Chester can only hope and pray that they make it back in time. He counts his steps, counts his breaths, keeps his arm tight around Bryant’s shoulders and his eyes fixed into the dizzying distance?—
Suddenly, a solid-looking structure appears out of nowhere just ahead of them, its shape strikingly similar to the three-tiered fountain in Redwater’s Courtyard and what looks like electric crimson smoke churning over its edges. His heart leaps. “There! That’s it, right?”
“Ugh,finally,”Bryant grumbles. “I was starting to think we were seeing two entirely different dimensions.”
“Micah said to bring back as much as possible,” Roma says, wobbling forward and resting her hands on the thankfully solid fountain for balance. “So do we just… reach in and grab some?”
“I guess,” JJ says, his eyes drifting upward. “I mean, that’s what the rest of them are doing, right?”
“The rest of them?” Chester repeats, following JJ’s gaze. All he sees are colors and more colors, although he will admit that the colors seem to be bending towards the Fount rather than zipping directly past it. “What do you mean?”
JJ points. “The other demons. You—you do see them, right?”
Chester’s jaw drops. Roma looks incredulous. “Thecolors?”she sputters. “The colors aredemons?”
“Oh,” Bryant says slowly, squinting back at her. “You, uh. You didn’t figure that out?”
Chester fights back an unhinged laugh. “Man, you half-demons are wild,” he says, and the words catch on that same part of his brain that sayssomethingis about to click, thatsomethingis about to fall into place. Shoving the sensation aside, he stumbles forward to stand next to Roma. “All right. Let’s just start grabbing handfuls of it, and?—”
Carefully, he reaches down, swiping his hand through the billows of crackling red.
His fist closes on empty air. Horror floods through him.“No.”
“I—” Roma rests one knee on the Fount and reaches down with both hands, but the Blessings slide through her fingers. Her eyes flash to JJ, panic threading through her voice.“Pleasetell me you can touch it.”
JJ’s eyebrows are furrowed. He reaches down with cupped hands, effortlessly lifting a blob of smoke-like crimson with him. “Looks like it. But it’s weird that you can’t. I mean, it’s solid. It’s literally right there.”
Chester lets out a shaky breath, relief curling through him. “Guess this was only meant for demons,” he says, and he nods at Bryant. “Could you grab some, too?”
“Sure,” Bryant says, and to Chester’s utter disbelief, she takes two handfuls andshoves them into her pockets.“Roma, can I use your backpack? I need more storage space.”
Roma meekly removes her weapons from the bag and hands it over, her mouth hanging slightly agape as she watches Bryant and JJ pack away the Blessings. Frankly, Chester can’t blame her. Do Bryant and JJ seriously not realize how incredible it is that they can navigatehere, walk steadily here,touchthings here? Do they really not understand how difficult it is for Chester and Roma to just stay upright, much less walk through this fever dream of a dimension?
How powerfularethey in Tamaros?
All at once, the answer—the answer toeverything—crashes into Chester, so hard and fast that it nearly makes him dizzy.“That’swhat they’re after,” he stammers, the pieces rushing into place.“That’sthe Sanctum’s endgame. That’s?—”
Bryant gives him a sharp look. “What?”
Chester’s heart slams against his ribcage. “Nothing. Or—or something we can deal with later, at least. For now, we need to get back to Obie.”
“Right,” JJ agrees, pushing the last of the Blessings into his pockets and straightening up. Unexpectedly, he cocks his head to one side, peering at a point over Chester’s shoulder. “Bryant, do you think we can take that shortcut?”
Chester turns to follow his gaze. He’s not altogether surprised when he can’t see anything except the same swirling vortex of colors.
Bryant, though, looks pleased. “Good call, Jackson,” she says, pulling Chester’s arm over her shoulders again. “That should cut our time nearly in half.”
Chester squints at her. “Can you two actually track time and distance in here?”
JJ stares at him. “Of course,” he says, gesturing at the erratic pulses of light around them. “Time is controlled by the lights, you see? And space is controlled by the sounds, so if you can get those two parameters to line up correctly, then?—”
“Do the things you’re saying actually make sense in your head?” Roma demands. “Because the words ‘time is controlled by the lights and space is controlled by the sounds’ donotexist in that order to any rational person.”
Bryant sniffs imperiously. It’s such an old-school Bryant Nehemiah reaction that Chester can’t fight back a grin. “Well, youhumansmay not understand it, but JJ and I are in perfect sync. Right, JJ?”
Instantly, JJ brightens. “Right!”
Chester’s heart swells. He can tell by Bryant’s tense shoulders that she’s still not completely comfortable with JJ—probably still not completely comfortable with Roma and Chester, either—but she’s trying.
