blood droplets spatter his immaculate white shirt. I feel like I could scream, the world seeming to melt away around me. He’s dying. Seth is dying, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
He’s dying because of Neritous.
“Karma.” Mads’s voice sounds far away. “We have to finish this. Now, more than ever.” She glances up and unleashes a new lightning bolt at a couple of approaching gods, giving them pause long enough for one of Kit’s portals to appear beneath them and swallow them up. I don’t even have time to feel gratitude towards the goblin, so intense is my fear and grief. I meet her eyes, my own swimming with tears, and she pulls me close, pressing her forehead to mine. “We can’t let him win. Not now.”
“Go!” Seth implores, giving me a weak shove with his hand. Torn, I glance from him to my best friend; deep down, I know they’re right. Now’s the best chance we’ll ever have to stop Neritous, and the longer I stay here with Seth, the less likely getting to him will be. All around us, the battle rages on, louder and more intense than ever, and I can feel a lump in my throat when I realise just how hopeless the situation is.
Mads bites her lip, following my gaze around the square, and finally says, “Look, you’re stronger than me anyway. You’ve got the best odds of all of us. But maybe… Maybe I can stay here with him. Keep him safe.”
I stare at her for a moment. “You would…?”
“Yes,” she replies without missing a beat, giving me a firm nod. “I can be more use here, anyway. I still don’t have full control of my powers.”
Swallowing hard, I force myself to nod, grabbing her by the shirt and looking her in the eyes. “Keep him alive,” I instruct her. “Do whatever it takes.”
“I’ll try,” Mads promises, shifting to sit on the ground next to Seth. “Nothing’s getting past me,” she adds with a grim smile before giving me a hard shove. “Now go! We’re running out of time!”
I move to stand, and then steal a last glance down at Seth; his eyes look glassy, and his breathing is shallow. Hesitating for just a beat, I lean forward and press a kiss to his forehead before dragging myself up and looking around. We can’t have been down for more than a couple minutes, but it feels like hours have passed, and my body feels heavy. Enemy gods and plant monsters fill the area, and it’s clear that our numbers are depleting more quickly. While that should make me afraid, instead, I’m flooded with a sense of anger so powerful that it almost knocks me off my feet. The same conviction that I found when I was giving Hugo’s eulogy comes rushing back to me all at once, and suddenly, just like that, I find my footing. My steps no longer feel heavy as I begin to move forward, grabbing onto that pure, unbridled rage and letting it all out.
I might scream, but I’m not even aware of myself as green lightning begins to pour out of me. A couple gods approach, and I fling an enormous bolt at them without even thinking about it, not even stopping. More plant monsters go down as I unleash more magic, my hair standing on end from the raw power, and in that moment it’s like I’ve lost myself. I am a killing machine as I walk through the battlefield, the world reduced to a ringing in my ears as the all-consuming need for vengeance—no, not vengeance, but justice—overpowers all rational thought. At some point, I begin to lift off the ground, the same way that I did when I attacked San Francisco, magic rushing out of me as enemies fall all around me. I’m so caught up in the adrenaline and anger that I don’t even notice the black-clad figure stepping out from behind a column.
It’s only when that awful, smug voice speaks that my concentration breaks. “So, here we are.”
The familiarity of it snaps me out of the trance, and I drop to the ground, the magic fading as surely as it came about. I can only stare, bloody and wide-eyed, as Neritous walks slowly towards me. The twins, Kjetli and Ivar, step out into the clearing to flank him on either side as they approach with an unnerving sense of calm.
“Neritous.” My voice barely sounds like my own.
He gives a disappointed sigh. “I