you can feel where your body is. Learned that after Dagon ate my soul, and I had to tunnel out of him and find my way back to it. It helps to think about how your body feels. You know: the weight of your limbs, the feel of your skin, your hair sliding through your fingers . . .”
I did, and felt an inner ping, as if a locator beacon I didn’t know I possessed had gone off. I concentrated on it. Soon, I was flying past the rubble and up the hidden staircase to the main level of Phanes’s temple . . . which looked very different from the last time I’d seen it.
The ornate décor and all that gorgeous, opalesque marble was gone, replaced by empty rooms and plain white stone. It was also much smaller, with only a few people scattered about, wearing worn clothing that bore no resemblance to the opulent attire I’d seen everyone wearing before.
Everything I’d seen since I arrived here had been an illusion. Or, at least, most of it. Yes, there were people, yes there was a temple, but that’s where the similarities ended. All the grandness of the rest had been a mirage of what Phanes thought he deserved, not what he actually had.
Fool, my other half thought. If he’d worked harder on bettering his conditions instead of masking them, he could have had a lifestyle that closely resembled his illusion.
She was right. That meant Phanes had a lazy side. It wasn’t quite the weakness I’d hoped for, but I’d remember it.
It didn’t take long to pass through the entirety of Phanes’s temple. Once outside, I saw a high-school-sized stadium instead of the Colosseum lookalike from before, bordered by overgrown bushes instead of stately, manicured hedges. But that’s not what I was focused on. That inner ping intensified, leading me below the stadium to the single door at the end of a hallway.
Ian and I passed through it, entering what looked to be Naxos’s lair, of all things. The Minotaur was lying next to a broken bed that might have been beautiful once but was now a pile of smashed wood and torn silk, while every other piece of furniture was either broken or overturned.
Most important, our bodies were on the other side of the room, with Ashael standing between them and the Minotaur.
“. . . told you, if he doesn’t bring my sister back soon, I’ll let you eat him,” Ashael was saying while Naxos snorted and pawed at the floor.
Ian rolled his eyes before diving into his body, which was now clothed in the same sort of plain garb that Ashael wore.
My body was also clothed in new, serviceable trousers and a tuniclike top. I chose a more graceful reentry into it, settling over my body like I was preparing to stretch out on a comfy bed. Then, I dropped down into it. For a few disconcerting moments I couldn’t move, and all I saw was darkness. Then, I felt suddenly heavy, and light exploded across my vision.
“. . . is she?” I heard Ashael demand, and turned to see him gripping Ian by the shoulders.
“Right there,” Ian replied. “And thanks ever so much for telling Naxos that he could eat me.”
Ashael grabbed me, picking me up in a hug that turned into a twirl. At first, I was more startled that he could do it than I was at him choosing to. Every other time I’d come back to life, I’d been a pile of ashes first. This was the only time I’d returned to a fully intact body, no reassembly required.
“I was so worried!” Ashael said. “It’s been more than four days since Phanes and the other two returned.”
“Are they still here?” Ian asked at once.
“No, they all left immediately, only pausing for Phanes to tell his people to kill me on sight,” Ashael replied.
Ian’s brow rose. “And you chose here to hide?”
“It’s the safest place,” Ashael said in an arch tone. “No one wants to be around Naxos right now. He’s never been defeated in battle before, and he’s taking it rough, even though I told him that you had an unfair advantage and it wasn’t his fault, no it wasn’t, no it wasn’t,” Ashael finished in a singsong way at the Minotaur, who sidled closer and whined as if wanting more consolation.
I shook my head. Another few days, and Ashael could’ve probably made a loyal pet out of Naxos. Between that and the way those