I felt it before I saw it.

A low thrumming started in my chest and gradually radiated outward until my entire body vibrated like a plucked string. Blade led us up two flights, using a set of enclosed stairs that I guessed were a single entry point. When we emerged, we were in a large open area. It was bigger than a warehouse, stretching away into the distance.

It must run the full length of the building.

At the center, a large glass-like box glowed. The light pulsed in time to the vibrations that circulated through me. I felt almost reverent as I approached it, stopping with the others in front of a door. I reached out a hand to touch it.

It was like ice, cold and smooth, and vaguely wet to the touch.

"What is it?"

"Bioglass." Aaliyah stood on my right, hands clasped behind her back. "Strong as steel, but it allows air and pressure to pass through it."

"Plus it had no metal, and no magnetic field," Blade added, staring at me hard. "That's what keeps it from destabilizing the rift. Anything metal you have on you has to stay here, outside the chamber."

Anything metal I had brought had already gone into the water. All I had on me were the clothes on my back and the council ring that I wore on my right hand, and that was made of a polymer that allowed it to interact with the identification software.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets, turning them out.

It struck me, looking at the empty fabric. Everything that distinguished me as me, every possession I owned, would be left here in Selecon. If this didn't work, if something went wrong, no one would be able to connect my flesh and blood with my possessions or my title. The things I had always thought defined me were nothing more than mist and dust.

Illusions.

What other beliefs would I find were nothing but vapor?

Clang!

I turned to see Thoris drop an enormous hammer to the floor, followed by a short sword. Next came a knife from inside his left boot, and another from an inside hip. A wicked looking tamer came out next, studded with tiny metal barbs like thorns on some carnivorous rose. He reached inside his vest and removed two more knives.

I stared at the growing pile. Thoris saw me looking and grinned, pulling out a four-sided dagger and dropping it on the heap.

I heard Blade laughing and looked up. She motioned with her chin and we turned to see Aaliyah unloading what looked like an entire arsenal. Thoris' bushy eyebrows lifted in surprise or admiration, likely both.

"And she knew we were coming," Blade added with a wink.

The pile we left behind was impressive. When she was done removing what had to be thirty pounds of weapon-metal, Aaliyah handed each of us a small cylinder.

"These are the newest control rods," she explained. "Polymer based. Flexible, yet capable of breaking glass. Or bone."

Lovely.

"They are equipped with a light and a stunner, as well as a six pulse loads."

Thoris whistled softly. "Lot of punch in a small package," he said, looking up at Aaliyah and winking. "Like me."

Aaliyah didn't so much as blink. "These are red level pulses, so don't select the charge option unless you intend to use it."

I ran my thumb carefully over the small area marked with a lightning bolt, pressing my nail into the small slot and flipping up the cover. The charge button glowed a faint orange. I closed the cover and pressed until it clicked into place, then pocketed the tamer. It wasn't a sword, but it would have to do. Hopefully we wouldn't run into too much trouble once we were outside Selecon.

The thrumming in my chest suddenly flared intensely. I looked up to see Blade had opened a door I hadn't known was there. Inside, the pulsing light revealed a slash that ran vertically in a jagged line, maybe seven spans high and two spans wide. Between the edges, blackness such as I had never seen drew my eyes like a dark magnet.

The rift.

It felt as though something moved inside it, although I could see nothing. The pulsing light came from outside it, although I could see no way for it to be putting off the light itself. It was as though the rift was a living organism, with a heart outside its body.

"One at a time," Blade said, looking back at us. "I'll go first. Bane, you're after me. Then D'hana, then Thoris, then Aaliyah."

She waited while we lined up in the order she'd spoken.

"When you step through, it will feel like stepping into water," she explained, her eyes glowing with an excitement I could feel resonating inside me. "Don't stop. Keep moving. It will feel like walking underwater, but if you stop you'll start to sink. Keep moving and reach forward. I'll take your hand and pull you through."

Sink? What happened if we started to sink? Could we drown inside the rift? I eyed that inky darkness, my excitement mixed with trepidation.

"Okay, let's go."

Blade moved toward the rift.

At the last second I reached out and grabbed her arm. She turned back to me, brows pulled down.

"Where are we going?" I didn't know why I'd waited so long to ask.

Going into the rift, not knowing what to expect or feel or how it would work was one thing. Not knowing where we would come out was quite another.

Blade stared into my eyes.

"We're going to the fire planet."

Her words fell on me like hammers. I saw her turn, felt her pull her arm from my grasp, and then she stepped into the black mouth of the rift and was gone.

The forbidden world. Was it even habitable? Was there oxygen? And if there was, how did she know? Had she been there already?

Questions crowded into my head, destroying any rational thought.

"Go," Aaliyah said, her voice commanding.

Trying not to think about what might be on the other side, I forced my legs to move and followed Blade into the gaping maw. The murky darkness swallowed me, closing me up inside its tomb-like throat. There was no light. There was no sound. There was only the blackness. It moved around me like a caress, pulling at me with spectral fingers, a lover that wanted me to stay, even if it meant my death.

Keep moving.

I forced my legs to move, straining against the invisible current that swirled around them. My chest burned, and I struggled to breathe, but there was nothing here. It was a living nothing. An absence of everything. A lifeless void.

I was going to suffocate.

Frantically, I tried to push my legs to keep moving, but they were stuck in what felt like tar. I grabbed at my throat.

Air! I needed air!

Something brushed my skin and I felt a voiceless scream fill my mouth. Then fingers were weaving between mine.

A hand!

I clutched at it, and felt the strength as it pulled me forward.

The hands of darkness tried to hold me down, but it was no use. The hand pulling me was strong and firm. As it pulled, another hand joined it, wrapping around my forearm and heaving me toward it.

There was a blinding wave of light as I tore through what felt like a membrane. My knees gave out, and I crashed to the hard ground, the air from my silent scream coming out in a huff as my lungs expelled and then inhaled. I gasped in as much air as I could.

"It's all right," I heard Blade's voice saying, "you're through."

I cracked my eyes, finding her gray-green ones surrounded by her flame red hair. I expected to see matching flames behind her, but instead I saw a backdrop of lush green. I stared, content to just lie there and breathe for a moment longer, but Blade put out her hand and I took it. She pulled me upright easily.

Blitz but this girl was strong.

She gave me a smile unlike any I'd seen on her face before. It was almost... lovely.

"Welcome to the fire planet."