Chloe smiled and placed a hand on Veronica’s shoulder. “Oh, poor baby. In the words of the innkeepers who spoke to the late and great parents of the baby Jesus: ‘There’s no room at the inn.’”

  Veronica’s face fell.

  “I’m only joking!” Chloe said, slapping her thigh and pulling in Veronica for a hug. “You’re far too easy. You should lighten up a bit. Come on, you can spoon in Blueballs’ bed.”

  Chloe led Veronica and the others up the stairs.

  “I hope you’re going to pay for the extra bodies!” Kershaw shouted after her, losing his train of thought as he began to count the coins that had piled up on the bar.

  Veronica bunked with Chloe, Gideon, and Blueballs, while Leonie and Huk bunked with Ben, Tag, and Jessie. Therese was also due to bunk in with Tag, Jessie, and Ben, until Tag offered her a spare pillow to rest her head on the floor and Jessie got angry, sending Therese out the door and leaving her to knock on Chloe’s.

  “I don’t even know what her problem is. Tag isn’t even that cute,” she complained, squishing and adjusting her sheet on the floor. “It’s no competition anyway. If I wanted him, I’d have him.”

  Chloe chose not to reply to that, not wanting to stoke any kind of flame that might upset the dynamics of their new group.

  They rested for a few hours, mostly just to sleep off their hangovers. Blueballs and Therese snored and spoke in their sleep, but otherwise, those hours passed without incident.

  It was a little after midday when Chloe was awakened by a knock at the door.

  “Chloe. Someone downstairs for you,” Kershaw grumbled, clearly feeling the effects of staying up past his bedtime.

  Chloe rubbed her eyes, still not quite believing that she was able to get decent rest while sleeping in armor she couldn’t remove, and bumbled along behind him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.

  Five soldiers in brilliant silver armor waited by the door, each with a spear in his hands.

  “Miss Chloe?” the middle soldier asked, removing his helmet and revealing a beautiful lock of wavy hair.

  “You?” Chloe breathed. She remembered the soldier’s face from the battlefield, running across the plains with his sword high and a dashing smile on his face.

  He gave a curt nod. “Prince Gilligan of Killink View. Pleasure to meet you. You made quite the impression out there in the wilderness.”

  “Prince…” Chloe gasped. “You’re the…the…”

  “Prince, yes.” Prince Gilligan laughed. “Not the eldest, but certainly the bravest. He placed a hand at the side of his mouth as if sharing a secret. “But don’t tell my brothers that. They still think they could take me in a fight, but they’re…” He leaned back, puffed out his cheeks, and mimed a rotund stomach with his hands.

  Chloe found herself laughing.

  Prince Gilligan smiled, displaying brilliant white teeth. “Are you ready for your audience with my parents? That was the promised reward, after all.”

  Chloe nodded eagerly, letting Prince Gilligan know that she would dash upstairs and quickly awake the rest of the KieraSlayers.

  Waking the others turned out to be a bigger task than anticipated. While Gideon and Ben were quick to rise, Tag and Therese continued snoring, even after several nudges and pokes with Chloe’s foot.

  “Is it a dwarf thing?” she asked.

  Veronica shrugged. “I think it’s an alcoholism thing. The more they drink, the harder they fall.”

  “And the harder they are to pick up,” Ben said, bending down and trying to pick Tag up.

  Not wanting to leave the prince waiting much longer, Chloe asked Blueballs if he’d mind trying to lift them. A few seconds later, the dwarves were up and dangling from the toffet’s arms.

  Prince Gilligan’s eyes widened when he saw the toffet, but not as much as when he saw Tag and Therese hanging limply on either side.

  “Are your friends okay?”

  Chloe told him they were and that they’d likely wake en route, hoping for that to be true. If not, she vowed to shock them both with a small dose of Volt Shock to see if that brought them back to consciousness.

  The citizens of Killink View bowed, parting and making way for the prince and his vanguard as they passed. The streets cleared for royalty and soon they were up the final stairs leading to the palace—a place Chloe hadn’t paid any attention to, given that from afar, it was hidden behind a large white wall that encircled it from one side of the mountain to the other.

  The gates were open, and the guards stood at attention. Pretty soon they passed through a magnificently carved doorway and went up the final stairs to the palace.

  The greeting hall was large—almost as large as the cave they had fought the dreyda in, Chloe thought—and they followed a red rug that lined the pathway to a raised platform with two thrones set side by side.

  On them were the king and queen, looking regal with their crowns, formal robes, and scepters. A number of guards flanked them, spears held perfectly perpendicular to the stone floor.

  “King Umbar and Queen Leila acknowledge the arrival of the KieraSlayers, fighters and champions of the Royal Quest.”

  The man reading the scroll was tall, with broad shoulders. There were two stumps on his head where horns might once have been. To Chloe, he appeared to be from a different stock and breed than the minotaurs she had seen thus far, though his appearance was much the same.

  “Please come forth one by one as I call your names. Veronica Marsden…”

  Marsden? Chloe thought, remembering the TV show she had watched as a child.

  Veronica strode forward with chest puffed out, planting her feet in front of the steps before falling to one knee.

  “Talbot Aristotle…”

  Aristotle? Chloe snorted. Well, this is enlightening…

  Not everyone has only one name, KieraFreya replied.

  Okay, then. What’s yours? Chloe retorted.

  Fair point.

  The minotaur reeled through the rest of them, allowing the king and queen to acknowledge each player in turn. She learned the surnames of Huk (Griffinfoot), Therese (Mayweather), and Leonie (Kirkland), doing her best to log this information in her memory should she ever need to recall it. The dwarves both woke up with a grunt and a yelp of surprise when they realized where they were.

  When Blueballs’ name was called, the king and queen raised their eyebrows. Queen Leila leaned forward with curiosity in her eyes.

  “Is that…a toffet?”

  Blueballs walked cautiously forward, not sure what to do or where to go. Jessie directed him to his place in line and the creature dropped to one knee, replicating the other’s actions.

  “Amazing,” the queen breathed. “I’ve never seen one in real life, let alone domesticated.”

  Chloe saw a hungry look in her eye and didn’t like it.

  “And, finally, Chloe…”

  Chloe walked forward, finding her place in line. The king and queen gazed at her, intrigued, as she took her place and knelt. The prince moved from his place in line with the soldiers and took a stand beside the thrones, fingers laced behind his back.

  “Thank you, one and all,” the king said, his booming voice making some of the party jump, “for your hard work and sacrifice in the name of this kingdom. You have shown your strength and valor in the face of adversity and proven that you are truly friends of our great and noble Killink.

  “To fight for a kingdom with which you are familiar is a feat, but to arrive as strangers in our land and yet still defend its honor? Now that is a strength. And, if the stories my son here has told us are true, as well as many fighters out there on the street—you fought with more than just bravery. You fought with heart.”

  The king’s eyes lingered on Chloe. She stared back, unsure of what was going on in his mind.

  “For defeating the threat beyond our borders and bringing the wilderness back into the light, you have received the bonus gift of 20,000 experience points each, as well as a personal thank you from the royal family.”

  King Umbar spread his arms to either side of the platform, signaling to Prince Gilligan as well as two fat gentlemen with thick beards who Chloe hadn’t noticed were sitting a little way back in the shadows.

  Chloe looked at Prince Gilligan, who puffed out his cheeks again.

  Chloe stifled a laugh.

  “We don’t forget deeds that have benefited our nation, so we hereby grant you all permission to ask one boon of the city and its monarchy. You must understand that all requests may not be possible, but if the possibility exists, we will do our best to adhere to our promise and grant what you wish.

  “Now, who wants to go first?”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Rain beat against the window, penning everyone inside their houses. Huge black clouds loomed over the city, roiling and rolling in the sky until they resembled a great mass of eels writhing around in a fish tank.

  There was a clap of thunder, then more lightning flashed somewhere just outside the city limits, where the great mass of buildings turned to farmland. A tree split in two and toppled an electric pole, but that wouldn’t be reported on CM5 News Night until later that night.

  Miraculously, the roads were all but clear. It was 2am and no one wanted to be out that night, the pavement silvery and slick under the streetlights.

  Those who were inched forward slowly, noses almost glued to the windshield as their wipers worked double-time to clear the mess falling from the sky.

  “…a 25% chance that the storm will hit the city, with a large percentage in favor of a near miss. Fields and roads on the outskirts are likely to be flooded, although emergency services are doing what they can to clear major access routes…”

  Demetri leaned against the window, not quite believing the downpour he was seeing. “The other side of the street is gone now. Another pole down, I guess?”

  Mia nodded, her face grim. She wore a large puffy jacket and a beanie beneath her hood. All day, reports had come of power outages, and after a lengthy discussion about their living situation and what should or shouldn’t be done with Chloe, they had made up their minds.

  “The pod runs on an emergency generator, with a backup plugged in as a failsafe in case something happens,” Mia had told Demetri when they had discussed how they were possibly going to be able to move while Chloe was still fully immersed. “As long as we keep monitoring it, the power should last at least three hours away from a power source.”

  “That long?” Demetri had gasped.

  Mia shrugged. “We’re not known for cutting-edge technology for no reason.”

  Still, the whole operation would be difficult. Not only would they need to wheel the pod out of the apartment, but they also had the challenge of transporting it all the way across the city to Demetri’s place.

  They had spent all night preparing, knowing that as the storm approached, there would be no other time when it made quite as much sense to move. The news was reporting power outages all over the city. As long as the power of the pod was portable, why not move the pod with them?

  “Ready?” Demetri asked, knees bent, shoulders straining.

  Mia told him she was, and together they lifted the pod onto a dolly. The wheels groaned under the weight, but the flat bottom of the pod settled solidly.

  Next came the doorway. The pod was slim, designed in the shape of a person lying down. That didn’t mean the fit was comfortable. On the way into the apartment, they had had to ensure that the angle was perfect before it made its way through the door, and this time was no different.

  A couple of times, the pod got stuck. Demetri looked into Chloe’s peaceful face, wondering where exactly she was in her immersive experience right now and remembering that they had their backup plan should things go wrong.

  On the fifth attempt, the pod slipped through. They wheeled the contraption toward the elevator, angled the pod so it fit inside the room, and pressed the button for the ground floor.

  Demetri couldn’t say that they didn’t get strange looks carting the pod out of the apartment complex. Even for the lads and ladies who were awake and wrestling with the alcohol making its way through their systems, this seemed a strange endeavor.

  Mia pulled out a large plastic sheet from her bag, and secured it around Chloe’s pod, knowing they wouldn’t be able to stop the rain from getting in, but at least wanting to try to keep her as dry as possible.

  Demetri pulled his hood up and felt the freezing cold downpour on his back. The rain beat like tiny pellets of rubber. They dashed around the corner, found their way to the pickup truck Demetri had borrowed by calling in a few favors from old clients, and secured the pod in place.

  “You okay?” Demetri roared over the rain.

  He thought he saw Mia nod, but he couldn’t hear her reply. When the final strap was secure, Mia sprinted toward the passenger seat and hopped on in. Demetri ran back into Mia’s apartment and came back with two backpacks.

  “Is this slightly crazy?” Mia asked, doubt in her eyes.

  “Everything about us is crazy.” Demetri smirked. “Twenty years of no contact, signing a contract to see each other every day, and babysitting a girl in a video game. Tell me that none of that is crazy.”

  Mia didn’t answer the question. Instead, she just said, “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  The visibility on the roads was next to nothing. Making his way as best he could by the junctions and lights of corner shops and restaurants, they plodded through the city.

  Thunder crashed loudly, feeling as though it was shaking the pavement. Lightning flashed overhead, striking rooftops and threatening to get closer to the two trying to navigate onward.

  Around twenty minutes into their journey, Demetri looked at his watch (the same way he had every couple of minutes or so on the drive), when Mia shouted, “Look out!”

  Demetri slammed on the brakes, looking over the hood with disbelieving eyes as a drunk homeless man patted the car and swayed off. His brown paper bag was drenched, doing nothing to conceal the hard liquor within.

  “Idiot,” Demetri groaned, checking the pod through the small cabin window over his right shoulder.

  “She okay?”

  “Yeah…” Demetri said uncertainly. “Of course, she is. Come on.”

  There were a few more incidents of people sprinting into the road or the truck dipping and bouncing as it drove into and out of potholes. On these occasions, Demetri wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, not sure if the slickness he felt was residual rain or sweat.

  Pretty soon, Demetri began to spot the landmarks of his neighborhood. Lights were on in apartments. Blurry silhouettes looked down at them and shook their heads, not understanding why anyone would want to be out at this time in the morning, and in these conditions.

  “Just around this corner,” Demetri told her.

  “Fancy neighborhood. Bet it’s nice in the sun.”

  “Hard to imagine, huh?”

  Demetri parked the pickup around the back, working quickly with Mia to undo the straps and place Chloe’s pod on the dolly again. They wheeled her inside, stopped only briefly by the concierge, who asked to see Demetri’s identification.

  Demetri lowered his hood. “It’s me. Just wet.”

  “Terribly sorry, sir,” the concierge replied. “Would you like some help with that?”

  Mia spoke between heavy breaths. “No, thank you, sir. We’re good.”

  “Very well.”

  The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. They waited for a woman who looked as though she was wearing hardly any clothes under her long fur jacket to exit the elevator, then muscled the pod inside.

  “How long?” Mia asked as Demetri pushed the button for his floor.

  Demetri checked his watch. “Fifty-three minutes.”

  “We should be okay.”

  “Should?”

  “Do you trust me?” Mia asked.

  “Of course.”

  They looked longingly over each side of the pod, each clearly wanting to kiss, but unable to. The elevator dinged again, and they wheeled the pod out.

  “Down here,” Demetri said, guiding the pod with one hand now as the other fished the key out of his pocket. They were leaving a trail of wet drops on the polished marble floor behind them.

  Demetri struggled with the key in the lock, his hands numb and cold from the rain.

  “Need some help?” Mia offered.

  “I got it.”

  The door clicked open, and Demetri helped Mia push the pod inside. The doors were wider at his apartment, designed for the fat cats of higher living. Those with big wallets and even bigger bodies.

  “What do you think?” Demetri asked, taking a second to stand and stretch his back.

  “I think we should get this girl plugged back in. At least the power hasn’t gone down here.”

  “Extra generators in the basement,” Demetri explained, directing the pod toward the spare bedroom—the one he often used as a personal library, with shelves lining the walls and a desk in the far corner. “A lot of this building runs on electricity, everything from payments to communication to security. Since we’re paying so damn much, it’s only right that they installed backups for nights such as these. Throw me the power cable, would you?”

  Mia opened her backpack and rifled inside. She found her hairbrush, a hairdryer, some underwear, a few chargers for her various electronic devices, but no power cable.

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  Mia looked sheepishly at Demetri. “It’s not here.”

  Demetri rolled his eyes. “It’s in mine.” He pointed just inside the door where he had deposited his bag.

  Sure enough, a moment later, Mia withdrew a long black cable. She sighed a breath of relief.

  “Oh, thank God.”

  “No, thank Doc.” He winked.

  They lifted Chloe off the dolly and placed her carefully on the floor. The pod was still dripping, so they removed the plastic sheet and dried off as much as they could with a series of towels Demetri brought from God-knows-where.