The warrior jerked the Archon again, pulling her back, and the creature’s claws left deep scratches in the floor.

Sophie saw an opening and lashed out at Coatlicue, but her arms were leaden with exhaustion and the whip only scratched the Archon’s foot.

Coatlicue lifted her foot and Aoife took the opportunity to pull her back once more. Off balance, Coatlicue staggered and fell, but the warrior never released her hold on the two snapping snake heads. The snakes went into a frenzy of biting and spitting. Aoife’s eyes locked on Sophie’s. “When you find my twin,” she whispered, “tell her… tell Scathach that I did this… for her.” And then, with a final massive effort, Aoife hauled Coatlicue back into the broken square of swords and through the torn curtain of dirty smoke.

The curtain winked out of existence in a detonation that shattered every piece of glass in the building. The hanging television sets crashed to the floor; pipes burst, spraying water into the room; and a huge crack ran up one wall, raced across the ceiling and brought part of the floor above thundering down into the room. A dozen fires started as broken wires rained sparks everywhere.

Shocked and numb, deaf and unable to move, Sophie Newman watched as Dee clambered to his feet. She saw him haul Virginia Dare from the floor, then pick up Josh.

Josh stood and stared at her… but all she could see were his bloodred eyes… and the look of absolute loathing on his pale face.

Dee darted forward to gather the three swords. He tossed Josh a second sword and picked his way across the devastated floor to lift the Codex off the table.

Sophie tried to say her brother’s name, but her mouth was full of grit and she couldn’t shape the word. And when she stretched out her hand to him, he slowly and deliberately turned his back on her and followed John Dee and Virginia Dare out of the burning building.

He did not look back.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

“It’s a henge,” William Shakespeare said, looking at two tall standing stones topped with a massive slab. “Just like Stonehenge.”

“I modeled it on Stonehenge,” Marethyu agreed. “Every Shadowrealm is connected to another by at least one gate. Some have two, and the bigger realms, the huge planet-sized worlds, have multiple gates. When I created this world, I needed just two gates. One to connect to the leygate in Paris-”

“So you knew we were going to use that gate?” Scathach interrupted.

“I knew.”

“One day you’re going to tell me how you knew that,” Scathach said seriously.

“Maybe I will. One day.”

“This is the second gate?” Joan asked, looking at the standing stones. “Where does it lead?”

“To the Crossroads of the Shadowrealms,” Marethyu said, then stepped between the two uprights… and vanished.