Not bothering to question things, William stepped into the cavern, letting the earth swallow him whole. Pizza tornadoes and va people had already numbed him to the absurd. The ground splitting open to carve a path and glowing moss lighting his way barely registered as noteworthy anymore.

  The tunnel was long, but William walked without hesitation.

  "Why did she agree so quickly?"

  Auracea’s behavior made no sense. One moment, she wanted to fight him, and the next, after a brief exchange, she had changed her mind.

  "It can't be this simple."

  He had no doubt she would turn on him again, but she could have done so back on the surface. If she didn’t intend to work with him, she might just try to bury him down here.

  Zephar had left without a word, but the unreadable god was the least of his concerns as he ventured deeper.

  The temperature rose—slowly at first, then steadily. The deeper he went down the steepening tunnel, the more his hallucinations faded. After four hours, they stopped altogether.

  So did William.

  His rge, naked body slumped against the cavern wall as he leaned back, exhaling a sigh of relief. The blessing had finally deactivated.

  "How long do you intend to sit there?"

  William nearly jumped out of his skin as Auracea’s stone face and glowing eyes emerged from the ground—directly between his legs.

  "Come on!" he snapped, then clutched his pounding heart, gasping for air. "You stay silent this whole time, and the moment I stop to enjoy the quiet, you scare the shit out of me?"

  Auracea’s vine-covered stone body, lined with molten cracks, fully emerged from the earth. She fixed him with a disapproving gre.

  "This isn't a pleasure cruise," she scolded.

  "Oh, I’m aware," William retorted. "But if it’s okay with you, I’d like a moment to catch my breath."

  A tense silence settled between them.

  "I can't help but wonder," Auracea mused, "are you just using this time to recover, or are you stalling? Do you pn to bask in the heat, or do you finally understand why I brought you here?"

  William frowned.

  "What is it that you want?" he asked, then put up a hand before she could berate him. "I get it. You give me heat, and the visions are gone. You hold all the cards, so just tell me what you want. I don’t know how we’re supposed to stop the billions of Ashborn, but disappearing sounds worse than hallucinating myself to death."

  Failure was all William had ever known, but after enduring those visions for a week, he realized he couldn’t keep his head down and wait for the end. He didn’t want to die.

  "Good. Then let me make this clear." Auracea’s glowing eyes bored into him. "First, the world has changed. Humans are gone, and I will not help you bring them back—even if we find a way. Second, hate yourself all you want, but you will promise me one thing: You will not let this world die without a fight."

  William swallowed hard. He knew what she meant by his kind.

  Humans had polluted the earth beyond repair, and the universe had responded. The event that wiped them out had been some twisted roll of cosmic dice—quite literally. Still, if karma was real, humanity had received its due.

  The tunnel floor began to sink. William and Auracea descended like an elevator plunging into the depths.

  "If you agree to my terms, we can begin the next phase," she said, squatting to trace something on the stone floor.

  The glow from the moss-covered ceiling dimmed slightly. William eyed her warily.

  "I don’t understand."

  Auracea frowned, but William shook his head.

  "No, I get the Ashborn stuff—mostly. But what’s a sigil, and how is it going to help us?"

  Auracea pointed at the symbol she had traced on the ground—a spiral of vines with a tree growing in the center.

  "The sigil is your link to the pnet—and to me. Even though I detest you, there is no one else on this world who can be designated as Ruler. You are everything that was wrong with humans, yet you did fight, even when you lost control."

  Her gaze softened, though it felt like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

  "I can’t say what will happen, but this is the first step. Once the link is made, that jester god will appear and expin the rest—" she hesitated. "I assume."

  "You assume?" William raised an eyebrow, gncing at the strange pattern. "You can’t just tell me?"

  Auracea stood and met his gaze. "No. I have no more clue about this than you do. This is the first time I have ever drawn this symbol, yet I know how to. Can you expin that?"

  "...No," William admitted with a sigh.

  "Good. Then give me your answer."

  William stared at the spirit before him, then gnced down at his stomach—which prevented him from seeing his feet.

  "Fine. I agree. But can you do something about my size?"

  Auracea tilted her head. "I agree that you aren’t much to look at, but I am no djinn. If you wish to change your form, that is your problem, not mine."

  William’s jaw clenched. "Fine. I’ll be the ruler of this dead world, but would it kill you to show a little compassion?"

  Auracea shook her head. Stone scraped against stone as a wall rose, revealing a shaft of light. William flinched, shielding his eyes.

  "How?"

  The smell of nature filled his nose, and when he finally lowered his hand, his jaw dropped.

  Auracea stepped into what looked like a jungle paradise—deep beneath the earth. Rivers of va coursed overhead like veins of fire, illuminating the cavern, yet the trees and pnt life thrived as though nothing was amiss.

  "The sigil," Auracea said, turning to him. "I will need your blood. Then you will become the ruler."

  William’s heart pounded. "Are we just not going to talk about the fact that there’s a jungle buried miles below the surface?"

  "I made it for you, so you could survive without relying on that power. If that god hadn’t made the sun vanish, I could have turned the entire world into a paradise."

  William blinked, but shook his head. "Fine. Take my blood and let’s get this started. The Ashborn aren’t wasting time like we are."

  "No, they aren’t. So hurry," Auracea said, walking toward him.

  A sharp stone knife materialized in her palm. A vine sprouted from her body, snatching the bde and passing it to William.

  "This will hurt," she warned.

  "Really?" he scoffed. "I thought you were just going to kiss me."

  Auracea’s lips pressed into a thin line. "I would sooner scrape the surface of the pnet clean than partake in such a disgusting human habit."

  Before William could respond, the knife bit into his arm.

  He hissed in pain, his eyes widening as blood spurted from the wound—only for fire to roar through his core. His flesh seared shut, but the sound of his wife’s st raspy breath echoed in his ears.

  Auracea ignored him, dipping her fingers into his blood to draw on the earth.

  "Did you really need that much?" he snapped.

  "No, but I wanted you to understand that there are worse things than death."

  Before William could retort, his chest burned.

  "What the fuck is that?!" he shouted.

  "Stay still," Auracea commanded. "I can’t have you running around while I concentrate. Keep your whimpering to yourself."

  William groaned but endured the pain as an intricate tree was scorched into his skin.

  "There."

  "Thank God—"

  The world froze.

  Laughter echoed as golden dice hovered in the air.

  "Don’t be so quick to thank me yet!" Zephar grinned, stepping through a tear in reality, cd in nothing but beach-print shorts and a white jester’s mask. "The dice require a roll!"