Uchiko touched the dark elf’s knee. “Do you remember the Congo, decades and decades ago, and the Dragonlord Prime there, Mbiti Urator?”

  Nefri covered her mouth with her hands. She nodded. Her eyes didn’t stay on Uchiko’s face.

  The ninja nearly wept with relief. She did remember—the dark elf clearly had strong emotions about the hideous encounter.

  “Did you... did you kill Ezekiel Prat’s wives?” Uchiko asked.

  Nefri closed her eyes.

  “It was Bruno Illick,” Steven said. “He slaughtered them all. Nefri was only there to kill the Prime, this Mbiti Urator. Nefri thought that Ezekiel Prat had hired both her and Bruno to kill the prime. But then, Bruno snapped, and murdered everyone and everything there. Maybe someone else put out bounties on both Urator and Prat. She doesn’t know. She and Bruno were not working together.”

  Uchiko let out a breath of relief. “All these years, I wasn’t sure. Now I know. The Shadow Archer, Nefri, she shot me. I walked through the blood, I walked through the carnage. Prat was already dead, in his bed, with his wives, all dead, the blood...”

  The Aerie had been a treehouse built over the brown river, in a lush jungle room, open and welcoming. Magic took care of mosquitos. Rooms had built into the trees and hanging walkways connected to them. It was such a shame to bring blood to such a magnificent place.

  Bruno Illick. That twisted monster. Of course it was him. Perhaps the Hellstring gave her bad dreams because he had used it to murder so many people.

  All of this was before Uchiko joined the Onari Guard, before she acted as a caretaker to Mathaal.

  Nefri clutched Uchiko’s hand. Nefri’s eyes pleaded with her. I’m sorry, she mouthed.

  Steven watched on, silent for a minute, before speaking. “Nefri saw you and shot you. She thought you were going for Prat, and she was worried she wouldn’t get paid. By that time, Bruno had already killed both the Prime and his vassal. You didn’t know it, but it was just the two of you, both of you were afraid, sickened by the slaughter, afraid that at any minute, you’d feel the Hellstring. And, Uchiko, she didn’t know you weren’t working with Bruno. She didn’t know if you’d been sent to kill her.”

  Uchiko remembered fighting with her. The treehouse room’s floor had been slick with blood; the stink of the jungle rot was stifling. It had been so hot, and the Shadow Archer had been unbeatable. She’d used every trick she knew to end the woman, and it hadn’t been enough. Now she knew why. Nefri hadn’t been a human, nor Dragonkind, but something completely different.

  Uchiko wiped a tear off her face. “You used BlackBlood. You tried to pull me back into the fight. I had to chop it away. All this time, I thought you had a rope.” She glanced away.

  Nefri gently took her chin and turned her to face her. Again, she mouthed the words, I’m sorry. From the hurt look in her eyes, she meant it.

  “I forgive you,” Uchiko said. Nefri’s body felt warm near her, and her musky scent was strong.

  Uchiko had fought with this woman, back to back, against death itself. She’d seen the dark elf overcome her fear, and she wanted so desperately to join them and never be alone again. She wouldn’t have to be. Uchiko would be her friend and more, if that was what the dark elf wanted. If Steven agreed.

  Nefri touched Uchiko’s lips. She offered a small nod, as if asking permission.

  Those rough fingers on Uchiko’s lips, smelling them, made the ninja pause. She’d been curious about the dark elf, and she’d had fantasies about her. At the time, they hadn’t been welcome thoughts. Now? Everything had changed. She was on a new world, with a new woman, a one-time enemy, who’d nearly killed her on a bloody night in Africa. It was all a misunderstanding. The pair had fought for no reason except fear.

  “I would like to be with you,” Uchiko said softly.

  Nefri withdrew her fingers. She leaned in and replaced them with her lips. Uchiko couldn’t control her breathing. She’d kissed many women before, but this one, this dark elf, brought out feelings only Sabina had been able to unearth. The Latina Magician was going to love Nefri. There was something about her, a little dark, a little dirty, that put a fire between Uchiko’s legs.

  The two were leaning over, kissing, their bodies not touching, just their lips. Nefri offered Uchiko her tongue, and she accepted the invitation. The dark elf’s perfume filled her nose. Her taste was familiar but foreign, and those blue lips, so soft and wet, a bit sloppy—it wasn’t the cleanest kiss, but it was one of the best of Uchiko’s long life.

  Both Uchiko and Nefri were gasping when they parted. Steven looked on, a cute if stunned look on his face. It was clear that he hadn’t seen this coming.

  The dark elf collected up rocks and put them in a ring. Uchiko went to Steven and kissed him. His face wasn’t smooth, like Nefri’s, and the ninja liked the rough feel of the stubble on his skin. Her hand dropped to the bulge in his pants. When she gripped his hardness, he sighed into her mouth.

  Both turned to see Nefri cracking a branch over her knee. She tossed it into the fire ring. She gestured to Steven.

  Uchiko felt his body grow into a partial form. She clung to his scales and marveled at the heat coming off him. Then, she touched his chest as he exhaled flames into the firepit. The dry wood caught immediately and roared.

  Nefri removed her cloak and laid it on a bit of grass between the fire and the stream. Standing on the cape, she undid the complicated buttons of her shirt. She bent and tugged her pants over her round hips and let them fall. She kept her shirt on, covering her breasts, but her white pubic hair winked from between her strong thighs.

  “She is lovely, don’t you think?” Uchiko asked her Prime.

  “She is,” Steven said. “She’s in my head. She wants us to make love to her. It will be her first time with a man. She wonders if you would help and get her ready.”

  “I can do that.” Uchiko removed her gi, slowly, letting Nefri’s eyes linger on her breasts, her flat stomach, and her long legs. Uchiko pulled her midnight-black hair back, and her tits bounced with the motion. Nefri drank her in.

  The dark elf smiled shyly before letting her shirt drop. Both were naked now. Uchiko loved how dark Nefri’s nipples were against her dusky blue skin. She couldn’t wait to feel the elf’s skin on hers. And to feel their breasts touching. And to grip the strong ass of the Ohkreela.

  Uchiko was grateful for the warmth of the fire. She went to Nefri and their bodies came together perfectly, blue skin on white. Their lips met, their tongues licking each other’s mouths, and their tits were pillowed between them.

  Nefri started to whine as Uchiko kissed her way down the dark elf’s body. A lick to her throat. A suckle on her nearly black nipples. Then kissing her belly button before she went lower.

  Uchiko nuzzled the white hair as Nefri widened her stance. Uchiko leaned forward and sucked on the elf’s meaty lips. So wonderful, so delicious, so arousing. The dark elf’s body was a whole world of new smells, tastes, and experiences.

  Steven joined them, kissing Nefri and petting Uchiko’s black hair.

  The ninja couldn’t help but switch from pleasuring Nefri to taking her Prime’s shaft into her mouth.

  The dark elf didn’t like that. She pulled Uchiko’s mouth from his dripping tip.

  Steven chuckled. “She said for you to get her ready. As you can see, I’m already about as ready as I can be.”

  “She is delicious,” Uchiko breathed. “Come. Taste her.”

  Steven knelt next to her. The fire bathed their backs with heat while Nefri’s overheating body kept their chests warm.

  Uchiko gripped Steven’s shaft as he got to experience Nefri’s sex for the first time. Stroking him, Uchiko waited for her turn again. Back and forth, she and Steven pleasured the dark elf until she was whimpering. And then, while Steven was licking her, Nefri came. Her body stiffened, her skin smoked, and her purple eyes turned black. Her red mouth opened as she gasped through the orgasm.

  Then she got on her back, legs spread, her head back.

  Uchiko went and sucked on a blue tit before kissing Nefri. “I think she’s more than ready, Steven. And I think after you come in her, you need to come in me.”

  Steven laughed. “One woman at a time.”

  He got between Nefri’s legs.

  Uchiko petted the elf’s white hair. “He’ll go slow. He’ll be gentle. I think you will like it.”

  A look of uncertainty crossed Nefri’s face. Uchiko kissed it away.

  Nefri was working her hips, moaning and groaning as Steven entered her. Her Prime was deep in the dark elf, but he wasn’t thrusting. He was letting her get used to his fullness.

  Uchiko had never seen anything as sexy as watching Nefri with her mouth open, her eyes closed, her whole body thrumming from the new experience. She opened her eyes, caught Uchiko watching, and smiled. She mothed the word, yes, and then, fuck me.

  Uchiko bent and eased her tongue into Nefri’s mouth. She fingered a black nipple, which brought fresh sobs of joy from the dark elf.

  Steven worked himself in and out of her slowly, at first, until Nefri was begging with her body for more, for harder, for faster. Uchiko turned to see Nefri’s essence on Steven’s shaft, her big lips loving his hardness.

  Uchiko sat back to watch.

  It wasn’t long until Steven shoved himself into Nefri fully, grunting. Smoke swirled around him, smelling like the dark elf’s musk, like orange blossoms, like the smoke of the fire, which had burned into coals.

  Steven leaned forward to kiss Nefri. Uchiko caressed the sweat on Steven’s back, kissed his neck, and then slid a hand between her own legs. She would be next.

  Steven pressed his head against Uchiko’s breasts. “Holy shit, that basically gave me more Morta than I could ever use.”

  Uchiko raised her face to his. “And I can give you Animus.”

  Steven grinned. “Best of both worlds.”

  They heard a sob from Nefri. Tears leaked down her cheeks, but a smile painted her lips. Most of all, love shone in her eyes. Love for their Prime. And love for her sister assassin.

  Uchiko went and touched the tears falling down the dark elf’s face. “I can guess why you are crying now. Why were you crying before?”

  “Coming home to Aqualyra has been hard for her,” Steven answered, channeling Nefri.

  It wasn’t the full answer, Uchiko knew, but it was enough of one. The ninja kissed Nefri’s forehead. “This is not your home. I am Oe Uchiko, daughter of Oe Bunji, and the widow of Muramasa Gin, whom I killed. I served Rahaab. I was captain of the Onari Guard. I’ve a found a home with Steven Drokharis. You are Nefrinasia of the Ohkreela, once known as the Shadow Archer. And now, you have found a home there as well.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  GIDEON SCARAMANGA LEANED over the crystal pool. Around him stretched the almost infinite city of Deneel, covered in snow and silence. The pool sat in a courtyard below the magnificent mountain above, the tallest mountain on the continent. Even then, the Lyra had crafted their towers into the stone. The courtyard itself was overgrown with pine trees whose roots stretched across the marble. Ice flowers grew in window boxes, leaking their tendrils down into the snow. The city had a wintery smell, dry, cold, the scent of ice on rock.

  For now, the afternoon sun gleamed down. However, clouds boiled in the heavens west of the peak. The wind, when it gusted, froze them.

  Gideon gazed at his reflection. Black eyes, skin peeling back to reveal his chitin-covered skeleton, hair gone. At one time, he might’ve thought he was a horror. He knew the truth. Mother had revealed what had been inside him all along.

  Memories had come back to him—he’d always been a spiderlike predator; his steak knife was his single, poisonous fang. He’d used it to kill his family. He lit the fire that ate through his home because it was an enemy nest. It wasn’t his true home. He’d found true kinship, not with the Terror Trio, but with the Zothoric Myriad.

  If he were to die again, on this world, fighting the Drokharis child, his Morta core would live in the womb of the Utereich. He would get eternal life in her rage, lust, and love. That was why Gideon wasn’t jealous of the Utereich’s gift to Ven Dro. Let this other Drokharis slave away in life. Gideon would find his joy in death.

  Butcher, as a caterpillar bear, rested in the snow, his many eyes closed.

  Ven Dro sat next to him, legs crossed, the back of his right hand resting in his left palm. Smoke drizzled out of his eyes. The fire covering his destroyed head flickered, melting the snow around them. That snow trickled into the pool. “Fuck!” the would-be messiah cursed. “I can’t find it. All the other times, finding the Under City was easy. This time? It’s like it’s not even there. That can’t be. This is the right place.”

  Gideon sat back, enjoying his skin freezing in his soaked jeans. “There was the last set of words you couldn’t translate, not even with the gifts Mother gave you. They must be more important than you first thought.”

  Ven Dro stood to pace. Butcher winked open five eyes on the side of his face to watch him.

  “That’s just it. Mother knew the Lyra language. Before we left, she gave me a basic understanding of the fucking language. This is different,” the knight said.

  “It must be some kind of code,” Gideon muttered.

  “No shit, Sherlock.” Ven Dro continued to pace. “We could wait until my Steven comes, and then we ambush him, like we tried to do in Vankeevra.”

  “Your Steven,” the Magician mused. “Why do you call him that?”

  “He’s not yours,” Ven Dro shot back. “Your Steven, or should I say Spider Finger, screwed the pooch in the fight. Ha. His Escort survived like ten minutes against the Myriad. We looked for him, Mother and I did, but he was a sneaky dick. No, this other Steven is mine. I’m going to kill him.”

  “I have no doubt.” That was a lie. Gideon had doubts about their chances of victory. He simply didn’t care. He’d died before. He’d die again. Then he would join with Zothora. A stray thought troubled him, however. What if he wasn’t given consciousness after death? What if he didn’t know that his soul was being embraced by the Womb Mistress?

  It wouldn’t matter. He’d be dead. And yet, the stray thought terrified him. He didn’t mind torture. He didn’t mind defeat. But he didn’t want to lose his chance of feeling Zothora’s cunt wrapped around his very soul.

  It would be disgusting. It would be delicious.

  Ven Dro crouched next to him. “My Steven got lucky, over and over again. You should’ve seen him, all jealous of me because I grew up with Daddy Drokharis. Did you have a family, Gideon?”

  “No, I never had a family until the Zothoric. Now I do.”

  “Amen to that,” the knight whispered. “Daddy wanted me to be perfect. When I wasn’t training, I was studying. And when I wasn’t studying, I was training. It was brutal. All the while, he had his Escort, and I had no one. He promised me wives once we won. I knew we weren’t going to win. Actually, I didn’t want him to win.”

  Ven Dro fell quiet. The caw of a crow, or a raven, or neither, echoed through the muffled avenues of the vast city. The knight coughed. “You should’ve seen him when he managed to kill Rhaegen Mulk and the other dragons of the secret cabal. He thought he was the king of everything. Then, when he went up against Rahaab and won, it got worse. He’d sit me down for these fucking fatherly talks. He’d tell me that it was our destiny to bring real change to the Dragonsouls. But first, we had to get rid of the Zothoric. Then we could travel through the stars. He had these abilities, Alpherian skills, or that’s what he called them. He talked about the Path of the Mirror-Souled Dragon, saying he’d teach me that shit once I was worthy.”

  The knight spat black spittle into the pool. The inky mucus came apart in the crystalline waters. “I’d never be worthy. I played his game, though. He didn’t know it was me that led his vassals into the ambush during the Battle of Denver. Ha, he’d be crushed. Too bad he’s dead. I’d have spat in his face after I told him.”

  Gideon wasn’t sure if the elder Drokharis was dead or not. Not even the Utereich knew that for sure. Stefan Drokharis had been king of the world, up until the end. Now, if he was alive, he ruled nothing. Gideon kept quiet. This dance into the past wasn’t helping them. They had to find the Under City. They had to find Quinnestri and destroy her and the other elves, those who walked in the light.

  “I’m not a virgin, though,” Ven Dro said, apropos of nothing. “Behind Daddy’s back, I banged his vassals. I had a good setup. I’d make them all kinds of promises, and they’d come to my bed, those scheming bitches. A few times, I went after Daddy’s wives, but they were too stuck up and too far gone for me to get them. I tried though. I think he knew, and it bothered him. Ha. Good.”

  Gideon sighed to let his brother know this was growing tiresome.

  “Tara Heridan knew what I was doing.” Ven Dro’s voice was hushed. “She’d warn women about me. Some would listen. Most didn’t. When I heard she was chosen to be the Prosha, I knew it was a mistake. Some people, especially scheming bitches, don’t know a good thing even when it fucks them in the ass.” He stood. “Okay, Gideon, let’s keep—”

  His words were interrupted by crow-headed elves, cawing and crashing out of the windows above them. The avenues came alive with the barks and howls of wolves rushing in.

  The crows fluttered down from the spires on black-feathered wings, screaming maniacally. They had the slender bodies of elves, their intricate armor, and their weapons—bows, long swords, blade-leafed spears. Instead of humanish heads, they had beady black eyes and long beaks, sharp enough to cut skin. However strange, these were not creatures of Morta. Animus burned inside them.

  The wolves that came were different; inside them writhed the dark energy that Gideon loved. Their black fur was oily with ichor. Their paws left black smudges in the snow as they attacked. Some leapt, caught a wind, and stretched a thin membrane between their legs, floating down on them, gnashing fangs first.