“See? The Zothoric’s darkness is in you. I cannot let you live to find the queen.” The ice king chopped through Steven’s tentacles like they weren’t there.

  Uchiko looped the chain of kusarigama around the king’s neck and pulled him back just before he decapitated Steven.

  “You have Morta as well,” Steven said. “You’re an Ohkreela.”

  The ice king struggled against the chain around his throat. Uchiko must’ve pumped herself full of DragonStrength to hold him. “I am more than that. I am King Vandrus Dree, the last of the seven kings, the last true king. And I understand the evil in me. You do not. You cannot know. You must die!”

  An idea struck Steven. Yes, Uchiko had Animus. He had just enough strength to cast AnimusChain and pull energy from her into his own starving core.

  “Yes,” she called out. “Take what you need, my Prime!”

  Steven shifted into his True Form, rising above the fray. The Baxter armor covered him just in time. The swords of the snow elves shattered against the metal plates.

  Nefri’s cloak fluttered as BlackBlood tentacles erupted out of the dark cloth. They pulled snow elves apart by the dozen, keeping them safe. But the blizzarding snow created more and more of the things. They charged forward. Some wielded long clubs of ice. Others had swords in their frosty fists.

  Steven breathed fire into the snow elves, reducing them and their weapons to vapor.

  Vandrus Dree screamed in frustration. “You might strike me down, but I refuse to leave without killing what should not be alive in the first place.” The ice king wheeled and flung his sword into Nefri. The sword struck her through the right side of her chest. She fell to her knees.

  No, this couldn’t be happening.

  “Uchiko, stand back!” Steven roared.

  The ninja escaped, taking her sickle-chain with her.

  The second she leapt away, Steven bathed the ice king in flames. The fire melted him, forcing him to his knees. The points of his crown withered, and his cloak ran like rain down his body. Vandrus Dree, or at least this simulacrum, fell to his knees.

  Half-melted, the ice king raised a face that looked like an icicle in the sun. His mouth only half worked. “Dragonlord, I do not know what strange paths you have walked. I trust the black-haired woman, but I can never trust you. The evil will eat at you. Cling to your wisdom, Dragonlord. Clutch your humility to your chest. I will be...” Then the mouth lost all shape.

  Steven snorted out the last of his fire.

  Uchiko appeared next to him. “He will be watching.”

  The snow elves around them turned into drifts. Their weapons plunked down into snowbanks.

  The ninja caressed Steven’s scales. “Vandrus Dree could’ve pulled the water in and drowned us. He didn’t. I think it was like he said. He trusts me.”

  Steven carefully brushed a huge claw down her back. “Because you are trustworthy and honorable.”

  Uchiko blushed, bowed, and fled from him. He’d get the whole story from her eventually. For now, they had to deal with their wounded and focus on the next puzzle.

  Pru sat down in the snow and cradled Chazzie’s head in her lap. “She took out a Splacker just before it hit us. Fucking Morta shit. It drained her core.”

  Steven shifted human. He didn’t think pulling more Animus from Uchiko to help Chazzie was a good idea, and he was running low on everything. Except Morta.

  He hurried over to Nefri. She lay on her side, still conscious, as dark red blood stained the snow under her. She had a Morta core, but she didn’t bleed black. That seemed good.

  Steven pulled up the Morta skill tree.

  HE’D REACHED LEVEL two. That made sense, as he’d slaughtered a bellyful of the Shaze, and going up against the Terror Trio had helped as well. Those bastards, selling out their own people just to win. Rage went through Steven. His Morta swirled up inside him.

  Nefri gazed at him, eyes open. She seemed curious, and yet, that light was fading. She choked out a few sounds then stilled herself. She frowned.

  The snow had stopped for a moment. The place was silent.

  Steven wasn’t sure what to do. He had Morta, but how to use it to help Nefri? He thought of the Path of the Twin-Souled Dragon. The first skill of the Veneficium, the right wing of the dragon skill tree, was Magica Defensio. In some ways, BlackBlood was similar. It offered defense, and it could do damage. Steven had used shield spells to kill Dragonkind.

  The second spell set was Magica Cura. Steven recalled Gideon healing Butcher’s massive wounds, even helping him regrow a leg. The flesh had been repugnant, and yet, the Morphling wasn’t dead. A word came to Steven. NecroMend.

  Steven touched the ice king’s long sword. It was melting from Nefri’s body heat. Water inside the wound couldn’t be good. He was going to have to try the next Morta skill. If he was right, it would be NecroMend. He wasn’t sure where Corropor was on the skill tree.

  In one motion, Steven pulled the sword from Nefri’s chest. He then pushed a hand over the wound. He reached into her and found her Morta core. He’d practiced with FleshForge, seeing the interplay between someone’s energy and their flesh. NecroMend, yes, he felt how he could use the dark energy to address the torn tissue. He regrew the cells, and yet, they weren’t right. The skin closed but it was still an angry wound. With Magica Cura, he’d be able to fully heal such a nasty wound. Once he got Animus, he could try to do more for her.

  Yet, Nefri’s body was resistant to such spells. He should’ve been able to use FleshForge to repair her severed voice box, but neither he nor Tessa had been able to do anything for her. He hoped that he’d have better luck with less intricate body parts.

  Nefri lay on her back. She closed her eyes. They would have to get her out of the snow before she froze. A fresh batch of snowflakes fell from the wavering barrier holding the ocean back. Was it getting smaller? They had to hurry.

  But their people were down, and he needed power.

  Before he tackled that problem, he pulled up the Morta skill tree again.

  LIKE HE THOUGHT, HE’D unlocked a new Morta skill.

  Mouse walked over and tapped the dripping ice king with the Slayer Blade. “Wow, Frosty the Snowman is all kinds of fucked up. Olaf was an imbecile. Ice and summer don’t mix.”

  “Fuck you,” Pru hissed, shotgun on her shoulder. “Just ’cause you can’t drink margaritas don’t mean we can’t. Ice and summer definitely mix. And who in the hell is Olaf?”

  “He’s from a movie,” Mouse explained lamely.

  Steven had to end their fun. “I need Animus.”

  “We used all of Good Girl’s Animus rounds at the Cruxis fight,” Pru said. “That was how we lasted as long as we did.”

  Mouse came over, sank to her knees, and undid his jeans. “Okay, no time for nice and soft. You need Animus, and you need it now. This is why you have a fucking Escort in the first place.” She laughed at her own joke. “Fucking Escort. That’s a bit on the nose.”

  She worked him fast, nasty, and good. It was a little distracting, being in an Under City, with the ocean closing in, and their lives on the line. And how did NecroMend work anyway? Would Nefri be okay? Those thoughts weren’t helping.

  He focused on Mouse’s warm mouth. That did it. He felt the new batch of Animus strike him. Mouse got to her feet, wiping her mouth. “And that, friends, is how you do that. Uchiko, Pru, I hope you were paying attention. There will be a test.”

  Uchiko made a face.

  Pru didn’t even try to joke. “I’m worried for my sister.”

  Mouse winced. “Sorry. She’ll be okay. Steven has the juice now to fix her up.”

  He did indeed. Hooking into her core, he flooded her with Animus. Chazzie’s eyes blinked open. “Oh, that was goodness right there. I feel great. And did I get that Splacker?”

  Tears glimmered in Pru’s eyes. “You certainly did, sweetie. We didn’t get an acid bath because damn, you can shoot.”

  Chazzie sat up. “Something wrong, sis?”

  Pru tossed out a hand. “Not now. We got more quest shit to do. Fuck quests. I mean, for real. Fuck quests.”

  “Amen.” The twins bumped fists before hugging.

  Steven went over to Nefri. He cast Magica Cura, tracing a hand across the ugly infected wound. The redness receded, and yet, inside, he felt the damage there still. Maybe the dark elf could help him understand NecroMend better. Once she woke up.

  Uchiko came over. “I will hold her on my lap so she doesn’t freeze. Hurry. The waters are closing in.”

  Steven approached the fire dancing in the basin. The first basin under Denver needed water, and the second basin in Keereeneeda required fire, so ice seemed liked the next item on the menu.

  Steven shifted into his True Form.

  Chazzie stood next to him with her phone out, pink and bejeweled. Pru stood next to her, eyes furtive. Okay, something was up with Pru. First things first, more quest shit.

  Steven focused on changing the fire inside him into a damaging cold. The ArcticWind Exhalant left his mouth. The cold struck the flames in the basin and they stopped moving immediately. They didn’t vanish, no, but froze in place.

  Chazzie clicked away, taking pictures. “Well, that’s just pretty. I mean, frozen flames, I’m gonna use that for my phone’s desktop. These Ohkreela might be a pain in my ass, but they can create some pretty shit.”

  “Just take the pictures, sister,” Pru said.

  The ice flames shattered, swept around them, and then reformed into the familiar map of the continents. They saw the Under Cities they’d already visited and the place where they were, off the coast of Vankeevra Island. The bits of ice coalesced into a shiny star farther north, in Alaska, in the mountains above Anchorage.

  Steven knew a bit about the geography up there. His stepfather, Joe Whipp, had been a big fan of the lawlessness of Alaska. He’d visited the Denali National Park, where the continent’s tallest mountain, Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, stood at over twenty thousand feet.

  The ice star sparkled there, and Steven thought that was their last destination. That was where Quinnestri and the Lyra were hiding.

  The cold crystals flashed and turned into water, squiggling into lines of text, which Chazzie captured. The water flickered and then froze as more snow swept into the text. They were shown the strange script that Nefri hadn’t been able to understand.

  Steven took a second to glance around. The magical barrier keeping the ocean back had crept past the buildings and sunk lower on the spire, and the huge city had been reduced to only a couple of hundred feet around them. And it was getting smaller.

  Quinnestri’s face made of flames appeared to melt the strange words away. “The eyes are ever searching. The eyes are ever closed. The dream you seek is nothing but a dream. Chase away to other worlds and leave Aqualyra alone.”

  The flames turned blue, freezing, as the face quickly began to melt. Yet as the drops of water plinked down into the basin, they turned into flames, until a dancing orange fire was there, the same as it was when they first arrived. Though the mouth was gone, the elf queen’s words boomed through the chamber. “Hidden in dreams, death protects those who walk in the light. As for those on the dark path, arise, and fulfill your terrible destiny.”

  “Here we go, guys!” Mouse shifted into a dragon, since her oral service had given her Animus as well. Uchiko hurried forward, carrying Nefri. They both got onto the dragon.

  From out of the ocean shuffled skeletons. The minute the undead touched the snow, the water froze to their bones, giving them an eerie, sparkling sheen. It froze their hair in wild shapes above their frost-marked skulls. The layer of ice didn’t affect their movement or their weapons. They crashed forward in their creaking armor, heading for Steven and Nefri, since they had Morta in their core.

  Uchiko, on Mouse’s back, pointed. “Follow the pathway out of here. This was all underwater when I first arrived.”

  Steven saw the walkway leading straight ahead, cutting through the cities. Yes, there was a corridor cutting through the ocean. That hallway wasn’t shrinking. Everything around him was.

  Ven Dro cackled laughter on the other side of the basin. “Well, Steven, we better hurry and get the last fucking clue. This place is about to go Atlantis on our asses.”

  Gideon rose on a wave of BlackBlood. He hit Steven with Morta magic that dropped him to the snow.

  The Magician laughed. “Let me teach you, my other Steven, all about Leeze.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  MY OTHER STEVEN.

  Those words hung in the air as Ven Dro shifted into a black dragon. In his True Form, the villain’s face was marred: his short black beard hung from bleeding scales, his face leaked blood and fire, and his eyes bulged from damaged eye sockets. His entire body was scarred and marked and dripping with ichor. The stench of him, rotten oranges, filled the shrinking space.

  That smell, those gray eyes, the truth hit Steven even as Gideon ripped into his Morta core. Ven Dro. Steven Drokharis. It was a laughable abbreviation. The false knight was another version of Steven, but from which reality?

  Steven, on his knees, recalled his guessing game with Ven Dro. It all made sense now. He grimaced at the pain, but he didn’t utter a word. He knew. Ven Dro was the Battle World’s Steven Drokharis. It felt unfair. Ven Dro had grown up with a Dragonsoul as a father, the remarkable Stefan Drokharis. He’d have been taught to use his Animus from an early age. On Gaia Beta, the elder Drokharis had risen to power, had been the king of the world, and he’d had every advantage. And yet, the bastard had betrayed his friends. He’d led them into an ambush during the Battle of Denver. He’d sold his soul to the Mother Horror because he couldn’t stand to lose.

  How could they be so different? Steven didn’t know. But he and his Escort were in trouble. Ven Dro and Gideon hadn’t come alone. Butcher slithered through the air as a very insectile snake, his face full of eyes like a fly, two pairs of mouth mandibles leaking ichor. Shaze and Splackers raced across the snow-covered floor.

  Steven’s Escort wasn’t about to give up. Chazzie and Pru snatched up their guns, though they were scraping the bottom of the barrel now. Pru had her shotgun. Chazzie had twin Uzis with extended clips. Uchiko stood over Nefri, the Hellstring ready to fire. Mouse towered above them all as an amber-colored dragon. They didn’t attack the incoming ice skeletons because the undead guardians weren’t interested in Animus-based life. They went for the Shaze.

  Icy swords cut into the demons, who whistled in pain. Splackers erupted, throwing acid around them. The muck sizzled into the skeletons, eating through joints, forcing them to fall apart.

  Uchiko filled Butcher with arrows as Chazzie unloaded her clips into the snake. The bullets pummeled him, and yet he slithered on through the air.

  When a Shaze came near, Pru blew a hole in the bug, then pumped a fresh shell into her shotgun.

  Mouse laughed. “For close encounters of a fucked-up kind.”

  The twin didn’t get the reference.

  Mouse struck the demons with ElectroArc. The Shaze fried immediately. The Splackers exploded, flinging acid. But every kill pulled Animus from them. They needed to get out of there.

  If only Steven could help.

  A strange golden light haloed Ven Dro’s skull for a second; the light dissipated when he breathed ArcticWind onto the fire, freezing the basin. He cast Magica Divinatio, to unravel Vandrus Dree’s clues.

  Gideon approached Steven. In his chest was a dagger, and not just any dagger. Steven recognized the hilt. That was the Angel Knife, a resurrection tool. So that was why Gideon was alive. He raised a serrated knife to cut Steven’s throat. A spear punched through the Magician’s belly.

  “Not now!” Gideon wailed. He spun to fight the incoming snow skeletons.

  That was all Steven needed. Gideon’s spell, Leeze, acted like a combination of AnimusChain and ShadowStrength—it pulled Morta from Steven, leaving him weak. He didn’t have one core, though, but two, and he had enough Animus to turn into his True Form.

  He leapt up, sweeping his tail into Gideon, driving the Magician to the floor. Skeletons piled onto him, thrusting spears and slashing with swords. BlackBlood lashed out. The undead were thrown off the Magician.

  Gideon rose until Pru’s bullets put him on his ass again. Good.

  Steven flew over the basin, which was showing the last strange script. Quinnestri’s face would appear next. Ven Dro wouldn’t get the chance to see it.

  Steven barreled into his other self. The two dragons wrestled across the floor. Ven Dro’s green fire burned Steven, but he hardly felt the pain. He picked Ven Dro up and threw him into the ocean. The villain swam back through the barrier and onto the snow. He rolled across the ground. The water froze parts of his scales while other parts steamed, the water evaporating off him. He stood and breathed lightning.

  The skeins of electricity struck Steven. The shock blocked out all conscious thought. Steven found himself as a human, still shaking from the attack. He whipped out Samael’s Lash and cast a shield spell to block physical attacks. He waded into battle, striking with the bastard sword. He slashed into Ven Dro’s leg and drove his Defensio spell into the dragon’s face.

  Ven Dro staggered back.

  “Excrucior!” Steven yelled. His sword came apart into lengths of blades and chain. He whipped Ven Dro, over and over, opening wounds. That was very satisfying.

  “Steven! Behind you!” The warning came from one of the twins.

  Steven whirled to face three skeletons. He brought his shield spell down on them, crushing their bones.

  It was enough of a distraction. Ven Dro picked Steven up in a claw and slammed him onto the ground. Not for long. Steven shifted into a dragon, armored up, and then tackled the false knight, pinning him to the ground.

  “You had a father!” Steven screamed. “You had a family! I know who you are!” Steven needed Animus. Ven Dro had plenty. A second later, thanks to AnimusChain, Steven pulled the energy out of the false knight. There was huge amount of life energy there. Of course, Ven Dro, however damaged, was a Drokharis.