Page 44 of Queens Will Play

“Then go,” Menolly said, slapping the door of the car.

Marion sighed, handed us the key to the house and rolled up her window. She eased out of her parking spot and she and Douglas disappeared into the night. I pocketed the keys. We probably wouldn’t use them until after the fight but at least we had access to the house on a physical level.

“Okay, we don’t have to watch over them now,” Wilbur said. “Come on, let’s jump over on the astral. Who’s going with who? I can cast myself over, but I need my energy so better not take anybody with me.”

“I’ll take Delilah,” Shade said.

“I can take Menolly and Camille,” Smoky said.

Vanzir motioned to Morio. “I think I can take you,” he said.

“All right,” I said, as we teamed up. “Are we ready?”

A moment later, the world began to fade, and we were on our way.

Smoky wrapped one arm around my waist, and a tendril of his hair held onto Menolly. While his prosthetic arm would work, jumping between worlds was dangerous, and he didn’t want anything to go wrong.

Everything around us—the porch, the night, the world began to flicker and fade into a silverish mist, and then we were traveling through a cloud of mist that sparkled like diamonds. The world fell out from beneath my feet and my stomach lurched. But I’d been on this journey so many times before that I held my cool, waiting.

The next moment, we landed on hardened ground, invisible beneath the layers of mist that flowed like water through the astral realm. In the distance, shapes formed in silhouette: stunted and deformed trees and long sprawling bushes, all nebulous shapes behind our sight line. We all knew enough to watch out for the sparkling patches that indicated rogue magic.

As my eyesight adjusted, I watched the others phase in. Smoky let go of me and Menolly and I moved to stand by Morio. If we were to work magic together against these creatures, we needed to be within touching range.

Wilbur looked around. Here, I could easily see his energy signature. It was a brilliant green—strong and resilient. The man had power, that much I’d say.

“This way,” he said. “We’re almost inside their house.”

Working on the astral was an odd mixture of finding the approximate place equal to where you’d be if you were back on the physical realm, and yet not overshooting it. But here, I could feel the creatures much easier. They were nearby, their energy menacing and leechlike.

“I feel them,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“I do too,” Delilah said. She looked around nervously.

Shade rested his hand on her shoulder and nodded to our left. “That way, I believe.”

Wilbur nodded. “You’re right. Come on, let’s go find the little fuckers.”

He pushed forward, leading us. Shade moved to walk by his side, and Morio and I came next. Behind us were Delilah and Menolly, and lastly, Smoky and Vanzir brought up the rear.

A few moments later, Wilbur abruptly stopped, warning Shade to go no further. “They’re not far, can you feel them?”

We all nodded. The energy had become so thick that it clung to our bodies, some primordial slime that oozed unseen through the air. I wanted to wipe it off, but there was no way to do that until we dispatched the creatures.

Morio took my hand and pulled me to the side. “Protection,” he said.

I nodded and stood in front of him. He put his hands on my shoulders and I narrowed my focus, slowly beginning to draw a pentagram in the air. It began to appear in a wave of purple flames, and as I closed the lines of the star, it flared up, rising in the air as a ring of protection began to flow around our entire group. It wouldn’t stave off attacks, but it would reflect damage back against our attackers.

Wilbur pulled out a wand—I’d never seen anything quite like it, but it had its own energy signature, which meant it was alive in its own right. He held it up, aiming it forward, and motioning for the rest of us to get ready, he barked out a short, gruff incantation that I couldn’t understand.

And the next moment, all hell broke loose.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

For a moment, there was no sound. I tried to relax—tension and magic didn’t mix all that well. A few seconds later, the sound of movement—like scuffling—echoed through the mist. I glanced back at Morio and he took his hands off my shoulders and reached for my left hand. I tightened my grip around his fingers. The energy between us strengthened and flared to overpower my worry.

We formed a semi-circle, with Vanzir and Shade on the left side, Wilbur, Smoky, and Trillian in the center, and Morio and I on the right. Delilah and Menolly stood behind Wilbur and Smoky. The sound grew as the shandigoes broke through the fog.

They did, indeed, look like demented octopuses, but they were huge and terrifying. Their heads flopped behind them like hair falling down the someone’s back, and the sickly pasty flesh glowed with thick ropy veins. Their eyes, twin pools of red, sat on either side of the head, large and bulbous. A long beak protruded where their nose would have been if they were human. The shandigoes floated toward us, their tentacles a good seven feet long