“I guess so, if that’s what the painting says. But first we have to deal with Aurora. You really think that dagger will work?” Hope was a bright light in her chest, beating back the despair that there was no way to help both her sister and Warren.
“Aye, according to soulceress lore. It’s our only choice.”
It really was. Esha stood no chance of convincing Aurora to release his soul, and Warren had two days left at most before the medicine stopped working and he was entirely incapacitated.
“How the hell are we going to manage this, though? When she’s enraged, her power is immeasurable—and right now she’s out of control,” Esha said.
“We should wait a bit. Give her a few hours to calm down and for me to heal up. Then I’ll go back.”
Esha glared at him. “I’m going too.”
He stared at her for a moment, no doubt trying to think of a way to keep her safe, then nodded. “Aye. It’s your fight.”
“Good. We only stand a chance if there are two of us.” She frowned, recalling the sheer strength of Aurora’s power when she was in the grip of her madness. “Maybe not even then.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
A few hours later, the creaking of the foyer door pulled Esha out of her doze. She untangled her limbs from Warren’s and slid out of bed, the cold of the room immediately reminding her how warm he’d been. He was sleeping more heavily than normal, no doubt still recovering from his injuries. She threw on her clothes and met Ana in the foyer. She’d just returned from her exploration of the city.
“This place is amazing!” Ana said. Her cheeks were pink from the cold, and her eyes were bright with excitement.
A small laugh escaped Esha despite her stress. “It’s really not. You just like anything that isn’t Otherworld.”
Ana shrugged. “True.”
“Can I ask you for another favor? A dangerous one?”
“My favorite kind.” Ana’s hand went
to the bow strapped to her back and her eyes hardened. “We’re going after Aurora, aren’t we?”
Esha nodded. “Come into the kitchen. We’ll talk about it there and grab a quick bite. We should go after her soon.”
“Okay. I’ll have to be back in Otherworld before the other gods know I’m gone.”
“Of course.”
Esha cobbled together sandwiches from their supplies and sat with Ana just as Warren arrived, clean from a bath in the hot springs. She nodded to a plate next to hers. “That one’s yours.”
“Thanks.” He sat and reached for the plate.
“Tell me what we’re up against.” Ana bit into her sandwich.
“Aurora has created a world in the aether. It’s a huge Mediterranean-style mansion on a tropical beach.”
Ana shrugged. “Makes sense, considering the prison the witches had her in. She must have envisioned a luxurious place that’s the opposite of where she’s been. No surprise she ended up in a villa in the Med.”
“Wait, what do you mean? She’s in the aether, no’ the Mediterranean,” Warren said.
“Sort of.” Ana spoke around her bite of sandwich, then swallowed. “She’s in the aether, but she needed something to work with as a starter. There’s got to be a real island with a real house on it that she’s using as a base for her world. That’s just how the aether works—even with all her souls, she’s no’ powerful enough to create a whole new world. If we could find the island, we’d find a house in the real world. But she wouldn’t be there. It’s sort of like another dimension, a construct of her mind that she’s made real within the aether, yet it’s partially based in the real world in a place that suited her specifications. She’s in the aether like you think, just not entirely.”
“Of course. That’s why there are so many appliances and modern conveniences there that she didn’t recognize. And probably how she got the mortals there for her party,” Esha said.
“Exactly.” Ana popped the last bite of sandwich into her mouth. “What else do I need to know?”
“She’s pissed as hell and nearly invincible. When I left her, she was tearing her house down around her,” Esha said. “She has complete control over her environment when she’s in her world. We’ve got to drag her out if we’re going to have any chance against her, but I don’t know how we’ll get close to her.”
Ana frowned thoughtfully. “I think I can help with that. We’ve got to destroy her world. My arrows can tear through the aether.”