Antares held up a hand, and Tristan took up a position, getting people to give her a wide berth. She picked up one of the tinker guns. She held it in one hand, checked the ammo, and then picked up another.

She picked up another gun, and then another.

She picked up another gun, and then yet another.

Others went on ahead, as Breakthrough remained where they were, diverting the flow of foot traffic, watching, waiting for the remainder of their team.

“Tristan, is Byron—” Rain started.

“He’ll live,” Tristan said. He wasn’t sure, but… there was no other option. Even if it meant convincing Antares to let them go to her sister.

Antares carried the guns without touching one of them. Her hood hid her eyes, and her feet didn’t touch the ground.

She didn’t elaborate on the new trick, and Tristan didn’t ask. In some ways, he associated new tricks to the way his power had changed when he had murdered Byron. It made a degree of sense to him.

They reached Teacher’s command center, spacious enough for the leadership of most of the Wardens and a few other team leaders. Few members of the second wave assault had made it this far in.

The thralls were arrested, and Teacher was there. He stood in the threshold of a doorway.

Through that door was a special kind of oblivion, with images that swirled in darkness like images on the back of closed eyes with fingers pressed down on them, but image and background were all pitch black.

“I’ve seen that doorway before,” Rain said, his voice a hush.

“Where?”

“Every night,” Rain said.

“It feels like the will that pushes my body to act when I’m not in control,” Sveta said.

“Ashley talked about it,” Antares said. “Seeing a landscape in her dreams.”

“He found a way into the spaces between worlds,” Legend said. “Where the things in our heads really reside.”

Contessa stood beside Legend, unmoving.

And Teacher needed only to take a half-step backward or to fall back to enter that realm.

He pointed at the computer. A number in red showed 95%.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I need only to give the world a little push, and everything crumbles,” Teacher said. “And I hold the reins of what’s there when our world crumbles away.”

“Why? What does that serve?” Chevalier asked.

“She didn’t tell you?” Teacher asked, indicating Contessa. “It gives us the best outcome. Humanity, mankind. The clock is ticking, the process of the agents coming together and uniting before shattering our world and trying to reach others never quite stopped. It simply… lost the pilot. Lost all direction.”

Legend looked at Contessa.

Teacher went on, “I didn’t have a perfect precog judge what I was doing, so do tell me if I got it wrong. I’ll accept any and all punishment.”