3.2.2

Morgan was tired of heat and humidity. Starting the soul hunt in the morning meant it was past sunset in India, and Morgan had made the foolish mistake of thinking this would mean cooler weather. As it turned out, September in India was still summer, and their destination—Visakhapatnam—was right along the coast, making the humidity unbearable.

At least this soul fragment was on the beach itself. The city was mostly metal and concrete and narrow streets and crowded buildings—like Houston, but worse—so it was nice to be walking in the prettier part of the city. The beach was a weird mix of commercial area and tourist sites, so the light pollution from warehouses and hotels made it nigh impossible to see the stars despite the clear skies above. Still, though Morgan couldn’t really see anything in the moonless night, the rhythmic crash of the waves was soothing.

“So, does anyone know why we’re in India for one of Kai’s memories?” Lian asked. They had fallen into step next to Joshua, while Morgan and Ilia lagged slightly behind, so when Lian spoke, it was mostly to open air.

“Is it that strange?” Morgan replied. She sidestepped to avoid getting her boots wet in the wake of a particularly far-reaching wave. “We’ve been in Asia the whole time.”

“Most of this shitshow has been on the complete other side of Asia,and since His Highness is from China, that was considerably more normal than this,” Joshua pointed out. He didn’t even bother turning around to face Morgan.

“And what about that time we were in Myanmar?” Morgan shot back. “That wasn’t China!”

“Do the two of you always argue about things that don’t matter?” Ilia sighed. “Just wondering so I can calibrate my expectations for the morning.”

“They’re always like this,” Lian answered with a nod. “But you get used to it.”

“Hey!” Morgan protested. “We’re not always arguing!”

“Prove it, then,” Lian said slyly. “I bet you can’t.”

Morgan bristled, but she kept her mouth shut. If she was anything, it was competitive, and she didn’t want to lose Lian’s challenge without a fight. The easiest way to win would be to stay quiet.

“Back to Lian’s question,” Ilia said evenly. “I think we’re here because of Jinal.”

“Jinal?” Joshua came to a stop and turned to face Ilia and Morgan with a blank stare. “We’re here for Kai.”

“Oh, wait,” Morgan realized. “They’re married. Of course one of Kai’s most important moments would be with her.”

“Wait, they’re what?” Lian yelped.

“Lian.” Joshua gave Lian a dumbfounded look. “How did you not know that?”

“No one told me,” Lian pouted. “How did you know?”

“Minerva told us in the prison,” Joshua explained. “Some of us, anyway. It was after we split up.”

“Then how did you know?” Lian asked, frowning at Morgan.

“I read some of Jinal’s journals,” Morgan said with a shrug. “Just a couple of them, but enough to know she’s married to Kai.”

“Was I the only one who didn’t know?” Lian cried.

“It’s not a big deal,” Ilia replied. “I knew because I was training almost exclusively with Jinal in the week between the prison break and the mafia tournament, but you haven’t spent much time with Jinal or Kai, right?”

“I guess that’s true,” Lian relented. “I still feel stupid, though.”

“Whatever,” Joshua said, rolling his eyes. “If you’re done with that, I think we’ve found what we’re looking for.” He crouched and began to brush away the sand with one hand, exposing a green glow.

“All right.” Ilia extended a hand, and a royal blue barrier surrounded the group. “I don’t know how long this shield will stay up, but hopefully it’s enough.”

“Yeah,” Joshua said miserably. “Hopefully it is.” With one last look at everyone, he grabbed the marble.

~.~

“Kai,” Jinal said slowly. “Why are we here?”

It was a valid question. A walk along the beach at sunset was romantic in theory, but Visakhapatnam was not the best beach in the world for that purpose. The ocean view was interrupted every now and then by piers of varying lengths, and large wooden vessels towered over the couple from all sides, casting long shadows across the beach. It was late enough in the day that the area was quiet, and the water was relatively still, but it was still not the ideal location for a date.

Which was fine, because today was not going to be a regular date.

“Do you remember what today is?” Kai asked. He led Jinal by the hand as the two strolled along the shore, close enough to the water that their bare feet were both wet from the surf.

“Of course,” Jinal said quietly. “Today is the day we got engaged. Back before…”

“Before I left you,” Kai said grimly. “Yes.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Jinal replied, a tinge of bitterness in her voice. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t ask to die.”

“But I left you all the same.”

Kai came to a stop. A warm breeze ruffled his hair as he gazed wistfully at the horizon.

“When I proposed to you back then, I had no illusions about calling myself your equal, you know,” he said pensively. “We were hundreds of years apart, and you were miles out of my league.”

“I was not,” Jinal protested.

“You were,” Kai said lightly, looking over his shoulder at Jinal. “Still are, actually, and we’re even farther apart in age now. Maybe in that regard, nothing has changed. And yet…” Kai turned back towards the ocean. “At the same time, everything is different now. We’re not the same people we were back then.”

“Yeah, your poetry’s gotten worse,” Jinal teased.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Kai shot a withering look over his shoulder. “Hopefully you don’t think the same of my cooking.”

“Hmmm.” Jinal paused, face scrunched up in mock deliberation. “I guess you’ve got me there.”

“Ah!” Kai said with a coy smile. “A rare victory!”

“Kai.” Jinal’s frown was cute—in part because she wasn’t actually upset. Her eyes still shone with levity and warmth, and as the light of the setting sun reflected off of those beautiful brown eyes, Kai’s heart ached with the need to show her how much she was loved.

Maybe Kai wasn’t the right person for that anymore. She had lived more than half a millennium without him—more than half a millennium alone. He had already failed to protect her once, and nothing he could do would make up for that.

But Kai wanted so badly to take Jinal in his arms and defend her, now and forever. If they were truly eternal, he would always support her—if she would let him.

Kai’s expression grew more somber. Shadows from nearby storehouses partially hid his face from view.

“You told me about this place once, back before I died,” he said softly. The crash of waves against the shore seemed to fade into the background as Kai spoke. “After Yaran killed your family, you wandered for a few years, but once you learned how to control your power, you decided to settle down, get a second chance. You tried to start a family here. It didn’t work out then, but...”

Kai exhaled slowly and turned to face Jinal, letting her hand fall from his grasp. Her gaze was sharper now, and Kai could tell immediately that she knew what he was about to do.

“I know that me and the others—we’re not quite what you imagined at that time,” he continued, holding eye contact. “But when I think about starting a family, I can’t imagine myself with anyone other than you. When I had to leave my family and my kingdom behind, you supported me. You taught me how to live for myself again, and you accepted me with all of my flaws. You were my second chance.”

When Kai got down on one knee, there were already tears in Jinal’s eyes.

“Jinal Rajeswara.” Kai smiled up at his counterpart, his light, the love of his life. “Will you let me be your second chance, too?”

~.~

Morgan had loved before. When she was sixteen, she had briefly dated another girl her age, and the two had shared forbidden kisses and secret nights on rooftops and hands held in the shadows. And when Morgan’s dad had ordered Morgan to kill her girlfriend less than a year later, she had mourned, too. So yes, Morgan was no stranger to love.

But the memory of Kai’s proposal still hit Morgan hard because Morgan had never loved like that.

To love someone more than oneself, to want to devote oneself so thoroughly to another, to live and breathe and die for someone else—Morgan could not fathom that. After murdering her first girlfriend, Morgan had cut herself off from the idea of romance. She couldn’t bear to love only to lose in the end. But Kai—Morgan had felt how profound his sense of loss was, yet he still continued to love all the same.

Morgan’s gaze drifted towards Ilia. It would be nice, Morgan thought, to be able to make someone look at her the way Jinal had looked at Kai. Maybe one day Morgan could deserve that.

“Um, Morgan, are you awake?” Ilia asked, waving a hand in front of Morgan’s face. “You’ve been staring at me for a while.”

“Oh! U-um, yes!” Morgan squeaked. Heat rose in Morgan’s cheeks, and she quickly turned away before Ilia could notice the embarrassment on her face. Luckily, Joshua saved Morgan from having to compose a more solid reply.

The teleportation crystals aren’t working, Joshua said bluntly. Morgan fumbled around in her jacket pocket until her fingers closed around the crystal. Sure enough, twisting the crystal yielded no results.

Hm. Ilia frowned. My teleportation isn’t working either. It’s just like in the prison.

Well, we expected this, Morgan muttered. Now we just need—

Watch out! Lian cried.

A shadow beast slammed into the barrier Ilia had created before the memory vision, sending cracks racing outwards from the point of impact. Ilia gritted her teeth and sent a pulse of blue light outward from her hands, sealing the cracks.

Joshua, Ilia said firmly. Is Kai showing you where the teleportation blocking device is?

Yeah, Joshua replied. A second shadow beast rammed the shield. It’s close, but I can’t get there as fast as I normally would. The device is messing with my powers.

Just like with the other group, Morgan said grimly. Great. She tried to will the temperature to drop, but it felt like the air itself was resisting, just like Joshua had said.

Well, my powers are fine, except for teleportation, Ilia noted. Whatever’s suppressing your powers doesn’t seem to work on me. One of the shadow beasts shot a blast of fire at the shield, but the attack didn’t leave so much as a crack.

Then you can shield Joshua while he flies to the device and destroys it? Lian asked.

I can’t make a second shield without the first one getting considerably weaker, Ilia said with a grimace. I-I’m not like the Ennead. They’re used to the strain that comes with using Yaran’s curse like this, but I’m not.

So we either move as a group under the cover of a shield, or we send me alone to destroy the machine while the rest of you run distraction, Joshua reasoned. I think I should go alone—I’ll be faster that way.

That’s risky! Lian argued. Right now there’s only two shadow beasts that we can see, but we don’t know if there are more out there—and maybe Sniper is out there, too. You could get seriously injured!

I’ve fought shadow beasts before, Joshua said thinly. And all three of you have ranged attacks that you can use from behind a shield, so you can cover me.

As far as I can tell, the only enemies out here are shadow beasts, Ilia chimed in. I can’t tell exactly how many, but it’s a handful. Some of them are the flying types, too—pixies, bats, and the like.

See? Flying could be risky, too! Lian said emphatically.

I can— Morgan bit their lip. Even though they had successfully dispelled that tornado at the Yangtze River, they still didn’t quite feel comfortable with their powers.

You can what? Joshua said with a scowl. Morgan took a deep breath.

The wind, they said shakily. You’ll fly faster with the wind keeping enemies off your back.

Morgan didn’t miss the way Joshua tensed at that suggestion—and why shouldn’t he be wary of Morgan after she had hit him with lightning just two weeks ago? But then he looked Morgan in the eye. There was a measured caution in his gaze, but without any of the scorn or anger Morgan had expected to find there.

Sounds good, Joshua said evenly. Just don’t mess it up.

I won’t, Morgan said firmly, eyes shining with resolve. The unease in her gut settled, replaced with fierce determination. Joshua had chosen to give her a second chance, and she was not going to fuck that up.

That’s settled, then, Ilia decided. But you probably can’t destroy the machine with sheer force.

What do you mean? Joshua frowned. How else am I supposed to break it?

Ilia closed her eyes. Royal blue flames flickered to life at her fingertips, spewing sparks into the air, and Morgan watched, awestruck, as the sparks twisted and swirled, casting a soft glow on Ilia’s face. Morgan had seen Ilia use her powers before—had seen the way royal blue light illuminated her long lashes and rounded cheeks and broad nose—but it was still breathtakingly beautiful every time. The sparks eventually coalesced into twin streams of light that flowed seamlessly into Joshua’s gloves, imbuing them with a blue glow.

That should help. It’ll give your attacks a little bit of my power, Ilia explained.

Great. Joshua extended his wings. Leave as soon as the device breaks.

Joshua launched himself into the air before Lian could protest. As Joshua crossed through the barrier, Ilia waved her hand, and a blast of royal blue light knocked the two shadow beasts back, giving Joshua an opening. And then Joshua gained enough altitude that Morgan could hardly see him. Her only clue to his whereabouts was the faint blue glow from his gloves, but even that couldn’t help Morgan see what was around Joshua.

“You can’t see the shadow beasts in the air, can you,” Ilia whispered.

“No,” Morgan said through gritted teeth. “It’s too fucking dark.”

In the background, an ear-piercing rendition of some Asian pop song that Morgan had never heard before echoed through the air, followed by the tell-tale splat of a shadow beast exploding into pieces. At least Lian seemed to have things handled.

“Um, okay, one second. I think I can help you see,” Ilia said quickly. She reached a hand towards Morgan’s face, then hesitated. “Is it okay if I…?”

“Yes.” Morgan was surprised by how quickly the word tumbled out of her mouth. She hated being touched. Nothing good ever happened when people touched her. But when Morgan gazed into Ilia’s hickory eyes, laced with flecks of royal blue, she yearned to be touched—to be held—and when Ilia gently laid her hands on Morgan’s temples, Morgan could feel the tips of her ears turning red.

This was really not the time to be thinking about any of this.

At least Ilia seemed oblivious to Morgan’s inner turmoil. She channeled a pulse of royal blue light into Morgan’s head, and Morgan felt a wave of intense vertigo, strong enough that she had to close her eyes to reorient herself. The sensation was gone as soon as it came, and as Morgan blinked away the remaining dizziness, she realized that her vision was sharper now.

It was like she was looking through night vision goggles—she could see everything. Or, well, she couldn’t see details, but every creature and object was outlined clearly in royal blue that popped out against the night sky. Morgan turned to Ilia to thank her, but Ilia was already gone. She was supplementing Lian’s sporadic halos of pop music with pillars of blue light, all while maintaining the shield, and Morgan didn’t want to distract her.

That left the sky to Morgan. From what Morgan could tell, Joshua was holding his own against swarms of shadow bats and pixies, but the fight was greatly slowing him down, and with his super speed diminished, he couldn’t escape, either. It was Morgan’s turn, then.

It still felt like the air itself was resisting Morgan’s beck and call, and that made it harder for them to judge how hard they needed to pull to get things to move. If they pulled too hard, the weather could easily slip out of their control, but if they pulled too little, nothing would happen. Morgan already had trouble finding that sweet spot on a good day, without a device disrupting her powers, but she didn’t have a choice now. Joshua was counting on her.

Morgan took a deep breath and thought back to the handful of times they had managed to actually use their power. There had only been one instance, really, where they had felt perfectly in control—killing their shadow clone in Dimension X—and Morgan had no idea how to replicate that. At the time they had been scared and angry and fueled by raw emotion and—oh.

Morgan knew what they had to do.

With another deep breath, Morgan constructed an image in their head of Joshua—of the steel in his gaze as he looked at them and trusted them with his back—and then they called upon their own determination to live up to that trust. Resolve, too, could be an emotion to fuel Morgan’s power. The wind was going to be stubborn? Morgan would be stubborn right back.

This time, Morgan didn’t ask nicely. They commanded the wind to come to Joshua’s aid, and it complied. A powerful gust of wind swirled around Joshua, and it was just strong enough to knock away the swarms of creatures clinging to his wings without knocking Joshua himself out of the air. Joshua rocketed forward before the shadow creatures could recover.

Morgan was not like Kai. Even on a good day, she couldn’t weave the currents around Joshua’s wings and keep the wind at his back as he moved—it was too hard for her to predict where he’d go next. Instead, she used the night vision Ilia had given her to knock shadow pixies and bats out of the air before they could even get close.

Morgan was vaguely aware of the increasingly desperate bursts of sound around them as the shield grew thinner, but their focus was entirely on the sky. No matter how many times Morgan knocked the shadow pixies and bats out of the way, they seemed to always come back. Morgan figured the same thing was happening on the ground, so when she saw Joshua come in for a landing about a thousand feet away, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. He’d found the teleportation blocker. A second later, Morgan’s powers settled back into place.

And then a boom echoed through the air—the sound of a distant explosion, coming from Joshua’s direction.

Morgan’s blood ran cold. Before she could so much as ask Joshua what had happened, a flash of royal blue light carried her back to the pocket dimension. She could only hope that Ilia had been able to reach Joshua, too.

~.~

Auster was sitting in the living room when Peter, Dani, and Juli got back. He had decided to take Juli’s advice and spend some time outside of the kitchen. It was too early to start on lunch, anyway, and he’d been meaning to try the rhythm game Lian had recommended to him, so he had spent the better part of the morning tapping out tunes on his phone and learning that he was not, in fact, good at rhythm games. He’d have to ask Lian for pointers later.

When the mafia trio arrived, Auster was tempted to just sit in his spot and wait it out—but then there was another flash of light in the foyer, mere seconds later.

“Joshua!”

The voice was Lian’s, and the distress in their tone made Auster’s heart rate skyrocket. He bolted out of his seat and ran to the foyer. He’d been anxious all morning about the attack on Joshua and Lian’s group, and he needed to see for himself that they were okay.

When Auster got to the foyer, Joshua was sitting on the ground, one leg extended and the other folded underneath him. His clothes were dusty, stained here and there with blotches of inky shadow, but aside from the sand in his hair, he looked completely fine. Lian was kneeling next to him, eyes shining with worry. The mafia trio was kind of just awkwardly standing off to the side, and Morgan and Ilia were both shooting concerned looks at Joshua from their place next to him.

In any other situation, Auster would have lingered at the doorway, but his nerves were shot from worrying all morning, and he found himself crossing the room to stand closer to Lian and Joshua.

“Josh,” Auster said tentatively. “Are you—”

I’m fine, Joshua grunted. Stop freaking out.

Auster jumped in surprise. The telepathy thing was still extremely weird and disorienting for him. Ilia had given him a telepathy crystal earlier to keep him in the loop, but Auster still felt uncomfortable using it.

I was freaking out because you weren’t saying anything when I asked if you were okay! Lian retorted. What was I supposed to think?

I can’t fully hear yet, idiot, Joshua said thinly. And I can’t read lips, either.

Oh, right. Explosions make you deaf. Lian’s shoulders sagged with relief.

Explosion? Dani asked, arms crossed. What happened?

We ran into the same kind of situation as you—shadow beast attacks and a teleportation blocking device, Joshua explained. He rose to his feet with Lian’s help. The device exploded when I destroyed it, but it was more like a smoke bomb than an actual explosion. It was… strange. I didn’t get to see more before Ilia teleported us out.

Sorry, Ilia breathed. When I heard the explosion, I figured—I figured it was best to get us out of there, and using the crystals would’ve taken more time.

“I don’t know why you’re apologizing. I would’ve done the same,” Joshua said, rolling his eyes. Auster figured that Joshua’s hearing must be returning if he was switching to speech.

“That’s… good…” It looked like Ilia was going to say more, but suddenly her knees buckled, and it was only Morgan’s quick reaction time that saved her from landing face first on the floor.

“Whoa!” Morgan yelped, catching Ilia in her arms. She gently lowered Ilia to the ground with clear concern on her face. “Are you okay?”

“Sorry,” Ilia said weakly. “Not used to using my powers like that.”

“What do you mean?” Morgan cocked her head to the side in confusion. “You’re not still using your powers, are you?”

“Her powers are a little different from ours,” Karyme interjected. She entered the room with Rae and Joel in tow. “Even the simplest use of her powers consumes energy.”

“Oh,” Morgan said softly. “I see.”

“Josh!” Joel cried. He sprinted across the foyer and practically rammed into Joshua, hugging him with enough force to cause him to stumble back a little. “We heard the explosion, but we couldn’t see anything because that dumb device was blocking our view! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Joshua said wearily. The ghost of a smile crossed his face as he ruffled Joel’s hair. “Really. Sorry if I scared you.”

“I’m not scared!” Joel said adamantly, pulling away from Joshua. “I was just—just a little worried. But not as worried as Auster—you should’ve seen the way he was pacing all morning!”

Normally, Auster would have been aptly embarrassed by this remark, but he was only vaguely paying attention to Joel now. His attention was elsewhere—captured by the spark of silver around Joshua’s left foot.

It was subtle, but a circular area of ground around Joshua’s left foot seemed to be growing darker by the minute. As Auster watched, the circle gained depth and clarity, and the edges of the circle began to flicker silver—the Necromancer’s silver. Auster’s blood went cold.

A hole in the floor. It was a hole in the floor, and it was going to swallow Joshua whole.

Joshua had not sunk into the ground yet, but the silver sparks of light around the edges were coalescing into clearer tongues of flame, and the hole now encompassed both of Joshua’s feet. It was too late. There wasn’t enough time left to warn him.

Auster pushed Joshua aside without a second thought.

Maybe it was stupid for Auster to place himself in the line of fire instead, but the team couldn’t afford to lose Joshua. Joshua was wearing most of Kai’s soul on his wrist. Joshua was vital to the fate of the universe—and vital to Joel.

But Auster? Auster was just some guy who ended up here by chance. All he could do was cook dinner—but maybe this way, he could be helpful, too.

As silver light engulfed Auster, shouts of alarm echoed through the air. A hand reached for Auster’s, but fingers slipped past each other. The last thing Auster saw was Joshua’s eyes, and in them, an emotion he had not seen there in a long, long while.

Oh, Auster realized. He’s scared.

And then, nothing.

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