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28

AUSTIN

Frustration and fearmade a distracting cocktail, but I tried my best to breathe through it. In the short time I’d known her, Rosi had become an expert at pushing my buttons—the good ones and the not so good. Part of me wanted to throw her over my knee and spank her, but that part also longed to have her do the same, so I doubted it was about domination more than sexual play and experimentation. I wanted to try everything with her. If only she didn’t make me want to tear my hair out in the meantime.

“How do we get up there?” Cora asked, craning her neck to see the uppermost dome of the resort. “Are the tubes working?”

“I climbed the rocks last time,” I said with a shrug.

“Well, that’s not exactly practical for the rest of us,” she said with a snort.

Toklo raised his staff in the air, his eyes glowing red. Cora and I fell silent. In moments, the sound of something cutting through the air rushed toward us. I tackled Cora, knocking her to the ground as a slew of hover disks soared past, stopping in front of Toklo.

He stepped on a pair and rose into the air, not acknowledging that he’d nearly amputated us below the knees.

Cora huffed and stood, selecting two disks of her own, and I followed suit. Balancing wasn’t an issue for me. I’d used the earliest version of these as a kid. Cora on the other hand, stumbled and nearly fell off, so I grabbed her arm to steady her.

“Thanks,” she said, and when she glanced at me, moisture glistened in her eyes. “You’re a good guy, Austin. I hope we don’t get eaten and you and Rosi get a happy-ever-after.”

I smiled. “We all will, Cora,” I promised. “I’ve been in tight spots before. You want to know the trick?”

Cora nodded as I guided us slowly upward, careful to keep her concentration on my face in case she freaked out about the floor rapidly falling away below us. The real danger was at the top, not below.

“The trick is to let go of the fear and be in the moment,” I said. “Fear is a weapon that monster uses against us because all we’re thinking about is a possible future—and a negative one at that. What we need to focus on is what is actually happening and let the future come.”

Cora smiled. “You sound like the spiritual guru I listen to on this one holo.”

“She sounds pretty smart,” I said, making Cora giggle as we reached the track.

I half-expected the monster to be waiting, but it was quiet.

We hopped off our disks and waited, looking around as Toklo kept his eyes closed, staff at the ready.

“Now what?” Cora whispered.

“We have come to guide you as requested,” Toklo said then pounded the bottom of his staff on the ground.

A thunderous boom shook the entire track, and Cora stumbled before grasping the green crystal around her neck and whispering something to herself. I had a feeling it was either a prayer or a string of cuss words, or possibly both.

The starlit sky above the dome seemed to darken, and the emergency lights glowed sapphire, illuminating the space. It made my companions faces appear sickly. A new sound rose in the space surrounding us, a rush of intense of air. It felt like being in the center of a cyclone, or at least what I imagined that to be like as the wind spun around us. It kicked up a tornado of debris which swirled without touching us. Metal groaned as the storm pried a section of the safety railing from its spot and whipped it around us so fast it would prove deadly should anyone step into the whirlwind.

Cora screamed as it grew larger, reaching outward and upward and straining against the AC glass of the enclosure. If this thing shattered the dome like it had the display case, we’d all die from exposure.

“Stop!” I yelled to the storm, unsure to whom I spoke. “You’ll kill everyone here except the monster.”

The glass of the enclosure settled with an audible creak as the wind dropped in intensity. But rather than relax, my breathing quickened, and I backed toward the edge of the broken railing as the debris swirled together to form an enormous face. It was the type I’d seen on art and artifacts, like a ceremonial mask with giant black eyes and teeth.

The face tilted down toward me, and I sank into a ready stance, unsure what I could do if it attacked.

The ground beneath me shook when it spoke. “You have brought me the one I seek?”

“We don’t know where it is, but it’s in this resort somewhere,” I said.

“I smell him here,” the voice yelled, and the gust that blew across my face had me ducking to avoid being blown off my feet.

Toklo’s body rose into the air before the giant eyes. “This man will die.”

“It isn’t him!” Cora yelled to be heard “The man you seek is an atshen now. That’s why you couldn’t find him.”

Toklo’s body crumpled to the floor when it released him, and the face turned to Cora. “Where is the one I seek?”

Cora snorted, startling me. Maybe she was losing it. “Some spirit hunter you are,” she said, laughing louder. “My friends practically led him to you, and you still want our help.”

Narrowing my eyes, I sent Cora the strongest mental message I could: Don’t piss off the giant face made of wind.

But the face leaned toward her, and to her credit she didn’t back away. I guess my talk on the way up helped. “Your friends led him to me by my own design. None of this has been accidental. It has been orchestrated by me over the years and with the help of my master’s kin. Now tell me where he is so I may finally rest.”

Cora stumbled from the power behind the last sentence, and I rushed to her side to steady her.

“We don’t know exactly where he is,” I said. “But he is here, and we need your help surviving.”

“I have one purpose and one purpose alone. I will destroy the man called Yutu, and if I must bring this building down to do so, it shall be done.”