I sank through the fabric of reality, a kaleidoscope of color spiraling around me. The sensation was almost familiar: like being compressed into something smaller, more manageable, before being stretched back out into shape. But this was more. The threads of my existence unraveled, tugged loose one by one in a cascade of disorientation.

  And then the chaos fell away.

  I was falling.

  Above, a brilliant blue sky, fractured by jagged plumes of black smoke. Below, a sprawling cityscape, a tangled maze of steel, stone, and glass, punctuated by the occasional splash of greenery. The sheer height of the buildings twisted my stomach nearly as much as the fall itself.

  I clung to the book. If I was going to die, it wasn’t slipping from my grasp.

  A deafening crash.

  One of the impossibly tall buildings, the apparent source of the smoke, exploded, a wave of shattered glass cascading down its side. Something tore free from the wreckage. A woman – glowing.

  She shot from the debris, a trail of golden light lingering in her wake. Her suit clung to her like armor, dark and flexible, its seams lined with faintly pulsing veins of gold. Not quite fabric, not quite metal: something in between. A white mask obscured her face, featureless but for two narrow eye slits, her gaze locked on the ruined building below.

  I screamed.

  She jerked her head up, her masked eyes widening as they found me.

  And then she took a bolt of liquid fire to the chest.

  The blast sent her hurtling, slamming through one of the massive glowing illusions perched atop a distant building. The image – some incomprehensible shifting picture, like an illusion cast across glass – shattered, raining down in a storm of bright, flickering shards.

  From the smoke strode a beast of a man. Seven feet tall, his suit of blackened metal molded to his form like living armor. He raised one hand, embers still smoldering in his palm, and stepped forward into the air.

  Twin jets of flame ignited beneath his feet, holding him aloft.

  The woman reignited. A pulse of golden energy rippled outward as she shot from the rubble, her glow condensing into a focused, razor-sharp edge. She twisted in the air, slashing an arm through the space before her. Twin crescents of searing light carved through the air toward the armored man.

  He barely reacted. A single shift to the side, and the glowing arcs sank into the stone below, slicing through it like softened wax.

  But she wasn’t watching them hit. She was already moving toward me.

  Then his eyes met mine.

  The armored man tilted his head slightly, gaze flicking from her to me. Confusion gave way to amused malice.

  His palm snapped up. A molten red glow built within his gauntlet.

  And then –

  Twin impacts.

  First: something slammed into me from the side, hard. A rush of golden light snapped around me, slowing my momentum – but not enough. A glimpse of masked eyes, narrowed in focus.

  “Stay still—”

  Then: a second impact. Red fire collided with the golden shield encasing me, sending me spinning sideways. The glow fractured under the blowI caught a flash of her reaching for me – too late.

  Gravity seized me.

  Glass shattered around me as I plunged into the wreckage, hitting hard and rolling through dust and smoke. The impact drove the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping as shards of glass skittered across the tilting floor. Metal groaned beneath me, the entire structure shifting with a low, ominous creak.

  Just outside a window, a sudden explosion threw me forward. The man? The woman? I had no idea, but whoever it was, I suspected they were winning.

  Scrambling to my feet, I took stock. A mountain of wooden tables and thick-cushioned chairs had been thrown against the far wall, pieces of shattered glass and jagged metal buried among them. Some kind of lounge? Waiting area? Smaller panels of glass flickered with strange, shifting images – broken versions of the illusory monolith she’d crashed through outside?

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  No time for idle thoughts. I was still dry – empty of magic – and the book remained silent. I had no idea where I’d landed, but the armored man had clearly meant me harm. Sitting around wasn’t an option.

  I pulled myself upright –

  And the floor shifted beneath me.

  Ah. It wasn’t just falling apart – it was actively trying to take me with it.

  That complicated things.

  I took off at a run, no destination in mind, only the certainty that anywhere was better than here. Outside, voices carried over the chaos. Laughter? My amulet of tongues warmed slightly, translating the strange language directly into my mind.

  "You lot are getting desperate! Whoever trained that kid should be fired." The man's voice was sandpaper – coarse, grating, amused.

  "That was a civilian, Enforcer." The woman’s voice cut through the chaos – calm, practiced, steady. "Stand down."

  I could hear the shrug in his voice. "He came flying right at me. What can I say? Self-defense."

  Alright, so he wasn’t specifically trying to kill me – just an asshole. Better, I supposed.

  The incline steepened beneath me, each step harder than the last. My breath came shorter. We weren’t quite vertical yet, but at this rate, we had minutes.

  And even if I made it to the top – then what?

  Somewhere in the distance, a wailing howl rose and fell in rhythmic bursts, muffled beneath the groan of steel and crumbling concrete. Another explosion tore through the air outside, sending a fresh tremor through the walls. Dust rained from the ceiling, and somewhere below, the shriek of twisting metal gave way to a deafening crash. The building was exhaling its last breath.

  I needed a plan.

  A heavy impact rocked the structure, and I caught myself against the jagged edge of a gaping hole in the wall. I barely had time to register the sting in my palms before my eyes locked onto something strange – something that didn’t belong.

  A metal chamber. Smooth. Too precise. Too uniform.

  Twin doors sat flush within the frame, above them a row of glowing glyphs, flickering erratically – symbols shifting colors before cutting to black. A countdown? A warding mechanism? A warning?

  Whatever it was, it was broken.

  The entire structure slid beneath me, feeling like it was moving inches.

  I needed a plan, fast.

  My options were limited, but I still had my cantrips. Simple magic, twisted from the world around me rather than drawn from within. Firebolt was useless. Dancing Lights, even more so. That left one.

  I exhaled sharply, forming the familiar seal with my hand. A pulse of intent, a whisper of will – Mage Hand flickered into existence. A ghostly outline, translucent and frail. It wasn’t strong, and it wouldn’t last long. More suited to plucking books from high shelves than fighting against gravity and burning rubble. But it would have to do.

  I climbed upward, each step less like running and more like scrambling, the incline growing sharper beneath me. Above, the sky was visible – not ideal. I scanned the wreckage as I moved, directing the Mage Hand toward an overturned desk.

  It gripped the leg. Pulled. Nothing.

  New plan.

  A chair? This one slid free with surprising ease – its legs moved on wheels? A clever design, but as soon as the Mage Hand tried to drag it uphill, it barely budged. Too heavy. Too unwieldy.

  Desperation gnawed at the edges of my mind. I needed something lighter. Something I could actually use.

  Then I saw it.

  A small section of the room, half-buried under dust and debris. The walls were painted in unnatural, almost aggressively cheerful colors, streaked with peeling murals of grinning figures. The furniture was different, too – short-legged chairs, rounded edges, a low wooden fence. Sitting amongst the pile of furniture were a series of plush animals and scattered, poorly done drawings.

  Thank the Nine for gnomes.

  I sent my Mage Hand forward. A small table floated toward me, barely sturdy enough for its intended purpose, but it would do.

  The spell flickered out. The hand dissipated. My minute was up.

  The window yawned ahead, just out of reach. Almost there.

  I braced against the slick stone beneath me, shifting my weight as best I could. Then, leveling a hand at the glass, I shaped the symbols.

  A sharp breath. A flicker of power.

  Firebolt.

  The window shattered, the sound barely audible beneath the chaos outside. A streak of golden light shot past, slamming into the building across from me, and I caught a glimpse of the glowing woman – her movements were sluggish now, her flight unstable. I reformed my Mage Hand, guiding the small table through the shattered window and into the – whipping winds?

  Fuck me, I’d forgotten how high up we were.

  This was a mistake.

  I loosened my cravat, tore open the top few buttons of my shirt, and shoved the book inside. It sat just below my chin – uncomfortable, but there was a lot of that going around at present.

  With my teeth, I ripped the cravat in two, wrapping the fabric around my hands as quickly as possible. Then, before I could rethink this, I leapt.

  My fingers closed around the window frame, the metal groaning under my weight as searing-hot shards of glass bit into my palms. The makeshift bandages did nothing.

  With a hiss of pain, I hauled myself out onto the exterior.

  Now that I was outside, I could see why this place hadn’t fully collapsed. The entire structure leaned against another impossibly tall building, its glass fa?ade shattered from the impact.

  It wouldn’t hold forever.

  It didn’t need to.

  I risked a glance downward.

  It was a long, long way.

  Below, I could see where the building had split – around the second floor, sheared apart as if by some enormous blade.

  I snorted. Sebastian would have something to say about enormous blades.

  Another explosion rocked the air. I caught a glimpse – the glowing woman, her light flickering, diving to avoid a wall of fire. Below, the armored man rose after her, flame bursting from beneath his feet.

  She was losing.

  I was procrastinating.

  Time to move.

  I flipped the table over, carefully setting it against the sloped glass. Then, with what was definitely the worst decision of my life, I cast Mage Hand once more.

  This was so stupid.

  I knelt onto my makeshift board, grabbed hold of my Mage Hand, and pushed off.