“Radar has picked up the hum! It will hit in three hours!”

  Fer sat in the darkness, o Kassandora, and gave her sister one final sniff. She wao hang onto that sweet smell of Kassandora. Fer reached to Iniri’s bottle. Iniri was weak. taining her blood would not be difficult. She uncorked it, put it to her lips and tipped her head back. Iniri’s blood entered her stomad she felt the cooling power of Nature travel through her. Her muscles got stronger, fur grew thicker, smells became more apparent.

  She fihe teen and reached for Kavaa’s teen. The same movements again, uncork, put her lips around it, and tip back. Kavaa was strohan Iniri, but not by much, and her powers weren’t as fshy. Fer felt tiny pricks made by sharp bones she was sitting on forcefully heal. Her matted fur shed, then regrew. Her nails fixed themselves, rearrao be perfect. It was like her own healing, but simply better and less pleasant. Colder and more ical, not like the warmth of rest but the ess of a surgery. “Two down.” Fer said, she kept the tremble out of her voice.

  “Isn’t that enough?” Kavaa asked in the darkness. Her voice sounded now that Fer had the blood of two Goddesses inside her. Fer felt Kassandora shake her head through the tiny movements of wind her sister’s hair made.

  “No.”

  “Oh.” Fer smiled as she reached for the teen filled with Kassandora’s blood. Her sister was always like that, always so protective aive. Did Kavaa have to know about how powers worked? She didn’t know or think so.

  Kassandora’s blood hit her stomach. War’s will entered her mind. Kassandora’s intelligence, her strength and power. Fer felt her fur grow thick, each strand angry and sharp, the edges made sharp as they grew to the full potential. That was Kavaa’s doing. And then Iniri’s reinforced the roots. Fer’s mind greer, she always liked Kassandora’s blood, it always brought about new ideas she had hought of. Kavaa should not be told how her powers worked exactly because she would be able to ter them. That was exactly Kassandora’s thinking, but then her own mind started to work and ge those ideas. Kavaa should be told, because if she needed healing, then a moment to expin would be too long.

  “Tell her.” Fer said as she reached for the teen taining Baalka’s blood. A sister strohan her, a Divine she knew her own body would not be able to handle.

  “Are you sure?” Kassandora asked in the darkness.

  “If you don’t, I will.” Fer said. “But you’ll expin it better.” Kassandora sighed as if defeated and then proceeded to speak.

  “Fer is like a hearth. Blood is fuel. You and Iniri are wood. I am coal. Both work and are safe. The quantity does not matter, it is the quality of the fuel, the more she has, the longer she burn it for.”

  “Oh.” Kavaa said. “So Baalka?”

  “Baalka…” Kassandora trailed off. “We don’t know. I would say it’s like p crude oil into the hearth.” Fer smiled. She knew Kassandora would expin it better, her sister always did.

  “So you’ve never do before?” Kavaa asked. Fer smelled Baalka’s blood. It smelled like poison. There was no other way to describe it. Poison and nothing else.

  “Not with Baalka.” Kassandora said.

  “Oasted Iri’s blood.” Fer said.

  “Irinika’s?” Iniri this time.

  “My ears had bck tufts for twenty years after that.” Fer smiled to herself as she spoke, then her voice became soft. She missed Irinika. “They were cute.”

  “After that, we swore to never feed her the blood of someoronger.” Kassandora said.

  “Why would you do that in the first pce?” Kavaa asked.

  “There has to be rules to Divines.” Kassandora spoke. “I know Maisara and Alsaria have written about them too. We prefer experimentation to theory.” Fer felt her sister’s eyes pass over her in the darkness. That was arait of Kassandora’s powers, but made greater by the fact it was in her, and reinforced by Iniri.

  “I would describe it differently.” Fer said. She knew she was deying at this point, but her entire body told her not to drink Baalka’s blood.

  “Go on.” Kassandora said.

  “I’m the enclosure. Iniri and Kavaa are like tiny little gerbils. Kassie is a cute little ra. Baalka would be a charging bull.” Kassandora sniffed in humour.

  “Cssic.” She said ftly. Fer felt her sister’s arm on her shoulder. “I’ve got you Fer.”

  “I know you do.” Fer she teen again. “Kassie. I love you. Don’t fet me.”

  “I won’t have to remember you. And I love you too.” Fer sighed. This was it. There was no point in deying anymore. She took a deep breath, put the teen to her lips and tipped her head back.

  Baalka’s rancid blood burned her tongue and throat, Kavaa’s blood immediately started to heal her. Then it hit her stomach. Her own blood turoxic as it burned her veins. Her spine cracked, then healed and cracked again. Skin ruptured and sutured itself, her sense of smell grew a thousandfold, she could see everyone here simply off their smells. Her hearing grew enough to where she could pick them out by heartbeat. Fer felt Kassandora fly away from her. That meant the gate had cracked and the bull was released. Fer k down, looked up, and unched herself off the ground. She heard shouting from below, there must have been a mess made below.

  Then Baalka’s blood hit her again. She tasted it in her mouth as her stomach tried to expel its tents. Her senses became dull, her legs grew limp, her heart stopped, thearted, her trajectory ged and she hit the ground of bones again. “Ka…” She moaned. “Ka…” They were here, Kavaa and Kassandora both of them. Kassandora took charge as always. Fer would have vomited already if Kassandora wasn’t here. Her sister immediately began to shout.

  “KAVAA! HEAL! NOW!” Fer, by smell and sound alone, saw Kassandora throw Kavaa towards her. The Goddess of Healing ed her arms around Fer’s ned Fer felt the ess of Kavaa’s power work along with the woman’s blood flowing through her veins.

  “She’s alright!” Kavaa shouted. “Her stomach shut down. I ’t start it!” Fer tried to get onto her knees. Her arms gave out. “STAY FER!” Kavaa shouted at her. “Give me a mihe ess spread, the lethargic dizziness faded away. The world stopped spinning, the smells and sounds became defined, not just general masses in a general dire.

  “Fer?” Kassandora asked gently. “ you hear me?”

  “Sick.” Fer replied. “Terrible. Feel. Very. Not. Good.”

  “STOP TALKING!” Kavaa shouted. “Keep it in! Hold yourself together! I’m w on you!”

  “Is this curable?” Kassandora asked.

  “It’s aeral inebriant.” Fer smiled and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what that meant. “EYES OPEN FER! DON’T FALL ASLEEP!”

  “Like an alcohol?” Kassandora asked quietly. Fer smiled. It was satisfying to know there were things her sister did not kher.

  “Like chloroform!” Kavaa said. “It’s hit her whole body.”

  “ you heal her?” Kassandora asked.

  “I feel better now.” Fer said. The dizziness had stopped, every word still made her want to vomit but that was expected. “I’m keeping it down.”

  “I ’t heal her!” Kavaa shouted.

  “I’m not lying. I do feel better.” Fer said quietly.

  “SHUT UP FER! KEEP QUIET BEFORE YOU VOMIT YOUR STOMACH OUT!” Fer blinked. Oh. It was more serious than just being sick. Kavaa waited for a reply and when none came she finally cooled down. “I’m keeping her body w right now. Her stomach is burning up and her veins are clotting.” Fer moved her fingers. It didn’t feel like it.

  “Are you?” She asked quietly, barely moving her mouth.

  “I AM!” Kavaa shouted. “YOUR HEART WILL STOP IF I LET GO!” Fer moved. “DON’T STAND UP!”

  “We still have to get out.” Fer said slowly, her lips barely moving. Expelling your stomach was a scary image. “We’re this far in.”

  “Are you sure Fer?” Kassandora asked.

  “I am.”

  “I won’t be able to hold on.” Kavaa said, her voice filled with panid Fer smiled. Whether it was her own instincts or Kassandora’s mind, she realised how to fix this.

  “Put your arm in my mouth.”

  “What?”

  “Worst es to worst, you’ll have trow it.” Fer whispered gently. She took hold of one of Kavaa’s cool hands, interlocked her fio make sure the woman wouldn’t let go and guided the other to her mouth. “ you work through pain?”

  “Ye-“ Fer bit down on Kavaa before the woman even finished. She pulled the woman onto her back as Kavaa’s blood flowed down her and filled her mouth. What she could swallow, she did. It felt like a fresh rain on the burnihat was iomach. Kavaa let out a scream and then grit her teeth but she was tough. Her magic did not stop flowing for even an instant.

  “Break out and then e back for us.” Kassandora said. Fer grinned and Kavaa kicked her from behind. She had bitten down again. She relieved some pressure a Kavaa’s legs around her. Her tail… Fer blinked. She swished it from side to side. There was a tail there, it was as natural a part of her as her arms were. When… Fer pushed the questions out of her mind. This was Kassandora’s power, simply ignore what is not worth searg an answer for. Her tail ed around Kavaa to make sure the woman wouldn’t fall off.

  Amazing.

  Her sister was smart. But also, she was careful. Everything o be prepared for. Every possibility had to be ated, everything had to be written down and gohrough. Every pn iderweb of possibilities that the woman would run through in that quick mind of hers before making a move. A mortal would never ma, but that was why her title was Goddess of War.

  Fer had a different mi entirely. If it could be do would be done. She grabbed Kassandora in one arm and tried tellio hold on before realising Kavaa’s arm was in her mouth. Iniri and Baalka were grabbed too, in the same arm. Kassandora seemed to realise what was going on quickly enough. “You wao hold them?” Fer nodded, eaent bringing a groan from Kavaa on her back. Kassandrabbed the oddesses, then ed her arm around Fer.

  Fer stepped out of the Jungle’s acid that was filling the dark pit they were in and walked to the tallest point of the bone-hill. The sound boung around the cave was enough to tell her where every sat. She stopped. The down.

  “On my go, everyone hold on, okay?” Kassandora said. She got a series of replies from the rest of the team. “Fer. Are you ready?”

  “Mmh.”

  Kassandora ted down. “Three.” Fer tightehe muscles in her legs. Iniri’s blood held them together like the ground, Kavaa’s healed her them as they ripped each other apart, Kassandora’s ahem and sure each strand worked perfectly, and Baalka’s gave them raw strength. “Two.” Fer tightened her core until it became tougher than steel. A onball shot at her stomach would bounce off, a bull would snap its neck if it her. “One.” Fer calcuted the distahe strength to be used. Everything and anything. “Go.”

  Fer shot upwards ahe blood of others inside her; a mighty reed spiralled into the sky, a scalpel of a doctor flicked away rotten skin, a bolt of a ballista unched into the underside of a tremendous dragon, a disease wiped nations away.

  Fer raised her free arm made a fist above her head; an aged oak that stood against a hurrie, a doctor ied himself with a vaation, a formation of pikemen prepared to take a cavalry charge, a cer spiralled into another cer.

  Fer’s fist touched the Jueeth; a flytrap snapped shut, the immune system started to devour bacteria, a spear found weakness in steel pte, a disease ehe wound.

  Fer felt the teeth shatter; an avanche began to pick up speed, a body started to produce its own cells to ter an illness, a shieldwall held as the fnks were encircled, an illness mutated to spread.

  Fer broke out of the pit of the pit and flew right past it into the air; a noble wrowing after dev fmes, a healthy heart pumping blood, a victorious army cheering after a battle, a nd blistering with life.

  Fer saw the night sky and heard her own blood calling to her as ivory shards of shattered teeth rained from above; a wolf howling after the hunt, a pack migrating, a healthy cub being born.