Grunting in response, the monkey monster started down the walkway that led to the right and then to the ruins. Only, not three steps in and a burst of green dust shot out at him from below, reaching around him before shooting through his skin and dropping him, so that he went limp and fell over the cliff to land with a thud below.

  “Well, shit,” Jalee said, taking a step back.

  Another monster, one that was pure white with long, flowing white hair on his head and back, ran and leaped. Apparently, the hair on the back concealed wings, because then he was flying. He was starting his descent, however, when some unseen force shot through the air and his wings were gone and he dropped with another sickening thud.

  “I don’t like this place,” Kinara muttered, pulling back into me.

  “Me neither,” I admitted, starting to remember one reason the Disneyland ride was preferable to real life—less chance of actual death.

  The crocodile lady barked a command and pointed my way. The monsters attacked as one, first the two weirdos moving in from the sides, then one of the monkey men, while the guy in red and crocodile woman stood in place. At least the other sensation that had been creeping us out was gone.

  I saw the blur of one man coming at me, so stepped back for Milkshake to strike with her panda claws. Another came from the right, about to strike at Kinara. I hissed out the direction, and she turned to catch him by the throat, then slammed him into the ground.

  The monkey man attacked by bouncing off from the wall, a sort of speed-strike causing his punch to come faster than any of us could have seen. It hit, knocking Jalee back so that she rose into the air with her electric wings, before darting back at him with blue, shining fists. His speed was impressive, but when hers landed, he collapsed to the ground.

  More came at us, and the man in red started to advance, slowly.

  “This doesn’t have to happen,” I said, hands up. “We’re here to help—to work together.”

  “Cute,” the man said with a heavy accent—maybe Serbian or something like that. Then he came in for the attack. Milkshake summoned her sword, too, and met his strike. He turned though, sword moving too fast for her to respond to, but Ahlaksiz met him in nearly full cougar form. As soon as one of them let up, Jalee was there to blast him with electricity. He stumbled back, grunting, but resisted and stepped toward us again.

  As badass as he might have been, we weren’t going to put up with his shit.

  “Fuck this,” the crocodile woman said, and pulled out a fucking pistol! That was the last thing I’d expected among these monsters.

  Worse followed when the man in red had also drawn some sort of futuristic blaster-looking pistol. One shot went off and Milkshake stumbled, letting the sword fall from her hand. I stared in shock, then bounded over to her side, wrapping an arm around her.

  A blur of red came from my side, and I looked to see the sword at my throat, his blaster pointed at Milkshake’s face.

  “One move,” he said. “Make it.”

  Fuck. My team was ready, but I didn’t doubt this man could move fast enough to either slice me open or blast Milkshake’s face off. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  “Don’t kill her!” I hissed, holding up my hands for my team to stay back. “I’ll… go, but need one of them with me.”

  “Fine,” the lady said, motioning to the cliff edge, then to me. “Make it fast. Bring it to us, and then we split paths.”

  They were ambushing us to take it for themselves. I didn’t like it, but wasn’t sure what I had expected. Tooth didn’t exactly strike me as a standup guy.

  Eyes meeting Milkshake’s, I mouthed, “Hang in there,” then turned to approach the cliff. Looking down, I knew there had to be some way to reach the ruins. Either way, that was our destination. Better to get on with it, and figure out what to do with our situation next.

  I eyed Kinara. She had helped me through the wall, but she needed to stay behind. Instead I turned to Jalee, holding a hand out. “Join me.”

  “We’ll both die,” she protested, eyeing me like I was crazy.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so.”

  Ahlaksiz put a hand on her shoulder. “Trust him. He got us this far.”

  The statement was ridiculous, considering the fact that I had no idea what was going on, really. At the same time, she was right. Maybe my instincts were being fueled by my increased power, or this was all related to upgrading in some way?

  Regardless, I had a feeling about this.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jalee said, stepping up to my side and glancing down at the ruins.

  “We both know I don’t,” I replied, then took her by the hand and started running. She resisted for a brief second, then was following my lead and we ran to the edge and leaped.

  21

  As Jalee and I half-fell, half-flew toward the ruins in this strange Turkish middle-of-nowhere, I used my momentum to swing over and under her. I grabbed hold of her waist as her electric-blue wings shot out overhead, carrying us down toward the ruins.

  “When I say so,” I said, “shoot out with everything you’ve got.”

  “It’ll fry you.”

  “Let’s hope not.”

  Our trajectory had us almost at the spot where the other flying monster had died. I clicked my tongue and scanned, also looking for any sign of danger. It came first as the blue I had grown accustomed to, then to my senses like a barrage of insects. They weren’t visible, but sure enough they were there and coming fast—metal, judging by the way my echolocation vibrated off them.

  “Now!” I hissed, clenching her harder in case she hadn’t heard me.

  “Aghh!” she growled, then shot out so that the whole place lit up. Yeah, it fucking hurt, and I was sent spiraling through the air. But as the ground appeared closer and closer with each rotation, I was very much aware that I wasn’t dead. Even more so when arms grabbed me and pulled me up, both of us spiraling until we landed and skidded across a shallow layer of water.

  Shit, water. I was up in a split-second, grabbing the form that I knew had to be Jalee, and running from the water.

  “Not… water,” she said, laughing as I set her down.

  “What?” I turned back with a confused stare only to see blackness. A sniff gave me a clue though—metallic, like… “Blood?”

  She nodded, lighting up slightly so that I could see the substance dripping from my clothes. “It would appear so, but I don’t know from where. It’s too much to simply be from those other two who fell and died down here.”

  “It’s fucking disgusting.”

  She didn’t argue. I looked up at the cliff, wondering what was going on up there, and then back to the ruins. This was the strangest place I had ever been. Part of me wanted to enjoy it, to have fun with the adventure of exploring hidden ruins. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my mind off of Milkshake up there with her wound. Kinara and Ahlaksiz would be there for her if it came to it, or they’d die trying.

  Could they take those other monsters up there? Guns made me nervous, even more than their monster magic. Perhaps because magic, as much as it could hurt, still didn’t feel as real to me. I tried to push all that aside as Jalee and I started toward the ruins.

  The air was stale down here, slightly cold. I entered the compound under an old archway, part of it missing at the top. Other bits of nearby walls had crumbled apart. A groan sounded that I might have taken for the wind if there were any down here.

  Jalee clenched my arm and said, “I knew a place like this once. An old building in the Singing Woods. People said the place was alive, and… I believed it. Once a boy went to test it and claims that, when he punctured the wall, it bled.”

  “No shit?” I eyed the walls, then the blood on my clothes. The thought that maybe this place could bleed was revolting. “You weren’t there though?”

  She shook her head.

  Maybe it had been a lie, but in a world with monsters and magic, even fairy tales and an actual sort of leveling-up system, anything seemed possible. Maybe it was some sort of shapeshifter that took the form of a building long ago and forgot how to change back? In our case, that would have to be one very large shifter.

  “Do you sense anything?” Jalee asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I thought you’re able to sense things. Kinda feel what we should do. No?”

  I thought about that, but wasn’t sure how it worked yet. “Maybe? But right now, nothing.”

  At the moment, all we could do was continue on, walking past one large building that reminded me of a church with its tall double doors and spires. Something about this place felt wrong. I knew this was where we needed to be to find the item, but it definitely didn’t want us there. Passing the next building, which I saw was connected to the first by an outside, covered hall, I paused. Turning back to it, I felt this was the one.

  “How?” Jalee asked, confused.

  “Hunter instinct?”

  She grinned, gesturing for me to lead the way. I approached the door, slightly ajar and leaning on one hinge, but a cold air blew from within. Considering that I’d noted earlier the lack of wind in this place, that air didn’t belong. I shared a look with Jalee, and she clenched her jaw, claws at the ready. The electricity in her eyes started to flow.

  I entered to find a room that reminded me of a church, complete with rows of seats. At the front of the room, though, was a pillar that kind of reminded me of those that had been on the hunter’s platform. It was mostly dark, but for the glow from Jalee.

  Entering, I nearly jumped when Jalee reached for my arm.

  “Dammit, don’t scare me like that,” I hissed.

  She looked terrified though, so I instantly felt bad for snapping. Her focus wasn’t on me, but that pillar.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Maybe nothing…”

  Somehow, I doubted that. Taking her hand, I led us further into the room. Another glow had started to form, this one not from Jalee, but from the pillar itself. I frowned, starting to see the glow in lines around it. Fuck, they weren’t just lines, but, in fact, runes. Worse, the glow around it was no ordinary glow, but had taken to only shining light in certain areas, as if something was blocking out the light between us and the pillar.

  Not only something, but several somethings.

  “Shades,” Jalee whispered, almost as if not believing it.

  I remembered someone mentioning them. Maybe Ahlaksiz? But I couldn’t recall exactly what their deal was.

  “Shades?” I asked.

  “Related to Dark Fae,” Ahlaksiz said. “Some form of monster that resembles fairies. It’s… complicated.”

  We were here though, and if this was where the half of the sun disk was, what could we do? Definitely not turn and run, because there was nowhere to run to. It was either face these things, or the monsters above with their guns. Yeah, a strange thought.

  “Zap ‘em,” I said, and glanced in Jalee’s direction.

  She arched an eyebrow, her eyes really standing out as they glowed in there, her dark skin almost otherwise hidden. “If we don’t attack them, they might not be able to see us. At least, back home that’s how it works.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to take the risk, but if she was this scared, it was likely for good reason. Apparently, we were going to attempt to sneak past the Shades. Moving to the left instead of straight at them, I noticed that the hexagon on my wrist device was glowing faintly. I put my hand over it to try and block out the light, but the Shades had not only started to come into form more—now dark shadows in physical form—they were turning toward me.

  It made sense, I supposed. This wrist device had come from the hunter, along with the hexagon inside of it. The pillar thing was like those the hunter’s vehicle had on it, and we were after some legendary monster item. Why wouldn’t it draw them to us?

  “Shit,” I muttered, starting to pick up my pace. If they were going to see me anyway, I might as well see if I could outrun them. Judging by the fact that suddenly two appeared in my path where none had been moments before, yeah, this was going to be tough.

  A blast of electricity shot out from Jalee behind me, but it went right through them to explode against the far wall. Shit, shit, shit. I wasn’t even sure where we were going, only that all of this fit. So I attempted to use the seat of a nearby bench to jump and move in a different direction, but another Shade appeared right where I was going to land. It was by instinct then that, as I fell, I reached up with both hands and summoned the hunter sword.

  Both hands gripping its handle tight, I brought it down to slice right through the Shade, then landed with the blade slamming into the Shade again and cutting it in half. The Shade screeched, reached for me as it split, then vanished in a puff of black smoke. Meanwhile, I stood there, chest heaving, staring at the spot where the Shade had been.

  Holy hell, I’d been able to summon the sword!

  It was then that I noticed the green ball of light floating my way, then entering me. That part, as weird as it was, at least made some sort of sense. Prana, if my memory was right. It would somehow make me a better fighter. How again? Ahlaksiz had mentioned needing to learn how to focus, cultivate the power so that it would go where I wanted. At the moment, I didn’t give a fuck where it went, as long as it helped me survive this place.

  Another Shade was at my side, coming at me, so I thrust with the sword. Hell, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing other than from some fun with Beat Saber and the like, but if I’d learned one thing from watching television and reading books, it was that fighting with a sword could be quite simple—poke them with the pointy end. And since this was a double-sided blade, improvising beyond that worked as well. I thrust, felt the green Prana surge into me, then pushed past that puff of smoke to slice into another.

  Two caught me, their attacks burning and stinging, and at one point I had to wipe away blood from my brow. Releasing the blade, I turned my hand and summoned it again so that it went right through one, and then I was able to turn it on the other. I kept going, taking down at least five more of them before I realized I was practically at the pillar. One hand reaching, Jalee at my side, I made the mistake of thinking we might have succeeded.

  That’s when movement caught my eye from a nearby wall. It seemed to glimmer, as if light moved along it in a ripple, and then my head spun.

  “Wha—” I started, only to cut myself off with a yelp as I turned to Jalee.

  Instead of the blue-eyed beauty I’d come to have feelings for, her eyes were glowing green. It was more than that, though. With each step she took toward me, she seemed to grow more menacing. First it was horns from her head, teeth and claws elongating. Her body warped, tits growing fucking humongous, to where they might have been sexy in some online illustration, but here it was like they were going to smother me while she fucking clawed me to death. She was laughing a horrible, cackling laugh, and electricity shot out behind her to form massive wings that took up the entire room, bursting in explosive waves of electricity.

  As her laughter faded, she seemed to lunge. I swung with my sword out of instinct, only stopping myself at the last second, releasing it so that it faded away. I stumbled back as she advanced again, her electricity shooting out at me.

  Except, a voice in the back of my head was telling me this wasn’t right. I focused there, remembering our link and trying to connect with her. The electricity never connected. Her claws, which I saw then following, never scratched me. Instead I focused on that voice, realizing it was hers. As if trying to grasp a distant dream, I was vaguely aware of a version of us where she was cradling me, telling me to come back to her, while Shades advanced.

  That was all I needed. Grasping onto our link, I pulled myself to her, out of whatever strange version of reality I’d wandered into, and was back in that church-room, she her normal self. I kissed her cheek. Turned and grabbing the totem-fragment, my wrist device lit up.

  In a flash we were taken from that spot, appearing in a cave. Rushing water and heavy winds sounded, cold air making each breath hurt. But there it was in front of us, hovering at chest level and glowing gold. The half of the sun disk.

  I reached out and took it. All the cold faded, the glow vanishing too. In my hand was a half of what seemed like a bronze disk, about the size of a standard half of a Frisbee. The cave faded along with the sounds, and we were back in the ruins, those Shades scurrying off. I turned back to the wall that had glimmered earlier, only to see that it was gone.

  Jalee held my face in her hands, staring into my eyes with her beautiful blue orbs. I cringed.

  “Ferris, it wasn’t me,” she said. “You were seeing things, that’s all. An illusion.”

  Taking her word for it, I nodded, trying to suppress the terror that had all but consumed me and caused me to nearly strike down one of my lovers. Fuck me.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I muttered, turning to go.

  She didn’t let go of my face though, instead pulling me in for a passionate kiss. The warm, wet touch of her tongue against mine instantly pushed all the terrifying images out of my mind. With a slight nibble of my bottom lip, she pulled back, smiled, and then led the way out of there with me close behind.

  22

  As soon as we stepped out of that building, though, it was clear this place was changing. My best guess was that the whole thing had been set up as a defense for this sun disk. Maybe a test to see if whoever took it was worthy?

  Either way, we emerged to shaking ground, a wall breaking in the distance, and then the sound of roaring water far away. I’d seen enough movies to know what the fuck that meant.

  “Run!” I shouted, and already had her, pulling her along.

  We charged back the way we’d come, but mostly I was looking for higher ground. This place was about to flood, and then I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole damn cavern came crashing down. It had fulfilled its purpose, after all. A glimpse back showed it was more than that, though. There was something else out there, a large beast in the water, coming our way.