simply the weariness of always being the odd one out. Whatever the reason, she didn’t have time to worry about it.
Bending her stiff legs, Miranda started across the room. Gin followed her a second later, whining in confusion. Her boots slapped against the smooth white stone, the sound offensively loud in her ears. She ignored it, focusing only on keeping her breaths even and her head high as she closed the distance to Eli’s group. And then, feeling a little sheepish, she turned and stepped into line beside the thief.
“Finally decided to join the winning team?” Eli’s voice was almost purring in her ear. When Miranda glanced at him, his smile was so smug she wanted to punch it off his face.
“There’s only one team now, thief.”
This observation only widened his smile, and Miranda decided to ignore him, turning instead to face the Shapers and the Weaver. “I’ve seen Monpress and his lackeys perform miracles too many times to doubt them now,” she said, raising her voice until her words echoed through the white cavern. “The Spirit Court stands with Eliton Banage.”
She caught Eli’s wince out of the corner of her eye, and then it was her turn to smirk.
Across the room, Slorn shook his head. “So be it,” he muttered, turning to the Weaver. “We must try. The Creator gave everything to protect the world he’d made. If we do not give everything trying to save it, we are unworthy of the life he gave us.”
The Weaver closed his white eyes, his chin slumping into the snowfall of his beard. He looked ancient then, Miranda thought. Older than the Shaper Mountain, older than anything she’d ever seen.
Very well, he whispered, opening his eyes again to glare at Nico. Do as you wish. I will support you however I can.
“Fantastic,” Eli said, slapping his hands together. The sound was loud enough to make Miranda jump, but Eli was already moving. He grabbed Nico’s hand and led her to the glowing white wall that was still hanging in the air, the barrier Benehime had raised between herself and the world she’d abandoned.
“There you go,” Eli said. “If a demonseed with the right leverage could kill a Power, then a fully fledged demon should surely be enough to break through one little wall.”
Nico stared at the glowing surface, her face scrunched in thought. She reached out to touch the glowing surface and then snatched her fingers back with a hiss. Black smoke rose from her skin where she had touched the barrier.
“I can’t break this,” she said, yellow eyes going to Eli.
“Oh come on!” he cried. “Your kind are chewing through the shell of the world, and you’re telling me you can’t make one little hole—”
“There are a lot of demons breaking down the shell,” Nico said, jerking her head toward the wall. “I’m just one, and that thing is held up by two Powers. Well…” She paused, leaning toward the barrier and wrinkling her nose, almost like she was sniffing it. “One and a half.”
Eli groaned. “So what do we do now?” he said. “Get another demon to make things…”
His voice trailed off as his eyes lit up, a smile breaking over his face. The moment they saw it, Slorn, Miranda, the Shaper Mountain, and the Weaver all spoke at once.
“No!”
“I can’t believe you talked us into this,” Miranda muttered, holding the white hole in the air open as Eli, Josef, Gin, and Nico stepped through. “I mean, I really, really, really cannot believe it. This is a horrible, horrible idea.”
“Yes, thank you,” Eli said drily. “You’ve made your opinion very clear.”
“Horrible,” Miranda said again, stepping through before letting the hole in the world fall closed. “Just horrible.”
It was a pretty horrible idea, Eli had to admit. But as old Monpress used to say, a bad out is still an out. Still, as the icy, high mountain wind hit his face, he wasn’t so sure this was an out and not just another way to end the world.
Now that they were outside the Shaper Mountain, he could hear the panic loud and clear. The winds screamed around them and the ice whimpered under their boots. Even the mountain pass beneath their feet was rocking back and forth, moaning in terror. Snow blew in panicked bursts, and the clouds had pulled themselves into tight balls as they bounced against the scrambling winds.
Eli winced. He’d been hoping Miranda was exaggerating before, but the Spiritualist had told the truth. The world really was going insane, the whole of reality twisting itself into knots in its terror, with one large exception.
The Dead Mountain loomed in front of them. The enormous black shape rose like a thorn from the snow- filled valley, its bare slopes the sole point of stillness in the whole, trembling world. Just looking at it filled Eli with dread. He remembered his last trip here very clearly. It was an experience he had no desire to repeat, but as he’d said over and over again just minutes before, it was the only choice they had left.
If the world was to survive, a new Hunter must be born, and that could only happen if they got his seed out of Benehime’s world. But neither Nico nor the Weaver could break through the Shepherdess’s barrier alone, and since they were opposites, the demon and the Power couldn’t work together without canceling each other out. That being so, their remaining options were to get another Power or get another demon. Since getting another Power was completely impossible, the choice was irrefutably clear, even to the Weaver, which was why they were here.
Miranda began using her League-granted calming power as soon as she dropped the portal, laying down what Eli could only call the bleeding-heart-Spiritualist’s version of the League’s Don’t Move command on their frantic surroundings. It worked wonders, though, and while the Spiritualist worked on quieting the area enough for them to pass through without being mauled, Eli strolled over to stand beside Josef.
The swordsman’s face was drawn and pale. Nico’s was no better as she took her place at Josef’s right. They all recognized the mountain pass. It was the place where they had faced the Lord of Storms the first time, where Nico had snapped and Josef would have died had Eli not thrown himself in front of the Lord of Storms’ blade, gambling that Benehime’s constant watch would save them both. The memory brought a grimace to Eli’s face. This wasn’t a happy place for any of them, but here they were, and he had questions to ask before they moved forward.
“Josef,” he said, his voice low. “Are you going to be able to go to the mountain with me this time?”
Josef’s eyes didn’t budge from the black slope, but his fingers tightened on the Heart’s hilt. “I’ve always been able to go,” he said. “But you’re not asking about me. You’re asking about the Heart.”
“Same difference,” Eli said.
Josef chuckled. “You’re more right than you know.” He turned then and fixed Eli with a look that stabbed right through him. “This isn’t like before. The Heart and I are one now. It goes where I go, and we will see this thing to the end.”
Eli nodded and leaned over, glancing around him at Nico. “Will—”
“Of course I’m going,” Nico said, glaring at Eli with those intense yellow eyes. “The thing under that mountain has no power over me anymore.”
Eli smiled at her. “Good,” he said. “Because I don’t think I can do this without you.”
To his surprise, Nico smiled back. It was the largest smile he’d ever seen on her face, and it was astonishing how pretty she was when she did it. Eli smiled even wider before starting down the steep slope to the valley.
Even with Miranda there to calm things, it was hard going. The snow squirmed beneath their feet, and the wind seemed to be blowing every direction at once. Only Gin and Miranda, who was seated on his back, avoided falling on the way down.
The ghosthound trotted down the slope with the inborn self-assurance of a creature born to ice and snow, sliding through the blowing gusts like a graceful ghost. The dog knew it, too, and every time Eli slipped, Gin gave him the ghosthound equivalent of a superior smirk. He was loving this, Eli thought with a bitter scowl. Well, good thing someone could be happy in this mess.
The snow was so thick that they didn’t see the man until they were almost on top of him. It was Josef who stopped first, grabbing Eli’s arm and jerking the thief to a stop. Eli gasped in pain and surprise, but before he could ask what had gotten into the swordsman, Gin’s growl fired up full force. The sound drained Eli’s anger away to
