“Guess I know which choice the Mea’Ave wants me to make,“ Kira muttered. “Awesome idea, Phoenix. Pursue a possible Tsavitee co-conspirator into a mysterious tunnel that leads who knows where. That can’t go wrong. Not. At. All.”
Waves of ki buffeted Kira as she approached a room. The only room she’d found in this tunnel. Those waves punched her in the face. Metaphorically speaking.
It was like stepping into a gelatinous mass. Piping hot. The abundance of ki almost scalding.
Breathing was difficult.
Worse was the sensation of her ribs compressing. As if a fist had wrapped around her body, squeezing tighter with each step she took.
“I should have stayed with Bayside and the others,” Kira complained.
She inched forward another step, finally crossing the threshold to stand in the room beyond.
A soft glow emanated from the underground lake. A raised platform and dais existed in the center of that lake. A sphere filled with a kaleidoscope of shifting colors and symbols hovered over the dais.
It was difficult to see details, the light coming off the sphere too intense.
A stone walkway extended over the water to the platform. Seeing it, she made her way over to it.
“Chase a bad guy. Complete a rite of passage,” Kira mocked herself as she stepped onto the stone path.
Kira was halfway across the bridge before she realized she wasn’t alone.
Hidden by the light coming off the sphere, the wanderer regarded her carefully. “I’m not your enemy. This isn’t what it seems.”
Kira looked him over carefully. “I don’t know about that.”
From where she stood, there wasn’t a lot of room for interpretation. Why else would he have taken the opportunity to come here when everyone else was preoccupied by the attack?
“You should listen to him, pippy bunny,” a soft voice said from behind Kira on the bridge. “He’s not lying to you.”
Everything in Kira stilled at the familiar name. A name only one person in this world knew.
“Elise.”
But when Kira glanced behind her, it wasn’t Elise’s face that she found.
The initiate from Asanth smiled at her.
It was a smile Kira had seen countless times. The way the corners of her eyes crinkled. The slight crookedness as one side of her lips tilted up a little more than the other. Strange to see the smile she knew on a face she didn’t.
Asanth spread her arms and turned. “Do you like it? I had to change things up a bit considering how recognizable my face has become.”
“It’s heinous. Take it off.”
Elise’s arms dropped, her features transforming in a slow process to the ones Kira was more familiar with. “Always so serious.”
Kira was careful to keep the wanderer in sight out of the corner of her eye as she moved backward onto the platform and toward the light sphere to avoid being trapped between the two.
“Are you the one I have to thank for the face changers?” Kira’s voice was flat.
“Yes—and no,” Elise confessed.
Kira made a pained sound.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Elise pleaded.
Kira felt lightheaded. “What have you done?”
