I was about to give him a jaunty salute and then head boldly through the wards, but he abruptly reached for my hands and held them clasped tightly in his own. His palms were clammy with what I suspected was fear, and my suspicion was borne out by the tremor in his voice as he said, “Take care of yourself. Above all, stay safe. Put that above sending messages, getting help, or getting us back.”

“That sort of defeats the purpose of me doing this,” I said, but the tremor in my own voice diminished my attempt at a snarky tone.

“I just don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you, either. And that’s why I’m going to go through that portal and do whatever it takes to get everyone back home and stop Sylvester’s scheme.” I managed to crack a smile. “I think you just don’t like the idea of being the one to be rescued. You make a lousy damsel in distress.”

“I do, I really do,” he agreed, sounding a little more like himself. He released my hands, but before I could move away from him, he grabbed me and held me in a tight hug.

“I’m only going to another reality,” I gasped, struggling for breath with my chest constricted. “It’s not like you’ll never see me again.”

He eased his hold just enough to kiss me. If I hadn’t already been breathless, that would have done the trick. “I’ll find you again, no matter what,” he whispered hoarsely, his lips still lightly brushing mine.

“Right back at you, handsome,” I said. “See you on the other side.” I reluctantly slipped out of his embrace, and he let me go.

I felt the wards before I reached them. I was used to the wards Owen put around his office and his home, and I thought they were powerful, but these were industrial-strength. My hair felt like it was standing on end, like I was touching one of those things my physics teacher used to demonstrate electricity. I steeled myself, took a deep breath, and stepped through the wards, hoping Owen was right about having removed every last trace of magic from me. If he hadn’t, I had a feeling things were about to get really unpleasant.

The sense of passing through powerful magic walls took my breath away, but nothing stopped my progress, and soon I was safely on the other side.

Unfortunately, that brought me to the attention of the remaining guard. He seemed more than a little taken aback to see someone on the other side of the wards. I got the feeling that up until now, he’d thought he had the most boring job around, guarding something that no one could reach. Now he didn’t know what to make of someone who could reach it.

“Hi there!” I said with a friendly wave. “Whatcha got there? It’s very shiny.”

He hit me with some magic, but it had its usual lack of effect on me. I laughed out loud with the joy of being back to my usual self. Being able to do magic was cool, but this was who I really was, and I knew how to work it in a way I’d never understood magic.

My sense of triumph died when I saw that Owen was no longer alone on the other side of the wards. More guards approached him from behind. I shouted a warning, though I wasn’t sure the sound would carry through the wards. At the same time, the guard on my side of the wards hit me with another bit of magic that I ignored while I watched Owen. He turned just in the nick of time, but he was badly outnumbered. They would overwhelm him in a moment.

I started to rush toward him, but stopped myself. More of our people were on the other side of the wards, and I was the only one who could get through the portal. I was our only hope. As much as I hated leaving Owen behind, I forced myself to focus on my mission.

The guard kept attacking me magically, astonished that his magic had no effect on this impossible interloper. I took advantage of that by rushing straight at him. He ran toward me, and at the last second, I veered aside to aim for the portal. It was an old fake-out I’d learned when playing touch football with my brothers, and since this guy obviously hadn’t experienced the joys of football, it took him a while to react.

About two seconds too long, in fact. I was almost to the portal when I felt a breeze against the back of my neck as he reached out to grab me, but I ducked and rolled in the nick of time. I went through the portal in a somersault.

And then I emerged in the middle of the biggest party I’d ever seen.

Chapter Nineteen

At first, I thought I’d wound up in the wrong place, despite Owen’s assurances. This wasn’t some old warehouse where an alien army was being assembled. It was a New York City rave.

No, make that a disco, I mentally corrected myself, since the song currently blasting through the cavernous space was the extended dance mix of “I Will Survive.” A disco ball overhead sent shards of greenish light reflected from the portal around the room, and beams of colored light played around the dance floor as a mass of people—make that elves—partied like it was 1979.