One second. Two. They were agonizing.
Then her friend stood before her. Naked and dripping wet, with a scowl that would rival a wet cat’s. A glorious laugh burst out of Esha’s chest, as if the tension and disappointment of the day refused to be held any longer.
“Why the hell are you laughing? What’s wrong?” her friend demanded.
The arrow was for emergency use only. It dragged her friend out of Otherworld no matter what she was doing there.
Esha tried to stop, even clapped a hand over her mouth, but her laugh had become one of those uncontrollable freakout laughs that was more about panic and less about humor. The glorious power that seeped into her from Andrasta only emphasized it.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” she said, finally catching her breath. “Let me get you a towel.”
She tossed her friend a towel and then found a T-shirt and jeans. They wouldn’t fit the much shorter Ana, but they’d have to do.
“I didn’t even know if that arrow would work,” she said, watching Ana dry off and tug on the clothes.
“Me either.”
“What’d I do? Pull you out of some humpathon with Adonis?”
“Wrong afterworld. He’s Greek, not Celtic. I’ve never even met him. I was taking a bath.”
“Sorry.” Esha tried to grin, but her laughing binge had sucked any levity right out of her. Her previous happiness was as gone as tuna in the Chairman’s bowl. She headed into the living room and curled up on the couch, knowing that Ana would follow.
“Thanks for coming,” she said when Ana entered the room. “I’m sorry I had to use the arrow.”
“It’s fine. I gave it to you so you could call me if you needed to.” With no phones or email in Otherworld—what with it being the ancient Celtic afterworld and all—there was no way to get in touch with Ana. Normally she just showed up when she could get away for a visit. “What’s wrong? Why did you need to see me?”
“For your power,” Esha said, guilt twisting something inside her until she swore it was a physical pain.
“Oh fates, don’t worry about that. You can have it all!” Ana could read her so well, but she meant what she said. Ana hated the power that made her a god.
“Thanks. That’s not how everyone else feels.” Whiner.
Esha rarely moped, but Ana was the only friend she had who didn’t speak Cat and just having someone to talk to made her want to spill her guts sometimes.
“You really need to get over that. Worrying what those assholes think isn’t going to do you any good.”
“I know. And I don’t really care. Not normally.” Beating herself up over something she couldn’t control was the height of stupidity, and Esha made a point to limit any conscious stupidity.
“Is it that asshole Warren again?”
“No. He actually apologized for being a jerk. I know he still has a deep-seated problem with what I am, but I think it’s mostly my own issue. Every other Mythean is an asshole about it, so I guess I’m just sensitive. Maybe too much so.”
Ana just shrugged. What else could you do in the face of truth? “Why do you need so much power all at once?”
“I don’t have time to find a big enough group of Mytheans before I have to go with Warren tomorrow to find the soulceress howf.”
“Why the hell are you going there? Isn’t it super dangerous?”
Esha told Ana all about Aurora and Warren and the hunt for one of her own kind.
Ana frowned. “But he’s been such a jerk to you. You’re helping him?”
Esha shrugged. “It was a good apology, but mostly I want to meet her. I’ve never tried to learn anything about my people. When I ran away from school, I was just trying to survive. By the time I got here, I guess I’d just turned into a big wimp who only wanted people to like her, and I figured that if I stayed away from anything related to other soulceresses, it would help.”
“Wow, I had no idea. You’re always such a badass, hunting rogues and spitting in the eye of anyone who looks at you wrong.” Her friend paused. “Which is basically everyone.”
“Yeah, well, my plan was crap. I know that now. I want more. I want to meet someone like me. Someone who won’t judge me on sight.”