11

Walter

I woke up snuggled in a warm blanket and cushy bed, unsure how I'd ended up here, but gladly sank into the cozy feeling. The last thing I remembered was searching for texts to help explore and control the villa in the library. Well, attempting anyway. It'd been a pretty exhausting last few days, between all the attention Weather sought, to the way Bez scolded Weather every time he tried to play, sniff, or begged for a piece of Bez's inedible dishes. Tony also added to the flames of chaos—sometimes literal between Bez and Weather—by trying to sting the puppy every time I turned my head.

I never considered myself the nurturing type, so kids weren't high on my list of priorities. But having to wrangle the three of them while acting as the only productive person here and having almost no time to myself was a strong reminder. Tending to a familiar, Mythic beast, and Diabolic was exhausting enough.

Still, I'd made serious progress in understanding this ship. It was, in fact, classified as a vessel, not a house, in the schematics I'd found in the library. I shivered, wrapping myself tighter in the blanket, thinking back to Novus' caved-in skull.

Thankfully, Bez had disposed of the body, which I hadn't asked for details on other than to ensure it didn't lead back to the Fae, so either he burned the corpse to ash or tossed it into the vacuum of dimensional space. Either way, the library's self-preservation wards did wonders for cleaning up the blood stains and removing the stench of death. I liked the automatic cleaning and organizing enchantments in this library; I just wished I knew how to enact the catalog commands when researching.

It took time to decipher the text, but I'd managed that, too. Not that I comprehended the translation since it followed the Sylvan alphabet yet used some coded styling in the manual breakdown. It didn't matter. Soon, I would unravel every single part of the ship, from how to work the control system for navigation, to figuring out where and how the Diabolics were stored, all the way to the biggest bonus of learning where each portal doorway in here led and what they held. I could spend forever here, learning everything, charting a course wherever, whenever to take us anywhere in the world and beyond with the push of a few buttons.

The curtains leading to the balcony were drawn open, letting bright starlight shine inside the bedroom. Since the villa skirted between planes, remaining on the edges of cosmic space with one half and orbiting our world with the other half, the light of this hidden world held a similar effect to the aurora borealis. Twinkling colors poured inside. They sparkled against the furniture set up outside the walk-in closet, the adjoined dressers—which were only adjoined because Bez dragged a second one from another room and slammed them together—and the ivory bedframe posts. Bare cream walls caught the colors and reflected them back at me, stinging my eyes.

I brushed sleep dust from my eyes and grabbed my glasses placed on the nearby nightstand. Bez must've brought me to bed. He could be sweet when he wasn't being obnoxious. Speaking of obnoxious, the first thing my clear vision landed on was the one portrait Bez hadn't removed and tucked away elsewhere. A self-portrait of Baron Novus, which remained on full display with the added touches Bez had made. He'd punched a hole through the head and wall to match the actual Novus whose head he'd kicked in.

"Wakey, wakey, dry eggs and plain ole bakey." Bez paraded into the bedroom, crystal tray in hand while using a tail to shoo Weather from trudging in behind him.

Not that I liked Bez's disregard for the puppy most of the time, but I couldn't handle being plopped on by a nearly two-hundred-pound Cerberus while half asleep for the third time. If not for Bez's essence, I'd probably have broken something or, at the very least, have a mild concussion from the eager tackles.

"You made me breakfast?" I asked skeptically, mostly reserved for the normal-looking dish presented on the tray Bez placed on my lap.

Scrambled eggs and bacon with a glass of water and orange juice.

"Yes, a difficult task since your palate is lacking, but I worked on keeping all the flavor out of it. No sugars, salts, or sides to make this a truly spectacular dish."

He wasn't kidding about the lack of seasonings. I took a bite of the dry, unsalted eggs. Did he even add milk? Complain one time about not wanting dairy in a dish, and he took it off the menu forever. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of broccoli was in no way the same as broccoli and cheddar. I swear, the only ingredient he added to these eggs was passive aggressiveness. At least the bacon was perfectly crunchy and plenty salty to compensate.

"Not that I don't love the gesture, but why the gesture?"

"No reason." Bez checked his phone, something he never did—ever. He'd sooner hurl it into the void of time and space before responding to notifications. "Just want you to know I value your work. I know you've put a lot of effort into learning how this villa functions."

"Yeah," I said, tearing a piece of bacon. "Pretty sure in a few more weeks, I'll know this whole place inside and out."

All I needed was a single manual, one lead that would connect to others, and soon I'd know how every gear, floorboard, and symbol in this massive place worked.

"Don't worry," I said. "Finding the Diabolic essence is still high on my list of priorities."

Weather hadn't been all that helpful in that regard. Then again, it'd only been a few days, and he didn't exactly know what I was requesting.

"I hate to say it, but it could take months on our own," Bez said. "I don't even know where to begin, and usually, you're better with research but…"

"But what?" I asked.

"But maybe it's time to call in reinforcements?"

"We don't have reinforcements. I can't think of one mage that'd help me unravel the mysteries of an illegally obtained Fae home, which also has a lot of illegally acquired artifacts." My stomach twisted in knots—I didn't really have friends to call on, no one from the Collective who'd really missed me since I took off. Maybe my siblings cared…maybe. But I was certain, Collective priorities would overtake any family loyalty if I showed them the plethora of items in the former baron's possession.

"I wasn't thinking of mages," Bez said. "More like…"

His phone rang, which he ignored.

I quirked an eyebrow. "How do you even have service here?"

We were literally hovering between worlds.

"I don't even know what Wi-Fi stands for," he said, dragging a finger over the red end button and clicking the green accept. "Why would you suspect I know how it works?"

Seriously, one hell of a service provider. Probably a Collective conglomerate that I should look into, but still, impressive reception.

"Bezzy, can you hear me?" A muffled voice called out, but only one person called Bez Bezzy.

"Dammit. I hung the telephone up."

"You hit accept." I chuckled.

He was more obstinate in learning how modern tech worked than my late grandmother, both favoring that the best advancements came during the 50s and everything after that was downhill.

"Where are you?" Mora asked. "This place is a maze."

"Wait, what?" I sprang up, nearly knocking the tray off my lap. "How'd she get here?"

"I might've told her if she wanted answers on this Diabolic kerfuffle, then she needed to help." He sighed. "She wasn't supposed to just waltz in until after I talked with you. Leave it to Mora to just invite herself in."

"You know I can hear you, right?" Mora asked loudly.

Geez, when had Bez hit the speakerphone?

"It's not like you own this place," Mora added. "It's not in your name or anything, so it's as much mine as anyone else's."

"Hang up on her," Bez grumbled and tossed me his phone. "I better go find her before she snoops around for the deed and tries to evict us."

"You're kidding?" I half-grinned until Bez's very serious expression remained unchanged. "You are kidding, right?"

"It wouldn't be the first time. I should tell you the story of how she had me kicked out of my first-class suite on a boat. And all so she'd have an extra room for her luggage."

"That's rude," I said, hanging up the phone.

"It's fine. I threw an iceberg in her path, so in the end, I won."

"Wait, what?" I practically jumped off the bed.

"Better find Mora before she causes havoc." With that, Bez zipped away in a blur leaving the door wide open, allowing Weather to bulldoze his way inside.

"Wait," I said to them both—Bez for bolting away and Weather for bolting onto the bed, tackling me.

Sunny licked my face while Cloudy nuzzled my neck, and Stormy glared, definitely annoyed to be dragged along for the ride.

Bez couldn't be referring to what I thought he was referring to, right? I considered it, then rolled Weather off me and climbed out of bed.

"We're finishing this conversation on shipwrecks and icebergs," I shouted, half expecting him to dart back for a last word and disappear again. But he didn't. "Okay then, guess I'm going to explore on my own." I patted my thigh, coaxing Weather to follow me. "Might find our way to the kitchen. Maybe I'll give Weather one of your juicy sirloins." I muttered the rest, "since we all know you didn't feed him this morning while making breakfast."

No response. Well, not from Bez anyway. Weather barked—a yappy squeak from Cloudy, who had the biggest appetite of the three.

I shuffled over to Tony's tank, carefully keeping my steps close together since Weather had a tendency of nudging me with each of his heads when walking underfoot. Tony immediately crawled up my arm and settled on my shoulder. Usually, Tony's a big fan of making his own way around, but since Weather tended to thud about and his paws were awfully big, I figured Tony wanted to avoid dodging the pup stomping about.

"I can't believe Bez invited Mora here," I said with a clear edge of aggravation based on Sunny's cocked head of surprise. "Sorry. It's just he really doesn't think I can handle anything, does he?"

I knew way more than Mora on all things unknown, based on the fact I'd properly upsold nearly half the trinkets she didn't realize were treasures. She didn't bother doing research—not even on her clientele, I'd wager. How was she supposed to help figure out the schematics behind the villa?

Tony clicked his claws, possibly supporting me or a show of dominance toward Weather since he trudged close behind, practically stepping on my heels as Sunny rubbed his head against my leg, looking for pets.

"It doesn't matter. We're going to have a breakthrough today," I said loudly, half-expecting an eavesdropping Bez to make a quippy comment before vanishing in a blur again. Guess he had actually gone in search of Mora. "We're going to figure out how everything in this mystery Fae house-ship thing works. In fact, we're going to figure it out right now. Before Bez finds Mora."

Who probably wasn't even here to assist but pilfer whatever wasn't welded to the floor.

Sunny cheerily joined in with a yappy bark of agreement while Stormy growled in support. Definitely support and not annoyance by being dragged along for the ride.

I confidently walked down the hallway, some swagger in my steps—maybe channeling a bit of Bez's boastful strut. The slashed iron door was open when we arrived. I couldn't remove Weather's claw marks, but I had managed to fix the incantations that secured the helm. Was it Bez or Mora who broke the wards to enter?

"Oooo, pretty," a high-pitched voice said.

Feminine for sure, but nothing like Mora's lilt.

I opened my mouth to speak, ask if this was Mora, but hesitated. Anxiety tangled knots in my chest. If I was wrong, I'd announce myself.

"Could be the pink Fae." I bit my lip since my need to mutter every waking thought won out. But her voice, the Fae who'd grabbed me, was on the deeper side when declaring Baron Novus sought an audience with me and whisked me back into the auditorium, albeit one plane off from reality.

Sunny and Cloudy had curious eyes when sniffing at the doorway, no fright in their expression like from the surveillance footage I'd seen of their interactions with the pink Fae. Stormy didn't snarl nearly as much either.

Maybe it was just Mora.

I stepped inside the helm and spotted a Black woman in a camel tan jumpsuit, which accentuated her deep brown complexion. Had Mora possessed a new host body? It was hard to know since Mora kept all her Diabolic features hidden, including her eyes.

"Mora?" I asked with raised brows.

"Nope. She's around here somewhere. Probably." The woman shrugged. She held a screwdriver that she forcefully wedged into the screws of the navigation controls.

"Hey," I shouted. "You can't touch that."

A pile of various fasteners lined the control panel. She didn't know the first thing she was doing. Without proper schematics, there was no way to know for sure it wouldn't break something. Yes, pushing a few buttons was one thing, but taking out all the screws, nuts, and bolts was a completely different thing. Besides, the screw tops didn't match any known type of screwdriver tips, from flat-heads, Philips Head, and spanners to Pozidriv, Torx, Hex, or even specialty tips like for computers or jewelers.

She completely ignored my request, continuing to fiddle with things she shouldn't.

"I said you can't touch that." I added as much authority to my voice as possible. "You'll break something."

"I wonder if this design incorporates so many other Mythic phrases to confuse non-Fae from deciphering the Sylvan alphabet," she said, disregarding my presence again as she took a panel cover off and chucked it onto the floor. "Or maybe it's meant to deceive fellow Fae who might not be permitted here."

I rushed over to the discarded panel, frustration mixing with panic in my churning stomach. She'd definitely forced the screws out; the metal holes were dented and practically chiseled. Gods, she'd break the entire helm if given half a chance.

"I'm not going to ask again." I stood, fire building in my chest. Quite literally, perhaps, as my mana raged, coursing alongside the Diabolic essence in me, each capable of swaying the elements with great effect. "Step away from my navigation system before you break something."

She leaned forward, stretching the full length of her body onto the panel toward the navigation screen. The wiggle of her hips knocked over a small stack of screws. They clinked against the floor like pennies, bouncing or rolling and disappearing somewhere in the room. Weather chased the sound of one, sniffing around to investigate.

"Oops. I'll get those after I test a hypothesis."

Or Weather would get them and eat them. Cerberus' had stomachs and digestive tracts that could literally devour souls; he'd have no problem eating a few loose screws. Speaking of loose screws, I needed to deal with whoever this woman was.

"I said stop." I summoned fire with my right hand, tracing a protective incantation with my left.

She turned. Several locs draped the left half of her face. They were long, reaching her waist—well, the high-placed belt tying her outfit together above her waist. The lime and forest green tips hung at her golden belt buckle; the greens went about halfway until her hair went black all the way to her roots.

"You didn't, technically speaking." She giggled.

"Excuse me?"

"You suggested I shouldn't be messing around because I could damage something. But I'm not. I'm performing a diagnostic."

"You can't just perform a diagnostic on something you have no understanding of," I snapped. "Stop touching things that don't belong to you!"

"It doesn't exactly belong to you either, now does it, Wally?" She smirked, wicked and wild all at once.

Shit. Was she another Fae? Novus had talked about them augmenting their features to resemble humans, but even so, those I'd observed had several obvious Mythic features or something distinctly non-human. She didn't look any bit out of the ordinary, so what was she? A mage, perhaps? I gulped. Worse. What if she was one of the missing Diabolics in the villa? No. They'd been discombobulated, or Bez suggested as much based on how their essence was scattered throughout the villa.

I released the flame, favoring saturation over elements, and poured my mana into the floor, filling the room with my magic, searching for hers. It was easy enough to detect but pure and radiating throughout her, as opposed to mages who drew on the residue of magic in the atmosphere.

"W-who are you?"

"I see you've met Kell," Mora said behind me.

I fumbled with the incantations, nearly dropping them when the sudden arrival of her voice startled me. Especially since my saturation hadn't remotely noted her presence.

Damn difficult to detect Diabolic essence.

It didn't prevent me from noticing Bez's sudden arrival, but that had to do with the tug of the tether linking us.

I blinked a few times, taking in Kell, the witch who'd waltzed right into the helm and began tinkering with things, potentially undoing days of careful observations I'd made.

I turned, taking in Mora's appearance from the bubblegum pink headband that kept her chestnut locks pushed back, to the click of her matching stilettos tapping while she eyed the incantations stacked in my palm, all the way to her jeweled accessories, each highlighting attention to the strapless, skintight magenta dress that held the ensemble together. A very short cut, too, revealing a tattoo covering her entire right thigh. A black and white portrait of a man, several colorful flowers, and animals.

Had Mora gotten these tattoos? Could Diabolic flesh be tattooed, or was this a glamour similar to what Bez did with his piercings? Maybe the tattoos came from the former tenant in the body she possessed. In which case, why hadn't she simply glamoured them away? I shook my head, pushing random curiosities out.

"Such hostile mana permeating. I do hope you two are playing nice," Mora said with a flick of her wrist, jingling her bracelets. Telekinetically, she waved over a dozen suitcases into the navigation room. Bez wasn't kidding about her moving in. Who needed that many clothes ever?

I anxiously grinned at Bez, who looked annoyed, either by the fact I'd cast hostile magic—as a warning, to be fair—or by the way Mora had just invited herself here. Personally, I was more annoyed by Kell, who couldn't keep her hands off things she didn't understand the first thing about.

"Of course we are." Kell wrapped an arm around my neck in what I could only assume was a friendly hug, but it felt more like she meant to strangle the life out of me. "We're on the verge of being besties, babe. I can feel it."

Tony hissed, then crawled down the back of my shirt. My face burned from flustered rage, between Tony wriggling along my back, Bez's stifled snickers, and Kell bopping her hip against mine as she forced me into a side hug.

"In fact"—her chokehold grew tighter, and she whirled around on her heel, dragging me with her toward the panel—"I was just about to show him how to take this hot ride out for a test drive."

"Wait, what?" I widened my eyes and scrambled loose from her unwanted embrace. "You can't just throw this thing into drive. It's not a car, and we're certainly not on a road. We're floating between realities on a clear and designated pathway, one seemingly carved out by Fae and Diabolic magics, meaning it's illegal and uncharted."

"Not uncharted," Mora said, side-eyeing Bez. "Bezzy just happened to kill the only person who knew the route."

"Walter made me. I wanted to be friends with the baron."

"Liar." My cheeks puffed in protest. Nope. Not the point or the argument that needed my attention. I turned back to Kell. "The slightest deviation off course could kill us, throw us into an endless loop of quantum entanglement, leak magical radiation—which I suspect might work as an additional fuel source—and that'd basically have all kinds of catastrophic effects. The villa could explode—again, we die—or the radiation could hit the atmosphere and have horrid ramifications on an ecosystem introducing magics the Collective or Mythic Council can't quell. We're talking exposures, higher rates of magic indoctrination, potential long-term effects I can only imagine—"

"Geez, you're such a worry wart," Kell said, tapping buttons she shouldn't fucking touch. "You always such an overthinking buzzkill about every little thing?"

"Yes," Bez blurted.

"No." I glared at him. "I'm just obviously the only one here taking precautions into account. Let's at least wait until we've read over the manual,"—something we should all do several times over for proper clarity—"made a list of the dos and don'ts, done diagnostic tests on all the systems, and fixed whatever you've broken with all your tinkering. Anything before you just type in coordinates you couldn't possibly understand."

"Or, and hear me out, Wally," Kell said with an annoyingly cocky grin. "We could skip all the bullshit and dive right in."

"No, because…" I bit my lip, not bothering to finish because Kell had already gone back to ignoring me. So frustrating.

"Let's see what I've got in my handy dandy hat of tricks." She materialized a big black hat with a long-pointed tip and a wide brim.

Seriously?I let out a deep sigh. A witch's hat was as cliché as someone could get.

The air turned thick, causing uncomfortable humidity because of her sorcery—essentially the witch equivalent to incantations. All their magic drawn from the Four Corners had a different name than the Pentacles of Power mages channeled, but the specific uses remained similar between Mythic witches and human mages.

A moderately complex spell of sorcery to conjure the hat. Not all that proficient since she had to utilize nature's blessing in tandem, which manipulated the atmosphere around us, creating this gelatinous air that made my skin sticky and my lenses fog.

Sorcery came from the southern corner of fire and like fire, the spells used offered balance through creation or destruction.

Nature's blessing stemmed from the northern corner, basically serving as a catch-all that mixed elemental control, saturation, and familiar bonds.

She shouldn't need to harness both when summoning a silly hat.

"Where did I put that lever?" She held the hat upside-down and rifled through it, digging her arms all the way in up to her shoulders.

Oh. I widened my eyes. She'd added a small temporal fold into the stitching, probably repurposing carbon dioxide or other odorless gasses to cloak her items in a nearby storage facility housed by the earth itself. That was really sophisticated.

Okay. Admittedly, she had some skill for someone so impulsive and chaotic.

"There it is." She withdrew a long, metal lever and tossed her hat on. "Now, I don't have nearly as much experience driving stick as you, or so I hear." She batted her eyes in Bez's direction, making me blush. "Wanna show me the ropes of steering this bad boy?"

I grabbed the lever she offered, intent on snatching it away. Instead, she dragged me along and jabbed the lever into the navigation system.

I couldn't decide who I hated most in this situation. Kell for jumping in and ignoring all my hard work, Mora for bringing her flighty witch wife, or Bez for inviting them to begin with when I was so close to figuring out the correct course of action.

Electricity crackled on the dismantled panel; I screamed; Kell cackled; lights flickered in and out; the lever trembled in our grasp.

"Hold tight, everybody," she shouted. "This is gonna be one hell of a ride."

Everything vibrated, and the helm turned fuzzy.