Page 88 of Incoronate
“He’s right, though, Jem.” Trace’s eyes held mine for a beat before turning his attention back to the barrier. “It would be stupid not to try porting through it first.”
I wanted to argue with him. To tell him the risk wasn’t worth it. But I could already tell by the look on his face that I wasn’t going to change his mind. The logic was sound, and we both knew Dominic was right. If porting through it worked, it would save us time and keep me from having to channel power I barely understood. And if it didn’t work, at least we’d know what we were dealing with.
Trace released my hand and stepped back from both of us, rolling his shoulders as though he were preparing for a physical confrontation rather than a magical one. He lockedhis gaze on a gnarled oak tree in the empty field, maybe fifteen feet beyond where the barrier stood.
“If I don’t come back from this, let it be known that I blame Goldilocks.”
My eyes widened in horror. “Again, not fucking funny!”
“I’m kidding,” he said, his dimples pressing in as he flashed me a smile. “Alright. Here goes nothing.”
And with that, he vanished.
The familiar rush of displaced air swept past me, cold and quick. For one breathless moment, I thought it had worked. That he’d managed to slip through whatever magical net the barrier had cast. My eyes jumped to the oak tree, searching for the telltale shimmer of his arrival.
But then reality jerked back into place with almost physical force.
Trace reappeared exactly where the barrier should have been, his body materializing mid-collision with the invisible wall. The impact threw him backward as though he’d been physically shoved, his feet stumbling over the uneven ground as he fought to stay upright.
“Motherfucker,” he hissed, pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead.
“Oh, my god! Are you okay?” I said, wincing as I rushed to his side, my hands gripping his shoulders as I tried to catch his gaze. “What happened?”
“I think I hit some kind of wall,” he said through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut against what must have been a splitting headache. “It felt like I was porting into solid concrete right before it kicked me back.”
“Kicked you back?” I repeated, trying to understand what the hell had just happened.
“Fascinating,” murmured Dominic as he studied Trace, his eyes slightly narrowed. “The barrier appears to have anactive defense mechanism against spatial manipulation. It didn’t simply prevent passage. It forced a reversal.”
“Glad I could be so educational,” muttered Trace, finally opening his eyes to look at me. “I’m fine, Jem. Just feels like my brain got scrambled there for a second.”
“So porting through is out,” I said, turning back to look at the barrier. The light from where I’d touched it earlier had faded, leaving nothing but empty air once more. “Which means the only way through is to break it.”
“In theory,” said Caleb gently. “There’s still no guarantee it’ll work.”
“Right.” Which really didn’t change the fact that right now, this was the only plan we had. “Walk me through it. What do I need to do?”
Caleb moved to stand beside me, close enough that our shoulders almost touched. “The harmonic disruption technique requires you to do three things. First, you need to match the barrier’s frequency. Feel the rhythm of its magic and sync your own power to it. Think of it as finding the right key for a lock.”
“And then?”
“Then you introduce a counter-frequency. A vibration that’s opposite to the barrier’s natural resonance. It’s like…” He paused, searching for the right comparison. “Like how certain sound frequencies can shatter glass. You’re looking for the barrier’s breaking point.”
“And the third thing?” I asked, already feeling the gravity of what he was asking me to do.
“You need to sustain it long enough for the magic to destabilize,” said Caleb gently. “Which means channeling more power than you’ve probably ever channeled before. And holding it without letting it consume you.”
“Piece of cake,” I muttered.
Caleb’s expression softened. “I wouldn’t have even brought it up if I didn’t think you could do it, Blackburn. Your Nephilim blood gives you access to power that most Casters can only dream of. You just need to learn how to control it.”
“Therein lies the problem,” I said under my breath as I looked at the barrier. At the invisible wall keeping us all trapped here. Keeping Ares and Tessa in danger and all of us under the thumb of the Order.
If there had ever been a time to dig deep, this was it. To reach down into that darker part of myself I usually kept locked away. The part that came from Lucifer. The part that whispered of destruction and power I didn’t fully understand. The part that scared me when I even grazed its surface, because it felt too big, too consuming, like it might swallow me whole if I let it.
But maybe that was exactly what I needed. Maybe the only way to break through this barrier was to stop being afraid of what I was capable of. To embrace the monster they’d tried to make me into and use it against them.
Maybe…
