Monster - A. Lee Martinez [98]
“Give me the stone,” she repeated.
Lotus had trained Ed well, but Judy reminded Ed so much of Lotus that she tried to hand over the stone. It didn’t budge, remaining suspended in space.
“That doesn’t belong to you,” said Lotus, who appeared opposite Judy.
Ed tried to give it to Lotus, but the stone refused to move. Ed released it, and it hovered in place, exactly between Lotus and Judy. Static electricity put a tingle in Ed’s skin and made her hair frizz. Lotus and Judy moved in unison, matching each other step for step, gesture for gesture. They held out their hands. Green and white lightning surged from the stone and into their palms.
The earth rumbled. Terror seized the nearby cryptos. Ed was nearly trampled by a fleeing minotaur. A raging whirlwind swirled around Lotus, Judy, and the stone. Gravity went weird and Ed was drawn toward the storm. A three-headed hellhound dug its claws into the street, but the force ripped it free. The cyclone snatched up the crypto and disintegrated the helpless hound. Chunks of asphalt, fence planks, clumps of grass and dirt, and unfortunate cryptos were swallowed by the storm. Debris was flung in all directions, and what didn’t get thrown out of the storm was consumed by it. Ed grabbed ahold of an SUV door handle as she was lifted off her feet.
The last few inches between the two women and the stone were the hardest. The stone went through a rainbow of colors. Golden lines, hidden runes of ancient power, formed on the women’s flesh.
Monster and Chester stopped at the edge of the gravity anomaly. Monster leaned back and braced himself to avoid being swept up into the void. Chester clung to Monster’s leg.
The world trembled as if it might shake apart. Car alarms blared. Every house and streetlight came on spontaneously and burned bright enough to turn the night into day for a few seconds before exploding.
“So what do we do now, boss?” shouted Chester over the howling winds and grumbling earth.
Monster didn’t have an answer.
Judy and Lotus touched the stone at the same moment. The whirlwind instantly vanished. The ground ceased rumbling, and the stone went black as the runes faded from its face. The force Monster had been resisting faded, and he fell over.
Judy and Lotus stared into each other’s eyes in the eerie quiet. The runes rose off their skin and whirled around them, struggling for dominance.
“Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” asked Chester.
“Bad,” said Monster.
A residual connection to the stone remained with him, and he could sense the struggle raging beneath the surface of the universe as Lotus and Judy fought for control. Under the right circumstances, this could be a battle of equals, a stalemate lasting until the end of time. But they weren’t equals. Not quite.
Lotus had the edge. She wasn’t so easily shed. The stone still feared her, couldn’t stop feeding her. Judy had interrupted that flow of power, but it was only a temporary disruption. The balance would shift. Lotus would take control, and she would hijack Judy’s momentary oneness with the universe to fulfill her agenda.
“If we can separate Lotus, we might be able to break the stalemate,” said Monster.
The wind kicked up, and a slight tremor churned the broken asphalt. Judy and Lotus glowed, but Lotus shone just a little brighter. Monster picked his way across the uneven ground.
Ed stepped in the way. “I’m awfully sorry, but I can’t let you interfere. Mrs. Lotus wouldn’t—”
He put his hand on her shoulder. The spark passed between them. Ed whinnied as she ripped out of her clothes and reverted to her equine form. She reared up and bolted down the street.
Transforming Ed had used up the last of the magic the stone had given Monster. He retreated as the gathering power caused the sky to burn while the asphalt glowed beneath Judy and Lotus’s feet. Monster was scarlet now, immune to heat. Either a parting gift from the stone or a lucky break.
“What’s wrong?” asked Chester.
“What am I doing? I gotta be crazy.”
Monster backed away.
“But what about Judy?” said Chester.
“What about