Oriz’s heel ground down on Zoe’s fingers. Pain flared but Zoe dug in her grip as tightly as possible. Her nails gouged into the floating rock as she gritted her teeth.

“I’ve longed to see you like this,” Oriz practically spat at her. “Finally, you’ll get what you deserve.”

Zoe swung her other hand toward the ledge, but Oriz’s sword slashed down. It struck at her reaching fingers, and only a quick withdrawal by Zoe prevented her from losing digits. She hung there by her hand, pinned more by Oriz’s heel than by her grip. The foot of the alien woman crushed her Mirrored fingers.

Zoe glared up at Oriz. The alien’s hateful expression only maddened her, but she cooled her heartbeat with [Our Heart’s Toll as One].

“Are you going to tell me why?” she said.

“You know why,” Oriz sneered.

Was there anything but hate left in this woman? Did only weeds grow where once a garden flourished? Zoe couldn’t imagine viewing a world so twisted as the one inside Oriz’s head.

She pulled herself flat against the floating boulder to hide her feet from Oriz’s view. Unseen, she shifted her Mirrored toes into hands to better grip the rock. Ignoring the drop behind her, she let Oriz pretend she had the upper hand.

“You’ve got me trapped,” she said. “So why don’t you explain to me?”

Oriz squatted down, her foot still firm on Zoe’s fingers, and her long curved blade held ready like a reaper’s scythe. She eyed Zoe with suspicion, yellow eyes barely slits as she appraised her. It was impossible to know what thoughts flashed behind that alien stare. In the space of a few heartbeats, a spreading web of grass covered the jeweled ceiling of the cavern. Oriz rolled her shoulders as the cocoon regrew, or shed invisibility — for Zoe was sure now that the cocoon never vanished. She wondered how deep the illusions went, was she even dangling now? Better not find out…

At last, Oriz smiled.

“One last trick?” Oriz asked. “One last attempt to get me under your spell? You’ve already bought enough time.”

Zoe did her best to keep the frustration from her voice. Years of bedside manner returned, but civility was an effort.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Stop lying! The little technique you brand onto the hearts of all who come close. You call it friendship when it’s a grenade strapped to the soul. What do you think it feels like to know that if we disagree with the great and powerful Zoe you’ll kill us?”

“I would never —”

“You have! And you will again! What about Moth?”

A tremble ran through Zoe’s Mirrored fingers. She trusted Moth would hold, and she did. Zoe uttered a silent thank you.

“You told me to kill her,” she said. “You said the system wouldn’t abide us living separately.”

Oriz shook her head.

“It’s never your fault, is it, Zoe?”

Zoe took a deep but subtle breath. Just keep her talking. If she found Oriz’s thread of logic, great, but she couldn’t expect her to make sense. She couldn’t expect any reconciliation. Too much had passed between them. Too much blood soaked into the earth.

“We escaped Purgatory together,” Zoe said. “I chose this body path to help you.”

Oriz’s face twisted with displeasure.

“And you paid that wrong a thousandfold. When does revenge become cruelty?”

“Can’t you imagine a world where I don’t resent you?”

A sigh blew through the grassy cocoon.

“It’s what I would do…” Oriz said quietly as she straightened up. “I know how deeply you care for Bella, if I weren’t in the way, you would take her for yourself, just as you are in the way of us. I know you Zoe, and people like you. Nothing will stop you. Not logic. Not the system. If I don’t end this now, I will never have a chance at the happiness I deserve.”

Zoe opened her mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say except to scream about how crazy Oriz sounded.

But Oriz took her silence as affirmation. The alien woman nodded as she raised her blade.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“You see?” she said with a sad smile. “Finally, you understand who is the true villain here.”

Rainbow light glinted along the edge of the grass blade. Zoe’s eyes widened as Oriz took a stance. She wasn’t sure if she would be fast enough to dodge or intercept the coming blow that was coming. Especially not since she hung on the edge of the cliff.

It was time to cheat.

Inside her mind, she signaled Moth, and her sister answered. The hand Oriz stepped on vanished, and Zoe swung down on the pivot where her feet gripped. Oriz screamed as her sword came down and struck only air.

Zoe reformed her hands as she gripped the bottom of the floating boulder like a spider. Above her, Oriz screamed and sliced. Her blade sank through the rock. Streaks of rainbow appeared as Oriz diced the boulder, and hunks of the rock drifted out. Zoe expected them to fall, but they continued to float through whatever phenomenon kept the island in the sky.

Moving silently, Zoe crept to the other side of the boulder and leaped to another floating rock. She circled, feeling like a crab as she evaded Oriz’s point of view.

“Where are you?” Oriz shouted. “You can’t hide forever!”

[But of course, you won’t hide forever]

The voice smiled in her mind like a night flower opening for the moon. Zoe forced herself to grip the rock lest the pleasure slip her fingers down.

[You are doing well in this little game, but evasion never wins. Eventually, you must strike]

“What do you want?” Zoe whispered.

[A winner]

###

Rage blew through Oriz like tempests across a prairie. She had Zoe in her sights, but the damned deceiver fooled her again. She was so stupid to think she could make Zoe understand. Only violence would solve this problem like a blade through a knot.

The cocoon trembled as her emotions tugged and pulled at its structure. She forced herself to calm her breathing. Her master would be appalled to see how far she had fallen. Centuries passed while she stagnated like a weed-choked pond. Since she met Bella, she had finally experienced growth, and now Zoe was trying to rob that from her.

[How will you protect what is yours?]

Oriz snarled as the voice echoed her voice.

[How far will you go for the ultimate prize?]

She gripped her grass sword so tightly that blood dripped from her hand. With a flick, she dismissed the blade. She had to fight smarter, not harder. Her master trained an assassin, and so an assassin she would become. Zoe fell for the false Bella, her love working against her, and Oriz simply needed to use that to her strength.

With a flex of her Skein, she dissipated into shreds of grass and flowed through the tunnels of the cocoon. There wasn’t much time left before the island dissolved — only a couple of hours — and she had to maintain her priorities. Before she found and killed Zoe, she had to ensure Bella was ready to leave. She had to ensure that Bella loved her and only her.

###

Flames licked the walls of the kitchen. The wallpaper burned like green apple peel and thick black smoke filled the air. Bella ran through the house. Part of her felt appalled at abandoning the soup, but a greater part felt relieved. If the house burned down, it didn’t matter if the soup was tasty. If there was no kitchen, it couldn’t be her fault. If there was no house, then she couldn't stay here. Oriz and her could leave, but if Oriz didn’t want to leave…

Bella flung open the screen door to the back porch and ran out onto the lawn. The clothesline spun and creaked in a growing wind. Sheets billowed like the clouds on the horizon. The coming storm was as black as the smoke belching up from the house behind her. Bella wondered if the rain would come and save her, and with a heavy heart — half flinching already — she turned toward the driveway.

Oriz’s car wasn’t there.

She blinked, confused even as heat brushed her skin. Oriz had been arriving… she was almost home… that was why Bella panicked so, but —

The sky rippled like reeds in a breeze.

“Help!” Oriz shouted from inside the house. “Bella help me!”

Bella rubbed her eyes. They burned from the smoke. She coughed. Why was she outside when Oriz remained inside? Of course, Oriz wasn’t coming home, she was sick and needed protection, Bella needed to do what she could -- how could she have been so selfish as to run outside and abandon Oriz?

Berating herself, she charged back toward the flaming house. No matter what happened, she had to ensure that Oriz remained safe. Her skin tightened under the heat and she felt her clothes singing. The shadows of the back porch raged with heat.

She entered the hallway, down the end the kitchen raged a white inferno but Oriz’s voice came from upstairs. A doorway blocked the stairs. No smoke leaked out from underneath, and Bella yanked it open.

She gasped at the sight beyond.

No flames, but a web filled the angled stairwell, and in the center sat a gigantic spider. Long black limbs reflected the orange flames like polished ebony. A body the size of a horse crouched there, trembling, ready to pounce, but worst of all was the head.

For it was Zoe.

Her hair hung disheveled around her face as she tittered at Bella.

“I never wanted you to see me like this,” she hissed as poison drooled from her mouth.

Bella backed away, the flames at her back forgotten as her mind struggled to compute the monster before her.

###

Zoe climbed up the side of the floating boulder and found herself once more in the endless grassland. She looked around and there was no sign of the jeweled cave or the bottomless skies. A breeze rippled through the long stalks and they swayed as though they knew no flame or cares in the world.

“None of this is real,” Zoe reminded herself. “Oriz could be anywhere, but you’re looking for Bella.”

She pinged with [Our Heart’s Toll as One], not expecting a response, but hoping all the same.

To her shock, there was a reply not far ahead. Her hounds were too tired to run ahead, so Zoe carefully advanced. She tested the solidity of the ground as much as possible, in case the woven grass opened up into a pit or the swirling skies.

But the grass parted, and she found Bella standing there and facing in the opposite direction.

“Bella?” Zoe asked. “Are you alright?”

She wanted to ask if it was the real Bella, but what answer could convince her? Her heart pounded as Bella turned.

It was the familiar face that first smiled on the airplane so long ago, but now her eyes were lidded as though with sleep or drugs. She clutched the runeblade tightly, and as Zoe stepped closer the blade swung into a fighting stance.

Zoe’s heart sank. Bella wasn’t in control of herself, she was a puppet, and Oriz pulled the strings.