Pain ate through me. I blinked away tears.

“It is not wise to taunt a Price woman,” I heard from somewhere in the back. Frank was still on the scene. “Just you wait. Taunt a Price woman, and you are toying with your life.”

“Let me through.” Dylan pushed his way in front of Henry. “There are level-five leaders that can take a Demigod.”

“Yes, with their full arsenal. We only have a few,” Zorn murmured.

“You could’ve killed Flora.” Dylan side-eyed me. “Couldn’t you have?”

“Yes,” I said, licking my lips. Souls in bodies came up behind us, her people blocking us in.

“A few is all we need,” Dylan said. He fisted his fingers and electricity zipped around his knuckles. “The others can keep her people off us. I’ll distract her. You can pry out her soul.”

Lydia’s smug grin made it seem like she’d heard us. Or maybe just read our plan for a last-ditch effort. She motioned, and her people surged around her, running at us.

Dylan stepped forward and flexed his hand. A peal of thunder rolled from him, thankfully muted. It hit the enemy almost like a tangible thing, and it was clearly not muted for them. They cried out, grabbed their ears, and blew back, their backs slamming into the ground.

Lydia visibly recoiled, staggering backward with her hands halfway to her head, her face slacking in shock.

Dylan stepped forward and electricity rolled up his arms, around his torso, and then danced on his whole body. It moved and fizzed over him, some parts sparking, others spitting.

“Is that…” Lydia’s eyebrows pinched together. “Is that a Lightning Rod?” She either wasn’t well informed, or Kieran had done a good job of hiding some facts.

Dylan showed her the answer.

Lightning rained down on her and her people in sheets, and he shot out his hands, spraying targeted bolts of lightning from his fingertips. Electricity sprang up on the walls to either side of Lydia before zipping down behind her, arcing across and around in the shape of rounded bars.

She screamed, pushed forward by the bars, and nearly landed in one of the sheets of electricity raining down.

“Get to it,” Dylan said, and I could hear the strain in his voice.

Red and Zorn wasted no time, running forward with their weapons meeting Lydia’s forces head-on. I tore out the souls at our backs and shoved them back in, sending them away to fight anyone that should come. It would buy us time. I dug into Lydia’s chest, going to work on her prongs, scrabbling at her soul.

“Thanks for the help, but there are too many coming back here,” I heard Bria shout.

“Put your back into it,” Frank yelled.

The female cat roared, flapping my soul in its casing. The line of enemies cowered for a moment and the other cat launched, attacking with the gusto of a young tiger.

Dylan turned, looking behind us, every muscle on his body flexing. Another wave of thunder rolled through the corridor, making our people flinch, even with it muted, and those flanking us from behind were flattened. The bars behind Lydia wavered. Dylan’s breath was already coming fast. He was out of magical shape.

I disintegrated one of Lydia’s prongs and quickly moved to the next while also trying to soak past her soul casing.

“The books didn’t say you’d be so powerful,” Lydia screamed, one hand clutching at her chest, the other flying out, sending magical fear to drown us.

“The books didn’t account for a soul link and a blood bond with a Demigod of Poseidon!” I gritted my teeth against the fear. Dylan’s knees wobbled and he sank, curling in on himself. “Fight it, Dylan. It isn’t real. Fear is a pathway to greatness.” I’d probably gotten one of Bria’s fear quotes wrong, but it would have to do. “Fight it to save your life!”

I kept trying to get past Lydia’s prongs and soak into her soul, thwarted by the colossal power continuously pouring into her from those purple strands of power. I had to cut her contacts with the souls.

A blast made me flinch back, and I was losing hold of Lydia.

Thane crashed through the wall up ahead, between us and Lydia. Brick and plaster flew, striking Red and knocking her to the side. Two enemies fell. Thane looked down then roared.

In his Berserker form, he was just as likely to kill us as he was the others.

Fear shook me to my very roots, not magically inspired this time, and infinitely more effective because of it. I ignored my primal side urging me to run.

Thane bent and clubbed the two enemies, who’d made the mistake of struggling to their feet, with a huge fist. He smashed them still. I watched as their souls popped out, still looking terrified.

Red didn’t move, her eyes wide, her muscles flexing. She was probably shitting herself, but she was doing the right thing: play dead and it would go away.

Dylan struck Thane with a bolt, eliciting another of those terror-inducing roars. One more bolt struck down, just beyond him, then another, and some of Lydia’s minions started running down the corridor like ants to avoid being struck. It was all the incentive Thane needed.

He thundered toward them, nearly taking up the whole space on his own. He swung his great hand, slamming an enemy’s back and sending him hurtling. Then he did the same with another, tossing them like stones.

I caught a glimpse of Lydia throwing out her hand. Thane slowed a little, shaking his head. His next roar was pained. And pissed. She’d probably tried to use spirit of some kind, but Thane was used to combating spirit. He was used to pushing through the misery of it. It made him harder to defeat, and ten times more dangerous for people of Hades.

He picked up his pace again, trampling five people in his wake. He slashed at Lydia with his whips, then barreled right into her, knocking her through the bars of lightning and away left, taking them both out of sight.

Zorn ran to the hole in the wall. He stopped there, looking through.

“Need…help,” Bria shouted, and Mordecai yelped.

Dylan turned, thrusting his hands forward and sending lightning racing across the walls, creating more bars. His face was red and sweaty, and his chest rose and fell quickly. He was dead tired.

“Run.” I waved everyone after me. “Red, are you okay?”

She got up slowly, obviously in pain. “I’ll live.”

“Run! Let’s get to Kieran.” I reached Zorn and stopped dead, my heart in my throat.

Dozens of Lydia’s forces littered the great hall. Half of them were already running to help Lydia with Thane, but the other half were staring at Zorn, who was staring at them.

“Is there another way?” I asked desperately as Bria and the others pushed us forward. They were running from yet more enemy forces. They’d clearly managed to break through Dylan’s flagging magic.

“Maybe we’re faster,” Zorn said. “Kill everyone you can. We can’t take Lydia and all of her people. Just kill everyone you can and we’ll make a break for it.”

He puffed into gas, and I ran through the hole in the wall, looking at all the dangling ribbons and grabbing them—feeling those behind us and grabbing those, too. I pulled as hard as I could, using all the power from the Line I could muster. I pulled at them and just barely tugged most of them free. Bodies dropped like flies. Spirits rose in the aftermath. I didn’t have the energy to put them back into their bodies and use them.