“Run!” Adam said.
In an instant, a frenzy of ice and snow whipped around us until all I could see were the vague shapes of the enemies surrounding us and the glowing eyes of Lukas as he snarled, “Get them!”
Adam tried to tug me toward the safety of the stadium tunnels, but I broke free and went straight for where I’d seen Kaia fall. This couldn’t be happening. The mortal coil was bound to her, the only thing keeping her alive. It shouldn’t have been able to be removed like the batteries on a broken toy.
Ice bit at my cheeks as I barreled through the snarling chaos of snow. I heard the yip and howl of shifters as they sought us out. Every few steps I spotted the glowing eyes of vamps and Lukas mere feet away, but I didn’t slow. I risked using a little of my magic to create a small orb of clarity around me.
“Found ya!”
A shifter leapt for me, but I easily blasted him with a fireball and sent him howling back into the obscuring white. I could think of nothing but Kaia. I had to get to Kaia—
“At last.”
I stopped, barely able to see three feet in front of me. The cold was sapping my strength, despite my magic. But I could hear Onora’s voice close by. Very, very close.
“Now there’s only one thing left.”
One more thing? Hadn’t she already gotten everything she wanted? Hadn’t she already ruined our lives enough?
I moved toward her, but at that instant a new flurry of snow battered me sideways and made me lose my sense of direction. I had no idea where I was anymore. No way to get to Onora or find—
I felt a tingle around my ankle and looked down to find Kaia gripping it. Her eyes were pleading. “Go, Riley,” she rasped. “Get the others out of here.”
My hands trembled as I scooped her up. She was solid enough, but light as a passing cloud.
She was fading away fast.
“You’re coming with us,” I said.
“Riley, I told you…” Kaia sank into my arms, too weak to speak. I blinked ice out of my eyes and turned in a circle. Adam had said to go for the tunnels. But I was completely turned around.
Almost as if answering my unspoken plea, a section of the surrounding storm broke apart in front of me. I wasted no time and ran straight through, eventually breaking free of the icy tempest and throwing myself into the winding network of tunnels. The stadium rumbled behind me. A fierce roar shook my bones. The titan had begun to awaken.
I kept running.
Adam was waiting for me in the tunnel.
“What happened?” he demanded, looking at Kaia. “You should have followed me!”
“Is that really important right now?” I snapped, on the verge of tears. “Kaia…she’s…”
Adam glanced at her and seemed to understand. He jerked his head. “Hurry. I have to stop my storm before I’m totally depleted, but we can lose them for a bit in here.”
“Here” turned out to be the maze-like network of back rooms, maintenance shafts, tunnels, and everything else that kept the show outside going. I pushed my way inside a room for the visiting officials. I hoped it was far enough away from the chaos.
Adam flicked his hand and an arctic gust of wind wiped one of the nearby tables clean. “Lay her there.”
I did. In the short time between the center of the stadium and now, Kaia’s body had grown even more transparent. I could see the wood swirls in the table through her stomach.
“What do I do?” I mumbled. “Kaia, tell me what I can do?”
“The mortal coil was keeping her alive, wasn’t it?” Adam said. “Removing that did a number on her essence. If we could get that back…”
He fell silent as we both probably realized the reality of the situation. He gave Kaia’s hand as much of a squeeze as possible and hurried out. I forced myself to focus on the here and now. I didn’t worry about Onora or her titan. Not about Lukas’ minions undoubtedly spreading out across the stadium right now to search for us. All that would come later. After I fixed this.
I wracked my brain for an idea—any idea.
That was it! I could use my magic. It’d worked to heal Jasper. It had to do the same for Kaia.
I started to reach for her right as the door slammed open again. I spun, prepared to defend myself.
“Whoa.” Jasper held up his hands as he and Iris walked in. “It’s us.” He saw Kaia over my shoulder and his expression darkened. “What happened?”
I quickly explained what Onora had done, then Jasper filled me in what they’d seen.
“Adam’s magic obscured a lot of it, but when we left to find you the egg was glowing. I think it’s about ready to wake up.”
“That means I’m out of time,” I said. “I need to heal Kaia and we can get back—”
“Riley—”
“—out there and finish this.”
Jasper looked at me sadly. “Don’t make me say it. I know it’s not something you want to hear.”
“I saved you once before, Jasper. I’ll do the same for her.”
“If you weren’t able to help her before the mortal coil, you can’t—”
“Stop!” I hissed. “Why can’t you believe in me? It’s like you don’t care about her at all!”
Jasper’s glare resembled a stormy tempest. “Don’t ever doubt that I don’t care. But I also knew the risks. We all did. I’m just trying to make this easier.”
A sob wrenched itself from my throat. Screw him. I wasn’t giving up.
I held my hand out over Kaia, reaching my magic out toward her essence.
“No.”
As weak as Kaia was, her grip on my wrist was strong. She pushed my hand away before letting hers flop back to the table. “Save your magic…for Onora.”
“I need you around for that,” I insisted.
“No…you don’t.”
Kaia gave me a sad, flickering smile. “Do you remember what I said before? I don’t remember why I turned into a wraith, but whatever reason I had has been gone for a while. I should have faded away a long time ago, but I stayed for you guys.”
She looked up at the light and closed her eyes. “I’m glad I got to meet you, Riley. I’m happy I got to live with the Outcasts, even if it was only for a short time.”
“Please, Kaia…” I begged. “Don’t give up.”
“This is what I want, Riley. I’m so, so tired. I can’t do anything else here except cause you guys more suffering. I need you to let me go. Can you do that?”
“I…” I forced myself to nod. “Yes. If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth to hide my crying. I’d remain strong for her until the very end.
“Make sure Ari and the others are okay,” Kaia said to Jasper.
“Of course I will.” Jasper’s voice was gruff. “You can count on it.”
Kaia smiled. She let out a long, drawn-out sigh that turned into the sound of wind. The edges of her body transitioned from hazy to invisible as the last of her form faded out of sight. I felt the gentle touch of something—not air, something more substantial—move past me, tussle Jasper’s hair and then vanish. The room seemed suddenly vacant without the vibrancy of one more life. Someone sobbed.
“It’s not fair,” Collette said. “It’s not fair!”
She angrily pushed past Iris, Adam, and Sawyer. The door slammed shut after her.
“I’ll be…outside as well,” Sawyer said. He filed out after Collette and then I was left with Jasper, Adam, Iris, and my thoughts.
I couldn’t move for a full minute, resting my elbows where Kaia had lay. I didn’t feel sad or reject the reality of what had happened. I knew I should have, but it had all happened too fast. One moment she was here. The next, gone.
Jasper rested a hand on my back. “She was happy with us. She got to live more than she would have before, and she knew that.”
A deep rumbling shook the walls. Plaster fell from the ceiling and coated part of the table in a thin layer of white. My head remained hanging between my shoulders. I could feel something now, but it wasn’t sadness: It was rage. “I’m going to hit Onora and that thing with every drop of magic I have.”
“You already tried that,” Adam said. “It didn’t work.”
And why was that? I hadn’t used the full extent of my power, and yet the titan had countered it and drawn me right in. Which meant I couldn’t attempt the same thing again, or alone.
I stood and faced the others. “That’s why Adam’s going to hit it with me.”
“Makes sense,” Iris said. “Two elementals are stronger than one.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“I’ll go check on the situation,” Iris said, and stepped out of the room.
Adam shook his head. “That doesn’t…it’ll just do the same thing, but to both of us.”
“I’m not so sure. Think about it: this entire time Pockrus was setting us against each other, but that isn’t how it needs to be. We can work together, Adam. Combine our powers and kill that thing for good.”
The uncertainty on Adam’s face nearly made me laugh. For a guy who had, on multiple occasions, believed himself powerful enough to usurp me, he was woefully unconfident in his own powers. I knew what I could do, and I’d seen what he could do. Surely with us together, even a half-awake titan didn’t stand a chance.
At least, I sure hoped it didn’t. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it survived both of us.
“Okay,” Adam said after a long breath. “We’ll go back in there and take it down together.”
“The rest of us will keep Onora and Lukas occupied,” Jasper said.
“I don’t think—” I started, but Iris returned, wearing a tight frown.
“Onora and Lukas’ followers have totally surrounded the titan. I couldn’t even get within fifty yards of it. I’m sorry, Riley, but you might have to hit it from a distance.”
“That won’t work,” Adam said. “The closer we are, the stronger our magic.”
“That’s not an option,” Iris said.
“We’ll get close,” I said.
“But the guards…?”
“You have another plan,” Jasper said. It wasn’t a question.
“I have another plan,” I confirmed. “But you’re all going to hate it.”
I limped out of the tunnel and into the stadium’s light, ready to give Onora exactly what she wanted.
The lava pools had spread, creating charred rings in the turf. The enormous chunks of earth cut my lines of sight, making it difficult to see just how many of Onora’s forces there were. But I could see the two paranormals I was most worried about, Onora and Lukas, standing on a small rise in the center of the field where the titan’s egg rested. I nearly stopped when I saw it.
It’d swollen to a grotesque size. Its pink, webbed skin had turned see-through thin, and I could start to make out the form of the creature within: elongated arms with jagged elbows wrapped around legs that seemed long enough to stretch to the sky. The rest of its body was partially obscured by magma, oozing through the orb’s pores and creating hissing clouds of acrid steam as they hit the ground.
I took another calming breath and reassured myself that I’d be okay. Jasper and the others had…not been so confident.
“This is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard,” Iris had said.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I’d returned. “But I think it’ll work.”
“Think it’ll work? Think?”
Jasper had gazed silently at me. I’d been expecting him to put up more of a protest, but he seemed strangely okay with what I’d suggested.
“You spoke to Collette about Onora, didn’t you?” he said.
Ah, that explained it. “I did.”
“That’s why you’re so confident.”
“I don’t get it,” Adam said, looking between us. “Because I’m certainly not confident right now. How is Riley giving herself up to Onora going to help us?”
“It’ll get me close to the titan, for one,” I said. “Close enough to start attacking it and distract them while the rest of you swoop in to rescue me. Secondly,” I nodded at Jasper, “After speaking to Collette, I’m positive it’ll work.”
“What does Collette have to do with Onora…wait,” Iris said. “They’re both faeries, right?”
“Same magical race, same flaws,” I agreed. “Onora won’t try to kill me right away. She’s vain, obsessed with perfection and domination and proving to everyone, especially herself, that she’s the best.” I tapped my chest. “Mostly she wants to break me to show she’s the strongest before trying to finish me off. She won’t be able to resist.”
“Even if that’s true, let me go with you,” Adam said. “We’re both supposed to attack her.”
“And we will. I’m counting on all of you to have my back. The second I start attacking it, you come in to help me. But before that we can’t risk both of us getting stuck in a bad spot. If this thing goes south—”
“We get it,” Jasper growled. It was the first sign that he didn’t agree with this plan. At all. I couldn’t help smiling and squeezing his hand.
“I’ll be fine.”
I’ll be fine. I shook my head as I stepped over a thin stream of lava. Man, I hoped I was right. A lot of this was riding on some huge assumptions. Onora was a faerie, but she was also completely and utterly insane. If she decided to actually be smart and finish me off right away, then, between her and Lukas against me…
Best not to think about that.
The first of the outer guards spotted me—a pair of shifters. They shouted, bringing more followers. Onora and Lukas looked over. Lukas’ eyes narrowed. Great, he was already onto me.
I stopped and let the guards come to me. Not only to give Jasper and the others time to continue sneaking their way around, but also to sell the illusion that I was really here to give up. I certainly looked the part. I hadn’t needed to fake the bleeding cuts or slowly purpling bruises covering my body. Add in an exaggerated limp and surely I looked the part of a defeated, beaten elemental come to plead for mercy.
Still, Lukas looked suspicious. My confidence started to slip.
“Don’t try anything funny,” the first bear shifter said, approaching me. He jerked his head for a couple of wolves to circle around me. They did so, growling as they penned me in.
“I don’t have a funny bone in my body,” I said.
“Cute,” the bear shifter said. “She alone?”
I forced myself to remain fixated on Onora and Lukas as the wolves quickly scouted behind me. “She’s alone,” one of them said. The bear shifter grinned.
“Guess your friends weren’t as loyal as you thought, huh?”
I kept my mouth shut. When someone stupid gives you an easy way out, you take it, no questions asked.
The bear shifted back and roughly grabbed my arm, forcing me to pick up my limping pace as he practically dragged me toward the egg. More guards seemed to appear out of nowhere the closer we drew. Vampires and magic users. More shifters, including Yu, Lukas’ second-in-command. More people than I thought Onora had brought with her. On one hand, I was happy. I was drawing them away from Jasper and the others, and hopefully more of Onora’s forces here meant there would be fewer who ambushed Ari’s group.
On the other hand, more of them were here…
The followers jeered as the bear shifter dragged me around a snarling bunch of wolves. A vampire brought his fangs dangerously close to my neck, hissing.
“Back up!” the bear shifter roared, shoving him back. “The boss is going to deal with her.”
The followers closed in behind me. I tried to still my rapidly beating heart but no matter what I told it, the stupid thing kept fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings. I had to believe in my plan. It was going to work.
The bear shifter threw me forward. At the last second I remembered I was supposed to be injured and collapsed to the grass. I looked up into Onora’s cruel smile.
“Riley the elemental. On her knees before me at last, right where she belongs. Well, where she belongs for now, but we’ll get to that in a bit.”
Gloating. Playing with me. Asserting her dominance. So far my guesses had been dead on.
“Bind her magic,” Lukas said. “She’s up to something.”
“Of course she is,” Onora said. “Any idiot can see that. I might hate you, Riley, and want you dead more than I’ve ever wanted anyone dead in my entire life, but I can appreciate someone with a cunning mind. Not as cunning as me, but that’s to be expected.”
Lukas stepped forward, a wolfish growl rumbling in his throat. “I said to bind her, now—”
Onora spun, slamming a burning palm full of white-hot magic into Lukas’ chest. Lukas stumbled, but didn’t back down. I could smell his burning skin from here as her magic cooked his flesh.
“I call the shots!” Onora hissed. “You sit behind me like the trained beast you are!”
Even as the smell grew worse, Lukas refused to relent. The yellow of his eyes grew even more golden. His snout began to elongate.
“You dare challenge me? Now?” Onora said. “Go ahead. You know you can’t win.”
Howls rose from the group surrounding me. A few of the panther shifters stepped forward.
“Hands off the boss!” Yu shouted.
“I am your boss now!” Onora cried. She pulled her hand off Lukas and he staggered back. A seared handprint of blackened skin marred his chest. He jerked his head toward Yu and his former second-in-command backed down, still growling.
“I am your leader,” Onora said. “And soon I will be your queen. I pulled you out of the obscurity you wallowed in and freed you from the chains that bound you. I expect my payment in loyalty.”
The air trembled as spears of white magic rainbowed over her head, all of them aimed toward the shifters. “But please, if anyone would like to complain about my rule, step forward.”
No one moved. Onora’s sickly smile crept back onto her face. Her magical spears dissolved. “As I thought. I’ve given you more than you’ve ever had. And soon…” She placed a loving hand on the orb’s skin as it continued oozing that sick, terrible liquid. “Soon you’ll get so much more. None of us will be cowering in the shadows. I’ll rule over a new era of paranormals.”
Some of the surrounding paranormals cheered, quickly joined by others as Onora glared at them.
“But first…” she said.
She pushed Lukas aside and stepped down to me. I struggled to my feet. Whatever she believed, I wouldn’t face her cowering. Just a little longer to give the others time and then I could strike.
Onora patted my cheek. “You’re not really that hurt, are you, Riley?”
“Your followers might suck at finishing me off, but they can injure someone pretty bad,” I said.
“No, I think you’re lying. And you’re not really alone. You!” Onora pointed to a group of shifters and vamps to her left. “Her friends are close by. Why aren’t you still on guard?”
“My friends left,” I said with barely disguised panic. “When I didn’t beat the titan we knew it was over. Against you we don’t stand a chance.” As difficult as it was, I bowed my head. “You beat me. The second that thing wakes up it’s all over.”
Onora’s sharp fingernail dug into my chin as she forced me to meet her eyes. “Oh, Riley. You’re a terrible liar.”
Someone shouted from nearby. A shifter snarled. A bolt of magic went flying into the TV above, shattering the screen and raining glass onto the field. Onora’s sharp nails continued holding my chin even as I desperately tried to pull away.
“I guess your friends decided not to leave after all,” Onora said. “But since you’ve gone through all the trouble of putting yourself in danger solely to destroy my titan, then by all means…”
Onora released me and stepped aside, giving me a wide-open shot at the egg. “Attack, Riley. Hit it with everything you’ve got.”
I caught Lukas’ eye. He looked as confused as I was.
“That’s not why I—” I began, but I was hit with a wave of burning magic from Onora. Blood dripped from my nose and speckled the turf.
“I told you to attack it, Riley. Make your last moments memorable.”
She couldn’t have known the true power of my inner magic. She’d seen a taste of it, but if she knew what I was truly capable of she wouldn’t have dared.
The fighting around us was growing closer. Onora’s followers started to fidget.
“Go,” Lukas snarled at the closest group. “Since those idiots can’t seem to stop them.”
It seemed my friends were giving them hell. And soon, I was sure, Adam would be close enough to add his power to mine.
“I’ll do it,” I said to Onora. “Since you asked so nicely.”
I stepped past her and ground my feet into the turf. I quieted my mind and dipped into my inner magic, as deep as I could go, scooping every last drop of my power and drawing it to the surface.
Orange tinged the edges of my vision when I opened my eyes. The world was a sea of lava and flames and fury, all of which I directed at the titan.
My tiger burst forth, teeth and claws digging into the egg’s flesh. I pushed as hard as I could, drawing more, more, more on my power, tearing it apart.
The titan within screamed. I clenched my teeth as it set my nerves on edge. It sounded like the cry of something that shouldn’t have existed, the fathomless, untold horrors of an old world that had lingered in our present.
The surrounding followers cried out and stumbled back as pieces of the egg cracked off and burned into the ground. The screaming slowly tapered off. I took a step closer, calling on every lesson Pockrus had taught me, using every last bit of my magic.
Any day, Adam, Jasper. Now would be a great time to swoop in and—
I couldn’t breathe, like a hand had reached down my throat and clamped around my lungs. My magic that, until then I’d been using against the titan, was suddenly being pulled from me. I tried to stop it, but I was growing weaker by the second. The ground rumbled beneath my feet, the deep, sinister laugh of a creature that knew I’d fallen into its trap.
“What’s it doing?” I gasped to Onora. It was becoming harder to see. The lack of air forced me to my knees. “What did you do?”
She ignored me as she walked past, her face alight with fanatic fervor, arms spread to either side. “You have fed well, haven’t you, my titan? Now rise! Rise and do my bidding!”
With a final desperate pull I managed to free the last threads of my inner magic and sank back, utterly spent. Something was so very, very wrong. My inner magic was supposed to be what defeated the titan—that’d been the entire reason Pockrus focused on it—but once again this thing had fed on it and grown stronger, until…
Another tortuous cry made my eyes water. My head swam with pain and fatigue, but I could see that the last of the titan’s egg was gone, and in its place the titan stood, towering to the sky. The turf sizzled where searing bits of lava dripped from its skin. Its gelatinous body almost immediately began to harden into black scales with lines of searing orange carving seams between them. Higher and higher it stood until it was forced to brush aside the immense TV with a casual wave of its arm. It crashed into the far side of the stadium. The titan let out a triumphant roar.
It wasn’t possible. The titan was still awakening. I could see parts of it had yet to fully form, and it moved like a freshly hatched chick, awkward and ungraceful, but somehow the magic I’d needed to destroy it had become the very thing that’d given it life.
“Do you see now how useless your efforts were?” Onora said. “You were never meant to rule. You were never strong enough. But you have my thanks.” Onora looked up at the titan with something like admiration. A new mother adoring her child. “I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“I don’t…I couldn’t…” My senses were slowly coming back along with my magic. But even if I gathered enough strength to attack, what did it matter? What could I do when everything I did was useless?
“No, you couldn’t,” Onora agreed. “You never could. And you’ll die knowing that.”
She raised her hand, magic surrounding her fingertips. Her followers shuffled closer again, excited now that the titan didn’t appear to want to kill them. “Goodbye, false queen—"
“Stop.”
Lukas grabbed Onora’s hand. He leered down at me. “I want to kill her.”
“Lukas…” Onora purred. “You’ve failed so many times. Why should I let you do it now?”
“Because I failed to do it so many times,” Lukas said, in a tone that sounded like he was speaking to a petulant child.
Onora wrenched her wrist from his grasp. She was still smiling. “Very well. Maybe now that this little girl is completely helpless, you’ll be able to do it properly for once.”
Lukas brushed past her and stood in front of me as I craned up to meet his gaze. I didn’t plead for mercy and I saw none in his eyes. This was it. His chance to finish what he never could before.
Lukas raised a clawed hand. “Goodbye.”
He slashed. Blood spurted from my neck. At first there was no pain, followed by weakness and warmth and the smell of copper. Then darkness. Then nothing at all.