Fallen University: Year Three

Franz used some sort of stylus on a trackpad to enhance the map until we could clearly see the pentagram carved into the ground, then enhanced it some more. Something tiny and black moved across the map, and I jumped, surprised that a bug would be able to survive in such a sterile environment as this basement room. Then I looked again.

What I’d thought was a beetle crawling across the map was actually…

“Hold on. Is that a bird?”

“Yeah, it’s a scale model,” Kingston said absently.

“The bird was flying. There’s another one!”

Kingston blinked at me and frowned as if he was trying to understand what I was talking about.

“It’s a magical scale model,” Gerard explained gently. “We’re seeing the real world in real time. Those birds you’re seeing actually exist. You could think of this setup as more of a surveillance camera than just a map.”

“Which is why we need to work quickly,” Franz added. “The Custodians have a map just like this—but older, more sophisticated, and rigged with alarms. They know that somebody, somewhere, is tapping into the same magic.”

“How long do we have before they find us?” Kai asked tensely.

“I imagine their alarm system is ringing like mad with all of the fallen activity going on lately,” Gerard said. “But there’s no telling where something like this falls on their priority list.”

“Are all of the potential portals pentagrams?” Jayce asked, gently bringing us all back to the point at hand.

“No,” Kingston said. He nodded toward the tall, skinny man again. “Show them, Franz.”

“Iguazu Falls, Argentina,” Franz said, rotating the map and enhancing it. “Eye of the Sahara, Mauritania. Barringer Crater, Arizona.”

“I’ve been there,” Jayce said, surprised. “You think it’s a portal?”

“We know it is,” Buford said with just a hint of impatience. “There was no meteor. It was a blast from another plane.”

“You keep saying another plane rather than the underworld,” I said. “Is there a reason for that?”

“Scientific accuracy,” Buford said dismissively. “We are reasonably certain that all of these portals lead to the underworld, but it would be an egregious assumption to say so.”

Huh. Scientific accuracy on a magical treasure hunt. The conversation I’d had with Jayce in the pool echoed in my head, and I pressed my fingers to my temples.

My kingdom for a moment of simplicity.

“So when we go to these places, how are we going to figure out which one we want?” Xero asked.

Kingston shrugged, but it was more like a violent twitch. Way too much caffeine, not nearly enough sleep. “We’ll have to look for clues. Remember details. Jayce, Piper, try to remember every single syllable you heard that night about where the army would be coming out. Anything could be important. We’re going to have to move fast—anytime someone uses any of these portals, it lights things up like you wouldn’t believe.”

As if to illustrate his point, a purple point of light swelled in Arizona and zipped across to Utah before exploding in white.

“There, you see? Someone’s bouncing around. Maybe it’s a first wave or a scout.”

“Shit,” I said, frowning at the map. “I wonder if they’re bouncing around like that to cover their tracks. To make sure no one portal shows a suspicious amount of activity until it’s too late to stop the army from coming through. I wish we had more information about what’s going on down there. Have you heard anything at all from Michael?”

Kingston pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, looked at it, and shook his head. “Nothing yet. You know how calls get lost in the between though.”

“Ugh. Yeah, I remember.”

Trying to get ahold of Dru last year had been a bitch. Just the memory of it made me feel itchy. The timelines of earth and the underworld didn’t quite match up, which made coordinating efforts across dimensions tricky. Well… more tricky.

Jayce, apparently on the same wavelength as me, cleared his throat. “Should we call Dru now? We may not know everything yet, but this is more info than we came here with. If he could convince the Custodians to check these five places, I bet they could get it done in an hour. Hell, they might be able to tell just by looking at the map.”

I shook my head. “No. We need more. We only get one shot to convince him without getting ourselves killed or banished again, and he’s going to need a damn compelling argument to get them to go on a wild goose chase.”

“I’m hungry,” Kingston said suddenly, looking like