“Lexi.” Jack popped into existence next to me. He looked down before his eyes widened and his hands started to windmill. “Oh shit!”

“It’s fine. Calm down.” The words reverberated through the nothingness around us. “Spirit is holding your soul. Besides, you’re already dead. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“I fall, lose my shit, and end up back at your house feeling helpless, that’s what.” His chest rose and fell, not needing air but going through the motions of taking deep breaths anyway. “You need to get back to your body. Only Henry, Thane, and Zorn are mobile. Everyone else is fading like Kieran is. They were given a drug or something. So only three are running around trying to find you, but this place is huge and it’ll take them forever. Meanwhile, one of Lydia’s people can just call you in from behind the Line. They can snatch you real easy. You need to get back to your body and fight your way to the guys. You need to stand with them until Kieran is back online.”

He stared at me expectantly.

“I don’t know how to get back to my fucking body,” I growled. “Lydia’s in the way.” Except there had to be a way around her, didn’t there? Maybe if I just created another path…

“One step at a time,” Jack said as I drifted through spirit, pulling myself along. This method of movement seemed to deplete my energy more quickly than using something else to pull me.

“I don’t have any feet,” I said, continuing to move.

“I know,it’s a trip, right? It was really hard to get used to that. I don’t mind this flying bit, though. That’s not so bad. Did you see what those cats did? Something is up with those things. The thump Zorn gave Lydia didn’t seem to bother her for long, but when I left, she still had blood dribbling down her face from those scratches.”

Chad popped up beside us, looking harried, eyes bugging out. “Why are you out here?” he demanded. “Get back to your fucking body or you’ll be permanently in this space with us. Lydia sent her team to recover you, and Kieran is down for the count.”

Mia popped up next to me, her eyes wild, the air about her panicked. Her spirit looked sunken and weak, almost inflating like being slowly pumped up.

“Mia!” I cried, barely stopping myself from lurching for her and trying to wrap her in a hug. “Mia! It’s you! Where have you been?”

Her eyes focused on me, and then seemed to notice Jack and Chad. Her eyebrows lowered. “I don’t know. That bitch Demigod grabbed me out of the blue. Me and a couple others that were on duty. It happened so fast—we saw her, and before I could say anything, we were…tethered… It felt like she tethered me or something. I heard you call, though. I heard you…call…and the ropes disappeared…” Her eyes clouded. She shook her head. “What’s happening? Where are we?”

I kept pulling myself toward my body, hopefully far enough to the side that I wouldn’t sail past Lydia. My energy sank fast.

“She needs to get back to her body,” Chad said.

“Her body is in some strange hall with Bria and a really handsome man. I popped up there first. I can get back there.” Mia grabbed my shoulder as though I actually had one.

Lights and colors speckled my vision. A whoosh washed over me. The world stopped spinning, and Mia let me go, the two of us now hovering in spirit back where I’d started.

Dylan held my lifeless body in his arms, standing in the middle of the corridor with Red on one side and Bria on the other, both of them brandishing weapons. Daisy stood behind them, a dagger at the ready, her eyes hard and fearless, and Mordecai waited not far from his pile of clothes, in wolf form. Several grim-faced men and women were slowly advancing on them, the same way a gardener with a shovel would creep up on a poisonous snake. They’d found me fast.

There was no sign of the shadow man from earlier, but I had no time to spare. I dove back into my body and gasped for air, the transition seamless, before pulling on the Line and filling myself with power. I rolled out of Dylan’s arms, startling him, before grabbing up our attackers’ fluttering souls and yanking. The souls slammed against their casings, and the dozen advancing enemies staggered but didn’t go down.

“Take them out!” I yelled, my body shaking and sucking as much as I could from the Line. It pulsed quickly, matching my beating heart again, sending waves of power through me.

“What do you need?” Jack asked, falling in at my side. John and Chad were there a moment later, followed, unbelievably, by Frank.

“What’s the status here?” Frank asked as Red ran at the enemy. She flung her hands forward, one after the other, alternating. Knives appeared between her fingers before blooming in enemy bodies, so fast that I couldn’t keep track, and neither could they.

“Ah yes. Battle. Your mother was a great fighter. Attack them!” Frank motioned me on.

“I can’t yet,” I yelled, sucking in more power, feeling it bolster my body. Just a bit more, and I’d be back in business, I could feel it. I might not have done an oath, but I still had the benefits of the blood bond, and healed at faster rates.

“Yes, you sure can, young lady. Your mother said you had a sprinkling of her in you, and I’ve seen it. Go on, now—don’t be the lame duck of this battle party.”

Red ripped a falling body to the side, punched forward, miraculously found and produced a knife in her fist at the last moment, and sliced open a neck. She punched with her other hand as she whirled, sticking out a foot and slamming her sole into a nose. The crack made me wince. The man fell with blood already running down his lips.

Bria followed Red through the group, her own knives ripping and stabbing, finishing off whoever Red hadn’t.

Magical fear tingled across my body and bit into my skin, but it was absolutely nothing compared to what Lydia or Aaron could do. A slim slice of spirit slashed my skin, and Dylan sucked in a startled breath.

“Gotta be about time,” I said, running forward.

“That’s my girl! Give ’em hell!” Frank shouted.

I ripped across the soul casings of a few of Lydia’s minions I could feel running toward our skirmish, saving my strength in case the others flagged. Red pulled a gun out of God knew where, stood still for two beats, and shot three times. The last three bodies fell. Bria glanced up before plucking her knife from someone’s eye.

“Bria, do you have your Necromancer stuff with you?” I asked, jogging after Red and making sure the kids were keeping up.

Red descended on the group I’d slowed like a falling star, clearly in her element with her fighting magic in close quarters. She cracked someone’s neck, dodged a punch, grabbed an arm and bent it the wrong way, moving all the time.

“The one time I’m without it,” Bria said. “You don’t have the energy?”

“I don’t have as much as I’d like,” I answered.

“We’re bound to encounter another Necromancer in this place,” she said, falling back with me. “Or a few. Find me one and I’ll take their shit. I don’t think it’s wise for us to go back to the suite.”

“We need to work toward the meeting room Kieran is in. He’s been drugged. He’s out. Three of the guys are heading toward me. Us. And the cats.” I felt five more people coming, running our way. “Low-level fours coming,” I hollered. I punched their spirit boxes as we turned a corner, heading for the stairs.