Page 145 of Twist of Fate

“We can give her one opening,” Luke said. “If she can’t get through immediately, she comes back.”

Zer glared at him.

“I don’t like it either, but I can’t eat magic. Can you?”

Zer’s glare deepened. Apparently not.

Connal studied Avaneel. “Can you do this?”

“Yes.”

“Then we make certain you reach the barrier.”

Connal rose from cover and signaled to Keir. Across the rooftop, Asterius saw the movement and drew his sword. The three brothers attacked from different directions at once.

The buyer’s guards reacted immediately. One turned toward Connal, another moved to intercept Keir, and the third shifted to protect the platform from Asterius. Their divided attention gave Zer the opening he needed.

He ran low behind the ventilation housings while Avaneel clung to his shoulder. Luke followed, keeping the equipment between himself and the magic crossing the rooftop. When they reached the final stretch of open ground, Zer stopped.

Avaneel launched.

She flew inches above the roof, darting beneath one magical strike and around the boots of a masked warrior. No one looked down. Every eye remained fixed on the larger threats converging around the receiver.

Avaneel reached the nearest anchor and opened her mouth.

Her teeth closed around empty air. Light bent toward her.

A section of the barrier vanished between one breath and the next, leaving a gap no wider than Luke’s hand. Avaneel folded her wings and slipped through before the magic began knitting itself together.

The buyer’s head snapped toward the damaged anchor. He saw Avaneel too late. She flew straight at the hand he held toward the receiver and sank her teeth into the band of magic wrapped around his wrist. The buyer shouted and jerked his arm away. The magic around his wrist broke apart, and the expanded barrier flickered.

A masked warrior drove a blast of dark power into the weakened anchor. Cracks of white light raced across the shield. A second strike hit before the buyer could repair it.

The barrier shattered.

Magic burst outward, throwing Avaneel into the air. Zer lunged and caught her against his chest before she struck the platform.

The buyer staggered but did not fall. A smaller shield snapped into place around his body, leaving the receiver exposed behind him.

They had their opening.

“Go,” Connal said.

Luke pushed away from cover and ran.

Connal moved with him long enough to intercept the first guard who tried to block his path. Their collision carried both men away from the platform. Keir engaged another near the damaged anchor while Asterius maneuvered the masked warrior into the path of the buyer’s remaining guard.

Zer stayed close enough to cover Luke’s approach. Avaneel clung to the front of his shirt, one hand pressed over her mouth as if trying to remove the taste of the buyer’s magic.

Luke reached the platform and climbed onto it. The receiver’s hum vibrated through the soles of his shoes. Red lights continued racing across the panels, and the antennae adjusted as Connal and his brothers moved around the roof. Whatever damage Avaneel and the masked team had done to the barrier, the system itself remained fully operational.

Luke followed the cables toward the center housing. A narrow access panel sat beneath the main controls, secured by another black reader. He pulled Hale’s keycard from his pocket and pressed it against the panel.

For one terrible second, nothing happened.

Then the reader flashed green.

The housing unlocked with a heavy mechanical click. Luke pulled it open, revealing a cylindrical core secured between two metal braces. Light pulsed inside it in time with the signals traveling across the receiver.