“Go!” Donovan said, shoving me. “Hurry! Sometimes he gets confused and turns on his own.”

I knew he was talking about Thane, and I didn’t need to be told twice.

“You shouldn’t make a man spell out his weaknesses,” Donovan repeated, yelling over the roar of the battle as he steered me away from Thane, “meaning I need you to help me get up the beach and to some boats. I can’t make it through this crowd on my own.”

“Men have…such prickly…egos,” I yelled.

The corpses filed in front of us. I used my magic to cut a path through the enemy as we made our way through, just barely noticing movement out of the corner of my eye.

“Incoming,” Henry yelled, filing in behind me. “It’s Amber.”

A sleek body dressed in leather hurtled something. Donovan flung up his hand as a small ball whirled in our direction, spraying liquid as it came. Friendlies and unfriendlies alike jerked back, screaming and clutching body parts as the ball reached us.

It stopped mid-air, caught in Donovan’s magic. Zorn pushed me to the ground and a few droplets of liquid flew over us.

“She’s an Acidic,” Henry said as Donovan lowered the ball into the sand. “She can create acidic saliva. Clearly, she made a slow-releasing ball of some sort to distribute it.”

“She took off,” Donovan yelled, yanking me up. “Come on. That was a distraction. She’s getting out of here.”

“She’s not going to stay and fight for her boss?” I asked, running behind him.

“Yeah right,” Donovan said, magically lifting someone dashing toward us and throwing him to the side. A corpse barreled into a cluster of three fighters, one of ours against two enemies. Now it would be a cluster-fuck of body parts, some of them squishy. “Valens’s people are highly intelligent, and their loyalty only goes as far as the blood oath he made them give. Those with loosened bonds will get out of here as soon as they can. Clearly, she has more freedom than most.”

“Is the blood bond the reason you’re still here?”

“No. And it’s also not why we’re going after Kieran when he told us to stay behind. We pledged an oath because we wanted to, not because we were forced to.”

We neared the steps to the parking lot and had to slow as the corpses behind us stumbled and fell trying to keep up. Many of them still had very little working knowledge of the bodies they inhabited, and sand wasn’t easy to traverse.

A group of fresh warriors, all in black, ran along the walkway above the barrier. I glanced back at the large host in black and red still standing their own on the beach. I’d severely helped, yes. Maybe I’d even turned the tide. But I hadn’t come close to winning the battle for Kieran.

“Look!” someone said.

A large gray wolf with an odd spot near his left eye, one I’d come to know well, slipped around me and leapt over the stairs to the sand. It landed gracefully as another wolf followed. Then more. People behind me cheered. My blood ran cold.

“Mordecai, no—”

One of the other wolves, a bigger one, stopped beside him. Another, this time black. Another. They collected behind and around him, pushing back any enemy combatants who ran at our group.

For one solid beat, I stared into the striking hazel eyes of the boy whom I’d helped shape into a teen, and whom the Six would help shape into a man. He nodded solemnly, if a wolf can be said to look solemn, and joined the others. Snarling, they raced off toward the vicious battle on the sands, then slammed into the enemy warriors, tearing them to the ground.

“No! How did—”

“Let him go,” Henry shouted and urged me on. “His pack will protect him. The youngest wolves will be shepherded out should the worst happen. They protect their future generation.”

“They didn’t do a whole lot to protect him last time.” I would have run after him, but Donovan grabbed me with his magic and yanked me behind him.

“Trust,” I heard Henry say as he followed.

The fresh group of warriors met us, swords or magic held at the ready. I slashed, punched, and cut, making them stagger, but my impact was waning. Clearly the tales of yore were grossly exaggerated. My magic was crazy, but I was still human.

“Save your strength.” Donovan pointed, then fist pumped the air. “Yes!”

Henry gave a shout of glee. “They made it!”

A ball of fire punched a sudden hole through the fighting, throwing five black-clad people aside like dolls, and a petite woman with blond hair and a fearsome expression ran in the fireball’s wake. The ground rumbled beneath me as fear once again swallowed me whole.

Right behind the petite blonde, dressed in black spandex and heavy boots and carrying two knives, ran my ward. Daisy.

“Get out of here,” I screamed, running at her with abandon. I pulled a big surge of power from the Line, momentarily infusing my weakened body, and yanked a soul from a woman in red running at her with a glowing ball. I infused the soul with my desire, stuffed it back into the body, not bothering with a prong, and grabbed Daisy with a desperate grip. “Get out of here! There are too many of them!”

“Lexi, right?” the blonde woman said in an Australian accent. She said it casually, as if we weren’t in the middle of a raging battle. “I’m Dara, the ruler of magical Sydney. Great to meet ya. I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiled a flawless, white smile.

Something exploded on the ground—no, wait, exploded up from the ground—catching the fresh men who’d almost reached the steps. Rocks, it seemed, of all sizes, blasting up through flesh.

“I got your ward’s note, and I have to say, she’s very persuasive.” Dara smiled down at a fierce-eyed Daisy, who held her knives at her waist, her gaze constantly moving. “She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age.”

“But Kieran… Daisy? What?” I asked, out of breath and torn.

“Sorry, Lexi,” Daisy said, finally looking at me. “But we needed more people, and Zorn wouldn’t listen, so I contacted Sydney on my own. Mordie helped. I told him that we’d make sure Kieran won this, and we needed more people to make that happen.”

“You—what?”

“We have to go,” Henry yelled in my ear. “Valens will be too much for Kieran!”

“Yup, you definitely need to head on.” Dara grabbed my arm and helped Henry hurry me along. Donovan caught a collection of darts in the air and hurtled them back the way they’d come. “We need Demigod Kieran to win this. Our whole way of life is on the line. Don’t worry—I’ll watch Daisy. She’s much too special to let anything happen to her. And non-magical! Amazing. Go on—you’ve already cleared the way for us. We’ll just tie everything up.”

“But Daisy—”

Air blasted the warriors who’d survived the rock attack, throwing them over the barrier and onto the sand below. Ten people ran out from around Dara, on the chase. Another group peeled away from behind her, taking off after the lingering clusters of Valens’s people farther back in the parking lot.

“Good to have you,” Donovan said to Dara, wrapping me up in his magic and dragging me behind him.

“I couldn’t miss an opportunity to fight beside a Soul Stealer, now could I?” Dara shouted at our retreating backs. “I want to be in the history books with you!”

“That little gremlin saved the fucking day,” Henry said, running beside me as I bobbed along. “She has balls of steel and a way with words. I have no idea how she did it when not even Demigod Kieran could, but she saved our fucking asses.”

“No shit, right?” Donovan stopped at a sign post that showed a dog on a leash. He bent and half of his body disappeared into what must’ve been a hideaway concealed by Boman or Zorn. I hit the ground and staggered away, not ready for his magical hold to drop, and four small wooden boats lifted into sight. “She’s a keeper, that’s for sure.”

We took off running back to the beach, the boats floating behind us. Once we were on the sand, a yelp tore my heart anew. I looked frantically for some sign of Mordecai. The wolves attacked with teeth and claws, taking down two to their one. Mordecai fought between two of his kind, both larger than he, but neither of his companions displayed the sheer fearlessness that came with an enhanced ability to tolerate incredible pain.

Arms wrapped around me and I found myself slung across Henry’s wide shoulders.

“He’ll be fine,” Henry said as we ran. “You took down the people who wanted him dead. The people who were dragging that pack down. They’re here for you, because of what you did, and they’ll protect him as one of their own.”

My chest throbbed at the thought of leaving the kids behind in the middle of a battle.

“You raised survivors,” Donovan said as we raced toward the water. “When things go sideways, always put your faith in a survivor.”

Zorn and Boman waited for us amidst a pile of bodies. Zorn cleaned a large, curved sword on the shirt of one of the downed men before sheathing it in an invisible scabbard on his back. The sword disappeared with it.

“What took you so long?” He grabbed one of the boats and pulled it closer. “Valens has the upper hand in both magic and experience. Kieran is running out of time.”

“Dara showed.” Donovan jumped into one of the boats.

A small smile pulled at Zorn’s lips as he lifted me into one of the boats and jumped in after me. The rest of them each boarded a boat.

“You owe me a hundred dollars,” Zorn said. “Now let’s go. We don’t have time to lose.”

“Wait a second,” I said, clutching the sides of the flimsy boat. There weren’t even oars. “Are they magical or something?”

“No, but we are,” Donovan called out and the boats rose off the ground.

Just beyond the waves, huge tentacles rose out of the water. They waved in the air until Donovan set us down. Four of the tentacles disappeared and suddenly we were moving, racing across the water.