Diana hissed. She jutted her head forward, extending it an unnatural distance toward Mara. Her mouth gaped so wide, her jaw popped as its joints separated, distorting her features into something not human, not Mara's mother. Her tongue slid across her lower lip and flicked into the air. Her yellow eyes fluoresced and rolled up, leaving black coals shining from the sockets. She spewed a river of fire.

The flames struck Mara in the chest, throwing her beyond the pipe on the side of the bridge, into the open air above the river.

CHAPTER 67.

THE BRIDGE RECEDED into the fog as Mara plummeted backward into darkness. She strained to scream, but the blast had knocked the wind from her. Her hair whipped across her face, her shirt flapped against her neck as she cut through the air, plunging toward the river.

She squeezed her eyes closed. She just needed more time. More time to learn, more time to help, more time to fight.

More time.

Her arms stiffened, braced in the air.

She stopped falling.

She opened her eyes. Suspended in the air, p.r.o.ne, more than forty feet below the dark underbelly of the bridge, she waved her arms around, trying to grab something. There was nothing within reach.

She remembered to breathe. She gasped in air, choked and coughed. After inhaling, she cleared her eyes and stared upward into the night.

A hazy shroud of smoke and fog glowed around the span above. She felt as if she was staring up from the bottom of a pit. A twinge of vertigo constricted her throat. Looking downward, past her hip, she saw something glint in the night. She bent forward, extending her hand, submerged it in water. She snapped back her hand, wiped it on her jeans.

She shivered. The river's current ran inches below her.

Her eyes widened. Her breathing labored.

She looked around for something to grab, something to do.

A strong draft blew down on her, and she panicked, afraid she would be pushed those last few inches into the water. The sound of the current filled her ears. Something splashed. She envisioned water rising, cresting to pull her under. She twisted in the air, unable to gain purchase on anything.

A shadow slid over her, blotting out light from above.

Another draft, a compact blast, buffeted her like a kite in the wind, kicking up a wall of water that washed over her. She thought she had been pulled under, but remained suspended in the air after the water had receded. She gagged and wiped wet hair from her face with a trembling hand.

Something clamped around her midsection.

It lurched upward, lifting her.

Looking down at herself, she saw talons thicker than her arms gripping her torso. Looking up, she saw scales. From the corner of her eye, the downstroke of a wing caught her attention and pushed them higher into the night sky.

The dragon had her.

With each stroke of its wings, her midsection pulled upward, pressing against her spine. She felt like a mouse snagged by an owl.

She squeezed her eyes closed. This had to be a nightmare.

They leveled off.

When she opened her eyes, they glided hundreds of feet above the river and smoldering bridge, coasted in a slow circle between the banks of Oregon City and West Linn. Mara could see the lights of Portland, and its suburbs to the north and west. Main Street remained shrouded in darkness. The backdrop of the bluff obscured the business district while the shiny black river meandered through the wooded landscape below.

A gust of wind blew hair into her eyes. She lost her balance and fell backward, still firmly in the grasp of the dragon, but not upright. Bending her midsection in a flailing aerial sit-up, she levered herself forward and upward, wrapping her arms around the scaly leg above, hugging it hard enough to press the edge of a scale into her cheek. She gazed up and down, unwilling to loosen her grip to get a better look at the creature that held her.

An eddy jostled them. Though the dragon rose and fell without warning, it appeared to be in control.

Mara flashed back to the doomed flight that had started it all. This time, however, she was more prey than pa.s.senger. What was this creature doing? Was it going to open its claw and drop her into the river? She hugged even tighter. He could let go, but she wouldn't.

The dragon banked, turned back for another pa.s.s over the bridge.

Below, the obelisks glowed and pulsed urgently. Dying flames licked up from the arch and bal.u.s.trades, outlining the structure of the bridge from bank to bank, emitting thin streams of smoke into the misty air.

Diana stood in the middle of the roadway in front of a pile of rubble. Mara could make out Sam as well, lying off to the side near the walkway. From this alt.i.tude, it was impossible to discern what was happening.

A blue light erupted from the arch atop the bridge.

It emitted waves of static accentuated by brilliant bolts of lightning. Beams shot out from the obelisks into the air above the arch, merging into a blinding starburst that collapsed to a point of light somewhere within the archway. Seconds later the translucent blue bubble exploded into the night, engulfing the bridge once more.

The dragon dived at the bridge. Digging her own talons into the flesh of the creature, Mara screamed until the downward pressure on her chest choked off the sound. Wind pulled her face taught and stung her eyes. Her insides shifted as the dragon dipped its left wing, arched toward the Oregon City side of the bridge and picked up more speed. Unlike her fall from the bridge, this descent did not slow her perceptions of what was happening. Life flashed by this time.

As they were about to collide with the bridge, the dragon spread its wings, catching a cushion of air. It lifted and slowed, reared back and thrust its feet forward. Its talons opened, flinging Mara to the roadway.

She tumbled onto the pavement, rolling until her shoulder met a curb. Facedown, trying to catch her breath, she hoped the stinging she felt from head to toe came from bruises and abrasions, and not broken bones. Pain radiated from her right hip.

Diana stood on the road a few feet away, inside the bubble.

"Perhaps I underestimated you. Once my followers and I are settled, you can explain to me how you turned my guardian." Her eyes tracked the faint silhouette of the dragon now perched on the elevator observation deck. "a.s.suming you survive the evening."

Mara pushed against the pavement, ignoring her screaming joints. As she brought her knees forward, pain radiated from her right hip. She cringed and slid her hand into the pocket of her jeans. She pulled out the demantoid, her mother's green garnet.

"One of your mother's baubles. Quaint," Diana said.

Mara shifted her gaze from the garnet to Diana's face, looking for something familiar, for some guidance. If her mother were here, she'd have some little gem of advice, an ambiguous piece of wisdom. Mara remembered the last time she had watched her mother use this crystal, the night they had discussed the divorce, when her mom had flashed green hues all over the living room.

"Mom, tell me what to do," Mara said under her breath.

"What's that you're mumbling?" Diana looked down at her. "Whining was always one of your least endearing facets."

Mara straightened. She lifted the garnet, stared at it and then back at Diana. She held out her hand before her. The stone began to roll around on her palm. Wobbling at first, it gained momentum and lifted onto its pointed base into a full spin, like a top. Accelerating, it hovered above her open hand, glimmered and rose even higher.

"We don't have time for parlor tricks. The crossing is about to commence," Diana said, eyeing the crystal as it spun above their heads just outside the static blue bubble.

"This crystal used to mean something to you. You taught me something about it. Do you remember?" Mara asked, gazing at it.

"Yes, I told you that I don't use my crystals to talk to dead people. The mother you knew is dead. Gone." She kicked at the pile of bones and ashes on the ground. A thighbone skittered to the edge of the bubble. Soot floated into the air.

"My crystals. You're still in there, Mom," Mara said. She nodded toward the garnet. "You told me that I had a lot of facets and that I decide which ones shine, remember?" Mara raised both hands to the spinning crystal, now three feet above their heads.

The garnet shattered, emitting sheets of green light that sliced into the night, sheering the s.p.a.ce around Mara, as if its facets had expanded to encompa.s.s her. She squinted into the scintillating walls.

And saw herself in the light.

Mara nodded her head. The reflection did not.

Behind her reflection, another Mara bent forward, trying to see around her counterpart to where Mara stood.

"What are you doing here?" Mara asked to the reflection immediately to her right.

"You brought us here. You tell us," her counterpart said.

The walls of light, the expanded facets, collapsed, imploding into a starburst that winked out, replaced by the floating green garnet still spinning above their heads.

From within the bubble, Diana stared back, wide-eyed.

Mara looked down at her chest, trying to find what had spooked Diana. Movement to her right drew her attention.

Another Mara stood next to her.

Behind her was another. Two more Maras. They were not quite solid, but they were there.

The one closest gave a short wave and smiled. Without saying anything, she pointed over Mara's shoulder. She turned.

Two more versions of herself stood to the left.

Five of them stood side by side, facing Diana through the Chronicle's blue barrier.

Diana raised her arms to the obelisks. Lightning shot down, striking Mara's counterparts, pa.s.sing through them.

"How do I help my mother?" Mara asked.

The counterpart immediately to her right, said, "Facets."

"I don't have time for cryptic. A little more detail, please?"

"Two facets of Mom's consciousness exist in this body. Use the crystal to refract her consciousness. Split them apart and send the other Mom back."

"How?"

"Just will it."

From behind her another Mara said, "She doesn't know what she is doing. Look at her. She's almost spent. She's one step away from sputtering into oblivion."

Mara held up her hands and looked down at herself. She was flickering so rapidly she appeared more transparent than her counterparts. "I'm not leaving without my mother," she said.

"She is not prepared for the consequences, and we should not be interfering."

The other counterpart said, "Her realm, her mother, her consequences. If she wants, we will help." She turned to Mara. "There are no guarantees this will work, Mara, but there will be consequences. The element of Consequence is always affected when you alter the other elements."

The bridge quaked, heaved a foot into the air, throwing the Maras to the ground. Something was crossing over through the pa.s.sage beneath the arch. Something big.

"What do I do?" Mara stood up.

Her counterpart nodded to the floating, spinning garnet. The reflections raised their right hands to it. Mara followed suit, unsure of what to expect.

A cone of green light burst out of the gem and engulfed Diana. It shimmered and emitted a shaft of spinning light over her. She reached up and pressed against its edges with her palms, unable to reach beyond. She was bound within.

The light split into two bands, separating from the center. As they diverged, Diana's serpent tattoo slid across her forehead, then jumped into the air. A transparent image of Diana appeared behind it.

Mara glanced to the left. No tattoo remained on her mother's face. The transparent Diana screamed, raised her arms, resisted. The ghostly image slipped back into her mother's body.

"The joining cannot be undone. This is my body now," Diana screamed, gritting her teeth, flailing her arms at them. Sweat coursed down her face.

Mara looked at her counterparts who raised their left hands to the spinning crystal. Another light, this one more brilliant, flooded down on Diana. Again, the light refracted, tearing Diana's consciousness apart, dragging out the tattooed one screaming and flailing, kicking at the air.

Diana begged her counterpart, "Raise the Chronicle. Call me back." She flung herself toward Mara's mother but could not pa.s.s beyond the band of light that held her.

"Can we send her back to her realm?" Mara asked, glancing sideways to her counterparts.

"Not without the Chronicle and it's in there," her counterpart said, nodding toward the blue bubble in front of them.

"Then what do we do?"

"Her consciousness must be bound to her body and Mom, your mom, must touch her. That will send her back."

Mara nodded to the pile of ash and bones on the ground inside the bubble. "She destroyed her body from the other realm."

One of the Maras to the left said, "That does not matter. Rejoin them. The consequences are hers."

Her counterpart to the right nodded.

Mara grimaced. "Okay."

She lowered her arms from the floating, spinning crystal and extended them toward the remains. Ashes floated into the air, swirling above the bones, forming a loose spiral as they gained speed and power. As the soot accelerated, bones rose from the ground, were sucked into the whirlwind forming in front of the broken altar. After the remains had been swept up, Mara pointed to the ethereal Diana. The tornado of soot and bones spun at her, engulfing her, tearing her spiritual form into misty tatters, blending it with the cremated remains. A bolt of light flashed out of the vortex. A skeleton screamed from the maelstrom.

"Mom, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to reach out and touch her," Mara said.

Her mother cringed from the swirling, screaming nightmare. She drew her arms up, hugged the Chronicle to her chest. She faced Mara and blinked slowly trying to clear her vision, trying to make sense of the daughters before her. She staggered forward a step, reaching out for help.

"No, Mom. Don't come to me," Mara said.

Her mother stopped, wavered on her feet as she gazed from one Mara to the next.

On the walkway, Sam slowly lifted his blood-soaked head. He raised himself up on one arm. "Mom!" he yelled.