With Josh off raising hell, Maria was left with the job of coordinating a terrified pack of refugees into the hopeful shelter of their chosen convenience store. With any luck, there could be food left as well, but she had the uneasy feeling that anything here would be long since looted.

Right now, shelter for the night was the highest priority, which should help with not being eaten by monsters.

There was some very loud shouting and smacking coming from the direction Josh had run off, which thankfully more than covered the hushed panic and varied stumbling or running footsteps of the group making across the open pavement. There were occasional cars sitting slumped on nibbled tires or with other parts conspicuously absent, but not nearly enough to provide proper cover if anything were to glance their direction.

Several of the people Maria hadn’t been introduced to yet were carefully corralling several of the younger kids along, watchful lest any tried to run off. From what she’d seen, that wouldn’t be a problem, but she was glad of the extra vigilance nonetheless.

She scanned in all directions, but didn’t see anything. Whether that was because there was nothing to see, or the dim light working against them, she couldn’t be certain.

The first two to reach the destination, Vivian and Fred, scanned the inside through the broken glass doors, gesturing that it seemed clear and they’d be going in.

Maria checked the outside groups, then made her way quickly to join Fred and Vivian. The interior was dark, electricity absent. Vivian turned on the flashlight on her phone, scanning it over the interior. It was a scene of mayhem.

Racks and shelves laid haphazardly strewn about, various foodstuffs had been spilled or crushed underfoot, and the smell? It reeked of putrid rot and decay. She had enough sense not to gag too hard, but she held the collar of her shirt over her nose. “Not sure if this is a good place to stay the night, Josh,” she muttered quietly.

Others didn’t have the heart or stomach to subject themselves to the stench, not that she blamed them, and decided to run the risk of waiting outside for things to calm down. Again, she couldn’t blame them, though it did reduce the efficiency of their ‘hide until morning’ strategy.

Considering the noise she heard from Josh’s side of things, she didn’t think hiding would be much of a necessity for much longer. Even she felt intimidation in her chest from the blanket of power wafting over the entire area like nuclear fallout.

“He’s definitely strong.”

“That he is, baby girl.” Her mom walked out from the store, waving the air in front of her face as if that would cleanse her nostrils of the smell. “I can only imagine what he went through to become that strong. Surely you wouldn’t hold out on juicy gossip from your momma?”

“You know I don’t gossip, ma.” She looked around to see if anybody was close enough to hear her, frowned, and turned to look at her mom. “He’s been through a lot. He was in the first wave that got caught up in all this craziness. I don’t press him for too much details about what he’s been through, but I can see it’s taken its toll. Like, I don’t even know what his powers are, aside from what the rumor mill has to say, and you know all about that.”

“There is some truth in rumors, sweetheart. What do these rumors tell you?”

“Nothing that I can’t see with my own eyes.” She waved her mom’s look of curiosity away. “What about our unexpected guests? Have you identified them?”

“Saw them come in, but I figured if mole people can be helpful, maybe they can too.”

Maria leveled an expressionless look at her mom. “You saw them? And didn’t say anything? Do you know what they are?”

“I did, didn’t, and do. Pretty sure I just made that pretty clear, hun.” Her mom pursed her lips. “Vivian’s husband attacked them when he saw what they could do.”

“And?” Maria’s curiosity bubbled, warring against the urge to drag her mom inside and have her show her which eight weren’t among the initial group.

“They can shapeshift and just so happened to shapeshift into Vivian’s husband, Mark, and perfectly copied his voice, mannerisms, and everything. It was nearly impossible to tell them apart, but the shapeshifters weren’t aggressive. They only defended themselves when they were attacked,” her mom explained, sighing deeply. “Things are so strange.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“You can say that twice,” Maria muttered, flinching as the sky erupted in a orange-gold light that temporarily made the night look as if it were day. Then silence.

Her mom tilted her head in the direction of the light, then looked back at Maria. “Aren’t you curious to know what his powers are?”

“Of course I am. And he’ll tell me when he’s ready. Not like I’m gonna go stalking him to see what he’s capable of. Like you said, the rumors have a hint of truth in them. He’s incredibly powerful, and that’s all I care to know. The specifics don’t really matter to me.” The sound of their conversation traveled in the dead silence, nobody else willing to pick up whatever conversations they’d been having. “He’s a good man and treats me right. You always told me that was the most important thing about finding a partner.”

“Oh, so you do know how to listen?” Grinning, her mom placed a hand on Maria’s shoulder and pointed. “I’ll leave you two alone then.”

Her mom made a hasty retreat, plugging her nose, and disappeared back into the store.

Maria didn’t have to look hard to find what her mom had meant. Josh swaggered over, his chest bare and pants in tatters. Golden gauntlets she’d never seen before covered his hands up to the middle of his forearm.

“That was a fun fight,” he called, waving. Seems like he’d long since stopped caring about being quiet. “Everything fine on this end?”

Her brain took a moment to reboot, her eyes trailing the red lines beneath his skin to his abs and… She shook her head and closed her eyes, waving in response. “Y-yeah, things have been fine, though the location you picked reeks.” She jammed a thumb inside. “I’m surprised anybody’s in there at all.”

“That bad, huh?”

“That bad.” A moment passed as he continued to approach. Once she steeled her resolve to not oggle him too much, she again opened her eyes. She gestured up and down at his change. “What’s all this about?”

“Just some fun.” He sheepishly looked away. “Maybe a bit too much fun.”

“Everyone within three territories saw that.” She chuckled. “I’m glad you had fun. Now we’ve gotta figure out what to do. Mom told me that the eight extra tagalongs aren’t very aggressive and killed Vivian’s husband in self-defense.”

“Really? What are they?” he asked as he stretched, groaning.

When he finally finished and her eyes remembered how to stop staring, she recounted what she’d learned. “We could try to talk to them?”

He shrugged. “Eh, if they wanna stay incognito, leave them be. If they wanna cause problems for us, then we’ll have an issue. Until then, no reason to make them too uncomfortable.”

“Fair enough. The people of Zion are fair and quite adamant about their racial inclusivity policies,” she said with a slight nod. She gestured at his transformation, indicating his whole body of red glowing lines and supersized muscles. “So how long does all this last for?”

For a moment, he seemed confused. Then he looked down at himself, lifted his gauntlet hands, and then back at Maria. “Oh, right… I’m gonna need new clothes before I release this, unless you want everyone getting a long, hard look at… You know.”

She rolled her eyes, thankful the night was dark enough to hide the blush reddening her neck, ears, and face. “Go find clothes. Don’t take too long. Figure out what we’re doing after, ‘cause we sure as hell can’t stay in this stinking dump.”

Instead of doing any of those things, he closed the gap between them, lifted her up into his arms like she weighed less than a feather, and planted a kiss on her lips. “Sure thing.”

Then he was gone.

“Oh-ho ho ho, what I wouldn’t give to be young again.”

“Granny!”

*

Aiden had never before realized just how delicious a blizzard was. Not the type you get at a fast food place, the gonna-kill-you-with-magic-ice-shards type.

Sure, it wanted to kill him with magic ice shards, and continued to try to do so with increasing fervor the more he consumed, but it was just so satisfying.

Was there a better word for whatever his soul was doing than ‘I’m eating a magic blizzard’? Probably. He was too busy doing it to care about terminology.

He ignored the accumulating notifications, describing the advancement of his Paths and newfound Blizzard Discipline and all the changes to his previous abilities to focus on getting as much as he could while he still had the time. Khione had tried to summon him more times than he cared to remember, and he wouldn’t be able to avoid her for too much longer.

So blizzard-eating was on the agenda, and lots of it.

Deep ice-shard breath in, letting it flow throughout his body, really feeling the icy magic until it became his own. Rinse and repeat.

The raging blizzard looked as if he’d done none of that, still as aggressive and primal and chilling as ever.

He wasn’t sure it would ever run out, but he could still fit more in before leaving. What exactly would he be able to do with this power? He didn’t know. But that had been how it was from the beginning, collecting things first and figuring out what to do with them later, so the uncertainty didn’t bother him.

And it really was tasty.

The feeling of the emptiness in his soul filling with each breath, more potent and raw than anything he'd had before.

Now that he really did ‘feel it’, as Arkayan said, he couldn't imagine not. He understood and reveled in the soothing chill comforting his aching ascended soul.

The time would be soon for him to wage war against the afterlife and end the Upper Realms inconsiderate frolicking.

He smiled happily as he drew another breath.