“I’m not going to give them any choice,” Dee said simply. “I gave them a lifetime-several lifetimes-of service. And yet, because of a few petty failures, they are prepared to sentence me to an eternity of suffering. They declared me utlaga. Now my loyalty is to myself-and to you too,” he added hastily, catching a glimpse of the expression on his companion’s face. “I am going to wrest control of this planet from the Elders, kill all the immortal humans, Elders and Next Generation who still live here. I will then seal the entrances to the Shadowrealms and cut this world off from all the others. I will make this planet mine. Ours, if you are with me. We can rule together.”

Virginia Dare took a step away from Dee and slowly and deliberately looked him up and down.

“What are you looking at?” he demanded.

“A fool,” she snapped. “How do you hope to achieve all this?”

“Yesterday I saw an Archon.”

Virginia blinked in surprise. “I’ve never seen one. I thought they were myth.”

“I saw Cernunnos, the Horned God. I stood as close to it as I am standing to you. And then later, it came to me: it sent a thoughtform, a being created, controlled and held together entirely by the power of its imagination. Its power was incredible… and yet Cernunnos is one of the minor Archons.”

Virginia started to shake her head. “And what has this got to do with you taking control of this Shadowrealm?”

“I have the four Swords of Power. I intend to raise Coatlicue, the greatest of all the Archons. She will serve me.”

Virginia Dare drew in her breath in a quick gasp. “John, this is insanity,” she said urgently. “And even if you could raise the Archon, why should she serve you? What have you got to trade that would even remotely interest her?”

“Coatlicue despises and loathes the Elders. Millennia ago, they sentenced her to an eternity of suffering-I would imagine she will want her revenge.”

“Revenge drives us all,” Virginia murmured. “But I still don’t see how…”

The doctor’s smile was terrifying. “I know the entrance to Xibalba here on earth. If she serves me, I will give her that location.”

“And once she is in Xibalba…,” Virginia whispered.

Dee nodded. “She will have access to the countless Shadowrealms. She can ravage her way through them, feasting off everything she finds.”

The woman’s laughter was shaky. “I have always admired your ruthless streak, John, but this is breathtaking. Even you, as powerful as you are, will not be able to raise an Archon. Especially the Mother of All the Gods. As soon as she steps into this world, she’ll feed off the first things she sees.”