“Why the fuck not.” I encouraged her.
Armor materialized around me, a breastplate of pure gold, pauldrons shaped like dragon scales that made me think of Killian and Tyson.
I missed them terribly. I’d see them soon if everything went well from here. We’d survived the vortex, the maze, the murder-trains, the demons, and the volcano. What else could be worse?
I waited for a comeback, but none came. It hit me then—Sy wasn’t with me anymore. Our private thoughts were truly our own.
Sy was admiring the silver-and-black armor she’d conjured for herself, sleeker and more stylish than mine, of course. She always had an unhealthy need to outshine everyone else! I shot her chainmail a disapproving look as it shimmered beneath her breastplate.
“Stop pouting,” she chided. “We still look like a matching set: salt and pepper. And you’re the salt.”
We continued down the trail of cracked earth and jagged rock. Steam hissed from fissures around us, but the heat no longer touched us.
“Why amIsalt?” I narrowed my eyes.
“I'm obviously the pepper. More bite. And you’re salty about everything.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
She just laughed.
It was going to take some getting used to—being two instead of one.
My chest pulsed with heat where Heaven’s Arrow had merged with my flesh, leaving a tattoo of its form between my breasts.
“Stop poking it,” Sy called over her shoulder, white braids swaying as she navigated a steep drop. “You’ll only make it worse.”
“I’m not poking it.” But my finger drifted back to the mark. “Easy for you to say—you’reout, and it’sin, eavesdropping on my thoughts and judging me!”
“It’s sentient, and you have plenty of room for improvement,” she shot back. “I used to live in you, remember? Your thoughts could drive a saint insane. It’s a miracle I’m still this awesome after twenty years of your bitching.”
Then we froze at the sound of Bea’s scream and broke into a run. We were already halfway down the sheltered side of the mountain, where our commandeered train waited at the base.
Three Shriekers surrounded the train, their tentacles coiled around Bea in the world’s worst group hug. My friend stood rigid on the roof, chin lifted despite the terror in her eyes.
“Come with us, Princess,” the lead Shrieker screeched, its scorpion tail hovering inches from Bea’s throat. “Comply, or your little friend dies!”
“How did they know to come here?” Sy muttered. “How did they even get into the Underworld?”
“Lilith was fucking Daddy Dearest,” I said.
“Ew,” Sy spat. “But how?”
“You don’t want to know,” I said. “Let’s not go there.”
The thought of Lilith and Ruin together churned my stomach, and I shoved it down hard.
“Let’s not,” Sy agreed. “But we need to warn my sugar, your sugar, and the other heirs that they’re working together. Or…fucking. Gross.”
“After we save my friend.”
Sy nodded. “The little witch.”
“She’s a high mage now,” I corrected.
The Shriekers clicked and whirred, a grotesque chorus of machine and monster.
“Come with us, Princess!” they chanted as one. “You are the apple of our master’s eye. Come home with us, Princess!”
