“Really?” Esha asked.
Ana shrugged. “I am a god. There’s got to be some perks. That’s one of them, though it took me a few centuries to figure it out. I can’t completely destroy the aether, of course. It’s too big. But her world is so small. If I fire into it—like the walls of her house—I bet I can get her illusion to collapse. I’ll break apart her reality until she’s in the normal world.”
Esha finally felt something a bit like hope. “That’s really good. Get her in the real world where we’re on a more even playing field.”
“In the real world?” Warren asked. “What about the mortals?”
“It’s unlikely that her island is inhabited in the real world. If there were people using the same space, it would take an unbelievable amount of power to maintain her world. Dollars to donuts that it’s been abandoned by people.”
“It was a tiny island,” Esha said. “No other houses on it that I saw.”
“Then we’ll hope for the best,” Warren said.
Half an hour later, after the last of Warren’s injuries had fully healed and they’d collected their weapons, they reconvened in the kitchen. It was nearing dusk, and they hoped to hell that Aurora had calmed down some.
“Ready?” Warren asked as he checked his weapons. Knives in his boots, sword at his hip, and the soulceress dagger in his right hand. Practice weapons for so long, they’d now go into true use.
“Looking forward to it,” Ana said.
Esha nodded, her jaw tight, then held out her hands for both of theirs. Though Ana could aetherwalk, she didn’t know the location of Aurora’s aether hideaway. Esha would lead her, and as usual, she’d bring Warren along because he couldn’t travel in this damn soulceress world.
He reached out for her hand. Within seconds of contact, he was sucked through space until he stood on the dark night beach of Aurora’s island home. Ana split off immediately, but Warren pulled Esha close until her face was inches from his.
“You mean a hell of a lot to me.” Worry roughened his voice. “If it comes down to my soul or your life, take your life, damn it.”
“Fuck you, Warren. I’m not leaving you behind.” She kissed him hard and fast and then spun to join Ana. The Chairman trotted after her.
They made their way quickly up to the patio, ghosts in the dark night. A raging party spilled out of house, the music manic and tension hanging over the crowd that danced and drank as if they were under a spell. Even the night breeze that drifted across the palms vibrated with an otherworldly energy.
“Aurora’s trying to make it normal,” Esha whispered.
“But her shell’s cracking,” Ana said, then skirted around the side of the crowd.
They followed, scanning the writhing bodies for Aurora. A great booming noise shook the ground and a bright light flashed from the left side of the house. The light faded to reveal a smoking black crater and a shriek of rage rent the night.
Ana had started firing.
And Aurora had figured out they’d arrived.
Warren and Esha took up posts behind Ana as she raced around the front of the house, firing her arrows into the walls and tearing apart the reality of Aurora’s world. Aurora’s shrieks of rage competed with the booms of Ana’s arrows and drew Warren’s eye to the window. Within, Aurora shot blasts of light from her hands at the holes that Ana had created, no doubt trying to repair them.
Her black gaze met his through the window. The rage in her eyes flared as she waved a hand at him and Esha. He threw himself in front of Esha to protect her from the blow, but none came.
What the hell had—
A wave of bodies poured from the doors and crashed through the windows, heading straight for them. Fuck. This was what Aurora had sent. She’d turned the partiers to monsters, shells of their former selves propelled by her will. Their skin had become pasty white, and their eyes great gaping holes of black.
He drew his sword as Esha threw a huge blast of earth at the advancing figures. The great wave that she’d drawn from the earth bowled over a dozen. The Chairman fought at her side, a blur of fur and fangs that bowled over monsters and tore at their throats. He was still no larger than a housecat, but he was fierce as a lion and nearly as strong. Warren clashed with others, swiping his blade against necks and bellies until blood ran red in the grass.
Bile rose in his throat at the sight. It reminded him of that night so long ago when he’d slain his kin and why he’d vowed never to take another life, but he tightened his grip and continued to hack at them. There was no other way. If he didn’t cut them down, Esha and Ana would be swallowed by the mob. They surged toward them in waves, too fast and too strong to be natural, and soon his skin ran with blood from their teeth and nails. He’d lost sight of Esha, and fear tightened his skin. She could take care of herself, but it didn’t mean it didn’t scare the hell out of him when she was up against a mob.
“I’m close!” Ana screamed. The light of her arrows brightened the night, the booms a cacophony like thunder. “The walls of her world are falling!”
Warren fought his way toward Esha, who stood at Ana’s back deflecting the monsters that clawed to reach her. His chest loosened when he saw her safe and sending another blast of earth that buried a wave of Aurora’s creatures.
Together, they fought their way toward the side of the house, protecting Ana from the crush of bodies. They rounded the corner, and an explosion from the side of the house rent the night. When the dust settled, Aurora stood framed in a gaping hole in the
wall, her arms stretched out at the ground beneath their feet.