Infernal Father of Mine (35 page)

Dad nodded. "Good idea."

"Let's do it," I said, rising from my
chair.

"I'm calling my father." Elyssa took her
arcphone off the table and made a call. She stood and walked away
from the group as she talked.

"Justin, my biography of you is growing quite
large," Cinder said, showing me a thick sheaf of bound
parchment.

"Why are you writing it instead of recording
with an arcphone?" I asked.

"Shelton told me real books are written with
quill and parchment, and it would be—how did he phrase it?—ah, an
artistic travesty to use technology." Cinder tucked the massive
tome under an arm. "I believe this history will be important in the
future."

"I'm sure," I said, wondering who in the world
would believe half the stuff I'd been through. "Thanks for keeping
a record."

"It is my pleasure," he said, managing to look
proud despite the somewhat disturbing toothy grin on his
face.

Elyssa took me by the hand and led me away from
the group as they went downstairs. "My father is coordinating with
Commander Salazar and his Colombian legion to see how many people
they can spare. Our battle with the Nazdal and the Exorcists will
have to be a joint effort."

"Sounds like a logistical nightmare," I
said.

"Yeah, we're working on that." She squeezed my
hand. "Your mother and Nightliss are coming."

I felt my stomach clench.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Your family will be
mostly together again."

"Dad has to marry Kassallandra," I said,
feeling sick to hear the words come out of my mouth. I winced at
the pain. "The part of me that is his son hates it and doesn't want
it. But the part of me that has to fight Daelissa and her army
understands that he has no choice."

Elyssa hugged me tight. "Duty and family don't
always go hand-in-hand." She kissed me and drew back. "I should
know."

"I know it'll be hard on Mom, but it sounds
like she's already accepted the inevitability," I said. "Ivy will
be a challenge."

Elyssa grimaced. "Considering her offer to
blast Kassallandra, I think you're right." Her eyes met
mine.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge
of my nose as regret threatened to overwhelm me. "I want my family
together one last time before Dad has to marry
Kassallandra."

"I'll make it happen," she said. "After we take
out Serena, we'll have one last party before your father has to
leave."

My heart swelled with love and hope, nearly
overwhelming the sadness. I wrapped my arms around Elyssa and
buried my face in the crook of her neck for a long moment. Her
scent, like flowers and cold steel, always seemed to reassure me.
She was beautiful and soft, but deadly and hard as nails when she
needed to be. She was mine, and I was hers.

"I'm so lucky to have you," I said.

"I know." A sudden sob shook her.

"What's wrong?"

Elyssa pressed her face to my chest. "I thought
I'd lost you, Justin. I thought I'd never see you again. I felt
sick to my stomach and couldn't stop crying." She looked up at me
with tear-stained eyes. "It felt like the end of the
world."

"I'm back." I wiped a tear from her
cheek.

"And I feel like the luckiest girl in the
world." She smothered me with a fierce kiss. "Let's go kick
Serena's ass." Elyssa wiped away the tears. Her stern Templar
exterior took over.

Yep, that's my ninja
girl.

I smiled with pride.

We went down a long flight of stairs to the
arch room. The room connected with a corridor that went through the
old dungeons beneath Arcane University, offering a back way out of
the mansion should we ever need it. Thankfully, the omniarch could
open a portal to just about anywhere in Eden, provided we had a
clear image of where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, it couldn't
open a portal to another realm—at least not on purpose. I wasn't
counting the accident that sent me, Shelton, and Adam on our
journey of discovery and near death into the Siren
realm.

Shelton had opened a portal to the Three
Sisters arch control room in Australia. The Alabaster Arch was off,
and the room was silent. He looked back at me and Elyssa. "I sent
through a couple of ASEs to patrol the place in case Serena sends
troops through. You're sure this is the only Alabaster Arch the
Shadow Nexus links to?"

"I'm positive," I said. "She can't change the
attunement of the rune, so it's locked onto one
destination."

ASEs, or all-seeing eyes, were marble-sized
devices that magically recorded their surroundings. Templars used
them for spying and remote patrolling.

Elyssa glanced through the portal. "Good." She
took my hand. "Justin and I are going through. I'll need to scout a
staging area for the troops."

I looked at the small omniarch and the small
portal between its columns. Three people abreast could fit through
it. Maybe four if they were scrawny. Most Templars were anything
but scrawny. "You're planning on moving the troops through
that?"

She pursed her lips. "The aperture is not much
larger than the Gloom arch. That's why I hope the Obsidian Arch in
the Three Sisters way station works. Then I can send troops through
the La Casona Obsidian Arch in Colombia straight through to the
Three Sisters."

"How many soldiers are we talking about?" I
asked.

"Nearly a thousand." She sighed. "I hate
logistics." Still holding my hand, she stepped forward through the
portal and into the Three Sisters arch control room. After
surveying the area, we stepped outside into the main way station.
An Obsidian Arch loomed in the center. Despite the yellow light
suffusing the air in the chamber, the place felt spooky. Darkwater
had cleared the place of cherubs, and for that I was immensely
grateful.

Elyssa regarded the arch for quite some time
before turning to me with a thoughtful expression. " So, can you
make that thing work?"

"Maybe." I walked back inside the control room
and stepped up to the modulus pedestal. I pressed my palm to the
modulus and raised it. Stars on the map highlighted as I rolled
through them. The world map showed an Earth with landmasses far
different than the ones we knew now. The creators had likely
designed it before the dawn of man. Even so, the continents were
similar enough to recognize. It also explained why some arch
stations were in the middle of nowhere. When they were made, no
cities or points of interested had existed. Other cities had grown
around arches, quite possibly due to Overworld
influences.

I settled on the Obsidian Arch in the Grotto
way station just to see if I could connect to it, and flicked my
finger to select it. The star in Atlanta pulsed, but there was no
corresponding star to indicate this arch. Most way stations with
Alabaster Arches didn't show on the world map. The arch builders
must have intentionally left such way stations off the map to
prevent the natives from discovering a way to travel to other
realms.

At least, that was my theory.

For over a minute, nothing happened. I could
force the connection, but was hesitant to do so since the Grotto
way station usually hummed with activity. A klaxon sounded from the
way station, and a thin beam of light arced from the Grotto to a
blank spot on the continent resembling Australia.

We jogged outside into the chamber and watched
as an image of the Grotto way station stabilized. A man in
black-and-yellow-striped robes peered curiously through the portal.
He caught sight of us and his eyes flicked wide.

"I thought Darkwater activities were officially
shut down," he said. His eyes narrowed and he looked us up and
down. "You don't look like Darkwater employees."

"We're not," I said. "This is official Templar
business."

"Which way station is this?" he
asked.

"Weren't you able to see it on the map?" I
asked.

"No. The traversion indicator didn't light up."
He pursed his lips. "Which Templars are you with?"

Elyssa and I looked at each other. She
apparently decided to play dumb. "I'm sorry, but what do you
mean?"

The man, still standing on the Grotto side of
the portal took a step back. "You're not a Templar if you don't
know what I'm talking about. Cyphanis Rax ordered us to cease all
cooperation with the Borathen renegades."

"Commander Borathen is not a renegade!" Elyssa
stepped forward, a snarl on her face.

The arch operator yelped and leapt back. The
portal shimmered, rippled, and winked off.

I groaned. "This isn't good."

"Since when did Cyphanis Rax take over the
Arcane Council?" Elyssa asked. "This is even worse than I
thought."

Cyphanis Rax was an ally of Daelissa. The
former Arcanus Primus, Jarrod Sager, had also been Daelissa's
stooge, though not willingly. He'd died to protect his son, Harry
Shelton. Rax seemed to be entirely devoted to Daelissa. Last I'd
heard he was running in a special election to take over as primus.
Somehow, another giant roach had just taken power. The odds were
stacked even higher in favor of Daelissa.

"At least they don't know which way station
we're in," Elyssa said as we jogged back to the portal which would
deliver us into the mansion.

I growled. "As far as I know only Alabaster
Arch way stations don't show on the map. It won't take them long to
narrow down which one we're using."

"We have to take a chance and use it," Elyssa
said. "The regular control rooms can't select this arch anyway,
right?"

I shrugged. "I don't think so. That won't stop
someone from taking one of the omniarches and opening a portal
here."

"When my father tried to arrest Maulin Kassus,
he decided to severely cripple Darkwater, so he sent a team of
Arcsys experts to download all of the data from their network and
erase everything Kassus and his people had collected over the
years." Elyssa sniffed in satisfation. "That should keep this place
safe for a while."

We stepped through the portal and back into the
arch room beneath the mansion. Shelton wasn't there anymore. Elyssa
turned to me as I deactivated the omniarch. "Commander Salazar took
control of the La Casona way station. He's in control of the
minders and the Obsidian Arch there. We can use it to transport his
Templar legion directly to the Three Sisters way
station."

"See?" I said, brushing my hands together.
"Logistics aren't so awful."

Shelton rushed down the stairs. "Holy crap,
man. I just found out Cyphanis Rax just took over as the new primus
via secret ballot."

"What happened to holding a special election?"
I asked.

Shelton shook his head. "According to council
bylaws, in a state of emergency, they can replace the current
primus with a new one by secret ballot and bypass the special
election." Shelton made a face. "They claimed the rebellion in the
Templar ranks constituted an emergency and put Rax in command
without so much as a by-your-leave from the Arcane community." His
jaw tightened. "They're already posting bounties on Arcnet and the
aethernet." He flashed an image on his screen. It was my face.
"Folks, we're wanted men."

"That's nothing new for me." I blew out a
breath. "We need to mobilize immediately and take out Serena. If we
can prevent her troops from entering the mortal realm, it'll be
that much easier when the war starts."

"It'll be an uphill battle no matter how you
cut it." Shelton made a fist. "But we'll make them pay for every
inch."

"What if Serena never reopens the Alabaster
Arch at the Three Sisters?" Elyssa asked. "So far, that's our only
way back into the Gloom and the fortress."

I'd already mulled the possibilities and come
up with one answer. "We'll have to secure the Exorcist church and
use the Gloom arch inside. We can send a small, covert force
through the Gloom arch to infiltrate Serena's fortress and open the
connection between Shadow Nexus and the Three Sisters Alabaster
Arch. Then we send in the troops and mop the floor with
her."

Elyssa pressed her lips together. "Not bad. It
might just work."

Unfortunately, one major detail stood in the
way. "Before we start the battle, we'll need to kill the
brain."

"The minders who control the sentinels and
fortress defenses?" Elyssa asked.

"Yeah. Otherwise, the sentinels will crush our
troops." I folded my arms. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to kill
a minder."

"I'll bet Cinder could figure it out," Shelton
said.

I headed upstairs and went in search of the
golem. As usual, he was in the planning room just off the main hall
on the first floor.

"Hello, Justin." Cinder looked at the
holographic display from an ASE hovering over the table. "The
Darkwater database is full of interesting facts. Did you know they
tracked major figures in the Overworld and human political systems?
It appears many of them engage in illicit affairs. Darkwater
apparently used this information to extort—"