She hated Cyrus. She hated his stupid face and his stupid clothes and the way he acted as if he had already won. She wanted to wipe the smirk right off his skull as he stood at the edge of the forest, chuckling at them. What’s so funny? she wanted to scream. My fist in your face?

The plane droned overhead, esfand smoke falling like fog.

“Interesting.” Cyrus frowned, staring up at the incense that was now falling on his shoulders. The other djinn seemed to be affected, their figures cowering, their flames flickering. A ghul howled in rage, then evaporated into an oil slick. Cyrus, however, stood untouched.

“Shouldn’t it kill him?” Bianca whispered to Zahra.

Zahra didn’t say anything, her face pale. “I thought it would…,” she began, confused.

“Mareed,” Cyrus intoned. A blue flame appeared next to him, morphing into a giant djinn with an iron collar around its neck. It bowed low before Cyrus, revealing huge ­muscles, its body covered in scars.

“I wish for you to bring me a storm, and I wish for more protection from the esfand,” Cyrus said casually, as if this was possible.

“Your wish is my command,” the mareed said in a deep voice.

Bianca watched, rapt, as the mareed bowed once more and disappeared in a puff of blue flame. Was Cyrus making wishes off other djinn?

And then they heard it: a low rumble of thunder.

“Oh my god,” Zahra breathed. “They’re gonna bring the plane down.”

“Seriously?” Bianca cried, looking back at Cyrus’s smug face. Sure enough, she felt a fat plop of rain hit her gas mask, the water blocking her vision.

Zahra got out her phone. “Land! Land!” she yelled into the receiver. “He’s trapped a mareed! It’s going to bring a huge storm!”

Trapped! That was why all the djinn here had iron collars. They weren’t Cyrus’s soldiers. They were his servants, held against their will, bound to do his bidding.

Leila grimly looked at the graying clouds, and Bianca watched as she summoned her flames in the steady rain. The flames definitely weren’t as big as before.

The three of them stood in the deluge, trying to see Cyrus through the gloom.

“Djinn!” Cyrus shouted across the field. “Assemble!”

The three held their breath. Zahra tightened her grip on a mace full of esfand, now useless in the storm. Lights began to flicker across the field, and Bianca gasped as far more djinn than they’d first seen at The Grove danced in flames across from them.

“There’s got to be almost a thousand,” Leila said weakly from next to her.

“And he’s controlling all of them,” Bianca added grimly.

“He’s summoning every single djinn in the world,” Zahra said, amazed. “What’s so special about this place?”

Bianca bristled. She felt more protective of Ayers than she had before. This was a vibrant community, a shelter in the beautiful mountains, and a place that helped shape Virginia into what it was. She hated to admit it, but nothing made her appreciate Ayers more than having someone try to take it from her. Cyrus would be lucky to call this place home.

Plus, they technically weren’t all the djinn in the world. Bianca remembered the feeling of her mind brushing up against the djinn in New York City, the ones who seemed free of Cyrus’s command. She wondered if Zahra knew as much about djinn as she thought she did.

“What do we do?” Bianca asked. “There’s too many of them!” Just trying to keep up with every new burst of flame made her dizzy. And there was Cyrus, smirking in front of them all in the pouring rain.

“We fight,” Zahra said grimly, brandishing her mace.

“We’ve got no other choice, Bee,” Leila said from beside her.

Bianca planted her feet firmer in the dirt, which was slowly turning to mud. They were right; fighting was their last option. At least she and Leila had practiced, so they weren’t completely off guard. Bianca pulled her gas mask off, the filter useless now that the rain tamped the esfand down. Leila did the same, and Bianca tried not to flinch as icy rainwater poured into the borrowed gym clothes she wore. She really wished she’d had time to put on jeans and a sweater.

Here we go, Bianca thought to herself.

Just then they heard an engine behind them. They turned around: it was Zahra’s white BMW, driving onto the field at breakneck speed — the Esfandiaris had already returned.

Bianca wasn’t sure how to feel about them now. Clearly, they were on the same side, but would they try to take her and Leila out again?

“Don’t worry about my family,” Zahra said quickly. “We need to fight Cyrus first.”

“That doesn’t exactly comfort me, but okay,” Bianca replied. What Zahra had said was basically the equivalent of We’ll deal with you later. If they made it out alive, of course.

Bianca tried not to scowl as she saw Ehsan, Mohsen, and Tara join their lineup, all of them squaring off against Cyrus, the Esfandiaris’ past attempt at fighting the twins forgotten.

“’Sup,” Tara said flatly. She wore iron armor like Zahra, but it was painted with green and red evil eyes, giving it a colorful graffiti effect. Her bright yellow jumpsuit helped her stand out in the rain.

Bianca said nothing. Leila shivered next to her, and Bianca reached for her hand and clasped it tight. No matter what happened, they were in this together.

Both sides stood across from each other in an empty meadow the size of a football field. There were so many djinn now that they outnumbered the trees in the forest.

“Let’s do this,” Mohsen growled, the first time Bianca had heard Zahra’s uncle speak.

From the other end of the meadow came a glint of copper from Cyrus as he held up the scimitar he wore on his belt. “CHARGE!” he shouted.

The battle had truly begun.

The distant flickers of light surged forward, and Bianca watched, fascinated, as every flame morphed into a different kind of djinn that she’d read about online. Monsters and demons of all shapes seemed to be in attendance; some were half-human and half-­crocodile, or half-human, half-dog. Others were just wisps of gas or smoke in the shape of humans. Some djinn were terrifying, their arms and legs bent at odd angles, their tongues lashing, and some looked small and harmless until they bared their teeth. Yet still they came, like a rising tide of nightmares.

“Come on!” Leila shouted, grabbing Bianca’s hand and plunging forward. Her boots had a tough time navigating the now-wet field, the grass underneath churning into mud. It was hard to believe that this was what their supernatural fight had turned into: an old-school battle on open land. How fitting for a place that had seen similar battles before.

Mohsen ran ahead, clutching two scimitars that looked like they were made of iron. He was the first to make contact in the middle of the field, slashing two djinn as he whirled his blades into the crowd. The demons screamed as they disappeared into puffs of smoke. Ehsan wasn’t far behind, wearing the same armor as his brother and Zahra, the older man slicing and stabbing with an iron spear like a seasoned swordsman.

Tara, however, had a different fighting style that consisted of no swords but a long chain with two iron daggers on each end. She twirled it around her, taking out djinn as she nimbly danced around them. Just a prick from the iron dagger was enough to eviscerate a snarling, seething monster before Tara yanked it back.

“Bianca!” Leila shouted. Bianca turned around just in time to see the giant mareed who had summoned the rain standing over her, his fists raised. But Leila was there in an instant, teleporting to Bianca’s side and blinking her out of there just as quickly. Bianca watched from twenty feet away as the mareed’s fists came down on the spot she had been ­seconds before.

“Thanks,” she gasped.

“No problem,” said Leila. But before Bianca could catch her breath, a slithery si’lat was already there, wearing Leila’s face and shooting flames at close range. Leila didn’t have time to grow a fireball, so Bianca did the next best thing: she grabbed the si’lat by its slimy skin, trying hard not to think about how it looked exactly like Leila, and took control.

It was easy to take over the djinn’s mind. What was difficult was realizing that she wasn’t the only one controlling it. There, in the murky back of the si’lat’s consciousness, was another power, another force: Cyrus.

Kill, kill, kill the humans! His will echoed inside the djinn. It was like a steady drumbeat that thumped throughout the djinn’s existence. Kill, kill, kill!

That’s how Cyrus is controlling them, Bianca realized. He isn’t just using an iron collar; he’s possessing each and every one.

Bianca thought back to the iron collar on the huge mareed. Iron, possession, esfand — there were many ways to bend djinn to your will, and Cyrus was using them all.

In that moment she felt sorry for these pathetic djinn, forced to fight a battle they had no say in.

Go back to where you came from, Bianca ordered, overpowering Cyrus’s command inside the si’lat. Cyrus’s orders were weak, his control spread too thin. It was easy to overtake the prince’s will inside this poor demon.

Bianca watched as the djinn’s eyes turned blue from her order. It exhaled slow and deep, its twisted face relaxing before turning into a flame and winking out of this plane. She hoped it was enough to keep that djinn from reappearing. In that split second before the si’lat had gone, it had looked relieved, like it hadn’t wanted to be here at all. Let’s hope I never see you again.

Bianca shifted her focus to the horde of djinn that the Esfandiaris were currently decimating, all of their enemies vanishing into puffs of smoke and oil.

“Why didn’t you finish it?” Leila said from next to Bianca, where she’d watched the whole exchange.

“Because Cyrus was possessing it. He’s possessing all of them.”

Leila gave a sad shake of her head. “I felt something was off with them. But how can he control so many?”

“I don’t know, but I think if we get to Cyrus, we can finish this once and for all.” Instead of dealing with each puppet, Bianca wanted to take out the puppet master himself.

Leila gave a grim nod. “Let’s get him.”

Bianca looked up to the hill where she’d last seen Cyrus by the trees, but he was nowhere in sight. Next to them, the Esfandiaris were like human blurs, slicing and dicing djinn left and right. But just then, a sneaky, oily ghul had snuck up on Mohsen’s feet.

“Ahhh!” he yelled as the slimy ghul encased his right leg in ooze. Instantly, Mohsen’s face went pale, his body freezing up.

“No!” Tara screamed. Leila teleported her and Bianca over to Mohsen in a flash, and Bianca plunged her hands into the ghul’s slimy body.

Stop, she commanded it. Leave us alone. But it was too late; the ghul enjoyed sucking on Mohsen’s flesh too much, its consciousness filled with ecstasy. Bianca felt, rather than saw, Leila’s fireballs end its life, her connection to the ghul suddenly cut.

“Thank you,” Mohsen gasped. He was looking at the twins differently now. He seemed surprised and grateful. It was the look of someone recalculating, and Bianca hoped it meant that saving his life proved the twins weren’t evil, that they were on the same side.

Before the twins could regroup, more flames rained down on them as attacking djinn approached. The Esfandiaris had their iron armor, but Leila and Bianca were completely exposed.

“Strobe!” Bianca shouted, ducking as a giant ball of flame sailed dangerously close to their heads. Leila’s arm shot out and she grabbed Bianca’s sleeve. In an instant, they were back in the gymnasium of Ayers High. Bianca had a split second to register the EXIT sign over the doorway before they were instantly back in the field, a djinn howling as its shot missed them. Then it was back to the gym, back to the meadow, back to the gym — 

“Coo–!” Tara’s voice shouted. But the twins were already gone, Bianca’s head swimming from all the teleporting. There wasn’t even enough time for the flames to die around Leila with each teleportation, so the two constantly swam in a sea of fire as the sisters sneakily approached the djinn horde, each strobe bringing them closer and closer.

In the gym, Leila took a break from teleporting and turned to Bianca. “There’s a djinn that looks like a dog about to tear into Zahra. If I get you close enough, can you take it out?”

Bianca nodded, grateful to catch her breath and give her inner ear a break. But before she could fully reorient herself, Leila gripped her hand and teleported them a foot away from the approaching dog/human djinn, or heen, with snarling teeth and red eyes, its human hands at odds with its snout.

“Bianca! Now!”

She was ready. The thing’s drooling face snapped close to hers, but before it could sink its teeth into her, she snatched it by the scruff of the neck.

ENOUGH, she intoned silently, forcing it to capitulate. With a whimper, the djinn’s eyes turned blue. LEAVE US, Bianca ordered. In a flash, the djinn was gone.

“Nice,” Leila said.

“I know, right?” Bianca made as if to brush her shoulders, but something a hundred yards away in the gloom made her stop in her tracks. There, close to the tree line, she recognized someone. “Shivani? Steve? June!”

There were their friends, their shirts ragged and torn, wearing the same outfits they’d worn last night when they’d tried to jump Bianca and Leila. But it wasn’t really them. Their eyes glowed bright red, and their faces snarled.

“Leila!” Bianca cried, pointing out their friends. “We’ve got to help them!”

“Oh my god,” Leila gasped. “You go. I’ll cover you!”

There wasn’t much distance to clear to get to her friends; the second they’d seen her, they’d made a beeline for her, their gaits off, their body language completely different. Instead of sashaying like she owned the place, Shivani was hunched and limping. Steve’s eyes were completely unrecognizable, the gentleness and humor gone. And June, poor June, was a sneering, cackling monster, her face twisted and cruel. Bianca grabbed June’s arm first as Leila stood nearby, ready to throw fireballs at anyone who tried to interrupt or, worse, if their friends didn’t cooperate.

The instant Bianca grabbed June’s hand, she felt June’s torture and pain of being under Cyrus’s control. While Leila had described possession as a throbbing background noise, this possession was all screams and confusion, June’s mind begging for release. Leila hadn’t been joking: Cyrus’s possession wasn’t anything like Bianca’s. It was constant mental torture. Bianca summoned blue sparks at their point of connection while trying hard to keep June’s other hand from clawing her face. June’s face was covered in dirt, her thin hair sticking out at odd angles. It hurt to see her friend like this.

“Stop. Trying. To. Kill. Me!” Bianca gasped, struggling to assert her will over June’s. It was harder than the ghul’s. Harder than Leila’s willing participation. Beads of sweat broke out on Bianca’s forehead, mixing with the slick raindrops from before. Finally, the blue sparks sank into June’s skin.

Stop, Bianca commanded. This isn’t you. You are June McCullough.

“Gah!” Leila cried.

Bianca whipped her head up. She had barely noticed how Leila was trying to hold back Steve and Shivani, the two of them trying their hardest to pluck Bianca’s eyes out. Leila’s hands glowed red as she corralled them in a lasso of fire, the two friends snarling in their makeshift holding circle.

June lunged for Bianca.

“It’s not working!” Bianca cried. Her best friend, her confidante, was gone. Suddenly everything felt so hopeless, so woefully unwinnable. I can’t do this without my best friend. Bianca wanted to sob and scream and run away, and every time she looked up from her possessed bestie, she was greeted by scenes of Zahra and Tara fighting a war of inches as they tried to gain ground, of Mohsen and Ehsan whirling esfand and iron. I’m not strong like them, Bianca realized. I can’t do it.

“Try again, Bianca!” Leila urged her, her hands gripping Steve and Shivani in place. “Remind her who she is!”

Bianca took a deep breath and looked into her friend’s red eyes, the flames dancing across her irises. I have to try, Bianca reminded herself. I owe it to June.

Bianca clutched June’s arms again, and this time, June-but-not-June screamed, steam rising from their point of contact. Bianca summoned another crackle of blue sparks and felt her head throb with concentration as she forced each bead of light into June’s skin. June shrieked again, arching her back unnaturally, her scream unlike anything Bianca had ever heard. She knew she didn’t have much time.

You are June McCullough, Bianca began again. Your favorite cake is dulce de leche. Your secret favorite sport is figure skating because you love the costumes, even though we don’t have a team. You love Liam Fitzpatrick and when you graduate you really want to major in statistics, which I know because I looked at your application when you went to use the bathroom during study break, even though everyone thinks you want to major in sports therapy. Your favorite color is yellow, your favorite sibling is your elder brother August, and your best friend is Bianca Mazanderani.

It was like talking to a bucking bronco, Bianca’s voice soft and gentle as she tried to calm the skittish animal. Bianca Mazanderani is your best friend, and she loves you so much, she doesn’t know if she can leave you and everyone here behind.

She hadn’t realized it was the truth until she’d spoken it into her friend’s mind. She couldn’t leave Ayers. Despite all her complaining and bemoaning, she loved it here. Bianca blinked, the realization weighing down on her, making her want to fight for this town even more. June’s body went slack.

“Bianca?” June croaked.

Bianca looked at her friend. Her pale blue eyes had returned, her rosy cheeks cold in the December air. Bianca hugged her.

“June,” Bianca breathed. “I was so worried!”

June looked around her in disbelief, the battle raging on. “What happened? Where am I?”

“Bianca!” Leila cried. Shivani and Steve struggled to break free of the lasso of flame she’d roped around them. “Help, please!”

“Soon!” Bianca shouted to June as she ran to Leila. “I’ll answer everything, I promise! Go stand by that white car!”

She didn’t have time to make sure June made it safely out of the scrum. Bianca was already holding Shivani with one arm and Steve with the other. They screamed as Bianca made contact, her confidence in her new power building. It was easier to force her spark into their skin this time, easier to overpower their wills with her own.

Stop, she intoned in their minds, like a clear, crisp-­sounding bell. You are Shivani Shah and Steve Rosenberg. Stop. Their minds were just as tortured as June’s, but Bianca’s power was no match for Cyrus’s weak claim on them.

She repeated this a few more times until she felt their ­muscles relax, their snarling, spitting faces relaxing into shock.

“Whoa,” Steve said, blinking the red from his eyes. Bianca’s heart swelled as she watched the warm hazel color return.

Meanwhile, Shivani’s reunion with her consciousness was a bit more dramatic. “WHAT IS HAPPENING!” she shrieked. “WHAT AM I EVEN WEARING?”

“Go wait by that car!” Leila cried, pointing to where June was huddled by the white BMW. “Now!”

“I’m not leaving you, you dummy,” Shivani balked. “That dude made me sleep without doing my skincare regimen! I will never forgive him!” She pointed an accusatory finger at Cyrus, who now stood at the edge of the meadow, watching the whole thing.

“Then go to the car and grab iron and incense!” Bianca cried back. “Go!”

“DUCK!” Zahra suddenly cried, snapping them out of their friendly reunion. They ducked without thinking, just as a huge burst of flame sailed over the group’s head.

Bianca looked at who’d thrown it. It was another giant, not as big as the first, with Cyrus now riding its shoulders.

“Oh dear,” Ehsan said. Bianca would have used stronger words than oh dear, but yes, this was a very big problem.

Leila shouted, “I can get us up to the giant’s shoulders, and you can take him out, Bee.”

Bianca took a deep breath. Here it was, her showdown with Cyrus. It was her will against his. Did she really have what it took to overpower a djinn prince? But then Bianca remembered how vulnerable Cyrus had to be while he controlled so many others. His focus was split into a thousand pieces. Bianca still didn’t know much about her power, but she knew it took a lot of concentration.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” Steve grabbed her hand. He gave her a tight hug, his arms wrapping around her soaked clothes. “Be careful, okay?” His skin looked gray, his clothes in tatters, but in that moment, Bianca thought he was the most handsome boy she’d ever seen.

“I will,” she agreed.

Steve let go of Bianca, his expression concerned.

Please, Bianca prayed. Please let me see him again soon. Leila reached for her hand, and Bianca closed her eyes. When she opened them, she almost screamed.

They were more than thirty feet off the ground, on the giant’s shoulder. Cyrus gave an undignified yelp the second he spotted them, his whole body flinching with surprise.

“Hi.” Bianca smirked, trying to cover up the fact that she was trembling. Here goes nothing, she thought, taking a big inhale. Then she jumped across the bouncing giant’s neck and tackled Cyrus on the other shoulder. He shouted, but it didn’t matter. Bianca had already made contact. She clutched his arm through his decorated military-style jacket and pushed her blue spark into him, a crackle of static surging through them both. She had been right: he was so distracted that it was easy to force her spark into him.

She penetrated Cyrus’s mind, but it was so fractured and torn apart that she had trouble knowing where to start. There were thousands of lines leading from his will, all connected to the djinn he was controlling in the field. Instead of the amorphous blob of minds she’d tried to control before, Cyrus’s mind was a spiderweb, and finding the center felt impossible.

“Get… out… of… there!” he shouted, trying to push Bianca off him. In a flash, Leila was next to her. She braced Bianca against Cyrus, Bianca holding on to him for dear life.

Bianca gritted her teeth. She struggled to pierce Cyrus’s spirit, watching his face for his eyes to turn blue. Stop this war! she screamed into his mind. She saw a blue flicker appear over his coal-black eyes and felt his will give in just a little bit.

Finally, Bianca thought. But she’d celebrated too soon. Suddenly Cyrus’s eyes turned back to black, like coffee overtaking cream, and Bianca felt her hold loosen.

NEVER! Cyrus screamed into her brain.

Bianca recoiled, losing her grip on him. “Whoa, whoa!” she said, trying to hold on to the giant’s galloping body. She lost her footing, her body arcing painfully into the air. But then Leila grabbed her hand, helping her back up from what would have been a fatal fall.

“Fool!” Cyrus seethed. “You thought you could overtake me? The prince of djinn? How do you think the royal family got its throne? We’re the strongest of our line, the best at possession. How do you think I overtook my own parents? You are nothing but an ant to be quashed under my boot!”

And then he grabbed Bianca by her shirt, lifting her up into the air. Her whole body went into a panic — her neck ached from where her shirt collar cut into her. Her feet kicked in midair, desperate for purchase. He’s going to throw me off, Bianca realized. But then he did something even worse.

Hello, a voice inside her mind said. Dimly, she heard Leila scream “NO!” but it felt so far away now. Hello, Bianca replied calmly.

Stop fighting, the voice commanded. It didn’t sound like Cyrus. It sounded gentler, more caring. It was nothing like the screaming commands she’d heard inside June.

“STOP!” Leila begged. But Leila’s voice sounded like it was in another room. So, so far away.

Bianca felt a cool calm take over. She felt good. No, better than good. She was the most relaxed she’d ever been. Bianca felt her body go limp, her whirling brain finally, blissfully quiet.

This wasn’t so bad.

There, the soothing voice said. Nice and easy now. I need you to do something for me, hoharam. Sister. The voice thought of her as a sister. That was nice, wasn’t it?

Anything, Bianca thought, her body so pliable she felt like she could fold into a pretzel, her muscles more relaxed than they’d ever felt in her life. Were her shoulders always this far away from her ears? Who knew the muscles in her jaw could detach so low?

See that girl over there? the deep voice asked.

Bianca nodded, her vision suddenly clearing up. There was Leila, looking at her like she’d just eaten a bug, her face horrified.

I need you to push her for me.

Bianca exhaled. That sounded like a reasonable request. She could do that. She could push Leila easily from here.

Anything to feel this peaceful again.

Then Bianca did the unthinkable.

She pushed Leila off the giant, sending her tumbling below.