Her hair was long, nearly reaching the middle of her back. Emotionless ice blue eyes considered them from a face that would have been sweet looking if there’d been an ounce of human emotion in her features.
“Ai?” Tate whispered, not quite able to bring herself to believe it.
She looked like Ai. But more mature. The way Tate would imagine Ai to look if the other could grow as a human did.
But that was where the resemblance ended.
There was a sense of disquiet emanating from the woman similar to the feeling the sentinels had given off. As if Tate and the others had brushed up against something outside their understanding. Not evil but not good either.
There was an inhumanness to her as if she was incapable of empathy. The Ai Tate knew at least pretended at emotion. She wasn’t this cold or remote, still containing a sense of curiosity. Sometimes even loneliness.
Tyne’s stance widened as he raised his bone weapon with a hissed curse. “Creator.”
Ryu drew Tate back, his gaze focused on the Ai lookalike. The movement shook Tate out of her detachment. She looked down, catching sight of a message scrolled in blood next to Christopher.
Occupied territory.
Tate’s forehead furrowed, feeling as if understanding hovered just out of reach.
“What do you want to do?” Tyne asked, not dropping his guard. “We stand no chance in the tunnels. She’s invincible in her own territory.”
His words gave Tate the last piece of the puzzle she needed to guess at a part of Christopher’s intentions. Not everything. That would have to come later when she had time to decipher what had happened.
For now, it was enough.
Tate rose. “Nathan, are you having fun?”
There was a chuckle and the wall to Ai’s right glitched as a man materialized out of thin air. Eyes of pale gray, the color of ice against the northern sea met Tate’s. Cruelty lurked behind the strong lines of his features. A darkness that Tate could see in the twist of his lips and the flat look in his eyes.
At some point Nathan had been broken. Only instead of trying to repair the damage, he’d decided to embrace it, descending deeper and deeper into the darkness, a part of him unable to be satiated by others pain.
“Death bringer,” Nathan said in greeting. “Or are you going by Lady Fisher now? It’s impossible to keep track of all your pseudonyms.”
Tate didn’t speak as she considered the danger of their situation. It was only ten feet to the connecting tunnel and safety, but it might as well have been a hundred. Tyne hadn’t exaggerated Ai’s strength. In this place she might as well be omnipotent. If she didn’t wish it, it would be impossible for Tate and the rest to escape safely.
“You’ve managed to take control of the minor goddess.”
Surprise reflected on Nathan’s face. “Is that what you call her? You, of all people, should know the appropriate term for her kind.”
Tate glance at Ai’s face, finding no more emotion there than before. Her features looked as if they’d been carved from stone.
“A doll. Nothing more than a machine created to fulfill the Ijiri’s orders.” Nathan brushed the back of his fingers against the bare skin of Ai’s arm. Through it all, Ai didn’t react—as if she was really the doll Nathan called her.
“I have to confess; this new Tate is very different from the last.” Nathan focused on Tate again, not paying any attention to Ryu or Tyne, as if the other two didn’t even register in his view.
Mistake. An arrogant one only an ancient with no experience of the current world would make. Tate was more than happy to take advantage of it.
She took a step toward Nathan, one hand moving behind her back to make a gesture toward the connecting tunnel; Tate hoped Ryu and Dewdrop understood. They had one chance at this. Fail and they were as good as dead.
“I like this new version,” Nathan said in a lazy tone. “The old you would have hunted me down long before now. I would never have gotten the chance to implement my plans.”
“You mean raising the Creators.”
There was a moment of startled silence before Nathan tipped his head back on a roar of laughter.
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Nathan asked when he could finally speak through his amusement.
“Isn’t it?” Dewdrop asked.
