The days blurred into weeks as fighting escalated on Earth. When Valerie heard that a group of Fractus was entering the Pantheon in Rome, she didn't suspect that they would be different from the dozens of Fractus she'd been battling day after day in their search for clues to how to break the rules binding Earth's magic.

Chisisi reported that five Fractus had been seen entering the monument, so Valerie decided not to tackle them alone. She brought Alex and Olwain, Knights of her guild who had stood by her side from her first battle against the Fractus.

They passed through the enormous pillars at the front of the Pantheon and entered through the massive front doors with a crowd of tourists. Valerie scanned the massive, circular room. The ceiling was a dome with a hole in the middle that let light in.

It was quickly apparent that the Fractus were making no attempt to blend in with the crowd. They studied the floor, sometimes bending down to trace the pattern in it.

Valerie recognized Logan, Thai's ex, right away, even though she'd cut her beautiful hair short. Valerie fought the urge to run over and unleash her powers on the girl who'd held Henry's father while Zunya murdered him. Two of the other Fractus looked familiar, as well.

"What are they doing?" Alex asked, sliding her hand into her jacket, where Valerie knew she kept a dagger that Cyrus had imbued with his new light treatment.

"See that woman tapping the circle on the ground over there?" Valerie asked. "I think her name is Toma, and she's got the ability to use electricity to mess with anything electronic."

"That's not going to do her a lot of good in here," Olwain said.

"She can also throw lightning. The other woman is Logan, and her hands and feet can secrete poison, like a frog," Valerie added. "I don't recognize the other three guys. Do you?"

Alex nodded. "I fought them when Zunya attacked us at the playground last year when we were recovering the Byway. They were guarding him."

"I remember them now, too," Olwain said. "They've got the speed and strength of leopards, which is why their magic isn't completely incompatible with Earth's rules. No match for us if we were on the Globe, but here we'll have to watch out."

"Let's wait and capture them somewhere less public so we don't put any humans in danger," Valerie said.

The words were barely out of her mouth when Logan shoved a man who was trying to usher the group away from where they were standing. He fell to the ground, gripping his chest. Security guards came running, and the five Fractus formed a loose circle, ready to fight.

"So much for waiting," Alex said.

"You two fought the leopard guys before, so take them. I'll handle Logan and Toma," Valerie said.

By the time they reached the Fractus, three guards were lying on the ground, and people were starting to back away from the scene.

"I suggest you run," Logan said loudly.

People didn't wait to hear more. They turned and began pushing their way out toward the front doors, the only exit.

Valerie landed a sharp punch to Logan's cheek, which leveled her. But the blow made her stagger, so Toma was able to touch Valerie's arm, sending electricity zinging through her body. Even with her magic flowing as much as Earth's rules would allow, Valerie went down, temporarily paralyzed.

Toma took full advantage, kicking her hard in the temple, but it didn't keep Valerie down for long. As she sprang to her feet, she saw Toma glance toward the exit with longing.

"Too late to run," Valerie said, and swept her foot across the ground to knock Toma off her feet.

But the Fractus nimbly dodged the kick. Something above them caught the woman's attention, and Valerie seized the chance to hit her in a pressure point in her neck. Toma fell. Valerie confirmed that Logan was still down, then saw that Olwain and Alex had taken out their targets, as well, though Olwain was limping.

But Valerie's sixth sense for danger was still going off, and she looked up and saw three faces peering through the circular opening at the top of the Pantheon. She barely had time to register that two of the faces had eyes that were completely black before the room dimmed.

Valerie knew that the third Fractus was Reaper as soon as his feet touched the ground. His eyes met hers, but they held no surprise. He'd been expecting her.

Valerie had never seen Reaper on Earth before, and she suspected it was because his magic was at complete odds with Earth's rules. He bent the laws of physics, which went against the very tenets of how the planet functioned.

Knowing he was vulnerable, she launched herself at him with all of the speed that her magic could lend her, bound as it was.

Instead of flattening him, she passed directly through him. He was only projecting his mind to Earth. But the two Fractus who were with him were not projections, and Valerie's hold on her magic slipped as they both turned their power on her and her Knights.

"Disable them and take what I need," Reaper ordered, ignoring Valerie and the Knights.

Valerie collapsed under the weight of the darkness sucking at her magic, and her very life. Next to her, Alex and Olwain had also fallen, their faces pale. Alex's eyes fluttered back in her head. The Fractus approached, and Valerie couldn't find the strength to lift Pathos from its sheath at her side.

A human couple, who had been hovering at the edges of the crowd that was trying to force its way out of the building, leaned down to help Valerie.

The Fractus turned their magic on the couple, and they both made horrible gasping sounds that ended in choking. They fell to the ground, blood trickling from their mouths. The panic of the crowd surged, and people screamed as they clawed their way to the exit.

"More will die if you interfere," Reaper said, his eyes connecting with Valerie's for the first time since he'd arrived.

Almost hopelessly, Valerie reached out with her mind for Henry. She didn't know if his mind would be open to her across the universe, locked in a prison of his own making, but she knew that many more people would die if only she, Alex, and Olwain were there to protect them.

Her desperation must have reached Henry, because he was by her side in an instant, clutching a lock of her hair as the object that anchored him to Earth, sending him directly to his sister.

"I know how guilty you feel for helping Reaper, but starting now, you can make it right. Help me protect these people," Valerie said to her brother.

His magic flooded her, joining and strengthening her own. Valerie was able to draw Pathos, and the effect of the Fractus's magic weakened. The room brightened, and a beam of light from the opening on the ceiling struck a circle on the ground.

"Strike now, as I told you," Reaper commanded one of the Fractus, who wore his long hair tied back in a ponytail.

The Fractus turned to face Valerie then, and a torrent of darkness poured out of his eyes. She raised Pathos higher, and the light pushed back.

Alex and Olwain had found their footing and drawn their own weapons, which weren't as powerful as Pathos but still helped drive back the darkness, especially when the second Fractus added his power.

Henry's magic pooled with her own, and Valerie didn't think, but struck through the darkness. It shrank away from her sword like a slippery, living thing.

"It is like a living thing," Henry said, catching her thought. "See if you can strike it with Pathos, like the table in Cyrus's lab."

Valerie raised Pathos and drove it through the heart of the darkness, stabbing it directly into the floor.

"Yes," Reaper breathed, and the Fractus wielding the darkness retreated.

Pathos poured its light into the stone floor, and symbols made of light appeared where before there had only been a circle.

Reaper's eyes scanned the symbols as if he could read them, and then he vanished, his mind retreating to the Globe.

The two Fractus who remained standing tried to flee, but Alex and Olwain tackled them before they got far. Alex tore off a piece of cloth from the leg of her pants and blindfolded the Fractus she had pinned beneath her, and Olwain followed suit.

The humans who had witnessed the fight were openly gaping. They had their cell phones and cameras out, but Valerie could see from the dismay on their faces that their electronics weren't working. Toma must have taken care of that before Valerie knocked her out.

Alex and Olwain were tying up the other five Fractus who lay unconscious on the ground.

"The situation is under control now," Alex said to the remaining people crowded in the Pantheon. "Please exit the building in an orderly manner. The authorities will be here soon."

"Seven Fractus captured. We won this battle," Olwain said.

Valerie deliberately didn't look at the two humans who lay dead on the ground. There had been no victory. Just two more lodestones on her heavy heart.

"Reaper wanted me to use Pathos to activate that pattern in the floor. He sacrificed these humans and his people to trick me into doing what he wanted," Valerie said.

"Whatever that information was, it must lead to the charm binding magic on Earth," Henry agreed. "I don't know what those symbols mean, but I memorized them. Someone on the Globe will be able to decode them."

"I'll call Chisisi for a crew to get these Fractus safely locked up," Alex said. "You get this knowledge to the Fist so we can try to decode that pattern before Reaper does."

"Make sure the blonde, Logan, doesn't slip through your fingers," Valerie said. "She's tricky, and if anyone deserves to rot in jail for the rest of her life, it's her."

Alex took a rope she wore coiled at her side and began tying up Logan's hands. "She's not going anywhere." Alex reached over and gripped Valerie's arm in solidarity.

Valerie was thankful that someone else was taking the lead right now. She nodded to Alex, then Olwain, and touched the stone in her pocket to return to the Globe. The last image burned into her eyelids before she left was the human couple lying still, blood on their lips. They were holding hands.

"Those two humans who died... Their end is my fault, not yours. You know that, right?" Henry said when they returned to their garden on the Globe. Blue shadows under his eyes made him look sick.

"Their end is Reaper's fault, and his Fractus minions who obey him," Valerie corrected him, her voice gentle. She changed the subject, hoping to distract him from his guilt. "How were you able to memorize those symbols so fast?"

"The Empathy Collective teaches us how to harness our magic to absorb and remember large amounts of information. People with photographic memories on Earth are tapping into similar magic inside themselves."

"I think that there's a guild that's into puzzles and decoding messages," Valerie said. "Maybe they can help us. Can you—"

Valerie was shoved roughly backward by an invisible force. Her feet dragged in the dirt as she was being pulled back, through the trees that surrounded her house. She scrabbled to hold onto something and regain her footing, but the pull was inexorable. Then, as suddenly as it started, the pull stopped and she fell to the ground.

She stood, and a profound dizziness overtook her. She gripped a nearby tree for support as her entire body shuddered.

"Henry!" she shouted, searching for her brother.

"Val!" his voice responded, though she couldn't see him.

She struggled toward the sound, but every step she took in his direction was like fighting a strong current under water. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move closer to him.

Henry cracked his mind open to her, and she knew that he shared her confusion and fear. He was sure that Reaper had done something to them. She had no sooner wondered why Henry suspected Reaper than she saw their enemy walk deliberately through the trees toward her.

Valerie drew Pathos, hoping that whatever happened in the Pantheon hadn't weakened it. This time, would Reaper really fight her?

"I won't have you polluting Henry's mind more than you already have," Reaper said.

Valerie didn't miss the tremor in his hands, even though she was several yards from him. Whatever magic he had expended had been powerful.

"What did you do? You obviously want me to know," Valerie said, in part to distract him as she calculated the best angle to hit him so that she'd render him unconscious—or kill him. This time, she wouldn't leave him alive and free, whatever the cost to herself.

"I made sure that you and Henry will never join forces against me again," he said.

Valerie crossed the space between them in less than a second and raised her sword to cut him down. But before Pathos found its target, Reaper created a small portal and stepped through it.

It took three hours for Valerie to track down Sanguina. She found the ex-vampyre asleep in a hostel on Earth. Valerie shook her awake.

"You have to help us," Valerie said, and her desperation must have shown in her eyes, because Sanguina was instantly awake.

"Anything," she said.

Valerie told her what had happened, and a dawning look of comprehension replaced Sanguina's initial puzzlement.

"He reversed your polarity," Sanguina said. "I've seen him test the theory on small animals on the Globe. He was successful, but it took so much of his magic that it was never practical to try it on a Conjuror."

"What does that mean?"

"Think of it like magnets. In a natural state, you and Henry are drawn together by the force of your blood tie. By reversing your polarity, the very blood that pumps through your veins rejects that connection and will not allow you to be near your twin. Your body is rebelling against your mind, protecting you against what it perceives as an enemy."

"How do I fix it?"

"I don't have an answer for that," Sanguina said, regret making her voice low.

"Surely Henry, with his psychic powers, can find a way to repair this polarity thing inside him," Valerie said.

Sanguina shook her head. "From your description of your symptoms, I think Reaper reversed your polarity, not your brother's. It's you we'll have to find a way to switch back."

"I don't have time to figure this out! I'm trying to plan and fight a war on two fronts!" Valerie said, lowering her voice when she realized she was shouting.

"That's what Reaper's counting on," Sanguina said. "He knows that when you combine your power with Henry's, you are more than a match for him."

"Henry's not a match for anyone right now," Valerie said, sitting on Sanguina's bed. All of her energy had abruptly left her.

"True. But I know you can defeat Reaper on your own. That's your secret weapon, because Reaper doesn't believe that. If he did, you'd be dead. You're alive because he still wants to use Henry's power, and he knows that if he killed you, Henry wouldn't survive it."

"I don't know what to do anymore," Valerie said. "I wish there was someone here to tell me. Midnight, Gideon, my dad..."

"Yourmother was always wonderful in these kinds of situations. When things were attheir worst, something more powerful than magic rose within her to face it. Youhave that in you, too," Sanguina said. "Now go find it."