Free Wicked War of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 9) by John Corwin

matter of time before this war caught the noms' attention," Bella said. "Dealing with it will be difficult."
    "Something should be done. What if they release a cherub?" My stomach clenched. "The last thing we need is a world full of shadow people."
    Shelton took a drink of coffee and shrugged. "Ain't nothing we can do about it now. Either Daelissa or the U.S. military controls Kobol now. We'd have to invade."
    The notification for a new email chimed. I flicked on the screen. It was from Christian Salazar, commander of the Colombian Templars and addressed to me, Elyssa, and the others on our command staff.
    Several captured prisoners from our latest operations stated Daelissa has not made an appearance for several days as she usually does. One prisoner revealed under questioning that Daelissa may have already activated the Grand Nexus. Will keep everyone apprised of information as it unfolds.
     

Chapter 7
     
    The tight feeling in my stomach went even tighter.
    "What is it?" Shelton asked.
    Daelissa could be in Seraphina right this moment! I turned my phone to him so he could read the email.
    Bella's eyes went wide. "I thought opening a portal to Seraphina with the Grand Nexus was blocked by those statues."
    "Bah." Shelton backhanded the air. "It's just a rumor. If Daelissa really went back to the motherland, we'd be ass-deep in angel feathers."
    I took a few deep breaths to quell the fear rising in me. "I hope so." I took a bite of a sausage and chewed on it while my mind ran in circles. "Bella, would you get together a small group of people to monitor nom news? I need to know how aware the humans are of current paranormal events." I turned to Shelton. "Get ahold of MacLean. Ask him if his Illuminati contacts can find out how much the nom government knows."
    "You should also ask Kassallandra and David," Shelton said. "From what he told me, the Daemos have a small army of informants in governments across the world."
    My father, David, had once told me the same thing. A supernatural race with a master's degree in seduction could get just about any kind of information they wanted. I finished my breakfast, said goodbye to my friends, and headed for the underground hangar in the Templar compound.
    The levitator deposited me in what looked like a massive underground garage. Plain boxes called sliders were parked in neat rows. Each one was equipped with flying spells much like the ones used by flying carpets, and illusion spells to make them look like nom aircraft such as helicopters or small planes. In a remote corner of the garage were two large square outlines of painted yellow dashes.
    A pedestal with an arctablet fastened to it stood in front of the square.
    "Justin Slade," I said to the tablet.
    The screen blinked on and traced me with an array of lights. Adam, a former conspiracy theorist and master magic hacker, had written a special authentication program for the device.
    "Wait time for a portal is four minutes and thirty seconds," the tablet said. A timer appeared on the screen and counted down.
    I sighed, took out Nookli, and browsed the Overnet, aka the aethernet—the Overworld version of the internet—while I waited. "Man, it sucks not having my own omniarch anymore." I sent a text to Elyssa and told her I was going to El Dorado to visit Cinder. She didn't respond right away since she was probably leading some of our newer troops through training exercises right about now.
    A portal flickered into being a few seconds before the countdown ended. I stepped through and into the control room at La Casona.
    "Destination?" a young male Templar asked me.
    "I got it," I said. Before he could protest, I touched the silver circle around the omniarch and willed it to close. The static rush of aether filled the air. I filled my mind with an image of the control room in El Dorado. The air between the arch slashed open to the exact area I'd imagined. I stepped through and willed the portal to close. It narrowed to a thin scar in