“It’s surrounded by a hundred mages,” I yelled. “It’s getting left behind!”

And then Pritkin woke up.

I’ll admit that abruptly regaining consciousness while huddled behind a baby squid the size of a whale, and coated in its goo, would be unpleasant. And that having spell-fire and bullets strafe a cave filled with dark mages on the other side of the body, would probably be a shock. But that kind of language didn’t help.

“You’re freaking out Grace,” I told him.

Pritkin stopped cursing long enough to stare at me. “Who the hell is Grace?”

I hiked a thumb.

“That is not my name,” the girl whose name I couldn’t currently remember said.

“What the hell is going on?”

I started to answer, although how to sum this up in a sentence or two was beyond me. Until I noticed that Mircea had two hands on the squid now, and one of the giant eyes had just popped open. Well, fuck.

“Well, fuck,” I said.

Pritkin cocked an eyebrow at me. “Language.”

“Well, fuck!” Grace yelled, scrambling back, her pretty gown still pristine despite being ankle deep in afterbirth. Because we weren’t really here, but the guys were, and they were about to be dead.

“Talk to Mircea,” I told Pritkin urgently. “Tell him he needs to get out of here!”

“Not without my prize!” Mircea snapped.

“What prize?” Pritkin demanded.

“The prisoner we liberated at such cost. She,” Mircea nodded at me, “wants to leave it behind.”

“Fuck that.”

“What?” I looked at Pritkin in disbelief. “You agree with him?”

“Where is it?” Pritkin demanded, getting into a crouch beside Mircea.

“Just there,” Mircea pulled him a little farther around the squid, which was staring at me sightlessly. At least, I hoped it was sightless. “Right there.”

“It has fangs,” Grace said softly.

“It’s not a normal goat,” I told her.

“No,” she pointed at the squid. “There. Among the tentacles.”

And damned if she wasn’t right. The squid’s huge, whitish tentacles had what looked like suckers on them. But if you looked a little closer, the suckers hid mouths ringed in sharp, pointy teeth that would have done a vampire proud.

“Fuck that!” I said, my voice a little high.

“How are the bastard’s shields holding?” Pritkin asked Mircea. “It should have been dead by now.”

“It’s going to be in a moment if we don’t act,” Mircea pointed out.

“What’s the plan?”

“There is no plan!” I said, inserting myself between the two lunatics. “You’re getting out of here!”

“What the—why did my hand just go through you?” Pritkin demanded. He’d been reaching for my arm, but of course, it wasn’t really there.

“I’m not really here—”

“Projection,” Mircea said, his voice clipped. “I couldn’t wake you, and I needed help. But now that you’re conscious—”