Free Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) by John Corwin Page B

was never fully finished. The builders left all those prepackaged arch cubes behind, each one capable of being deployed as a particular kind of arch. Installing an Obsidian Arch was a simple matter."
    "Atlanta is her hub," Elyssa said. "We have to assume she has at least some omniarches in the Thunder Rock control room working."
    I shook my head. "Unless she figured out how to repair them, those omniarches are so broken they might toss you into a black hole. I was probably lucky to end up in El Dorado instead of caught in the void between dimensions."
    A mixed group of male and female Exorcists entered the room, hoods down, and arctablets in hand. They joined the first group, walking around the aether pods while the hooded woman seemed to lecture them.
    "Not good," Elyssa said. "It looks like this woman is their new leader."
    I angled for a peek under the woman's hood, but the crowd of eager students blocked my view. "Daelissa must have finally killed Montjoy." Considering the way she'd smacked the pompous ass around when he'd captured me and Dad, it was amazing he'd survived as long as he had.
    Jeremiah put a hand under his chin and frowned. "This is deeply troubling. Montjoy was, at best, inept. This person seems not only capable, but likeable, if the delighted expressions of her students are any indication."
    "After we kicked their antiquated asses back to the Stone Age, I guess Daelissa figured it was time to upgrade the Exorcists." I tried for another glimpse of the woman's face as she stepped between the students and demonstrated something with an aether pod control panel. One of the battle mages, a young man, said something he obviously found hilarious. The female Exorcists gave him a dirty look. One of them pointed a finger at the man and proceeded to give him a tongue lashing while he held up his hands in a defensive posture and smirked.
    "I think we've spent enough time here," Elyssa said. "We have a way inside, and we know where the aether pods are. Where does Daelissa keep the maturing cupids?"
    "There is a nursery down a hall through the door the Exorcists used." Jeremiah pointed to the door on the opposite side of the aether pod room.
    Elyssa took some pictures of the observation room with her phone. "We can use the omniarch to open a portal here. That should allow us to enter in force and destroy this place." Her gaze locked onto the Exorcists as they made their way back across the room toward the door. She aimed her phone camera and zoomed the lens. One of the men in the group opened the door wide enough so the group could pass through. "Got a picture of the hall." She showed me the images. "I'll text a picture of this room to Shelton so he can open the portal, then we'll use these pictures to open a portal closer to the nursery."
    She tapped the message on her phone and waited. A few minutes later, her phone beeped with a text message. Elyssa looked at it and frowned. "Shelton said he can't open a portal. He said every time it starts to activate, the omniarch shut down."
    Jeremiah's eyes closed. He sighed. "Once Maulin Kassus realized you were using an omniarch, he knew you could open portals anywhere and tasked his people to find a way to block them. I thought Thomas Borathen had taken all the research when he took down Kassus and Darkwater. It appears I was wrong."
    "You have no idea how bad that is for us," I said in an accusing voice. "How much more of this 'oops I forgot to tell you' crap are you going to pull on us, Jeremiah? In your one-man quest for revenge, you helped Daelissa counter one of our biggest advantages."
    His eyes went rock hard. "She would have come up with the countermeasures even without me, boy. Kassus took the initiative on the portal prevention technology and only informed me when it was close to completion. I simply didn't have time to deal with the day-to-day operations of Darkwater."
    I narrowed my eyes. "Because you were too busy plotting revenge and brainwashing my