81. Icebreaker

{Naya}

My head was resting in Usher's soft blue lap when I awoke.

"Mistress," Ritsu said, sounding relieved.

"Ugh," I groaned as I forced myself to sit up. After blinking a few times and looking around, I realized that we were still in the elevator.

I was still pissed about having to leave Zayn on one of the floors. So when I could speak, I let Ritsu and Usher have it.

"Do you guys just keep expecting me to sacrifice my friends one after another until we make it to the top? This isn't right!"

"We're almost there," Usher said, her voice as calm and level as ever. I glanced at the small screen above the elevator doors. It flashed the number 25.

We had ten more floors to go.

The three of us waited in silence. I stroked my guitar absently.

Usher regarded Ritsu and said, "The longer I watch you, demon, the more I question your true form. Are you sure you are a lord of death?"

Ritsu arched one of his thick eyebrows. "What else would I be?"

Usher tilted her head, and for a moment, she looked feline again.

"Your simian features remind me of a thread of lore I came across many years ago. Tell me, have you ever had the ability to fly or change shape at will?"

Judging by the look on Ritsu's face, he had no idea what the hell Usher was going on about.

She asked, "Have you ever heard of the great Sun Wukong?"

Ritsu blinked and looked at me, as if searching for a way to respond to the marid's odd questions. I shrugged.

He turned back to Usher. "Never heard of that name."

Usher nodded, but her eyes lingered on him, as if she wasn't quite convinced.

I tapped them both on the shoulder.

"Uh, guys? Is it just me, or is it getting really warm in here?"

Ritsu gestured to the dial. "And we've been hovering on the twenty-seventh floor for a while now. Something's not right."

Usher started to pat down the walls. Ritsu and I were forced to squeeze together to give her room due to her enormous size.

"It's a djinni," she hissed. "A jann to be exact. It's heating up and slowing down the elevator, trying to burn us from the inside."

I knew how to deal with janns.

"Hey!" I shouted at the ceiling. "How about we strike a deal? You let us get to the thirty-fifth floor in one piece and I'll let my marid over here grant you any wish you want. How does that sound?"

There was no answer, but a few seconds later, I felt something tickling me down by my ankles. Usher and Ritsu must have felt it too because we all looked down at the same time.

Sand.

So in addition to being melted inside of this elevator, we're going to be suffocated too?

Usher rested her massive hands on my shoulders. "Child, these are not the same kind of jann you met in the desert. These have no free will. They are slaves to the collector."

Our elevator had crawled up to the twenty-eighth floor, but I was already sweating and the sand was now past our ankles. This was both the perfect and the worst time to panic.

I sighed and looked over at Ritsu to ease my nerves. He was standing apart from Usher and me in the middle of the elevator, glaring at the ceiling.

I reached out to touch his arm. "It's going to be okay, Ritsu. Usher will figure out a way to get around this." My fingers barely made contact with his skin before I felt the frigid ice.

I snatched my hand back. "Ritsu, what are you doing?"

I noticed that his skin had gone even paler than before. So much that his own tattoos were fading. The blue in his fingernails and along the rim and corners of his eyes was darkening. The temperature in the elevator began to cool. The walls hissed as they steamed.

"Ritsu?" I whimpered.

"He's fighting back the jann," Usher said.

It was great that Ritsu found a way to get us past this new challenge. Still, why did I feel so on edge?

When the temperature lifted to a comfortable degree, Ritsu groaned and swayed on his feet. I supported him and whispered, "You better ask before you do something like that again. This isn't a hormonal Aqua we're dealing with here. That looked like it took a lot out of you."

During the lull, we climbed a few levels higher. Our momentary victory was interrupted by a distant cackle.

Silly, djinn. I was barely trying. Prepare to feel some real heat.

The sand that was now up to our waists suddenly ignited. It felt like a billion fiery Poprocks were exploding all around me.

Ritsu righted himself and said, "Hold on. We're going to make it. I'll freeze the elevator until we get to the top. We have less than five floors to go."

I squeezed his arm. "Are you crazy? You almost passed out last time!"

But Ritsu wasn't listening. He closed his eyes, pressed his right palm against one of the walls of the elevator and gave it everything he had. This time, the blue veins in his neck and arms surfaced. It was clear that the jann controlling the lift was fighting back as hard as it could too.

I couldn't watch Ritsu exhaust himself. The heat and cooling temperatures seesawed back and forth. The elevator even jolted a few times.

Eventually, Ritsu's knees buckled. Still, he kept trying to freeze the elevator. Usher and I had to hold him upright so he wouldn't drown in the sand. By this time, it was up to our necks.

"Ritsu, stop this," I begged. His eyes were still shut in concentration and his lips curled back over his canines, but I kissed him anyway.

"You better be listening, you overgrown ape. You can't die. You're my monkey, remember? I can't lose any more people that I love."

The elevator shook uncontrollably. The lights flickered. The small space became more impregnated with steam and sand.

"Mistress," Ritsu opened his eyes and gave a laborious wink, "dead or alive, I will always be your monkey."

Then he closed both eyes and leaned his whole body into the wall of the elevator. The roar that came out of him sounded less like a monkey and more like King Kong. His voice was drowned out by the icy film that was spreading over his entire body. I tried to hold onto my friend, but my fingers slipped on the ice and I stumbled forward into what was no longer sand, but now a belly of snow.

Ritsu was still leaning up against the wall . . . but he was frozen solid.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe.

"Ritsu, don't leave me."

Crack.

I flinched at the twisting chasm that traveled at an unsettling speed from the crown of Ritsu's head down to his navel.

"Naomi, get back!"

Usher enveloped me in her arms and blocked the incoming blast.

I screamed, "No!"

But there was nothing I could do. The block of ice that was once my friend, had shattered.

There was a pleasant ding as we reached the penthouse suite on the thirty-fifth floor. In a matter of seconds, all of the ice and snow had melted. All that was left behind was a tooth – one of Ritsu's fangs by the looks of it.

"Naya, we have to go. There's no time."

I sniffed the last of my tears and picked up the lonely fang. Usher helped me to my feet. We faced the elevator doors.

Whether I was ready or not, I had to face Janus, Sabur, and an angry Uriel if it came to it.

The doors opened.

I took a deep breath. Whatever shape the fire on the other side took, I had to confront it.

What other choice did I have?