And I know you’re the only person who can. So do it, kid,” she defaulted to saying, even though I was older than her and, hello, I was half a goddess. “Find out what that realm is. Then we can wipe out the fake gods, stop the invasion, and head out to the Chinese Diner.” She clapped her hands.