Scenes
In-depth moments from the saga. See the Timeline for the full chronological overview.
Crash
The opening of Book I. A montage of Ross's mundane life at the boarding school — an orphan smiling through the pain of monotony, navigating hardships with the other kids and teachers. Then Ross goes to his spot in the woods to find peace — or so it seems. He's actually there to end his life. Just as he's about to commit, a roaring engine tears through the silence. Haley comes crashing through the trees in a blue car, fleeing toward a portal she had prearranged with Athena. She smashes through branches and dead wood before slamming to a stop, knocked unconscious. Ross pulls her from the wreck and checks on her. Then the portal opens nearby. He feels an eerie connection to it — something pulling him toward it. From his perspective, he was seconds away from death. The portal is the most interesting thing that could happen to someone in that mental state. The ontological shock overrides everything. He carries Haley's limp body through. Haley never sees the color of the portal.
The Suitcase
Snap has been hunted for her book of secrets — the complete record of her detective work investigating Ail's magic. She arranges a meeting with a group of significant enemies in an underground bunker, telling them she's finally ready to hand it over. They gather underground, expecting the prize. Snap opens the suitcase. It's not the book. It's a bomb. She seals them in and detonates it, killing herself and the enemies trapped inside.
The Baby Food Throw
Ross and Komarza are both dead. Ross's last words were asking Tayzh to get the baby. Now on Earth, Tayzh is caring for Phoebe — still an infant. She throws food at him and it hits him dead center in the face. He wipes it off. She does it again — same spot, perfect aim. Tayzh begins to realize something extraordinary about this child. There is no magic on Earth, so whatever this is, it isn't a spell. It's something else entirely.
The Return
Haley makes the jump from Ail to Earth and crash-lands. Tayzh — now in law enforcement and leveraging intel from Snap's book of secrets — has been anticipating her arrival and is there to meet her. He greets her, but the reunion is bittersweet. Tayzh has to tell her the news: Ross is dead. The last time Haley saw Ross, he carried her unconscious body through a portal. Now she's returned to a world where he no longer exists.
The Observation Cavern
Phoebe and Mantso are about to fight — a child against a god-level opponent rising into the Ascension. The team is not at the fight. They are inside Orion's prison, in a stone cavern he is using as a command position. Clone Sunny holds open a constellation of portals so they can watch every angle of the battle. Haley is here because she has always been here — Orion's agent since before Book I. Clone Sunny is here because Orion needed his portals and forced him into helping. As the fight resolves toward something terrible — the realization sets in that Orion is willing to spend Phoebe's life to complete his plan — Clone Sunny moves to stop him, and Haley does too. Orion drops his gravity onto both of them and pins them flat to the cavern floor. Tayzh, faster and cleverer than either of them, slips out from under it before it lands and breaks for Phoebe.
