Jessie had been studying. Not chemistry or math or social studies, but her new—hopefully, if she passed the exam—job as a Governing Council rep. So, when the alarms went off, steel shutters covered the museum's doors and windows, and her phone buzzed in the middle of her reply to Kade, she knew what was happening before she even read it.

She read it anyway.

Governing Council Message:

Status: Extreme Emergency

An unknown portal, between E and C-Rank, broke east of downtown Phoenix, in the S'edav Va'aki Archaeological Site. All guilds are currently responding to it, and Governing Council teams are en route as well.

All civilians at the S'edav Va'aki Archaeological Site are advised to shelter in place. Any delvers who respond to the unknown portal break are advised that this is an instantaneous break, and that any contributions to the protection of civilians will be rewarded in accordance with Governing Council policy. They are also advised not to enter the portal without a C-Ranked team.

Interested delvers should not respond to this message, but should be cautious in approaching the portal and any portal monsters. Contributions and initial response bounties will be noted and rewarded after the portal is cleared and the aggressing monsters are culled.

All delvers in the downtown and Sky Harbor area should be on alert for E to C-Ranked monsters until further notice.

Jessie's blood ran cold. But she forced herself to think even as her swollen, red knees shook. There was a bench nearby; she hobbled over to it and sat down hard.

Portal breaks happened in one of two ways.

The most common were time-out breaks. If a portal opened, and the monsters and boss in the self-contained world inside weren't dealt with, the portal would gradually gain energy until the barrier between worlds collapsed. When that happened, the monsters inside would come out—and they'd have every instinct they'd had inside, including the overwhelming urge to kill humans.

Most of the big breaks, including Carlsbad, Wickenburg, and, according to the historians, the Portal Blitz, had been time-out breaks. They were easy to deal with in Phoenix; almost every portal within the 303 wall and for a few miles outside of it was detected, claimed, and cleared within two to three hours of opening.

The other kind was worse—an instantaneous portal break. If a portal formed with energy equal to one that was two ranks higher than it, without the correct monsters inside to use that energy, it could break within seconds.

And when that happened, people died. Not just unprepared delvers, either, but civilians. They were rare. And they were almost always low-ranked. But in the five to ten minutes between detection and when the first delvers arrived, even a few dozen goblins could wreak havoc and spread across city blocks. It could take hours to root them out, even after the portal was closed.

There were always casualties in an instantaneous break. Always.

"Hey," Stephen said. He sat down next to her. "Don't worry. I've got you."

It was romantic. It was touching. And, thought Jessie, it was also incredibly stupid. There was only one person at S'edav Va'aki who could help her right now.

Kade.

And he was outside, with her stupid wheelchair.

The Stormsteel rapier appeared in my hand, its grip warm against my calluses. The message was clear: any delvers nearby would be on their way. But it was also clear about something else, even if it hadn't said it explicitly.

Any organized resistance would be whole minutes way via helicopter or truck. And people here didn't have minutes.

I was the delver on the ground.

It was my responsibility to react.

And Jessie…she was stuck in the museum. The steel riot shutters—standard issue on the first two floors of post-Portal Blitz buildings—slammed into place, and I abandoned the wheelchair.

Something had a hold of me, and it wasn't the battle trance. I'd felt that a lot in my life, especially after Dad's training let me channel my anger into it. No, I'd only felt this once—at least this intensely. I broke into a run down the cement path, angling for the first group of screaming high schoolers.

It was fear.

Not for me. Not even for Jessie. Fear that I'd made a promise, and that I couldn't keep it. But she was inside, protected by the riot shutters and walls, and there were seventy-odd students, teachers, and other folks outside who weren't.

I stopped. This was dumb. I needed to think. I applied my movement and deflection Scripts, then barreled around a corner. The mud-brick ruins flashed by as my feet beat on the pavement. Then, suddenly, there were six of them. Three girls, a boy, an older woman, and a man with an olive-green vest. They were running, but there was no way they'd be fast enough.

Hellbat: E-Rank

Pursuing them in the air was a single monster, its wingspan as far across as I was tall—or bigger. Its claws had been ripped out by something and replaced with two long portal metal knives, bound there with rough cords of leather. Two black eyes burned at the girl in the back as it dove through the air on demon-looking, gray-red wings.

Something welled inside of me. Not the battle trance this time, either. Fury. Rage. Untempered and unrefined anger. I hadn't wanted this, and now this monster was threatening to kill my sister and her classmates? Like hell was I letting that happen!

I moved. My rapier flashed out as I sprinted all-out through the running school group, knocking the boy over. The girl in the back was bleeding. Two knives had sliced through her shoulder and down to her lower back, and her shirt's tatters flapped in the wind behind her. There wasn't time to help him up; there was only time to fight. My sword flashed out, inches from the girl's face.

And the Hellbat's blades slammed into it. I sliced across it, pulling my elbow toward my chest as I skidded to a stop. Lightning burned the wound shut, and the monster screamed mid-air, impossibly large jaws almost dislocated from the motion.

Before it could wheel around or retreat, I slashed out at its wing. Tendons parted. My rapier met bone. The bat spun mid-air and crashed into the sidewalk. As its body pushed itself up through the wreckage of its half-severed wing, I kicked the taut, leathery limb aside. My next thrust caught it mid-mouth, and it died in a puddle of wings and blood.

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That settled at least one issue: if it was E-Rank and alone, this wasn't a C-Rank break. Small miracles.

Screaming had broken out all through the mud-walled ruins. It echoed off the rain shelters' metal roofs and came from every direction all around me.

"Oh, shit. Oh, fuck."

I turned around. The boy I'd slammed out of the way was on all fours, swearing and vomiting. I grabbed his shirt and hauled him to his feet. "Are you hurt? No? Then get moving! Head for the buses. They'll give you some protection." Then I shoved him in the direction I'd come from and dodged left as another Hellbat caromed off the ceiling overhead and slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. Lightning Reflexes had saved his life. I stabbed the monster to death before it could recover.

But the kid wouldn't move. "Go!" I yelled. Then I ran further into the ruins, toward the next group of screaming people. Every step carried me farther from Jessie. Farther from my promise to take care of her. But she was inside. I just had to hope she'd be safe there.

Especially when I sprinted around the next corner and found what was left of the teacher who'd been giving instructions.

A demon was still mauling him, even though both arms were off and his chest and stomach had been split open. There was nothing I could do for him; an S-Ranked healer might've been able to save his life, but short of that, he was already dead. I blinked and turned my gaze toward the demon.

Gemini Demon: Rank D

The monster's two horns curled in front of it, forming a pair of spikes over its eyes that were each a foot long. Six arms that each ended in spikes hung from its shoulders, lowest rib, and hips, while a pair of reversed man legs kicked the ground underneath it. It was covered in dust, and the ruin's wall had exploded outward in an eight-foot span where it had smashed through.

It noticed me, reared up on its hind legs, and chittered like an insect. Upright, it was a good three feet taller than me, and armed to the teeth—literally. A pair of buglike mandibles extended outward from its human-like lips.

Now the battle trance showed itself. It overlaid the fear deep in my gut; I couldn't get to Jessie until the building unlocked, and I had no way of knowing if she was okay unless she texted me. But I could do something about this. I could fight this.

I readied the Stormsteel rapier, summoned my breastplate, and dropped into a middle guard. It roared and rushed me, front four spikes churning the dirt and concrete between us into so much dust. I waited. Then I dropped into a low lunge as it launched its spikes forward.

One cut my shoulder. I pushed Stamina toward the ripped puncture wound even as pain poured across my arm. The lunge was dragged off-center; it punched through the monster's side instead of the center of its chest. I withdrew the blade with a twist, stepped back, and spun into a parry that knocked its next spike off-target.

Its spikes slammed into the ground around me as I stabbed and hacked, but the demon's human-looking skin was more like an armored carapace. Every other blow was turned, and while my breastplate was holding up, I could only heal one wound at a time—and it had four or more arms attacking me.

Little by little, it drove me back down the path and toward the museum.

But every time I counterattacked while in Thunderbolt Form's high guard, a tiny orb of lightning appeared, hovering around the tip of my rapier. It seemed to last only a few seconds—five or six—before fading.. But when I landed a hit, it slammed into the Gemini Demon's carapace, burning shallow pits into its skin.

The Lightning Charges. They did something. It wasn't enough, but it was something—a little extra damage.

I needed to figure out how to exploit that. Or how to exploit the Gemini Demon.

It was long. And it had spikes everywhere, six of them, flexible enough to cover most angles. And I couldn't close inside its reach, because its jaws were there, ready to rip me apart—I'd already discarded closeness in favor of distance.

But I couldn't just hold position. Another flurry of spikes slammed into the concrete and shook the steel structure overhead as I stepped off the concrete and into the gravel outside the museum entrance. People were still screaming, but fewer of them. I hoped that they'd found somewhere safe.

Until I beat the demon, I couldn't do anything for them.

I needed a puncturing attack, but I didn't have the Rain Charges to use Rain-Slicked Blade. Without armor penetration, the fight was turning into a battle of attrition. I needed a window for Flareflourish, and I didn't—

Lightning Reflexes flared. I ducked, and a Hellbat slammed into the demon's face. They both roar-screamed, and a moment later, the Gemini Demon's jaws were ripping it to shreds as its wings beat against the horns above its eyes.

I didn't waste any time. Thunderbolt Form for a two-handed, high grip. Three powerful lunges, each to the monster's chest, each backed by my rage. They hit home, sinking through the carapace and a few inches into the flesh beneath. It shuddered, but not enough. The Hellbat's wings beat slower as the insect-like jaws severed its head. The corpse landed next to me; the Gemini Demon's healing was already hard at work healing the three wounds in its chest.

A Lightning Charge appeared around the Stormsteel rapier's tip.

The window was open: I used Flareflourish, and the demon's eyes all jerked shut as lightning arced from my blade to within inches of its face. It lashed out, but this time, it didn't cover itself; it was either blind or pretty close to it.

That was all I needed. As the spikes slammed toward me, I put my armor between them and my body, or parried as best I could. New wounds opened up on my arms and shoulders, and a spike ripped a gash in my cheek so deep I tasted dirt through it. But every time the Gemini Demon attacked, I countered, slicing into its limb joints.

When its right front arm came off, twitching on the ground, I knew I had it.

Two arms. Three. Four. The tide of battle turned. Now, I was the aggressor; with fewer arms to worry about, I let Lightning Reflexes worry about the incoming attacks and focused on doing as much damage as I could, as quickly as I could. The Gemini Demon retreated. Its reversed human legs tried to pull its weight backward, but they weren't designed for defense—only relentless attack.

For a moment, I saw nothing in its eyes. Then, a flash of fear as my rapier punched past its jaws and the three balls of electricity ripped past its eyes and into whatever brain drove the monster to kill.

It twitched. Its spike slammed into my leg, puncturing skin and pinning it to the ground as I buckled under the demon's bulk. Then it died. Blood and gore coated the ground where we'd gone back and forth. Some of it was mine. Most of it was the demon's.

I pushed Stamina toward my injury and got to work freeing myself. As I slowly worked the spike out of my leg, though, I couldn't help but think. Some of the girls I'd been interested in back in school had been astrology believers. And Gemini…Gemini was the twins.

So, if this was one twin, where was the other?

Jessie was exhausted.

The group's guide had dragged them into the basement. According to him, that'd be the safest place—the riot shutters were rated for High-E to Low-D monsters, but if anything out there was bigger or the portal's boss decided that the visitor's center was the place to be, it wouldn't hold them for long.

So, she'd had to navigate the stairs, one step at a time. Even with Stephen's shoulder and arm to lean on—which had been nice of him, even if she still thought he was being stupid—it had taken her three painful minutes to hobble down into the archives.

But now, they were behind a door that looked more like a bank vault than anything Jessie had seen. The museum's collection was stored all around them. Pottery, arrowheads, sticks that she vaguely remembered were called atlatls and were for throwing spears. Fragments of baskets, collections of turkey bones, and even half of a reconstructed building.

They sat—thank God—on a pair of benches with another group. Stephen's arm was still around her shoulders. It was a little uncomfortable. Her whole body needed to shiver and shake, but he wouldn't let her, and she didn't have the energy to tell him she was okay.

She pulled out her phone and set it in her lap.

Jessie: We're in the basement. Come get us.

Jessie: What's going on out there?

Jessie: Ditch the chair. Just come here.

Kade: I can't. The building locked down. You're safe there, right? Lots of monsters here. D-Rank break.

Jessie tried to breathe. Then she shrugged Stephen's arm off her shoulders. "Sorry. Gotta answer this."

She started to type. Then, halfway through, the shadows in the corner wavered slightly. Her gaze flicked to them.

The shadows churned. They roiled. And then they began forming into a monstrous shape the size of a truck—an insect-like shape with six shadowy spikes up front and two human-ish legs in the back.

Jessie typed faster as people started screaming.

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