The mountain bucked again, throwing Flora onto her butt. More of her people pushed forward, but they were slower now than before. Cautious. Most were a little too far from me to pull their souls out. The few who were close enough were a little too strong for me to disable them at a distance. I could only slash at their souls, the feeling uncomfortable but clearly not enough to drop them to their knees.

I was within their range, though. I was within Flora’s range.

“Stop congratulating me on being terrifying and help out!” I yelled at Dylan.

“You’re cooler than me, but I’ll give it a go,” he replied, his voice even and steady, his movements slow and precise.

Meanwhile, I was sweating and swearing like a trucker, and adrenaline and fear were making me jerk about as much as my zombies.

Power built as Flora crawled to her feet, one hand directed toward where Jerry was concealed in the trees, the other pointed at the sky. The ground stilled. He had to split his focus to keep his rock skin, and she was probably trying to force him to shift back to his normal, and breakable, form. Another bolt of lightning broke from the clouds.

“Kieran,” I yelled, diving out of the way.

The lightning painted the sky fire-white, coming at us in a deathly streak, until it hit a halfway point and then forked. Each leg bent, one side burying into a tree, the other punching the ground five feet from Flora.

Her eyes narrowed. Zorn manifested right next to her and she flinched away. Working with a knife in each hand, he peppered her with strikes, faster than I could process. Definitely faster than Daisy had ever witnessed in training. His blades sliced through ribs and across her stomach. He leaned around and jabbed her repeatedly in the kidneys. And then he was gone, back to gas and probably drifting away.

Lightning rained down all around her, smaller bolts but plenty effective. The mountain bucked again, Jerry freed from her attentions.

Heart in my throat, I hoped to hell Zorn had gotten free. That he hadn’t been caught in that sudden, ferocious blast of electricity.

“Here we go.” Dylan’s hands shot out. Lighting curled around his fingers before flying out, each finger throwing its own bolt, and each of those fracturing into several, like a spray of electric water. Some of the bolts slammed into Flora’s middle. She jerked and her body went taut. The rest of the spray continued on, hitting zombies and the enemies alike, his range larger than mine but his targeting not great. Screams and shrieks filled my awareness, and then a peal of thunder rendered me deaf. It boomed all around me, within me. It took me from my feet and laid me flat on my back.

Ringing silence followed.

I was struggling to get up, just like everyone else in the vicinity, when Dylan snapped right next to my ear. That snap brought back the sound as though it had never left.

He did it for Kieran next, who was shaking his head, probably to rid himself of the same ringing.

“Sorry, I’m extremely rusty with that one,” Dylan said, having leveled the battlefield. “My targeting has gone to crap.”

“Holy fuck,” I said softly.

The reprieve was short-lived. Zeus people knew how to deal with Zeus magic. They knew how to combat it, or at least push through it.

Flora waved the effects away, her manic expression flickering in the storm of light building within the clouds. Her head tilted, and I knew she was done playing.

“Bring her down!” I yelled, digging into her middle, slashing.

“Here’s a conductor.” Kieran lifted his hands, and water rose from the deep chasm Jerry had created in front of Dylan’s rock barricade. He unleashed it across the ground, pushing it across everyone’s feet and then holding it there, keeping the enemy standing in a half foot of water.

Dylan wiped his hand through the air, palm down. Lightning sprang to life along the top of the water like a living thing. Like fire, almost, but a current instead of flames. A raging, fizzing, burning current that sailed across the surface of the water. When natural lightning struck water, it usually dissipated within twenty feet, but this was magic, guided and controlled by Dylan himself.

Flora screamed, wiping at her chest—my magic—and then flinched as Dylan’s magic washed over her ankles and the electrocution crawled up her legs. She was a Demigod, though. We weren’t enough to keep her down.

Jerry must’ve known that. A huge boulder, waist-high, rolled uphill toward her. It pinged off a tree, flattened a bush, and barreled into Flora, crunching over her ankle.

Then stopped.

“Take cover!” Dylan roared, jumping over the rock barrier and standing next to Kieran and me. He lifted his hands into the sky. “This is her last-ditch effort.”

A monsoon of lightning crashed down around us, the power distributed across the sky enough to dilute each strike, but if any of them hit me, they’d be plenty powerful enough to send me to the emergency room. Bolts that were aimed right for us curved at the last moment, Dylan acting as our umbrella. But the others weren’t so fortunate.

Donovan dove into the cover of the rock shelf housing the cowering non-magical people. Red dashed through the trees in Jerry’s direction. A rock fort sprang up, bending trees and branches out of the way. Hopefully she’d get there in time. A scream from an unlikely source caught my attention. Amber’s leg had been caught in the crossfire, but she quickly dove into a tiny rock crevice in the bottom of the cliff face and pulled her knees in.

I redoubled my efforts, crumbling one of the prongs attaching her soul, then the next. I scrabbled at the squishy middle. I banged on the casing like a drum, working with her primal instinct that had to have been making her want to curl up to protect her middle.

Kieran lifted more water from the crevice. Then more. He pushed it forward, rolling it across the ground, slopping it over Flora, submerging her. Caging her without air. He lifted his eyes skyward next, working on the weather, trying to force those clouds away, fighting her power while multitasking with his.

“Incredible,” Dylan said, still keeping that lightning off us. “You win the most trained award.”

“It came at a steep price.” Kieran, his muscles bulging, rain soaking his light shirt, kept up the pressure.

Flora’s soul casing loosened, her body probably fighting for breath. The prongs weakened. My grip slipped in past her protections. I grabbed her soul.

“Oh shit—”

20

Alexis

“Are we trying to kill her?” I asked in a panic.

“No. We are making her submit,” Kieran answered.

“Then stop. Stop! Pull back. Quick!” I tried to keep absolute focus so I didn’t do something stupid, like sneeze and accidentally pull her soul out of her body.

The lightning cut off suddenly. The thunder died and the clouds cleared away. The black sky, holding a full, heavy moon, lifted its skirt and showed off all its stars.

Dylan lowered his hands, one perfect eyebrow arched.

“Pull away the water,” I told Kieran, not relaxing, my fingers out like claws.

Kieran did as I said. Silence as thick as death settled over the scene.

“Do not move, Flora,” I yelled, feeling another prong disintegrate within my magical grasp. This time I hadn’t been trying. “You gotta give in to Kieran right now, but do not move! I will pull my grip out of your chest, but I need a very calm second in which to do it. Your life is in my hands right now, and I am not trained nearly as well as everyone else in this clearing. I repeat, I am very new at this, and your life is literally in my hands. I know you can feel that.”