“Esha!” She couldn’t hear his words, but she could read his lips as he pounded on the ice, fear for her plain on his face.
“I’m fine!” She screamed, then caught sight of a shadow behind Warren. “Behind you!”
Warren spun around and faced the shadow. It was the mysterious shade who’d helped them until now. He’d be safe with the shade. She read no evil in it, not the way she normally did, and had an overwhelming feeling that the two of them could face whatever came at them.
Knowing that she had no way to escape the ice except to turn around and continue across the platform, she did so. Her muscles tensed as she walked across the marble expanse that was now surrounded on all sides by ice. A great table, inlaid with marble of all colors, stretched across the back wall. Behind it was an archway that led into a small antechamber.
She skirted the table and cautiously stepped through the archway. The breath was sucked from her lungs, and her vision blacked out as she was pulled through space.
CHAPTER THIRTY
When Esha could finally breathe again, she opened her eyes to see that she was standing in the middle of a beach party. No, make that a beach orgy. Scantily dressed mortals were dancing—writhing, more like it—to thumping music pumped out of speakers the size of her car.
Hot sun sparkled on cerulean blue water that lapped in small waves at a white sand beach, so different from the frozen land she’d left behind. She turned to see that she stood next to an expansive marble patio, and behind it, a huge white mansion with gleaming glass windows.
What the hell? This was so not what she had been expecting. She glanced around for the Chairman. He wasn’t there.
Holy shit. He’d been left behind. Her heart pounded faster. She was at half power without him. She readied herself for anything and pushed her way through the tanned, sun-oil slicked bodies of the partiers and stepped up onto the patio. The acre of white marble surrounded a huge pool, within which floated one woman on an enormous pool raft.
The woman leaned up and flicked her sunglasses up onto her head. “You’re here!” She hopped off the raft and climbed out of the water in seconds. “Clear out, bitches, the party is over!”
She waved her hand and the crowd disappeared. Another wave, and the music turned off. Silence crashed around them.
It all happened so fast that Esha’s head spun. The woman—who looked so familiar—strolled toward her. Esha gaped, remembering too late to snap her jaw shut. Aurora was as bright and golden as the sun. Golden skin, golden hair chopped short and tousled around her head, and most importantly, golden eyes that were far too familiar.
“Holy shit, we’re related,” Esha breathed.
“Of course.” Aurora spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. But it wasn’t, not until you looked at their eyes. Their bodies shared no similarities. The other soulceress was shorter, with a more athletic build. Where Esha was a contrast of pale and dark, Aurora was golden.
Except for the black shadows that writhed around her, a mist that resonated with evil. They were the soul shadows of Warren and others. Esha didn’t have any of those.
But her eyes. One look at her eyes and it was clear as the sparkling water surrounding this island that they shared a parent.
“How?” Esha asked.
“We’re half sisters. Same mother.”
The breath whooshed out of Esha’s lungs, and she stepped back. No matter the broad smile that stretched across the face of the woman approaching her, she exuded danger and power.
Danger especially. As much as she wanted to believe the best of this woman—her sister, for gods’ sake—she wasn’t stupid.
“Where’s my familiar? And Warren?”
“Back in the temple. Safe, since it seems you would no’ come until I ended the magic. I thought it was quite clever.”
“Why’d you enchant the portal so it didn’t allow my familiar?”
“I figured you weren’t out to hurt me, but if you were, I dinna want you having the extra power. You aren’t out to get me, right?” Her sister arched a golden brow.
“Probably not, but I’m not sure yet.”
“Fair enough. Want a beer?” Aurora plucked one out of a cooler.
“Um, no, I’m good, thanks.”
“Come on.” Aurora stood in front of her with an infectious grin that threw Esha off balance. She popped the top off the beer and stuck it out so that Esha had to grab it. “Took you long enough to find me. Let’s go sit in those lounge chairs, get to know each other.”
Esha stood dumbly, the beer in her hand, as she watched her sister saunter off. They were going to chat, with beers on the beach? This was too strange—it couldn’t be right.