Jasoi pulled her knife from her boot. Bared her teeth. She jumped up and threw the knife.

Zezili hurled herself forward.

The knife hit the Saiduan in the neck.

Zezili spread her arms. She was ten feet away.

The Saiduan clutched at his neck. Blood gushed. He yanked the knife out.

Zezili scooped up the girl under her arms and hurled herself through the winking gateway.

She landed hard on the other side. Looked back. The Saiduan stood. The blood on his neck ceased to flow. As Zezili watched, the wound began to close. He didn’t look pleased.

“Close the fucking gate!” Zezili yelled. “Isoail! Close it! Close it now!”

The Saiduan stepped forward–

–and thumped into the invisible film between the worlds. He pressed his hands against the air and snarled. No, he did not look pleased at all.

Zezili laughed so hard, she began to hiccup. She rolled around in the charred dirt on the other side, snickering and hiccupping. “You’re still alive over here!” she crowed. “Still alive!”

The gate winked out.

Zezili’s mirth left with it. She stared across a blasted landscape of black hills. The sky was a rust-red along the horizon and amber-gold above her. But she saw no tower and no mirror. Fear seized her. She turned and looked across the body of the girl she’d dragged to the other side. The landscape flattened out, shot through with old bones and bits of glittering armor. She stumbled past the girl to a nearby hill. She crawled to the top and gazed across the field. In the far distance, she saw a glint of blue.

The tower. The same one she had described to Isoail. In the valley beyond the tower would be the mirror. Just to the east – east? – of the tower, a massive black specter stained the sky, oozing black tendrils behind it. The sight of the thing made Zezili’s skin crawl. She went back down the hill.

The girl was standing now. Zezili could hear her heavy breathing from almost ten feet away.

“Welcome to the other side,” Zezili said. “Follow me.” She started toward the tower.

“I’ll kill you,” the girl said.

Zezili turned. She put her hands on her hips. The girl was hunched over and hollow-eyed. From the sound of her labored breath, it would be a good long time before she recovered.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve fought with a new channeler,” Zezili said. “It’ll be awhile before you can pull again, and when you do, there’s a good chance you’ll either burn out like a roaring scorch pod or lose that great gift of yours altogether. Fried nerves, Tulana calls it.”

“I’ll take you with me,” the girl said.

“True,” Zezili said. “You might.” She pointed to the tower. “You crossed worlds to find the woman over there. You won’t give it up now, will you?”