With Stella being almost as big as Sob and Nora trying to strangle me I was finding it damn hard to draw in a decent breath. It was something my lungs were complaining about very aggressively. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Nora pulled away and Stella sat back on her haunches, shaking out her short tan and white coat.

I gave Stella a final pat before crawling across the floor to the still-prone Jacob. His chest was rising and falling as he took in small shallow breaths. At the very least I knew he wasn’t dead. I gave the boy a hard shake but all he did was let out a weak snore.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked Nora.

“He said some things he shouldn’t have and Miranda force fed him some kind of potion. He’s been like that ever since. I don’t know how long it's been but it feels like days,” she answered.

I pushed back one of the kid's eyelids, looking at his pupils like I’d seen people do on television a thousand times. Only, I didn’t know what I was looking for. Were the pupils supposed to dilate or constrict? Shaking my head I let him be, scooting back a ways before turning to Nora.

“We’ll have to carry him out of here. Can you protect us while I do it or is the other way around better?”

Nora’s shoulders slumped. “Miranda took my axe. I have nothing to protect any of you with. She took Jacob’s guns too. I’m surprised she left us with our armor.”

I swore and rubbed a hand over my face. I hate to admit it but I was really counting on Nora’s brutal destruction skills to get us out of here alive. My skills were only good from the dark and preferably from behind. They’d be useless if we came up against the army Miranda had been talking about.

“Maybe, I can go out there and distract her while you guys get out. She couldn’t have taken away Stella’s weapon, so you’ll still have a tank to keep you safe,” I said.

Nora grabbed my arm hard enough to make me flinch. Her eyes were filling with unshed tears, something I thought I would never see, when she said, “We can’t separate again. Not after everything we’ve been through. What if… What if there is no next time?”

I placed my larger hand over her cold one and gave it a hard squeeze. “So long as I’m alive I’ll always find you guys. I promise.”

“And, if you’re not alive?”

I sighed and looked away, not wanting to see the pain written all over her bruised face. She was right of course. Miranda had always been ridiculously powerful and now she was even stronger. I couldn’t defeat a mage who could literally bring the dead back to life to fight for them. Hell, even if I was somehow that powerful, I’m not sure I could kill her. She was still Miranda, even if she had lost her way. She, even with all she was doing right now, was still part of my family. I’m not sure that would ever change, even if she did burn a hole through my heart with her pretty pink magic.

The longer I thought about it, the more this began to feel like some warped Shakespearean tragedy. Family killing family and for what? Power? Gold? Survival? It was all just insanity.

I should have been there. If I hadn’t gone romping around Ruby’s spiderweb thinking it was my mate Red’s place, none of this would have happened. I would have been there when we got to Rottnest Island. I could have protected Miranda from whatever it was that had made her turn to Melumek’s side. So many of the Outsiders would still be alive. All of us, yes, even Gabby and Theo, would still be together. We would have hauled ass back across the country to escape the monster army. We could be thriving, leveling up, and tracking down Tony the cable snake man. But no, instead, we were at war with each other while Melumek’s army of monsters descended on our heads and his followers chased after the final few seals keeping the primordial's true power at bay.

Stella whined and trotted over to me, shoving her enormous head into my chest. I scruffed up her fur before giving her a much-needed hug. I don’t know what it is about dogs; they just have a way of making you feel better when everything is falling apart.

I pushed to my feet and turned, helping Nora gain her own with one swift tug.

“Alright listen. Pick up Jacob and follow me. If we’re attacked you fall back and leave it to me and Stella. If we get separated, just get out. I don’t care how you do it, just get out. Sob is up the hill behind this place hidden in the trees.” I looked up at Frank who was sitting quietly on a jagged hook jutting out of the wall. The bird tilted his head my way, listening intently. “Frank, you stick with Nora. Keep her safe and get her and Jacob to Sob, do you hear me?”

“Frank shut the hell up!”

“That’s the spirit. Alright, are we ready?” I asked.

Frank screeched, Stella barked, Boopzy chittered and Nora said, “This will never work.”

I gave her shoulder a gentle punch, not really sure how else to react to her unusual despondency. “That’s not the attitude we’re going for right now. Get your shit together. You’re our fly-half in this game. Get you and Jacob to Sob. That’s all you need to worry about. The rest of us will play defense.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“This isn’t some kind of sport, Joe. This is real life,” she said.

“It sure as hell doesn’t feel that way. You can do this, alright? You’re Nora Nightingale for fuck sake. Trust me.”

Nora closed her eyes for half a second before they flew open. She squared her shoulders and pulled her hands into fists. “Right. Let’s do this.”

I smiled and helped lift Jacob until Nora was settled with his limp body in her arms. I was sweating like a pig just from getting him off the floor so seeing her standing there completely unbothered by the dead weight chipped away at my already frail ego.

Frank flapped down from his perch and settled on Nora’s shoulder, being careful not to hit her with his wide wings as he drew them back against his feathered body. It was more manners than he had ever shown me.

Muttering about the injustice of it all I turned to the door and eased it open just a crack. I focused on my Blindesense, scanning every door and the rooms beyond them. Not a single aura of any kind appeared to me. I opened the door wide and raced down the hall, Stella at my side and the others trotting along not far behind.

We reached the stairs and formed a tight line, Stella leading the charge and me bringing up the rear. Every sound, whether it was Nora’s boots scraping on the stone or Boopzy’s chittering, had me on edge. This all felt too easy. The quiet before the storm. I was half expecting to see ammo and health potions laying around everywhere to signal a boss fight coming. In fact, if my feeling was correct, it was mighty rude of Melumek not to provide those things. He really was a poor game designer.

I brushed my fingers along the wall as we climbed into the gathering darkness overhead. I called for the shadow to come and help us. I drew my fingers away from the stone and frowned. There was no glob of shadow where there always had been before. Something was definitely up. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

We all tumbled out into the final passage that would lead up back to the crumbled tower and our way out. I still hadn’t quite figured out how we were all going to climb out but that sounded like a future Joe problem.

I rushed ahead of the others, rejoining Stella at the head of the line as we waded into the deeper shadows. We’d just about reached the final archway when I grabbed Stella’s collar and threw out an arm to hold back Nora.

There was a red aura in the tower. It was small but glowing intensely. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. It had to be Miranda.

“I’ll distract her,” I whispered. “You run the other way.”

I took a deep steadying breath and drew my sword, Blinking into the tower room and then clear across it to the other side.

“Miranda, I…”

I froze. The full moon was now almost directly overhead, filling the cramped space with a pale silvery light that was just enough to make out the tiny lump in the middle of the room.

It wasn’t Miranda, it was a rat. The pink glow of its eyes told me she was inside it.

“Why not just guard the tower yourself?” I asked the rat. “Why project at all?”

The rat bared its teeth at me and ran to the wall, scaling it with ease before sitting on the rim and staring down at me. I moved to follow it but paused with my fingers on the cold-painted brick.

This was wrong.

I spun around and Blinked back out of the tower room, rushing down the passage on the other side. The green auras of my friends were far away but the closer I got the more red auras appeared around them. I’d been trying to distract Miranda when she in fact was distracting me.

I bellowed and ran faster until I shoved through a tight gap and into what must have been the castle's main hall. Much of it was destroyed now. The roof was all but gone, letting the moon light up the place as well as a torch might have.

Stella barked and began to glow a bright golden color as she charged her attack. Frank was screaming as he circled overhead. In a ring around corpses of players and Crocs alike stepped closer, all of them glowing a faint pinkish hue.

Stella attacked, ramming her bulk into a line of the creatures sending them flying into the walls. The loose bricks shuddered, sending a cloud of dust and bits of brick in every direction. I stood there frozen in place as I watched my girl stop glowing. She’d cleared a line of the monsters but they were coming back, all of them swarming her like ants on sugar.

“Stella!”

I Blinked across the room, folding my arms around her as the monsters descended on us. Sharp teeth sunk into my arm dragging an agonized howl from my lips. I lashed out with my sword, digging it deep into the already dead Croc's side. The wound was substantial but the beast didn’t so much as flinch.

The dead can’t feel pain.

I yanked the blade free, deflecting a skeleton warrior’s saber strike just before it hit. There were too many of them. They were everywhere. My health bar plummeted as the monsters pummelled me.

“Joe, help!” Nora screamed.

I cursed and slammed my sword into the ground, using the same motion I’d seen Theo do hundreds of times with his shield.

A wave of brutal force exploded from me in a ring, pushing every creature it hit back. I leaped up, not wanting to waste the short time Shadow Pulse had bought for me.

With Stella on my heels, I ran toward Nora. The woman was standing over Jacob’s limp body, grappling with a Croc with her bare hands to keep it at bay. Stella, who could run much faster than me, tackled it, sending it crashing to the ground before she sunk her teeth into its neck and started to tear out chunks of flesh. I caught up, Blinking around another Croc and stabbing it in the back before flinging myself in between the next wave of undead monsters and my family.

Miranda’s laughter echoed around us as she stepped out of the shadows, her jeweled scepter raised high over her head letting out streams of her pink fire.

“Did you really think I’d let you go so easily, Joe? You are a bigger fool than I thought.”