Ding.

  Thank you, new level of Psychic Translocation.

  “What the-” Jes gasps, stumbling back the moment I emerge, popping out from Baco next to Sadie on the other side of the chasm.

  “Told you I could do that,” I remind her.

  “Okay,” Jes coughs. “Just. Just don’t. You just jumped out of him. Like, fully clothed, and he didn’t even flinch. One second you’re not there, then you get shot out even though you’re bigger than him and there’s no way you were really in there.”

  “Would it have been better if I popped out naked?”

  Jes shudders. I’m not so sure the thought of me being naked has ever made anyone shudder before. “The whole thing is too weird. Don’t do that again. Ever.”

  “Oh, really?” I accuse. “You get to slip through the air, Baco can go turbo mode, and Sadie gets bionic legs, but I can’t use my skills?”

  Jes swallows and nods. “Yes.”

  Sadie slowly sweeps her hand in the air as if she’s reading a giant marquee and puts on an announcer voice. “Domain of the Minotaur.”

  I examine my body, making sure I’m me and that I don’t have a bristly pig tail. There’s something about translocating that leaves a sort of aftertaste. “No need for the drama.”

  Sadie raises an eyebrow. “Drama?”

  “You’re over acting,” I explain.

  Sadie points up the hallway. “I’m just reading the big sign.”

  There is no sign where she’s pointing. “Uh. Jes? Sign?”

  “No,” Jes says. “Hold on, I have an idea.”

  I watch as Jes fades from existence. I don’t know if she’s teleporting or going invisible, but she’s gone. A second later, the air shimmers like over a hot barbecue and she’s back.

  “Nothing,” she concludes. “I thought maybe being invisible means you can see invisible things…or something.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Sadie?”

  She glances at me and then back up the hall, pointing at the no sign at all. “Domain of the Minotaur.”

  I stand next to her, shoulder her aside and put my head where hers was. Nothing. Not by vision, not by perception.

  “Okay,” I agree. If she says she sees it, she sees it. I have no reason to doubt her. “Explain this one. How come only you see it?”

  Sadie holds her hands out as if she’s indicating some sign in the distance. She looks back and forth, reading and rereading. She puts her hands down and faces me.

  “I have no idea,” she says.

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  “Magic,” I say, at the exact same time Jes does.

  “Jinx!” I yell.

  “Really?” Jes says. “Are you eight?”

  I point a stern warning finger. “You need to learn how to have fun.”

  “I’d rather learn how to defeat a minotaur,” she says.

  “We’ll figure it out,” I agree, marching past her.

  She grabs my arm, “Perhaps you have forgotten that we’re in an incredibly dangerous place that’s getting more dangerous by the second, and I’d like to be reunited with my mother before it becomes too much. Can we please, seriously, please, come up with some plans beyond shouting random fraternity names in the middle of a fight?”

  Sadie steps next to Jes. “I think she’s right. We need more planning.”

  Okay, maybe they don’t only agree when I’m the butt of the joke.

  “I’m not a dictator.” I put my hands up. “And I agree. The minotaur will require some coordination and some forethought. Some more accurate planning.”

  Jes squints and peers in my eyes. “Dom? You in there? Or did someone replace you with a more reasonable, less impulsive Dom after popping out of Baco?”

  I take a deep, calming breath. “Okay. Let’s talk tactics. We should figure out things like how to safely attack simultaneously, and also how to maximize our skills in sequence. Like when Sadie ignites my javelin just before I throw it.”

  Sadie leans towards Jes. “It is a strangely reasonable Dom, isn’t it?”

  Jes nods. All I can do is sigh and start figuring out little combo moves we can pull in the middle of a chaotic combat.

  “I’m afraid my invisibility isn’t a great skill when fighting in a group,” Jes decides. “Great that the monsters can’t find me, not so great that you can’t.”

  “Agreed,” I nod. “If you go invisible, we have to know exactly where you are.”

  “That can be a special call,” Jes says. She leans a hand against the wall. “I let you know where I am, or we use some special set of moves where we know exactly where everyone is attacking. You have those throwing knives now, and between those and fire balls, I’m not feeling safe. Of course, I have to give mention to that bolas that nearly killed me.”

  “Again, I apologize,” I offer. “But that’s why we need this little planning session. I wish we had a white board or something besides dirt to plan moves.”

  Sadie digs through a pouch she picked up at the supply room. “Here. Baco can be this chunk of meat, I can be this piece of cheese, Jes can be a roll and Dom, you can be a raisin. We can move them like game pieces.”

  Baco immediately trots forward to swallow the Baco piece.

  “Why am I a raisin? Can’t I be a different rock? There’s rocks everywhere.”

  “This could work,” Jes agrees. “I have a walnut that can be Baco.”

  “Wait, why am I a raisin?”

  Jes takes the game pieces and kneels. She places them out in a vague marching order and grabs a fist sized stone from behind her. “This rock can be a monster. Let’s say a satyr.”

  “Can you call satyrs something besides monsters?” Sadie asks.

  “Does it not bother anyone that I’m a raisin?”

  “Sorry, Sadie,” Jes gives a sincere apology. “Before I met you, I admit all satyrs were monsters.”

  “And it really should be the big rock is the minotaur,” Sadie suggests.

  “I’m not a raisin,” I say, picking up my shriveled piece and tossing it into Baco’s disappointed maw. I dig through my pouches. “Here. I’ll be a walnut.”

  “You can’t be a walnut,” Jes states. “Baco is a walnut.”

  “Well, I’m not going to be a raisin,” I insist.

  Jes rolls her eyes at me. “Why does this matter?”

  “Dom, do you want to be a piece of dried apricot?” Sadie offers.

  I take the shrivelly fruit from Sadie, which is a far more substantial shrivelly fruit than I was. “Thank you, Sadie.”

  Jes lays pieces down. “Phase one, approach. First case is a regular ground bound opponent, like a satyr. Phase two, we make the minotaur unable to attack. We immediately get him off-balance.”

  “Three lines of attack,” I suggest. “One of us goes straight in. Maybe me with the spear. Then you go arrow to one side, Sadie goes fire to the other, each intentionally missing. He moves and takes a hit one way or the other.”

  “Not bad,” Jes scans the playing pieces. “Also, I have a skill I haven’t tried. If I’m next to someone, I can give them a glyph. Like a one-shot relocate. Can only give it to one person, and it takes a bit from me. But we might need it here. Also, don’t forget if he goes into Big Mode, we have thirty seconds to wait that out. If it’s the same as when I saw him last time.”

  She moves the big rock to each side and illustrates with the other pieces, complete with little sound effects that I don’t think she realizes she’s making.