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  “So the metal won’t stop claws?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “The monsters are bigger,” I said. “We were lucky to survive with most of our Warriors alive.”

  “You were lucky,” she snarled, her tone taking on a dangerous edge that I’d experienced on numerous occasions. “Your actions were reckless. You are our only Seeker, the first we’ve had in a long time, and you almost threw it all away fighting like a Level 2 in the Black. I have half a mind to un-Level you back to Warrior. Or how about Outcast? Do you want to go back to being the old Sam Ryder?”

  I gaped at her, genuine fear scything through my chest. “You can do that?”

  She laughed, a scathing scornful sound akin to glass shards scraping across gravel. “We made you what you are. Warrior. Protector. Now Seeker. We can unmake you just as easily.”

  “Save your threats for someone who’ll fear them,” I said, trying to make myself sound more certain than I was.

  “Threats?” Persepheus said while my mind continued to spiral with this new information. Being Leveled down would be like having your avatar killed in the middle of a mission after you’d Leveled up but not yet reached a save point. Disastrous. I’d experienced such a feeling hundreds of times as a gamer, and I always hated having to start over. Now, in real life, that feeling was amplified by a thousand. Though I was in a better place today than I’d ever been in my life back on Earth, I wasn’t certain how much of that was due to the physical changes the Three had allotted me each time they’d Leveled me up. “I don’t make threats. This is a promise. Our lone Seeker has grown too bold by half. And when a dog disobeys its master…”

  The fear churning in my gut began to bubble into an angry stew. Even though logically I knew Persepheus was just being Persepheus, using cruelty as a defense mechanism, it still pissed me off that she thought herself so superior to the pawns that protected her. Numerous retorts filtered through my mind—We should feed you to the demons…How about we stop defending your ward shields, would you like that?—but I didn’t speak them. Because despite how frustrating the sea goddess could be, her sisters were worth saving. Maybe she was too, even if I didn’t feel that way at the moment. So I said something else. Something from deep in the core of my soul.

  “You can un-Level me if you must, but I won’t sit by and watch my friends—”

  “Friends?” Persepheus said, scorn hanging heavy in her voice. “We are all just sacks of blood and bones. Emotions and friendship are our own creations, as fictitious as a story told by an entertainer.”

  That would’ve been a sad way of looking at life if it was true. Persepheus pretended to be a lot of things, including this woman standing high above the world and looking down on it like something she could squash in the palm of her hand. She reminded me of my old boss in the worst possible way. Back on Earth, I would’ve cowered before the stern visage of a woman like her. But that was then.

  Now I said, “Believe what you will. I’m taking the armor.”

  “You filthy little—”

  “Sister,” a new voice said, gravelly in a way that sent tingles up my spine. Minertha appeared at the doorway to the next room. I knew from experience that her body was as hard as stone, as smooth as glass, except where her craggy rock clothing barely covered her leaving little to the imagination. I’d known the rock goddess to be kind, emotional, fair. She was everything Persepheus was not. “Calm yourself.”

  “I will not be commanded by this human. I may be weak, I may be dying, but I will not lose my dignity.”

  “The world is changing, sister. And Sam means you no personal harm, not to your body or your dignity. He is trying to save you. He is trying to save us all.”

  “He wants our treasures,” Persepheus said. “All these years our Seekers have collected them, waiting for the Finder to bring back the right Warriors to wield what could become our salvation.”

  Minertha stepped over to her sister, her steps as lithe as a dancer’s. She placed a calming hand on Persepheus’s shoulder. “It was a nice dream, sister. But the time has come to cast dreams aside. The reality is that we are dying and if we don’t equip our defenses we will be destroyed.”

  “Airiel is alive,” Persepheus insisted. “When she reaches full strength, our enemies will quake before her power. She will destroy them with but a thought. The mountains will crumble, crushing the Morgoss bastards beneath its weight.” I couldn’t help it—I shivered. Her expression was filled with fury, and I could almost believe she was capable of carrying out her own words.

  But then I heard it: a quiver in her voice. A slight tremble. Just the act of speaking was taking a lot out of her. She was strong, once. She was still strong, in a way, but only a shadow of her former self. And though Airiel had her heart back, her recovery was taking longer than anyone expected.

  I needed to change tact. “Persepheus,” I said. “You know me. I will do everything in my power to help you and your sisters. But you need to trust me. I have seen the new nature of our enemies. The Morgoss’s dark magic has changed them. We almost lost everything last night. Had Vrill”—Persepheus hissed at the name, but I soldiered on anyway—“and the dragon come, all would’ve been lost. We were unprepared. We need armor. And I have an idea for making it more than just armor, magic or not.”

  Persepheus’s lips pursed together and I was guessing she was grinding her teeth together. She was a goddess, used to getting her way and commanding the likes of men like me. She wasn’t used to taking advice. I needed to remember that and be patient. “What is your idea?” she asked, speaking the words between her locked teeth.

  She wasn’t going to like this part either. “Soak the cocoons with primordial ooze. Let the Warriors wrap themselves in the material beneath the armor. As they fight and are injured, the ooze will heal them. It will allow them to fight longer and harder. That’s how we can match the brute strength of our enemies.”

  “Absolutely-fucking-not.”

  I was expecting a ‘no,’ but this response seemed more final. Even Minertha looked unhappy with the plan. “Sam, it’s a novel idea, but unrealistic. My sister and I…we have the energy to fill a small pot each day—two if it’s a good day. And that’s if we spend our every waking moment hard at work. It takes a lot out of us. I’m sorry, what you ask is impossible. If you use the ooze in the manner you suggest, our stores will run dry in mere days.”

  My heart sank. Minertha had always been open-minded about things. If she was telling me it was impossible, it probably was. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t room for negotiation. “What if we allow two Warriors to wear the ooze armor (yeah, I came up with that on the spot, genius, right?) each Black? Could that level of production be sustained?”

  Persepheus muttered a curse under her breath but deferred to Minertha to answer. Min said, “For a while. But with the ooze required to Level up Eve’s new Outcasts, as well as begin to Level up more Protectors and Seekers…it will be difficult to keep up. Eventually we will run out.”

  The thought of running out of the ooze was scary as hell. Mortal injuries were a part of our nightly life, but the saving grace had always been the ability to heal most wounds, so long as we got the injured into the ooze bath fast enough. I could picture it now: Beat bitten in a dozen spots by a many-mouthed vostra, her blood running in dark rivulets down her skin, her face and lips pale. Me carrying her into the gully only to find all the pots empty. Persepheus and Minertha exhausted, trying to find enough strength to spit their life-saving ooze to refill them.

  It wouldn’t be enough to save Beat.

  It wouldn’t enough to save any of us. We needed to be smart, but my solution wasn’t viable in the long-term. Still, we needed to do something to combat the supersized monsters we now faced.

  “I can equip one Warrior per Black on my own,” a third voice said. It was as airy and light as the wind, echoing off the cavern walls.

  Persepheus’s head jerked toward the other room and Min’s eyes widened. Bot
h goddesses moved quickly under the arch as I followed.

  The cave was familiar to me, but it still always took my breath away. Weapons, armor and other trinkets lined the walls and were displayed on stone stands, some encased in glass. Precious magical artifacts recovered by Seekers over the course of many years. I always wondered how many of these items Vrill had brought back. I had one to my name, recovered when I was but a Warrior facing an enemy I was too naïve to truly fear. Drith’s Boomerang rested beneath a glass dome. Airiel had told me the story of its original owner, who’d been her mother’s human lover until he pursued the Morgoss into the wilderness, never to be seen again. There had been no sign of him until I found his boomerang deep beneath Annakor.

  My eyes took in all the treasures in an instant before cutting toward the bed where I knew Airiel had been slumbering in a coma-like state ever since we’d recovered her stolen heart.

  My breath caught.

  Airiel’s white-blond hair was like a silk waterfall cascading over her shoulders. Her face was that of a porcelain doll, her neck slender with a hollow below her throat. She wore her usual sheer dress, so light it might’ve been made of air itself, spun by the hands of the wind. It had a plunging neckline that revealed the swell of her perfect breasts, and was cut short enough to be lingerie, her long smooth legs disappearing three quarters of the way up her thighs. She was sitting up, her turquoise crystalline eyes fixed on me while her sisters fawned and fussed over her, stroking her hair and offering her water.

  Her eyes, however, never left mine. “I will do this thing you ask of us,” she said. “Minertha and Persepheus can equip a second Warrior between them.”

  “Airiel,” Persepheus said, her voice far gentler than it was with me. “You need to save your strength. Your recovery is still early. Once your life meter recharges, all will fall beneath your power.”

  Airiel reached up and touched her sister’s cheek, causing it to change from blue to green to red, then back to blue. “Thank you for protecting me, sister, but if we do not help them, we will all be lost before I can be restored.”

  Persepheus was about to respond, but Minertha stopped her with a raised hand. She flitted it across the air and white numbers appeared over all three of their heads. Their life meters, I thought. I’d never seen all three revealed at once. They read as follows:

  Airiel: 21/1,000

  Minertha: 56/1,000

  Persepheus: 87/1,000

  I glanced up to find my own life meter revealed. 400/400. It was a hundred points higher than it was when I was a Protector—another benefit of being Leveled up. I wished I could hide those numbers hovering over my head. It felt like an insult to the powerful creatures resting on the featherbed before me. Minertha’s meter had dropped by two since the last time she’d revealed it. Persepheus’s was down one point. The only positive was that Airiel’s had gone up substantially from when it had dropped all the way to one, her body prepared to give in to death. Her heart restored, she was recovering. Then again, it had been days since our mission and her increase had been slow. Maybe now that she’d woken up her recovery would be swifter. But not if I forced her to use a bunch of her energy on filling ooze jugs.

  I shook my head when I realized the Three were staring at me. “Thank you for your generous offer, Airiel,” I said. “But no. We will find another way. Persepheus is right. The most important thing right now is for you to rest and get stronger. We could really use a goddess on our side.”

  Persepheus seemed shocked by my acquiescence. Min looked saddened. Airiel, on the other hand, smiled. “You are a different breed, Sam Ryder. But your knowledge of our kind is but that of an infant.” I should’ve been offended by such a statement, but the sky goddess could’ve insulted me all day long and her words would’ve sounded beautiful to my ears. She continued. “Take the armor you require. We will do the rest. Send one of the Protectors for the ooze before the next Black.”

  I closed my eyes. Opened them. “Thank you,” I said, because there was nothing else to say. “But I will collect the ooze myself.”

  Minertha said, “No, you will not.”

  That’s when I remembered why I’d been summoned in the first place. Though I’d taken control of the conversation from the start, the real purpose behind this visit had been waiting in the shadows. “You have a mission for me?”

  Persepheus said, “Yes.”

  “Speak it and it will be done,” I said, because I was tired of being left on the sidelines.

  “Go with Eve on her next Find. Bring back a marmot. If the Morgoss want to play with massive brutes, we will give them the same.”

  FOUR

  MISSION CRITICAL

  “What the fuck is a marmot?” Beat asked.

  “No clue,” I said. “I’m hoping Eve knows.”

  “You didn’t think to ask?”

  “The Three took a nap before I could ask.”

  “Is that what the kids are calling it these days—napping?”

  “Ha-fucking-ha,” I said. “I swear, that’s literally what they did. They laid down and fell asleep.” It was true. Though the sight of the three smoking hot goddesses all lined up next to each other was enough to wreak havoc on my supercharged Seeker libido, they didn’t have energy to spend on me at the moment. Not if they were going to get to work on filling ooze pots after they woke up.

  “Is Little Sam going to be okay?” Beat said in a baby voice, gesturing to my loincloth.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “And so is he. You act like I’m a sex addict.”

  “You aren’t?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “You wish,” she said. Which was funny, so I laughed. Just for the record, I didn’t want to be with Beat like that. Our relationship was too much like brother/sister. Yeah, her body was rockin’ and as toned as a bodybuilder, but I just didn’t feel an attraction to her. And I was damn sure she didn’t feel anything like that for me considering what she’d revealed earlier.

  “Where is Eve anyway?” I asked. I hadn’t seen her in a while.

  “Are you asking so you can find out about the marmot thingy or so you can get busy with her?” Beat asked.

  “Both,” I said, which made us both laugh again.

  Beat pretended to grab an invisible person by the hips, thrusting forward. “Oh, Evie! More! More! Hey, do you know what a marmot is? Wait, don’t answer that yet, more, more!”

  I snorted. “You got it all wrong. I would definitely ask about the marmot first. Probably. Maybe.”

  “Sure you would,” Beat said. “In any case, I haven’t seen her. Maybe she left without you already.”

  “Maybe.” I hoped not. I couldn’t take another day without having something to do, much less the week or so that would be required for Eve to rest and recover after a Finding mission.

  Lace took that moment to saunter up. While I’d been chatting with the Three, the rest of the gang had emerged from their ooze baths, fully recovered. Lace looked like a catwalk model—pun intended—her hips swaying from side to side as she strutted about like the Queen of Tor. In her mind, she probably was.

  “Hey, Seeker,” she said. “Wanna fuck?” Yep, that was Lace. She wasn’t one to cloak her intentions.

  Beat said, “Here we go. Third wheel mode activated.”

  I ignored her. “Bored of Jak and Ass-Fan already?” I said, though I couldn’t help but feel turned on by her forwardness.

  “Eh, I’m not into the whole my-penis-is-bigger-than-your-penis thing. I mean, it’s flattering, but there’s plenty of me for both of them. And you.” She said the last with a seductive purr that caused more stirring beneath my loincloth. She flicked a hand and one of her claws shot out. She gaped at it and strained her muscles, trying to retract the knife-like blade.

  Little Sam went cold and limp in an instant, survival instinct kicking in, like a rodent playing dead when faced with a deadly predator.

  Lace used her other hand to grip the flat side of her claw between her fingers and shove it bac
k inside her knuckles with a wicking sound. “There!” she said triumphantly. She looked back at me. “So, whaddya say, Seeker?”

  Her chest and hips made a perfect hourglass, her lips wet and moist as she ran her tongue over them. And yet I preferred having my dick attached to my body. I know, right? I’m a weirdo. “Another time,” I said. “But thanks for the offer.”

  Her expression changed in an instant, making me feel like a three-course meal as her fangs peeked over her lips. Her ears twitched slightly. “Fine. I have other options anyway. Jak! Is your arm fully attached again?”

  She turned away, her ass switching from side to side and almost—almost—making me regret my decision.

  “She really is hot,” Beat said, also watching her go.

  I nodded in agreement. “In a horror-movie-shower-scene kind of way.”

  “Nice,” Beat said. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. There’s Eve, by the way.”

  I turned to find the Eurasian beauty striding down the hill, her short black dress lifting slightly under a stiff breeze. Concentrate on business, I reminded myself. Mostly so Beat wouldn’t mock me until the end of time. Her sinewy black panther walked beside her, a silent protector and ally.

  “Have you heard about our mission?” I asked when she was within earshot.

  “No,” she said. “But I heard about the big monsters that attacked last night. Somehow I slept through it.”

  That was good. Since I’d known Eve, she’d always had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Sleep hadn’t come easy for her in a while. “We lost two good Warriors,” I said with a sigh.

  “I heard that too.” She stopped near where we sat, one hand finding her hip and the other dangling loosely at her side. I remembered how those fingers had felt on my skin, almost like they were trailing sparks despite being in the water. The whole concentrating thing wasn’t working out too well for me so far.

  Beat said, “Ever heard of a marmot?”

  Eve blinked, a frown creasing her forehead. “Who’ve you been talking to? Munzy?”