Two days later, all the surviving Hunters met at the junction in North Las Vegas where the original party had split into groups nearly two weeks before. When we first stepped into Las Vegas, the party was a hundred of the best Hunters strong. Only sixty-eight walked out of the city.

A group of busses were waiting to take us back to St. George. From there, each Hunter would fly back to their respective cities. There was also a large clean up crew waiting. The original plan was the expedition team would kill all the monsters and close the Portal, then a clean-up crew would come in to collect the valuable parts remaining on the monster carcasses. The money from the parts would go toward financing the expedition, among other things the Hunters’ Association handles.

How the clean-up crew was going to be able to get most of the valuable monster left-overs now that they were buried under rubble and sand … Well, that wasn’t my problem. But it did make selling my Drop Items a little harder, since I technically wasn’t supposed to collect them. But if I didn’t touch the Drop Orbs, they were going to go to waste — I’d already left a lot behind. And I wasn’t going to collect the orbs then toss the items away for someone else to pick up. It just meant that I most likely wasn’t going to use Maveric to sell my items this time. Reputable dealers asked questions and followed the law, not really all that great for handling hidden matters. But Maveric could still help me sell all the Orc weapons I had.

Or, I thought while glancing at Kesstel sitting next to me, this guy could help me. But all that would have to wait until after my mom woke up.

I knew things were going well, really. Earth was shakier than ever, but I felt a moment of peace and accomplishment right now. We dealt with the most pressing threat and closed the two Portals, killed thousands of monsters threatening the human population, and now I was an S-ranked Hunter with Goddess to help find the way to the parasitic planet. Now that Kesstel and I could finally work together, it felt possible.

Things were going to work out. I sure as hell was going to make sure they did.

I turned away from the window as Las Vegas fell into the distance behind us. Even though the Portal was closed, there was still a thick layer of magic over the city boundaries, like a semi-transparent smog. How long was it going to take for that to go away?

Humming under my breath, I leaned my shoulder against Kesstel’s arm, getting comfy for the trip back to the airplanes.

Not everyone in the bus shared my moment of relief. A heavy atmosphere of exhaustion hung thick in the quiet bus. When we first came here, everyone was raring to go fight monsters. Now they just wanted to go home and relax. A and S Hunters fought the toughest monsters in Gate Vale daily, but that was mostly between 7 and 10 am. Two weeks of constant fighting would wear anyone out.

Blood Sword and his party of leaders were especially tense. Their fingers were flying across the texting boards of their Guide screens, their body language stiff. They were also passing around a file of papers. I didn’t think the buried monsters were that much a loss, but I could have been wrong.

Kesstel shifted a little to make it more comfortable for both of us and wrapped his arm around my stomach without taking his eyes off his Guide screen. The fingers of his left hand flitted across the blue screen as he opened up files and paused to read. “Ah, I thought so,” he muttered.

I blinked out of my thoughts and glanced up at his blank blue screen. Sadly, no matter how much I stared at it, I was never going to see what he was reading. “What?”

“When the Portal closed, it set off a worldwide Gate Burst,” he said softly, still reading the screen.

No matter how quietly he spoke, it would never be low enough in a silent bus full of super humans.

The entire bus erupted in shock and disbelief. Multiple people jumped to their feet and others were yelling, demanding to know what was going on. The driver was taken by surprise and the bus swerved on the road.

Above it all, Healer Laurel jumped to her feet and demanded, “How did you find out?” Her exclamation only incited people more, since she basically confirmed what Kesstel just said.

I sat up and turned wide eyes to him. “W-What?”

Then I paused, thinking about the weird feeling I felt when the Portal closed. Kesstel said that it was the parasitic planet. Then I’d been so distracted with fighting that I completely forgot about it until now. How could I have forgotten about it like that?

My hands jumped up into my hair and gripped the strands hard. “What happened to Garden City?”

Oh my god. I left my family defenseless. Half the best Hunters in Eden went on this expedition. Without them, how was Eden going to handle a Gate Surge? How many monsters got into Garden City before they were stopped? Were they stopped at all? Was that why Blood Sword and his people were acting so tense? What about other Gates?

Kesstel reached out and gently untangled my fingers from my hair. “The city suffered some, but it's still standing.” As soon as he spoke, the rest of the people went silent.

Multiple people turned to Blood Sword, looking for an explanation.

He cleared his throat and stood up, drawing everyone’s stares. His face had leaned out in the last couple weeks and there were stress lines on the side of his mouth and eyes. “I was going to wait a little bit longer to tell you. Two days ago, while we were fighting the Boss of the Las Vegas Portal, a worldwide Gate Surge took place.” We’d just heard that, but hearing the second confirmation was still unsettling. It left no room to doubt it was true. “Multiple cities were destroyed across the world from both the Gate Surges and several earthquakes that went off at the same time. We have lost communication with Japan, Australia, and all of the African continent. There are multiple other countries that are currently evacuating as we speak.”

The more Blood Sword spoke, the tighter I squeezed Kesstel’s hand. He didn’t pull away, simply sat there and let me try to pinch off his fingers. “Oh my god,” I whispered. That was so many people. “What happened to Garden City and Eden?” I demanded, lifting my voice to be heard over the shocked muttering. I glanced at Kesstel.

Blood Sword was the one who answered. “Since so many of our top Hunters were involved in Las Vegas, our people took a heavy hit around the Redding, Quebec, and Eden Gates. We were fortunate to not suffer from another earthquake at the same time. It took ten hours, but they were finally able to kill off all the monsters that exited the Gate.”

My chest tightened painfully. Ten hours was a lot of time. A lot of damage and death could be done in that amount of time. Was my family okay? It was already bad enough that I left them before the condo was settled. What if they weren’t even there when I came back? Then what did I do all this work for?

Kesstel tightened his arm around me and he pressed his lips into my hair, but I barely felt it.

“Eden was heavily hit before the wall around it was broken through in C District and the monsters entered Garden City. The total death toll is in the several thousands and still climbing.” Blood Sword kept talking, but my attention was shot by the messy thoughts that exploded in my mind.

C District. That was on the other side of Garden City from where my family lived, but it wasn’t too far from the hospital Mom was in.

I pulled my cell phone out of my Items Bag and stared at it. We wouldn’t be in range of a working cell tower until the plane landed in Garden City. It was useless to even look at it. Still I couldn’t resist clutching it one hand with Kesstel’s arm in my other.

*****

The bus and plane rides were silent. No one was in the mood to play around or relaxed enough to nap. It was the second time I’d ever been on an airplane, but there were no excited bubbles in my stomach as we took off. I just wanted to get home to check on my family.

They had to be okay. They had to be. They were on the opposite side of the city and the hospital had been successfully protected. But it was still possible that they were out doing errands or something when it all happened. If they were out of the house when the Surge happened, and transportation shut down for it, they could have gotten caught in the fight if they weren’t able to find a place to hide.

Just the thought made me sick.

The airplane circled the cities as it lowered to the airport runway. I wasn’t the only Hunter pressed against the windows, trying to get a good look. Eden had never suffered this kind of damage since it was built.

The Hunters’ city had taken a lot of damage, which was to be expected. After all, it was designed to keep the fighting contained inside. C District and E District were practically totalled. D District was pretty beat up, more than half of the buildings inflicted with damage in various stages. A District had suffered some damage, but since the buildings were better constructed, the damage was less. Still, at least fifteen percent of the buildings showed damage. The least destroyed District was the Guild District. Dozens of construction crews were clearing the rubble along with thousands of Hunters.

Blood Sword’s voice came over the intercom. “The Hunters’ Association wants everyone to check in at the Association Building. Most of the Guild members are residing inside their Guilds at the moment, since most of the housing in Eden has been destroyed. Those that don’t have Guilds to go to are temporarily living with family in Garden City if possible or staying in hotels. Monster count in the Gate is pretty low right now, so most of the Hunters are being instructed to assist in clean up.” He paused. “Not fun, but this is our home. There’s going to be a lot of rebuilding, and everyone is expected to pitch in. More information will be given when you check in at the Association.”

While he talked, my eyes were glued to Garden City. From up here, I could see the wreckage trail from the breached wall in C District and spreading out into Garden City. It was shocking to see it, especially since the human city was still trying to recover from the earthquake. How many more people had been killed, injured, or left homeless? Tarps and tents were stretched out in the streets, with people bustling around between them.

As soon as the plane came to a stop, I took my phone out of flight mode and stared at it. Who should I call? There was only one way to call my family’s apartment — a landline. What if it was damaged?

Kesstel tapped my shoulder and directed me to exit. All of our luggage was in our Items Bags, so we didn’t need to pull anything down from the storage bins. But we were in the second row, and there was a line of anxious people behind me. I absentmindedly followed him out and down the staircase attached to the plane.

As soon as my foot touched the ground, my phone vibrated and indicated I had a voicemail from yesterday from an unknown number.

My heart flipped and I stepped to the side so the Hunters behind me could exit. My fingers were shaking as I opened my voicemail box and put the phone to my ear.

“Please be okay,” I whispered. “Please, please be okay.”

Kesstel stood at my side with his thumbs hooked in his jean pockets. I must be affecting him because his body was tense as he watched me. Blood Sword beckoned to him, but he just waved him away.

Aunt Mina’s tired voice sounded in my ear. “Hey, baby girl.” She paused to take a deep breath. “A lot of things have happened since you left. Some good, um, like, like the condo’s foundation isn’t as damaged as they thought. We should be able to move in soon. All your hard work is paying off.” She took a shaky breath, as her voice turned nasally and thick. “I know that you’re a long ways away right now. And that you’re doing a lot of dangerous stuff and shouldn’t be distracted but … But I just thought you needed to, to know that yesterday…”

The phone slipped from my numb fingers as the rest of her message echoed in my blank mind.

Kesstel caught my phone.

I didn’t give him a glance as I turned on my toes and sprinted toward the hospital like my life depended on it.

*****