“Get away from him!” Rachel shouted, and a piece of the wall slammed into Gabriel, knocking the boy to the ground. Before Gabriel could move, the rocks beneath him rose up to ensnare his hands and feet.

“Let me go!” Gabriel shouted, frantically pulling against the rock, but even his strength wasn’t enough to break through stone. “He’s my brother! I need to bring him back!”

Fort pushed off the wall, still sucking in air. “Michael’s… gone,” he said to Gabriel, shaking his head sadly. “You saw him. He had the choice, and he wanted to stay with them.”

“He was under their spell!” Gabriel shouted.

“He said he wasn’t,” Fort said as Rachel put her shoulder under his arm to support him. “And from how he was talking, I believe him. Besides, you gave the Old Ones Damian. If the dragon hadn’t stopped them, they could have used him to return to Earth and killed us all!”

“He’s my brother!” Gabriel snarled. “I’d do whatever it takes to bring him home. Do you really think this wasn’t the plan all along? I always intended to do this! I even told Cyrus my plan, and he said it’d work, as long as I stayed behind. But you ruined it. You stopped me from saving him!”

Fort’s eyes widened. Cyrus knew what Gabriel had planned? Why hadn’t he said anything to Fort? Or tried to stop him? What had Cyrus been thinking?

“We need to hand him over to his father,” Rachel said, sneering at the captured boy. “It makes me sick just to look at him.”

“This is Fort’s fault, all of it!” Gabriel screamed. His trapped hands began to glow green, and a portal appeared below him, then rose up through the spot he’d been trapped in. He appeared just above them and crashed down straight into Fort, the rocks tumbling off of them both harmlessly.

“Watch out!” Rachel shouted, and leaped for him, but another teleportation circle opened, and she disappeared.

“Take me back there now,” Gabriel said, his eyes wild as he held Fort against the ground.

“I can’t!” Fort shouted, hoping his bluff would work. “I never mastered the spell. Bring Rachel back!”

“You wouldn’t have gone in without rereading the spell!” Gabriel shouted, and grabbed Fort’s hands. “You wouldn’t have taken that chance, not with your father over there. I know you can cast it!”

Instead of struggling, Fort opened a teleportation circle below them, and the two dropped into the sky above New York City, Gabriel’s hands still locked around Fort’s.

“Even if I did still know the spell, I’d never cast it again!” Fort shouted as they plummeted toward the ground. “I won’t lose you to the Old Ones too!”