Despairing, he sprawled on his chest and covered his head.

What did that mean? Was it the future, a warning?

Then all thought vanished as a blast exploded behind them. The shock wave hit, shoving them a few feet across the floor—then it was gone, leaving only the squalling of babies.

Jake rolled over. The crystal heart now spun calmly, glowing softly. The archway had partly crumbled, littering the floor with stone blocks. At its foot, the timestones still glowed in the triangle, but they’d melted smooth to the floor.

“That can’t be,” Marika said, scooting up.

Jake knew what filled her words with amazement. Beyond the archway, a familiar sight appeared in the mirror. It was a wide courtyard, shining under a full moon, with a castle in the background and a giant tree in the center.

“It’s Kalakryss,” Marika said.

They all ran forward. What was the mirror showing them now? Marika, ever quick on her feet, reached it first. She held out her arms, preparing to stop herself, but instead she kept running—and fell straight through the mirror and into the courtyard of the castle of Kalakryss in Calypsos.

Stunned, she stumbled several feet before she could stop herself. She turned a full circle. “I’m home!” she said, full of delight.

“How?” Jake asked, struggling to understand. He waved his hand where the mirror once stood. Nothing was there.

Bach’uuk sighed. “Time is broken.”

Jake stared hard at his friend. Bach’uuk gave him a look as if the answer should be obvious. Jake crinkled his brow, remembering what his mother had said.

The alchemy here is potent, warping both time and space. Such an act will forever damage the time component.

Jake slowly understood—or he hoped he did. Their actions must have shattered the Atlantean mechanism’s control over time. But as his mother had said, this device warped both time and space. He stared at the portal into the courtyard of the castle of Kalakryss. With the bridge across time broken, all of the energy in the crystal heart must have built a bridge across space instead.

A bridge to Calypsos.

“But why there?” Jake mumbled.

Bach’uuk shrugged.

Was it because Marika and Bach’uuk were from there? Did that influence where the bridge would end? Or had Oolof—knowing people from Calypsos would be coming—tuned the stones to specifically open there?

Jake suspected he would never know.

He stepped to the doorway, noting the timestones. From the way they were melted into place, it looked as if this portal was fixed forever, opening only to Calypsos.

Marika came rushing back, her eyes dancing with happiness.

But the blare of horns reached them. They all stared toward the pyramid’s exit. They’d temporarily forgotten that they were in the middle of a war. With the barge in the air, the spell cast by the sapphire stone could not reach it. An entire enemy battleship still hovered outside their door.

As they listened, more horns blew.

What was going on?

Jake turned to Marika. “Go fetch your father! Raise the alarm!”