Was it unreasonable to be mad? Cass didn’t know. She had known Alyx was callous about death. She had known Alyx had no problem killing.

This wasn’t some big betrayal.

Alyx had tried to keep her out of it. Cass was the one who’d forced the conversation.

Cass flew through the night air, trying to work out her thoughts. They just turned over those same ones. Again and again and again.

The wind twisted along the hillsides, dipping and bobbing over the rolling landscape.

Was she being unreasonable?

It wasn’t like this was a surprise. Alyx and Marco had killed plenty of people in front of her. It was kill or be killed. It was hardly a strange conclusion given life here.

Her concerns were an Earth sensibility—an Earth moral.

One that would probably get her killed in the long run. The rational part of her brain could see that. Salos wouldn’t always be fast enough to deliver the final strike. Alyx wouldn’t always be able to protect her while she had a mental break over the body.

That eventually, it would be her own hands irrefutably stained with another’s blood.

Would Earth Cass be really and truly dead when that happened?

Would slyphid Cass be the only thing left?

Wind Step ran out, the wind finally tiring of carrying her and dumping her back into corporeality.

She landed gracefully despite the sudden stop, courtesy of her high Dex. She found herself in a wide coliseum.

It was big enough to seat the entire city. The walls stretched up forever, leaving only a circle of starry sky above her. The arena within was dirt and sand and wide enough to play two football games side by side and still have a healthy amount of space for halftime shows to be going on alongside them.

The stone walls were scrapped and worn, whether by weather or by hands desperate to flee the arena, Cass could only speculate.

There were three entrances to the field. Two were portcullis-covered passages, both leading into dark unknowns. They were built across from one another, likely to let opposing combatants into the arena. The third was a pair of towering stone doors, cold and impassive, set equal distance on the wall between the portcullises.

The stone was different around the doors. Most of the coliseum was built with a light, off-white stone, not dissimilar from the Spires in the skies around the city. But the stone of the doors and the surrounding wall were much darker, like the Deep of Uvana.

She hadn’t been paying attention to where the wind had taken her. All she knew was she was somewhere on the backside of the palatial hill and that she vaguely sensed Salos was making his way toward her with all speed.

And that he was concerned.

She ignored him. He’d get here soon enough and Alyx would probably be right behind him.

The wind whispered around her. She could keep running if she wanted. Another Step and she could be gone.

Salos would catch up eventually, but it could take a long time if that was what she wanted.

She stared up at the stars.

Was that what she wanted?

She took an ordinary step instead, meandering the circumference of the arena.

What did she want?

She wanted to go home. That was an easy answer but with no clear path.

She wanted to know if Kaye or Robin had ended up in this world. If they were okay. If she could find them.

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She wanted to fix Salos. She couldn’t take him back to Earth with her. But she didn’t know how to start on that either.

She didn’t want Alyx to die.

She didn’t know if she could make a difference. She had in the past, but the past was not a predictor of the future. The catacombs were a different beast. People were a different beast.

But she didn’t want Alyx to die.

Could she kill to see that through?

“Cass!” Alyx’s voice jerked Cass from her thoughts.

She looked up. Alyx and Salos both stood in the stands of the arena. Salos’s concern rolled off him. Alyx waved stiffly.

They’d caught up.

Cass Wind Stepped. For a fraction of a second, she considered riding it into the night again.

She didn’t. Instead, she rode it up to where they stood, materializing in front of them.

She and Alyx stared awkwardly at one another. An apology probably made sense. But she didn’t want to apologize for anything. She wasn’t sorry for yelling or running away to cool off.

Alyx opened her mouth.

To apologize? For what? For being practical about the risks and the stakes?

To tell her off? For running away? For making her chase her down here? For making her leave the banquet early?

To—

Salos leapt off Alyx’s shoulder, darting along the arena’s walls.

“Salos?” Cass called after him.

“What’s he doing?” Alyx asked.

Cass shrugged but chased after him anyway.

He leapt down into the arena’s field, coming to a stop in front of the big stone doors.

“What’s he want with the Catacombs?” Alyx asked.

“This is the entrance?” Cass asked.

Alyx nodded.

“This is the Averenis Storehold,” Salos said from below.

“The what?” Alyx asked.

He stared up at them, his gold eyes burning. “This is the Averenis Storehold. We need to get in there.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Cass yelled back. “Why is that important?”

“The Averenis were one of the most powerful families in my time. Their storehouse contained some of the most powerful treasures ever built or discovered. Their d—ahhh!” He crumpled, yelling in pain.

Cass leapt down the wall to him without hesitation. She scooped him into her arms.

“What was that? Salos, what’s happening?”

He spasmed. His claws thrashed, digging into her flesh. He howled.

Her heart pounded.

Frantic.

His panic fed her own.

She held him tighter. Her hands stroked at his fur. But he dissolved like mist beneath them. He barely had any substance in her arms.

His pain overflowed into her. Like a tide of boiling water, scalding her nerves and scorching her skin. Like lightning, straight to her heart.

It was everything.

There was nothing.

It was eternity.

It was over.

Salos lay limp in her arms, his chest rising and falling slowly.

Alyx was at her side, an arm draped protectively over Cass’s shoulders.

“Abyss below.” Pain echoed in his voice. “What just happened?”

Alyx scrambled off Cass, putting a respectable distance between them again. She crossed her arms and looked away. “That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

Salos blinked blearily up at Cass. “My head is swimming. Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Cass said. Her throat was hoarse. “Some storehouse? You got really excited about some Avernis family?”

He closed his eyes, the pain still swirling around him. “The Averenis Family. Very powerful. I worked for them? For a while? I think?” He grit his teeth as a smaller spike jolted through him. “I think I understand.”

“Enough to explain?” Cass asked.

“No.”

“You can’t do this and not explain.” She was doing everything she could to keep the tension out of her voice.

The fear. The panic.

This wasn’t about her. He was the one in pain.

But she was scared.

Pretending she wasn’t was pointless, though. He could feel her rising fear through their bond, just as she could feel the echoes of his pain and the distress bubbling beneath it.

“Explaining would make it worse.” He was certain. Emphatically so. “But we need to go in there.”

“Why? You need to tell me that much, at least.”

He looked up at her, his gold eyes dark and tired. “Because it is like Uvana.”

“Like Uvana how?” That sounded more like a reason not to go to Cass. Did he mean it was a god’s trial? Full of monsters that she could kill to make her strong?

Salos considered the question for a long time. Answers formed and dissolved on his tongue. Finally, he said, We might find another piece of my soul.