"And they have been taking norms in positions of political power," I continued. "Bryna doesn't know the list."

"What about the theory that he's working on converting mass numbers of norms and paranorms at one time?" Colin asked.

"Yes." I gave a slow nod. "Amory has been experimenting and wants to accelerate the process and take this world over sooner. She believes Amory was prepared to reveal a lot more as the next stages of his process gets closer," I said. "One problem is that because she's been in this world for a few days, Bryna has limited new information."

I went on, "She knows he's probably very worried about her disappearance and she's sure he won't stop searching for her."

"That's another reason why the sooner the better that we get you to Doran," Desmond said.

"We need to make sure you're clear on your capture and subsequent escape."

"Yes." I nodded.

"Anything else?" Colin asked.

"Amory has a new body," I said. "He'd stayed in that old body-frail and wrinkled with graying red hair-until recently."

"Even twenty years ago he looked like he might wither and blow away," Desmond said. "But his magic was so strong that his presence was powerful in a magical way." As I continued to read Bryna's essence, I tilted my head. "Amory's new Host is a very large, very intelligent human. He's built like a body builder and was one of the named partners in one of Manhattan's most prestigious law firms. So not only is he powerful magically, but also physically and mentally."

I frowned as I turned my focus on Desmond. "How can he keep his magic yet I couldn't bring mine along with me?"

"It is different for some," Desmond said. "For Amory it is because of the strong magic he wields as an extremely powerful Sorcerer."

"Normally whatever power the Host body has, the Sentient will have," I said. "So if he was a normal Sentient he wouldn't have kept any of his magic."

"Yes," Desmond said. "On the other hand, your friend Angel's body likely can turn into her Doppler form even with a Sentient having taken it over as a Host. She is a Doppler, is she not?"

"A squirrel." I bit the inside of my lip as I thought about her and prayed we'd find her essence along with Lawan's and Olivia's.

"So..." I said, "The Sentient who took over Angel's body would have powers because Angel did.

But I have none because I'm in a body that has no powers."

"You've got it," Desmond said.

I sighed. "Bummer."

"You might need these," Desmond pulled a few pieces of material from one of his pockets. "I spelled the cloths in case you need to carry any other stones." I took them and stuffed them into my own pocket. "Thank you."

"Nyx, do you have a grasp on what it will take to 'be' Bryna?" Desmond asked.

I paused for a moment, then nodded with confidence. "I already feel like I know her inside and out. I can turn that switch on at will."

"Good." Desmond brought the other stone to me that rested on its own cloth. "Now you can use the keystone," he said. "Go ahead, pick it up. As one of Amory's key people it is yours to command." The moment I took the stone from the cloth and wrapped my fingers around it, I felt warmth travel through me. Warmth and confidence and knowledge.

"Where is the portal to the Doran Otherworld?" Desmond asked.

Mentally I asked the question as I stared at the stone. In the shiny, flat side of the stone appeared a local homeless shelter.

"Thirty-second Street between Park and Lexington avenues," I said as I recognized the area. "It's right by the location where a higher number than normal of homeless people have been cited."

"You were right." I looked up at Desmond. "That's the connection we've been looking for. The number of homeless people in the city is at a tragic high. But the inflated number in that area must have to do with Sentients and Zombies coming through the portal."

"Let's get the team together." Colin drew his cell phone out of his pocket and started pressed a number. "It's time to go."

My entire body shook rather than just shivered in the freezing outside air. Despite the muffler wrapped around my face and neck, my cheeks were so cold they felt almost hot and I thought my nose might freeze off. I'd never been so cold in my entire life. How did humans live like this?

Slush on the sidewalk made wet squishing sounds beneath Colin's and Desmond's boots and my shoes as they walked to either side of me. I wasn't used to making sounds when I walked and I felt like the whole world could hear all the noise my human body made.

We'd had a taxi drop us off at Lexington and Thirty-second Street, and I drew the heavy coat I was wearing tighter around me with my gloved hands.

Before we'd left Desmond's apartment Colin had gone out to buy the coat. Within fifteen minutes of the time he'd left, he'd returned with a Macy's bag containing a heavy, lined coat, a muffler, a pair of leather gloves, and a wool cap.

At the same time I was cursing the cold, I was thanking Colin for helping put some barrier between me and the icy chill. I was almost too cold to feel all of Candace's injuries.

"Doing all right, Popsicle?" Colin asked and I gave him a pretend glare.

"Let's just say in some ways I am very glad my Drow half is dominant when I'm in my own body." As I spoke the muffler did a very good job of doing just that-muffling me-making it so that it was a wonder the Dragon could hear me.

Colin's cold-weather clothing was practically summer wear compared to what I was wearing.

That despite him shivering in the cold before we'd gone to his apartment that night for Belgian beer.

I looked at the Sorcerer Desmond, who wore a jacket and gloves, along with a muffler, too. But his clothing was light in comparison to mine and he didn't look cold at all.

"I sure hope it's not this cold in Doran." I shivered even more.

"Weather in my home world is pleasant year-round." Desmond had an almost wistful expression on his face. "We just need to get you to that portal reasonably unfrozen."

"This is reasonably unfrozen?" I said, my teeth chattering with every word.

The stones were in the pocket of my slacks, beneath the coat, and I felt their weight against my leg as we approached the homeless shelter on Thirty-second Street. We were on the opposite side of the street and I saw that most of the rest of our team was already there, waiting for us.

Meryl perched on a newspaper stand in her preferred oriole form while Ice sat beneath her as a pure white cat. His tail twitched from side to side as he looked up at her like he was ready to pounce on her and eat her whole.

Joshua was in his shadow form on the ground near the cat, and I saw Mandisa through her glamour close by.

"Can you tell if Penrod is there?" I asked Colin, not sure if he could see through Sprite glamours.

I wished I could. Of course Penrod wouldn't be able to walk among norms unless he was in glamour.

"Can't see him, but I can sense him," Colin said. "And smell him." There were some benefits to having a human nose and not being able to smell as well as I could as Drow, I supposed. Penrod might be an all-right male and an asset to the team, but he smelled like overcooked broccoli, the same as most other Sprites.

"It's on the other side of that barricade," I said to my team as I gestured toward the blocked-off space between two huge buildings.

The street was busy, vehicles driving up and down its length and pedestrians crossing at the intersections and striding down the sidewalk.

"Let's go." I started across the street with Colin and Desmond to either side of me.

The Zombies and Sentients traveled when it was dark here in the Earth Otherworld. Bryna had made that clear to me, so I wasn't worried about being seen by any of Amory's people. All I had to worry about were norms seeing me go through that barricade since I couldn't go in glamour.

We crossed the street and Meryl flew over the barricade while Ice found a place to slip through.

Joshua simply slid beneath the fence in shadow form. And Mandisa ... while still in her glamour, the Abatwa Fae walked right through the barricade.

"Some trick," Colin said.

"Sure is." The first time I'd seen her do that was just a few weeks ago at the Vampire compound and it had been a little unnerving.

"I'll see you when you get back," Desmond said as Colin easily pulled apart a section of the barricade, large enough for us to walk through.

I nodded to Desmond, feeling too frozen to say anything else. As he walked away, I glanced around to make sure no norms saw us. It was clear. Then Colin and I squeezed through the opening he'd made.

When I made it through, something bumped against me and I stumbled to the side. Penrod said, "Apologies," as Colin caught me by the arm. This human body was so clumsy and awkward compared to my own. At this rate, if I didn't get used to it, Colin was going to have to carry me everywhere.

After Colin closed the barricade behind us, we came to a pause beside the rest of the team members.

Garbage was strewn across areas not covered with snow in the vacant lot. Graffiti was sprayed on the inside of the barricades and along both walls that ran the length of the lot, and at the back was a chain linked fence with another building beyond the fence.

"Where is it?" Mandisa spoke from beside me and I almost jumped out of my winter clothing at the sound of her voice. I didn't think I'd ever heard her actually speak before. "This portal you spoke of." I started to unbutton my coat so that I would be able to reach into the pocket of the slacks I was wearing. "Despite the fact that this keystone is over twenty-two years old and was found in Otherworld, it should show us where the portal is. At least that's what Desmond and the Sentient Bryna believe." It took me longer than normal to undo the buttons because I wasn't used to having long, manicured fingernails like Candace did.

The moment I moved aside my coat I sucked in my breath. Freezing cold instantly stabbed me like hundreds of icicles wherever I wasn't covered. My arm was shaking I drew out the keystone and held it up on the palm of my gloved hand.

Nothing happened, the portal didn't appear. It should have. I knew that from Bryna's now confused thoughts.

"You might need to take off your glove," Colin said with an apologetic look.

I groaned. What if my fingers fell off from the cold? I told myself to stop being a baby and held the stone in my left hand while Colin helped me pull the glove off my right hand. My fingers burned from the cold the moment the glove was removed.

A sensation like an electrical shock jolted me as I clasped the stone in my bare hand.

Air in the space between the two buildings grew dark and I held my breath. The darkness grew deeper and deeper yet until a moving mass of gray fog appeared before us. The gray cloud-like fog swirled like water going down a drain.

My heart pounded, my mouth dry, the coldness in my body almost forgotten as I stared at what must be the portal. My first thought was, Would we have to step through that?

Bryna's essence told me no at the same time the gray began to fade and a hole opened in the air in front of us.

Through the hole was a world with lavender-streaked skies, a world of sunshine and beauty. Its warmth began to defrost my chilled body.

But the sight of it, along with the overly sweet smell of flowers coming through the opening, made my stomach churn.

Through that opening into another world, I knew that it was the same world, the exact place, where my brother had gone to when he disappeared from Otherworld.

Twenty-two years ago.

THIRTY-FOUR.

Friday, December 31.

Noon.

Fear gripped my chest as we stared through the opening. It was like I was reliving the same emotions that I had when I was a youngling and saw my brother being taken through the portal.

For the first time I gave serious thought to the possibility that my brother could still be alive. I hadn't wanted to build up any kind of hope, but here I was.

Then the image of him came to me, through Bryna's essence. I saw my brother. I saw Tristan.

And I was seeing him from her memories.

"He's alive," I whispered and Colin looked at me. "His body is a Host and his essence is in a stone, but he's alive."

"Who's alive?" Colin asked.

The desire to run through the portal and find Tristan was so great that I started to run toward the portal. If I was in Drow form and Colin wasn't a Dragon, he never would have caught me in time. But in Candace's body I was slow, not to mention encumbered by the heavy winter clothing.

"Stop." Colin grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him. "You simply cannot charge through the portal without thought."

"My brother's alive." My Host was breathing hard. "Tristan's body and his essence are still alive."

Colin frowned. "You can tell me what you are talking about after we get to where it's safe. We need to get through this portal before it closes."

"Right. You're right." I glanced around me at my team members in their various forms then looked through the portal. I pointed. "That rock outcropping. We'll gather in the shaded area and then we'll decide where to go from there."

My team members-those I could see-acknowledged me with quick nods.

As if I might bolt through the entrance, Colin took me by my arm and led me to the opening. We paused one moment and then stepped through.

A gooey, gelatinous feeling overcame me, like I was sliding through mucus. Instinctively I held my breath, as if I might suck in some of what I felt coating my body.

Going through the portal was like walking against a current, through a river of goo, and into the wind.

My chest began to hurt with the need to breathe. If it weren't for Bryna's essence inside of me, I might have panicked. Thanks to her I knew we'd make it within steps.

Even as that knowledge came to me, Colin and I burst from the portal into warm sunshine. I no longer felt like I was covered in goo. I stared around me, surprise and fear mingling inside me.

A utopia. No wonder Desmond had talked about his home world with such sadness in his eyes.

He had to miss this amazing place that was sharp and clear, even to the imperfect human eyes of the Host body I was in.

Lush green grass covered rolling hills between purple-hued mountains. I knew then what majestic really was. Huge trees and brilliantly colorful flowers sprung up in places throughout the landscape making the gorgeous scenery look like a patchwork quilt I'd seen in Olivia's apartment.