Micah turned and looked at him. “Of course he would, but that spell is complicated. It took Erasmus Boyle years to execute it from this side of the veil.” Micah shook his head. “I just don’t see how it’s possible that Stefan could have forged an alliance with the Atrika.”

“Maybe,” Mira put in, “we should explain what a portal is. Sarafina looks confused.”

Sarafina nodded. “That would be nice. It was explained in the book Theo gave me, but I didn’t really understand it.”

“Who does?” answered Micah. “But here’s what we think. Eudae and Earth are layered on top of each other. The matter of each location vibrates at a different rate, creating a barrier. I call the difference in the vibrational rates the veil. There are ways to alter the vibrational rate in small patches of these tiny strings of energy, equalizing them and making a place in the veil where it’s possible to step through.”

“So close, yet so far away,” murmured Sarafina.

“Yes!” Micah’s eyes lit with enthusiasm. “Once you step through the area of matter that has been equalized, your body changes in structure, mimicking your surroundings and thus allowing you to stay on that side of the veil. For whatever reason, stepping through seems to affect us more coming from Eudae to Earth. It makes you nauseous. And when—”

“Be careful,” Theo drawled. “He’ll talk about this all day if you let him.”

“I think it’s fascinating.” Sarafina leaned forward a little. “How do you equalize the patches of matter, Micah?”

“That’s the big mystery. We know how it can be done, we’re just not sure why it happens. Blood magick will do it.” Micah jerked his head toward Claire. “Once upon a time, we were working nonstop on a way to get Claire back from Eudae. Without murdering a bunch of people, it’s nearly impossible.”

Sarafina looked at Claire, questions clear on her face.

“It’s a long story,” Claire answered.

She turned her attention back to Micah. “Performing blood magick means killing people or animals?”

“Witches. Specifically, witches of certain elements and levels of power. They must be killed in certain places and at certain times in order to open a portal.”

“Yuck.”

“Vast understatement.”

“Okay, I have a question,” Isabelle broke in. “When Boyle broke Stefan out of Gribben, we all thought Boyle had killed him, right? Then Stefan called me later to taunt me about his continued well-being. When I asked him why Boyle hadn’t killed him, he told me other arrangements had been made. I know we’ve speculated at length that Stefan somehow made a deal with Boyle—”

“But any deal would have been rendered non-executable with Boyle’s death on Eudae,” answered Thomas.