Read Online Dimension Fracture by Corinn Heathers - Free Book Online Page A

get almost four hours of sleep before something happened.
    Misaki was still sitting cross-legged in the center of the room, but her eyes opened and she let out a slow, deep breath. I sat up in bed and met my fiancee's eyes.
    “There was only an instant of contact before it was aborted,” I said, anxiety coloring my tone. “I think it's safe to say they knew we were monitoring them. Did you—?”
    “Yes. I found her. It doesn't matter how brief the psychic link was.”
    “Her?” I echoed.
    “I was able to touch her mind and read her sense. I could feel her identity—as a human woman. We're not dealing with a specter or a spirit or even a fused abomination like that of Lord Isao, but a human mage.”
    Misaki stood up and stretched, her tail curling up toward her back as she worked the stiffness out of her muscles. After having sat perfectly still without any movement for several hours, I didn't doubt that she felt a little sore.
    “Where is she?”
    “In our city,” Misaki answered. Her expression was pensive rather than angry. “I can track her through the loose mana with an invocation of finding, but I don't think it will be necessary. Her soul burns with such power that not noticing it would be more difficult.”
    “Do you have any other information?”
    Misaki nodded and sat on the edge of the bed next to me. “Yes. She is very powerful, but her magecraft feels strange. She exhibits no specific hallmarks associated with known arcane houses, past or present. She's young—at least physically, though I get the feeling her soul is much older than her body. I can't discern any other identifying traits, but I can get a fix on her.”
    “So what do we do now?” I wondered.
    “We find her and get answers.”

shadows
     
    Misaki sat in the passenger seat of my car, her thumbs tapping lightly against the screen of her phone. I gave her a questioning look as I settled in behind the wheel and re-adjusted the seat for my leg length.
    “I'm notifying Star of our intentions,” she explained.
    “Good thinking. We're almost to the scene.” I turned the key and felt the faint vibrations as the electric motor whirred to life. It still felt strange for the car to make so little noise while under power. I suppose I'd gotten used to the noisy burner hybrid I used to drive, with its worn-out batteries and penchant for choosing to fire up the internal combustion engine at the slightest provocation.
    I pulled out of the refueling station's parking lot and into traffic, merging smoothly with the other vehicles heading for the city. We'd crossed over into Washington not long ago and stopped to top off the car's hydrogen reserves. One of the great things about a fuel cell car was just how infrequently that had to be done; the last time I filled it up was well over a month ago. It definitely helped that cracked H 2 fuel was dirt-cheap compared to farmed ethanol or, even worse, diesel fuel reprocessed from organic waste.
    Even with traffic to contend with, it didn't take us long to get to where we had to go. Misaki's eyes were glued to her phone, examining the maps that Star gave us during the briefing. We were closing in on one of the crime scenes.
    “We're getting closer,” Misaki noted, her ears flicking to and fro as she concentrated her mystic senses on the area around us. Her expression became thoughtful.
    “What is it?”
    “I can feel the mage, but her signature is… indistinct. Almost as if she's flickering in and out of the material world.”
    I popped the lid on my own milk coffee and took a long gulp off the icy cold beverage, keeping my eyes on the road. The auto-drive option would have added another ten thousand to the car's price tag. I felt that was a little bit steep just so I could be lazy behind the wheel.
    Misaki closed her eyes and her fingertips began to inscribe glowing runes into the air before her, casting a more powerful probe—an invocation of finding. It would give her a much more precise location