Activating a portal normally requires calculations that increase in complexity with distance. This was just a jump from inside this globe to about four meters outside, so the calculation took only a second.
The dry heat of desert air and windblown sand at my back indicated the portal was open. In lockstep, Mike and I exited the globe.
The instant we passed the portal’s event horizon, I shut it down.
“Cute,” said Jeannie. Her voice was clear, even though a three-meter-thick wall of sapphire stood between us. “But all it will take is someone stumbling upon this gleaming jewel of a prison to free me.”
“In the middle of uncharted desert?” I scoffed to hide my fear.
“My new home will be visible to satellites. Either my former master or a new aspirant will race to free me.” The gentle smile disappeared. “I’m looking forward to meeting you outside, where neither guest obligations nor your trickery can protect you from my wrath.”
6
She was right. The next idiot to come along would only have to make one wish to undo all my work.
“We should bulldoze this globe of yours and make sure nobody can ever get to it again,” said Mike.
“Yeah, no bulldozer here,” I said. “And even if I whip up a sandstorm to cover it, there’s no guarantee the next sandstorm won’t uncover it.”
What was that other word for bulldozer? Earth mover? Jeannie had shown me a part of a spell, one that complemented Mason’s earth magic. Could I use it to bury this globe deep in the ground?
I hurried through the spell. The earth beneath our feet rumbled and shifted. We raced back, away from the globe.
From twenty meters away we watched as the sand spun around the globe like water in a whirlpool. Strangely, the interior of the globe remained stable. Instead of spinning with the sand, Jeannie stayed in the same spot.
She gritted her pretty teeth and screamed, “That’s not fair!”
“Turnabout’s fair play,” I said. “You threatened to bury us in the center of the earth. I’m just returning the favor.”
Slowly but inexorably, the globe sank into the sand. Even after it was fully submerged, I kept the spell going, forcing the globe deeper and deeper into the earth.
I finally stopped, exhausted from channeling so much magic.
“How deep is she?” asked Mike.
“She’s down below the level of the local oil deposits,” I said.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Mike said in admiration.
“Hell, she taught me that spell herself.”
“When?” Mike bent to set Ariel down—a bit too gently, if you asked me.
“On that chalkboard. She wrote out a spell for controlling the movement of elements under the earth.”
“All I saw was a bunch of squiggles that wormed around the board and gave me a headache.”
“It was Fae writing,” I said. “Well, Fae writing and metaphysical math.”
Mike squinted his eyes in thought. “Now we know why this country had all those oil deposits. It always seemed strange that there was oil everywhere here except Israel.”
Ariel finally stirred and stared at us with a dazed look on her face. “What happened? I remember the plane exploding—how did we end up here?”
Mike looked at me hopefully. “Maybe the fall knocked that shitty attitude out of her.”
Ariel sprang up and took a swing at Mike. He sidestepped and she spun around like a top, then fell to the ground.
“I’ll show you a shitty attitude!” she screamed.
“Memory loss doesn’t change someone’s basic personality,” I said. “Anyway, she’s a werewolf. Once she heals, the memories should come back.”
I bent over her and touched her head. “Ariel, I’m going to give you enough lunar energy to heal yourself.”
She scrambled frantically through the sand. “I don’t need you. I need my pack…” Her voice trailed off as she remembered the fate of her pack.
“You sure you want to help her?” asked Mike.
“She’ll die if I don’t.” I stepped over quickly, slapped a palm down on Ariel’s head, and transferred a tiny amount of energy to her.
The glazed look in Ariel’s eyes faded as her concussion healed and she remembered everything.
“I wish you were dead!” she spat out. Then she looked surprised that her wish hadn’t come true. I stepped back out of range of her teeth and nails.
“Sorry, the genie is a long way from here. You’ll be getting no wishes today.”
“Did she just try to kill you? Even though she knows she’ll die right after you?” Anger tinged Mike’s voice.
I crossed my arms and stared at Ariel. She responded by pulling her useless rifle and aiming it at me.
A burning spot bloomed on my forehead, telling me I was under target. I didn’t move, confident that the primer in the cartridges was inert.
Mike pushed me aside quickly as a shot rang out.
Before Ariel could fire the next round, Mike had ripped the weapon from her grasp.
“Looks like the genie cleaned the sand from our weapons too,” he said.
Had the genie planned this? She’d said she could look a hundred moves ahead, like a superhuman chess master. While cleaning our clothes, she had evidently reactivated the rounds my spell had made inert.
Had she wanted Ariel to kill me because I had trapped her?
“Thanks, Mike. How did you know the gun would fire?”
“I didn’t. But only an idiot assumes a weapon is empty.”
Rough truth from a SEAL. I had been an idiot: trusting a spell; trusting Ariel, an ally who hated me. Pack link or not, she would be trouble.
I studied her. “I bet you have another weapon hidden away.”
She responded with a glare.
I had to decide. “Heel!” I commanded.
Try as she might, Ariel couldn’t resist the compulsion of an alpha. Arms and legs trembling as she fought my will, she moved to a hands-and-knees position with her head turned down to the ground.
Tears dripped, instantly disappearing when they touched the burning sand.
“Stand.”
The sphere’s descent had dislodged a lot of sand, so we were standing on a tall hill.
“I claim this land, from edge to edge, for Luna pack. You are
