“What am I seeing?” I asked, squinting in the darkness.

  “Andromida. She…”

  Mid-sentence, metal burst out from the walls and a blue glow appeared and then paused, Andromida appearing at its center for a moment. She seemed to look at us, then redirect, and disappeared back into the ground again.

  “What the hell?” I said.

  “She’s in pursuit,” Navani said. “I see movement below ground.”

  “Let’s get down there then,” Nyoka said. “She left the tunnel open for us.”

  “You want to jump into that?” Threed asked, giving her a skeptical look.

  “I’m sure as hell not leaving her alone in this.”

  “Wait,” Navani said, grabbing Nyoka’s arm as she moved to go. “Look.”

  A line of dark figures appeared on the wall nearby, then dove to surround the tunnel. A few paused, cloaks fluttering around them although there was no wind, then dove into the tunnel. The rest waited a second longer then followed. More appeared on the walls, other figures sounding alarms.

  “So much for catching them by surprise or going in quietly,” I said.

  “Changes nothing,” Nyoka replied.

  “Maybe it does,” Sacrada said. “We’re here to help her.”

  “There’s a clue or something about Lamb’s whereabouts in there somewhere, I’m certain,” I said, ignoring Navani’s look of curiosity.

  “Right,” Sacrada went on. “So we have Andromida and her vendetta, and also have a hunch there’s something here to do with Lamb. We don’t know what to expect here, but… Charm, can you get your pets in there and have them ask questions?”

  “The questions part, not sure,” Charm answered. “Getting in there, yes.”

  “And you can go cloaked,” she said.

  “Meaning we have a pretty good spy system,” I said, catching on. “And if they lead the way, the rest can follow.”

  “Or go help Andromida,” Nyoka said, sounding more annoyed now. She glared at Navani and then me. “Are you seriously going to abandon her here?”

  “She escaped whatever trap that bastard had for her,” I said. “Do you really think she needs our help? Besides, we’re going to try to help her—if we get discovered, we’ll draw more attention our way, meaning off of her.”

  “A larger group means more chance of getting caught,” Threed said.

  “Agreed,” Sacrada and Sakurai said as one.

  “It’s settled then.” Nyoka stood tall, looking tough. “Who’s coming with me for the fight, and who’s going with Drew?”

  “Actually,” Navani said, “maybe it should just be me and Drew with Charm and her pets? You all are right—that’s a big enough group as it is.”

  “That’s what we were thinking,” Sacrada said.

  “We?” Sakurai asked with annoyance, but then said, “Well, yeah, we were.”

  “I’m in the mood for a good fight,” Threed said.

  “Good, then you all go first.” Navani indicated the guards converging on the tunnel. “If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get.”

  “Maybe we can lead some of them away,” Threed said, and made replicas of the two sisters, then waved them off.

  “You control them?” Nyoka asked.

  “Think of them as almost part of me,” Threed replied with a grin. “And… watch this.”

  The replicas charged down to the right so that at least they’d be approaching from another angle, then opened fire. Their shots wouldn’t do anything—projectiles from replicas weren’t real—but it was enough to draw the Nihilists’ attention. As planned, a large portion of their force gave chase, leaving the hole relatively unguarded.

  “Now!” Nyoka commanded, and led the charge to the left to circle down to the other side of the tunnel. We waited a few seconds and then my group charged down too, making for the tunnel that led out of the fortress.

  Most of the nearby enemy were distracted, but a line of vampires moved our way, along with a couple of the robed Nihilists. We intercepted them while keeping a low profile, which meant Sacrada and Sakurai avoided their massive light shows, instead going in for the attack with blasters and blades. A spin of Sacrada’s wings sent two vampires back in pieces, a slash of Sakurai’s sword ended another.

  I delivered a couple shots and then stowed my blaster in favor of my fists. With my combo bonuses and stun attacks, the three vampires that tried to surround me didn’t stand a chance.

  One of the Nihilists howled and I spun around to see him trying to fight off an invisible force. A moment later Charm appeared, rolling off as he fell. The other Nihilist was backing Navani and Nyoka away from us with purple blasts of light, but then our pets moved in for the attack. They didn’t land any blows, but it was enough to confuse the first Nihilist and let Sacrada do her damage.

  A glance back showed that the other enemies hadn’t returned, so we sprinted toward our opening.

  We made it inside, the pets catching up a moment later. Letting them go ahead, Charm cloaked and Navani and I stayed a few paces back, sticking to corners when we could. With her ability to see through walls and tell if enemies were coming, we figured this way should work out fine.

  “You’re not worried about them?” I asked.

  She glanced my way, hesitating before saying, “Of course I am. But I’ve seen them in action. I’d say on a scale of one to ten, my worry is a four.”

  “I’ll take it. But… You don’t really think Lamb would be here, right? It’s too easy.”

  “She’s definitely not. If she were, I’d have found a way of contacting her, or my scanning would have picked her up.”

  I frowned. “But I know what I saw. Why’re you going along with it?”

  “This is the farthest anyone on our side has come, and we find a large fortress in this place, heavily guarded? They’re up to something, or at least have some sort of information we can use. I don’t know what we’ll find, but we’ll find something.” She held up a hand, pointing to the passage to our left, and then held up six fingers. A glance around showed our pets ahead, so we hurried to be close to them. Navani guided me to the other side of the pets, and then we all stopped.

  “Keep going,” Charm said. “There’s another hall to your right. Is it clear?”

  Hearing her talk without seeing her was trippy, but it was good to know one of us could move around relatively freely.

  “Clear,” Navani said, and we moved back toward it, the pets following. Halfway there, more of the enemy emerged from the far hallway and we were glad to see them going in the opposite direction, fast. They must’ve been responding to the alarms. We kept moving, almost to the hall.

  A shout came from the rear guard, however.

  “They’re looking our way,” Charm’s hushed voice said. “At least two are, anyway, the rest kept going.”

  The shout was repeated.

  “Just two?” Navani asked as she moved behind the corner, pulling me with her.

  Charm’s face appeared beside us, her head seeming to float there. “That’s right.”

  “We can take two…” Navani pointed the way we’d been going. “Send the puppets.”

  Charm grinned, then cloaked again. A moment later, the three Nihilist pets walked past, and soon after two other Nihilists came after them.

  With only the three of us, I thought the best bet was for Charm to use her cloaking and for me to find a disguise. We moved up on them and they turned to see me. They took up defensive positions the moment I darted in for the attack, but it wasn’t enough. My uppercut smashed in my opponent’s jaw and a follow-on stomp ended him, Charm had also dispatched her opponent.

  They were gone, but their cloaks weren’t. That gave me an idea.

  “We have the pets, she’s invisible,” I said, picking up the cloaks. “And now we have disguises.”

  “I don’t know,” Navani said, taking an involuntary step back. “Those things… there’s something unnatural about them.”

  “Charm?”

  She appeared again. “Yes?”

  “Can you tell her to wear this so we can walk around without having to worry?”

  The strange woman looked at me, her tail twitching, and she sniffed the robes. “I’m with Navani on this one. Something’s not right about them.”

  “Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” I said, and wrapped one of the cloaks around my shoulders. The effect was instant—the inside of this place didn’t look the same anymore, but I couldn’t quite explain it. It was like I was seeing it all through a filter. Energy flowed like a barely perceptible light mist. It flowed strongest back toward where the other Nihilists had disappeared to, but also in other directions.

  “Are you okay?” Charm asked, and Navani was looking at me with concern.

  “Of course,” I replied. “Just… get out of sight. Navani, stay behind me.”

  I pulled up the hood and the effect was even stronger. Maybe I should have thrown the thing off of me right there, but I was convinced this had something to do with Lamb. More so when the mist in one direction began pulsating with a glowing blue.

  “This way,” I told them, and followed the path.

  Other Nihilists passed by in corridors running parallel to ours, more alarms sounded, and an explosion even sent vibrations through the fortress.

  “How do you know?” Navani asked after our second turn.

  “A gut feeling,” I replied, pausing to watch the pulsating mist before me.

  “He’s hiding something,” Charm said.

  “Yeah, no shit.” Navani pulled me around, face inches from mine. “What the fuck aren’t you telling us?”

  “I…” My voice caught at the realization of what I was saying, processing it and understanding how surreal this all was. “I had a vision, I guess.”

  “A vision?” She looked more worried than skeptical.

  “Back there, in the fight, when that strange Nihilist and I made contact—I saw her. Lamb.” The recollection sent a shiver up my spine and I had to pause, remembering the look of desperation in her eyes. “She wants us to go here, and is leading me.”

  “Or—”

  “A trap, yes,” I waved off the comment. “Either way, we have to try. What else do we have to go on?”

  I glanced down at Navani’s belly, then looked away. Was all of this worth the risk? If the prophecy was true, we could be charging in to meet Death, while we should be off in paradise focused on making babies.

  She saw the worry in my eyes, and shook her head. “As much as our mission matters, I won’t leave anyone behind. Not so long as there’s a chance.”

  “But—”

  “No, I’m with you on this.” Navani tucked her silvery purple hair behind her ears, seeming to struggle with this thought. “No buts. What sort of world would we be saving if that’s the type of heroes we are? Heroes don’t abandon their friends, they don’t surrender.”

  “Fucking A,” Charm said, appearing and wrapping an arm around Navani in a way that I found humorous, although it was clear that Navani was totally caught off guard by it. Even more so when the fox-lady’s hand went to Navani’s belly. “Now, how many of the others know about this?”

  “Shit,” Navani said, removing Charm’s arm from around her and stepping back. “You can’t tell them.”

  “So it’s true?” Charm’s eyes went wide. “Holy ball-licking goodness, it’s actually still possible?”

  “A lot of people doubt it,” Navani admitted. “They think we’re destined to eventually die out, with the low rate of birth, the near-impossibility of it all. But Drew and his brother… they’re something special.”

  “And maybe this isn’t the best place to be discussing it,” I pointed out.

  Charm had a mischievous look in her eyes, then laughed, quietly. “Damn. I mean, damn… Damn!”

  “Charm… keep it down,” Navani said.

  “I’m just—sorry, I—I’m trying to comprehend this. Like, would I actually want to get pregnant? You’re telling me all this fucking with Chad—”

  “Don’t need the details,” I interrupted.

  “Fine, whatever. But he actually has a chance of impregnating me?”

  Navani shrugged. “We’re not sure. On our side, the half-sisters combined with their parentage, chances are much better than otherwise. For you… maybe? But I’m not sure.”

  Charm pursed her lips in thought, then said, “Good. I’m not mom material, not yet anyway.”

  “Ladies,” I said, noticing an increase in the glow of the mist nearby.

  “Right, focus,” Charm said with a grin, and then disappeared behind her cloak again.

  In spite of Navani’s apprehension, we followed the glowing mist. We passed a room with more Nihilists, seemingly in some sort of lesson or discussion and not involved in the fight for some reason—maybe students, while the others were guards? It definitely piqued my interest and made me want to learn more about this group we were fighting, but for now we carried on in our disguises, Navani staying out of sight thanks to our pets.

  I was just starting to feel good about this, when the mist led us to a wall. A dead end. For a long moment we stood there, not sure what to do. Navani cleared her throat.

  “Must be some sort of trick?” I said, pushing against the wall. Nothing happened.

  “There could be a latch around here?” Charm said, and I saw her shadow moving along the wall to the left. I went right, running my hands along the surface.

  “Wait, Drew,” Navani said. “How do you know it’s here, exactly?”

  “A glowing mist,” I said. “I know it’s stupid, but—”

  “No, it’s not. Show us where and then, Charm, send one of your pets forward.”

  I did, and a second later one of the pets approached the wall… and walked right through. In my excitement and confusion I reached out to stop it from hitting the wall, so that when it went in, my hand followed.

  “Oldest trick in the book,” Navani said with a grin.

  “Is it really?” I asked, but shrugged. “Maybe… but seems like a hidden brick switch would’ve been the oldest.”

  “Shut up or say thank you.”

  “Thank you,” I replied with a grin, and then followed the pet in while the others came behind. When we emerged through the wall, we found ourselves in a room with three cloaked figures sitting in a triangle facing inward. They were focused on an object shaped like a small pyramid that floated before them. Lines like patterns, or maybe writing, glowed on the its sides.

  But what really caught my eye was the image of Lamb, standing there where the mist was accumulating, staring at me with hope and excitement.

  40

  Lamb’s first movement was to put a finger to her mouth and then whisper, “I’m not really here. I’ve been able to sneak into one of their transport rooms and they haven’t noticed me yet, but this is basically a private call, like an encrypted comms channel.”

  I cocked my head, trying to convey that I didn’t quite understand but not able to ask without likely alerting the guards—if that’s what they were.

  “What you see here are three of their top ranks, though I think they’re not exactly Nihilists,” Lamb went on. “More like their gods, you could say. I’ve heard them referred to as Dexetilaitite… try saying that three times fast.”

  My grin gave her confidence, but she shook her head. “Don’t think this will be so easy. This is the first step—retrieving the item and then going back to the Citadel. Navani knows—in fact, I imagine using the dais is how you got here. This time, do the same but with this, and you’ll be able to sort of travel as they do… but it’s complicated. You’ll understand when the item is in place, the power channeling through it.”

  The others had entered now, though it seemed Lamb hadn’t noticed. I got the feeling she could only see me and the Dexetilia-thingies.

  “I know you’ve grown a lot over a short while,” Lamb went on. “Now it’s time to test yourself. Not for me, but for what this can mean for overthrowing them. Please, Drew, promise me that if it comes to it, you’ll abandon me. I’m not worth risking all of this for.”

  At that, I shook my head. That was a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.

  She sighed, turned and gasped. “I have to go,” she hissed, and then faded along with the mist. Before she was completely gone, however, she added, “Be careful, Drew. A damn lot is riding on you.”

  Way to take away the pressure. Navani was staring at me in confusion, and I noticed Charm’s shadow behind one of our pets.

  I pointed to the small pyramid, indicating that we had to take it, and Navani’s expression turned sour. She had to have known that’s what we were here for, but didn’t seem any more enthusiastic about taking on these three than I felt.

  As quietly as she could, she unslung her rifle and took aim. I did the same with my blaster, wishing I still had that badass assault rifle. Charm’s shadow moved and I knew she was ready. Holding up my fingers, I counted down from three, then took hold of my blaster with both hands, and gently squeezed the trigger.

  Navani’s shot rang out at the same time, both blasts hitting an invisible shield as Charm lunged and hit it too. She was thrown back and slammed into the wall as the three Dex-beings turned to face us. They rose to their feet, pulled swords from their backs, and stepped out of whatever forcefield they were in.

  Our pets instantly turned on us as well, so that we were outnumbered. Whatever these things were, they apparently had some sort of connection or power over our pet Nihilists that was stronger than Charm’s powers.

  I pulled back and a strange feeling came over me, one that I hadn’t felt in some time—it was fear. I was terrified. Part of it had to do with the fact that I could tell from that one simple emotion that my hype had worn off. This was all me—sure, I had the upgrades from leveling up and all that, but there was no extra speed or strength coursing through my body.

  It was more than that though. These things, these Dex-creatures, they had an aura about them, a way of getting inside my head.

  Still, I shot again. The blast hit a shield and didn’t seem to do much damage. When they were within reach I lunged. Not only did my strikes not make contact, their counterstrikes were coming hard and fast. One of them kicked Charm back and then pushed off the wall, coming at me instead, so that there were now two against me.