The villain shifted human. His torn lips quirked into a smile. “Took you long enough, asshole.” He teleported, appearing several feet away. “Yeah, I had Daddy Drokharis. He watched over my every move. I was his only son, and everything was put on me. Family kills you... it kills you slow.”

  Steven hurled Impetim stars. Ven Dro vanished and appeared in front of Steven, his ax raised. The blade struck the Baxter armor in a shower of sparks. Another teleportation took the false knight away.

  The minute he appeared, Steven breathed fire, but Ven Dro disappeared again. He appeared next to Gideon, who was on his knees, fixing his wounds with NecroMend. Butcher closed in, equally damaged. All three were close to the fires burning in the basin.

  “See you in Alaska, fuck nugget!” Ven Dro opened a portal in the basin flames and the Terror Trio ran through. The portal spun closed.

  “Steven!” Mouse called. “If you have a plan, we need it about right now!”

  Around them, Shaze, Splackers, and skeletons fought in a cacophony of chaos.

  Steven did have a plan, though it was desperate. “Mouse, shift into your partial form.” Both she and Steven did.

  He raised a fist. “Magica Incanto!” He dispelled the magic holding the ocean back. The water gushed in, the barrier gone. Steven filled his lungs with air and breathed out ArcticWind. Mouse followed suit. The cold from their combined Exhalants created a chamber of ice. The rest of Zothoric as well as the skeletons were caught in the flood, snatched away by the restored ocean.

  Steven exhaled the last of the cold. He still had a bit of Animus left. Mouse, though, was out. She shifted human, on all fours, gasping in the snow. The ice creaked and cracked around them. The crystals dripped water. The chamber wouldn’t last for long. Steven took a second to marvel at the beauty. The sea outside was dark, but moving, as the skeletons swam in slow motion to dispatch the last of the demons.

  A few of the undead started chipping away at the chamber with their swords. Thump. Thump. Thump. The ice let out a cry of protest, then continued to creak and crack.

  Chazzie and Pru stared around wildly.

  Uchiko sat with Nefri leaning against her on her lap. The ninja brushed the dark elf’s white hair off her face.

  Mouse leaned back on her knees. “Okay, this is fun. Nothing like being trapped under the ocean, out of Animus, and surrounded by the undead. Thoughts?”

  Steven brushed some crystals away from the ice walls. The fire in the basin had been extinguished. He could try another portal spell, but did he have enough Animus for an Inferno Exhalant? Not really. And they were all in close, packed together. The chamber their ArcticWind had created was only about five feet wide and seven feet tall.

  Nefri was unconscious, so she couldn’t use the jeweled flower.

  “Is this a bad time to say Pru and I are claustrophobic?” Chazzie asked miserably.

  “We’re fine,” Pru insisted. Yet she was pale, near tears. “It’s not so bad.”

  Chazzie took in a shuddering breath. “Yeah, okay, but we both know the pressure outside would probably crush us. We’re not as squishy as skeletons, and we’re not intergalactic demon bugs. We’re kind of in a fix.”

  “Shield spells?” Mouse suggested.

  “We’d have to have Tessa-level spells for that,” Pru said. “Steven is certainly good, but can he fit all of us in one?”

  Steven shook his head.

  “What about our teleportation jewelry?” Chazzie asked.

  Pru thought for a minute. “It’s too far for us to jump there, and if we missed, we’d appear in water. What that would do to your molecules certainly wouldn’t be pretty. Also, the vambraces hook into our Animus, and we’re low.”

  Uchiko pointed. “To the east, there’s a corridor that will lead us back out.”

  “It’s a nice plan,” Chazzie said. “But did Steven’s dispel magic mojo end that as well?”

  “No. I saw the hallway. It didn’t close. It’s not that far.”

  Steven closed his eyes and checked his Animus. Even a simple Magica Defensio would be a stretch. And he couldn’t use so much Animus he’d lose consciousness.

  Pru saw where he was going. She rummaged in an ammo bag. “Okay, this isn’t so bad. Like I said, I thought I used all Good Girl’s bullets. Let me check one more place. Otherwise, we’re gonna have to start fucking.”

  Mouse laughed sharply. “If anyone could get it up before they’re about to die, it would be our Steven. He’s a horny boy all right.”

  Steven shook his head. “This is not helping.”

  “Found two more!” Pru pressed the bullets into a magazine and then slid it into the pink .45, which had “Good Girl” scrawled along the barrel. Pulling back the action, she aimed and fired a round into Steven. Inside the closed space, the report was deafening. Ears ringing, Steven felt the burst of Animus.

  “Oh, I was going to blow him again,” Mouse complained. “Thanks for ruining my fun.”

  Pru rolled her eyes.

  A leak appeared in the ice above them. A stream of water pattered onto the snow.

  “Hey, Pru, give me a shot.” Mouse pushed her fingers into her ears.

  A wincing gunshot later, the blonde glowed amber and sighed. “Yeah, that’s the stuff. I think Steven and I should use ArcticWind again. We can create a tunnel to Uchiko’s magic hallway.”

  “Let’s ponder that for a minute,” Chazzie said. “We’ll have to chip away the wall and then freeze as we go. Keep it cold, people, and we just might be able to get out of this still breathing.”

  Pru ejected her magazine, pushed in another bullet, and smirked. “Make that three bullets. We need everyone walking.” She fired another healing round into Nefri. The dark elf’s body jumped.

  “Ow!” Mouse wept. “My ears. It’s so fucking loud. Don’t you have a silencer or something?”

  Chazzie fluttered her eyelashes. “We don’t like silencers. We want people to hear us coming. We are too pretty to hide.”

  Nefri squeezed her eyes shut. She sat up and looked around, frowning. Seeing what they had done, she grinned and nodded.

  She touched the wound on her chest, coughed, and grimaced.

  Mouse handed the Slayer Blade to Chazzie. “You can use the fire to melt the ice as you hack away. I’m going to be a dragon girl for a minute.” She shifted into a Homo Draconis.

  Chazzie held the sword awkwardly. “You see, this is our problem. We have swords. Shouldn’t we all have guns? It’s not the Middle Ages.”

  “Hey, I like my sword,” Mouse growled.

  Pru frowned. “I thought for sure we used all the Animus bullets. Sorry, Chaz, I let you down. I’m certainly not myself anymore.”

  “Who is, baby? We’re on another planet fighting skeletons and shit.” Chazzie chopped into the ice. Water gushed in but Steven and Mouse were there, slowly freezing the sides, until they had created a little alcove.

  This was a test for Steven. Being new to ArcticWind, it was a challenge to slowly turn the fire in him into cold. They inched their way forward. The skeletons outside were moving slower, more uncertainly. Their swords chinked into the hallway they were creating, but the weapons weren’t doing any damage.

  Steven and his Escort made their way east. It took forever, but they finally saw the landing where Uchiko had first talked to the statue of Vandrus Dree. While they worked, the ninja told them of her conversation with the ice statue.

  “So this is all thanks to Vandrus Dree.” Pru was back to scheming and talking, and that took her mind off whatever was bothering her. She seemed better. “He set up this little game to find Quinnestri. Damn, but she’s not going to be happy when we find her. First, her buddy sold her out. Secondly, we brought the Zothoric to her world.”

  “So VD is probably still alive.” Sweat covered Chazzie as she stabbed the ice.

  “Ha, VD, and that goes for Ven Dro as well. They both have VD. Ha.” Mouse breathed out a bit of ArcticWind.

  It was cramped—Steven was squeezed in next to Mouse. “Ven Dro is the Battle World’s Steven Drokharis.”

  “Yeah, we’ll need to really think about that.” Pru pulled their ammo bags along. “This is not the time nor the place. As for Vandrus Dree? From what Uchiko said, I think he’s around. We’ll see. She did say that this ice funhouse was the last revelation. Alaska, here we come.”

  A final push, and they reached the landing. Steven had never been so tired. They walked up the steps, through the hallway of ice statues, and reached the surface. The night air was chill. The sky was full of stars. The moon silvered the deserted Lyra city.

  Mouse shifted human. “Remind me to sit the next quest out.”

  Being above ground felt good. Steven took in a deep breath. “We have a problem.”

  Mouse laughed sarcastically. “You mean, other than the fact that Pru’s and Chazzie’s fingernails look like shit? And I don’t think we’ll find an open Walgreens to buy fingernail polish.”

  “Ugh, as if we’d shop at Walgreens,” Chazzie said, making a face.

  Pru held her arms across her chest. “No, Ven Dro knows where to go next. And we’re in no shape to chase him.”

  Steven sighed. That was the truth. They needed to rest, they needed sex, and yet, they had run out of time. “This was the last revelation, the last puzzle. The Terror Trio are on their way to Quinnestri right now. We might’ve just lost.”

  Mouse’s laughter rang out unexpectedly. “Wait, we all forgot something. Well, you guys did. Me? No. I might not like to fight, and the twins are right, quests are better in books. However, you’re going to worship my genius.”

  She reached into her coat. From an inside pocket, she pulled out a metal cylinder. It was the codex Uchiko had retrieved from the Denver Under City.

  Steven pulled Mouse in and kissed her. That little blonde was the best.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  BACK AT THEIR CAMP, on the edge of the Warm Sea, getting the campfire burning was easy given the fact they had four fire-breathing dragons in their retinue. Steven sat on a log, with Chazzie’s phone on one knee, the codex on the other. Nefri sat next to him.

  Pru loaded more Animus bullets into magazines for Good Girl. Steven had used Enchantrix to make more of the special rounds. Pru was oddly quiet.

  Chazzie gave her sister lots of side glances while she gnawed on a slip of dried meat she’d pulled from her ammo bags.

  Mouse laughed at that. “Bullets and beef jerky—you are Texan, aren’t you?”

  “Remember the Alamo.” Chazzie shot her a finger gun.

  Uchiko had disappeared into the forest to keep watch.

  Nefri sat holding her chest, rubbing the wound. She knocked an elbow into Steven’s side. When she got his attention, she tapped her temple, then pointed at him.

  He nodded and cast a Divination spell. His consciousness was swept away. What he saw took his breath away.

  Glimmering in the moonlight was an elven city the size of New York. Or maybe it was more like Beijing, which was bigger than the entire state of Connecticut. The city, marked by parks and forests, stretched around a rising monolith of rock. Snow blanketed the entire megalopolis though the sky was clear, showing the full moon and a splash of stars. The central peak, rising above the other mountain ridges, was Denali. Buildings had been crafted in the rock, rising to a central tower over twenty thousand feet above sea level. It must’ve taken millennia to fashion the city.

  Steven felt himself drawn to a lake on the edge of the city. There, another Cruxis dome was forming, and inside was the Terror Trio. He could feel them there.

  A voice whispered into his mind. Gideon’s voice. I can feel you. I tasted you. I was inside you.

  You have to work on your word choice. Steven grimaced. He felt his face back on Vankeevra island. And yet his, consciousness was also floating over the Lyra city far to the north. For a second, he was afraid Gideon could track him. No, they had the bracelets that hid their Animus. And they had the hurricane circle tattoos, which would prevent Ven Dro from scrying them.

  Steven was safe. He asked, Where does Leeze fall on the Morta skill tree?

  You’ll never learn that, Gideon answered. I felt you searching for us. Connexra is powerful. It is another piece of magic you will never possess.

  Steven made a mental note of the word. BlackBlood. NecroMend. Leeze. Corropor. Connexra. He was getting the names of his Morta abilities at least.

  That’s a big city you have to search, Steven sent. It’s going to take some time.

  Come and stop us, child. Come and let me taste you again.

  Steven laughed and he made sure Gideon heard it. You won’t get the chance. Good luck. I think we’ll take our time getting there. Search away. In the meantime, say hello to your Steven Drokharis. He’s like a bad copy of me. If he didn’t want to lose, why did he pick the losing side?

  Nefri’s thoughts shut out Gideon’s response. Steven, I want to use the codex to translate the words. What are you doing?

  Steven blinked. He was back on the log, in front of the fire. Sorry, Nefri, I was talking with Gideon Scaramanga, the gross Magician we fought in the Under City.

  The dark elf touched his thigh. I know of him. He was part of the Terror Trio back on your world. He was Rhaegen Mulk’s vassal.

  Steven nodded. I killed him once. I look forward to doing it again. This time, we’re going to turn his bones to ash.

  Nefri’s hand left his leg and returned to her chest.

  Does it still hurt? Steven asked. I used NecroMend, but I might not have done it right.

  That is the nature of NecroMend. The Morta can be used to heal flesh, and yet, it does a poor job of it. There was a theory among the Ohkreela, too much NecroMend can turn someone into a Zothoric demon, a slave. The theory explained why some Ohkreela turned evil, while others were able to fight it. I... I didn’t use it to fix my throat. I thought that my words would be evil ever after. Her hand returned to his thigh.

  Mouse let out an exasperated sigh. “Are you guys working on the clue? It doesn’t look like it. There’s a lot of touching going on over there. Let’s focus on clues. I’m betting this is a Raiders of the Lost Ark situation. Ven Dro and his pals are digging in the wrong place.”

  “They’re in the Lyra City on Denali, building another Cruxis. We have some time,” Steven said.

  “These guys are hard to kill,” Chazzie put in. “I put a fuckton of lead into Butcher, the bug snake, and he kept on flying.”

  Pru was silent, working on her magazines.

  Steven knew how she felt. He’d blasted the hell out of Butcher with his big JDJs. And then Gideon had used NecroMend to heal the Morphling. In some ways, it seemed more powerful than Magica Cura. The NecroMend had made the Terror Trio even more powerful. For creatures of evil, it wouldn’t matter how much it changed them. The dark magic would only solidify their connection to the Horror Mother.

  He worried about Nefri; the wound she’d taken would’ve been fatal if he hadn’t saved her.

  The dark elf took the codex. Across the golden face were ten slots showing symbols. Flicking each slot showed other script. There seemed to be six rotating sets of letters in the codex. The dark elf adjusted the mechanism. There, that letter, I understand it. She plucked the phone off Steven’s lap and got to work deciphering both the cryptic message from Keereeneeda and from Vankeevra. The twins were brilliant—capturing the images on the phone might just save them in the end.

  Steven found himself falling asleep without meaning to.

  Mouse hooked an arm around him. “Steven needs some sack time. We’ll figure out watches, my Prime. We won’t be caught with our pants down. Speaking of which, I think you and I need to get our pants down.”

  Sex with Mouse was quick. He fell onto the sleeping bags of the central room while she retreated to her chamber.

  He woke in the middle of the night. The ocean continued to crash down the beach. The fire outside had burned low, yet sitting on the log, Nefri continued to work. Pru lay on one side of him, Chazzie on the other. He allowed himself to fall back asleep.

  He dreamed of Sabina singing Reggie’s haunting tune. She was in their room at the Denver airport, holding Reggie in her arms. The little baby cooed and smiled at her mother. Tessa and Aria sat with her, both glowing with love for the infant. Zoey crept up as a bear, whining and nuzzling Reggie with her big snout. The baby gurgled and grasped at the hair on Zoey’s face.

  Homesickness jerked him awake. A hazy morning greeted him. Pru and Chazzie weren’t next to him. Mouse snored softly from her room, though she was nowhere near as loud as Aria.

  He’d balled up his coat to use as a pillow. Inside, he felt Icharaam’s Crown. He pulled the golden circlet out of an inside pocket. He traced his fingers around the metal. What did it do? He and Tessa had tried to unravel the mystery of it, but not even Enchantrix could penetrate the magic.

  He shoved it back into the pocket and shouldered on the jacket. He unzipped the tent, stretched, and felt the chill air. The ocean kept the temperature above freezing. He saw movement on the beach. The twins were there, walking, lost in a conversation. He didn’t see any sign of Nefri or Uchiko, but one of them would be watching. He wondered what information the dark elf had gleaned from the codex. He hoped she would have good news for them.

  He ambled down from the trees and made his way across the rocks of the beach.

  When Chazzie and Pru saw Steven, they stopped to let him catch up.

  In the gray morning light, whales breached the surf out beyond the outcroppings. They splashed down and kept moving south.

  Pru had her arms crossed. Both the twins wore thick pink coats and matching pants. Chazzie stood between Pru and Steven.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  Chazzie shook her head. “We’re worried.”

  “About the Zothoric?” Steven asked.

  “For once we’re not. We’ve been talking about Zoey.”