Nadine was infuriating and impossibly irresistible.

As we marched across ruins of once famous tourist attractions, I considered stopping her again and either kissing her senseless until she was sure of my feelings for her, or arguing with her. I wanted to demand she tell me what was going on, why she didn’t want to tell me the reason she didn’t want to have hope. And what she meant by that? Hope of winning the war? Hope of living? Hope of being with me?

More importantly, I wanted to tell her why I left her. I wanted to tell her about the Cup of Life and the hopes I had of saving her.

But I couldn’t. Since I had not succeeded, there was no reason to.

In the back of my mind, I started wondering if I should kiss her again and not leave her side until … until she died. Enjoy the little time we had together. Would she want that?

I shook those thoughts out of my mind when I sensed more demons nearby.

“Demons,” I whispered, reaching for Nadine. I held her arm and pulled back, beside the ruins of a destroyed cathedral.

Though it was not necessary, I held her close to me, her side tucked into my body. I leaned over her and inhaled the scent of her, of her hair, of her skin. By the Everlast, how could I let her die? The simple thought put a huge hole in my chest, one that hurt more and more with every heartbeat.

“I think they are gone,” she said, stepping away from me.

She was right, they were retreating, but I was so entranced by her, I hadn’t noticed.

I cleared my throat. “Almost gone,” I lied.

We waited a couple more minutes before resuming our march toward the Coliseum.

Finally, after walking through Rome for more than seven hours, we spotted the Coliseum in the distance. Before it had only one side collapsed, but now it was all in ruins. Big blocks of limestone and concrete crumbled into a pile of debris.

“I had always dreamed of seeing the world,” Nadine said, her voice eerie, low. “I wanted to have the old world back, when it was possible to travel and see these kinds of places.” She sighed, and then whispered, “Now I never will.”

She hurried her steps before I could react. But what was there to say? “Oh, yeah, even if we win the war, the world won’t magically restore itself and be like it was. Besides, you’ll be dead and won’t see anything.”

It made me sick just thinking about it.

We had to hide from another demon battalion on the outskirts of the Coliseum ruins. Once they were out of my aura range, we ran as fast as we could through broken concrete, metal, and stones.

Once we reached the ruins of the Coliseum, Nadine halted.

“What is it?” I asked.

She turned to me, her eyes wide. “I feel … something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know exactly, and I can’t pinpoint it.”

“Close your eyes and focus on the feeling.”

Nadine shut her eyes, rolled her shoulders and neck, shook her arms loose, and took a long breath. And I waited, anxious.

“It’s … pulsating,” she said after a long moment.

“What is pulsating?”

“I don’t know.” She opened her eyes and stared at me. “A force? An energy?” I tilted my head, thinking. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. Stuff like this has happened before, and I ended up finding your scepter.”

“I’m not looking at you like anything. I’m just thinking.”

“About?”

“How incredibly strong and amazing you are.”

She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me. “It’s coming from there.” She pointed to our right, which I thought was the outer ring of the Coliseum.

“Let’s follow this force, then, but be careful.”

She nodded and set in motion. Getting through the debris wasn’t easy. In several points, we had to stop, turn back, and go around it, because going under or through or over was impossible. And going around only increased the time of our mission.

Then, Nadine stopped and pointed to a big block of concrete. “It’s under here.”

“Under?”

“Yes. I think it’s underground.”

I groaned. “Of course it is.”

She leaned over the block and tried to find a good grip on it. “Help me.”

I did help to humor her because I was sure we couldn’t raise it, not even with my increased strength.

“I have an idea,” I said with a wicked grin. Nadine looked at me with one raised eyebrow, and I almost laughed. She was looking at me like I always looked at her. “Just … stand back. Behind me and farther away, if you can.”

“Oh-kay,” she said, walking a few yards back.

This wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only one I had. I extended my hand in front of me and conjured a black bolt. I analyzed the size and power in it, wondering if I should make it bigger or smaller. Once I thought the size was good for its job, I threw it at the block standing in our way. A boom echoed through the ruins and millions of tiny rock shards flew in all directions. I raised my arms to protect my face, and even so I was pelleted. I felt the tiny rocks hitting me from my chest to my shin.

“Are you crazy?” Nadine asked. I whipped around and stared at her. “That was loud! The demons will come rushing this way.”

“I know. An incentive for us to do this shit quickly.” I winked.

She gaped at me, as if she still couldn’t believe what I had done.

Then, the rubble around Nadine started shaking. The upper half of the wall behind her slid down. Her expression changed from incredulity to pure shock.

“Run!” I cried, reaching for her.

She jumped and grabbed my outstretched hand. I pulled her toward me, and ran to the block I had blasted. But there was nowhere to go. The block was gone, but there was still a stone floor under it. Just a portion of it had broken off in the explosion. I pushed her as far as she could go and covered her with my body as the walls fell around us.

After what seemed like eternity, the trembling stopped and I realized we were still alive. I dared to open my eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. Almost in total darkness, we were under another broken wall, and if it weren’t for that, we would have been crushed by the falling rubble.

I pulled away from Nadine enough to produce a bolt in my hand, one that scared off the shadows hiding her beautiful face. She stared at me with big eyes.

“Are you okay?” My eyes roamed, searching her face and what I could see of her body.

“I-I think so.”

I let out a long relieved breath. “That was fucking stupid.”

“Yeah, it was.” Nadine disentangled herself from me, but in this tight space, there was nowhere to go.

“Now what?” I asked. “I thought you said the feeling was coming from under that boulder. The boulder is gone, but there’s no passage or doorway under it.”

She looked at the floor around us. “There has to be a way.” She reached over and swept her hand over the floor, as if it was too dusty and she needed to clean it to see it better.

At her touch, a symbol shone, just a few inches from her fingers.

She gasped. “That’s Diana’s symbol.” She rested her entire hand over it and it shone brighter. The ground began shaking.

“Not again,” I hissed, already pulling Nadine to hide under me.

“No, look,” she said.

The center of the symbol opened up, and a hole three feet wide appeared beside Nadine. I raised my hand over it, and the orb illuminated the hole, revealing a long staircase leading down.

“Come on.” I helped Nadine shift her weight, so she could go down first, and I followed.

The stairs went down and down and down. The bolt in my hand didn’t illuminate much.

“I wasn’t claustrophobic,” Nadine said. “But I might be now.”

If my insides weren’t wound tight with anticipation, I would have laughed.

In silence, Nadine and I walked through long, dark, narrow corridors for what seemed like hours.

Finally, we crossed an archway and into what seemed like a big room, since we couldn’t see the ends with the light coming from the orb in my hand.

“Here,” Nadine said, going farther into the room.

She stopped in front of a pillar four feet high. Diana’s symbol was carved on top. Again, Nadine rested her hand over the symbol and it came to life, shining with a white light. Then, we noticed a new light on our left. One crystal sconce on the wall came to life. The one on its left lit up. Then the next one, and the next one, and the next, until all the sconces in the large, round room were shining.

“What is this place?” Nadine whispered.

I had no idea.

In between each sconce, the wall opened to an archway—nine to be exact—but all we could see beyond them was darkness.

“What now?”

“I’m not sure.” Her wide eyes jumped from one archway to the next. “I’m sensing, feeling so many things. All of them pulling at me.”

“Is there one that is stronger than the others?”

Nadine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, she spun in place, as if testing each one of the archways.

Then she stopped and opened her eyes. She stared dead ahead. “Through this one.”

I shrugged. “Then that’s where we need to go.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I … what do you mean?”

“What if this is a test? I mean, Diana was the goddess of justice and courage and wisdom and honesty. It wouldn’t be this easy. Just follow the strongest energy. It doesn’t make sense.” She continued walking, watching the remaining doorways as if they would simply tell her which one housed the spear. “When we went searching for your scepter, I could feel both your scepters. Yours and Victor’s. Two equal forces. Nothing more. Why does this place have so many forces calling to me?”

She was thinking out loud and, as much as I wanted to help her, I was lost on this one. I didn’t remember Diana, and I had no idea how her mind or her powers worked.

Nadine being Nadine, she did something that totally surprised me. She turned to the short pillar in the center of the room, drew one of the daggers strapped to her boots, and slashed her open palm.

“What—?” I cried.

“Shh,” she urged.

Blood pooled in her hand and she let a few drops fall on the symbol carved on top of the pillar. Instantly, the symbol’s shine grew brighter and several lines sprouted from it. The straight lines went down the edge and sides of the pillar, reaching the floor, and traveled toward the doors along the walls. But all the lines stopped halfway through the room, except for one. One of the lines went until it disappeared through the archway.

“That way,” she said with a small smile. She pulled gauze and tape from her backpack. I took both from her.

I stared at her, amazed. “How did you know?” I lowered my gaze to her hand and focused on cleaning and covering the shallow cut on her palm.

“I saw something similar in my dreams. I don’t know why I decided to try it now, but well, I’m glad it worked.” She cleaned her dagger with another piece of gauze, and then stashed it back in the side of her boot. “Let’s go.”

We followed the bright white line on the ground and went through the archway into what looked like a maze—several corners and turns and doorways. Every couple dozen feet, a few steps took us down more, and we went deeper and deeper into the earth. Finally, the bright line followed a long path until it bumped into a wall and went up to the middle of the wall.

Nadine didn’t hesitate. She rested her palm at the end of the line and the symbol appeared again. The wall trembled and dissolved, much like the ground had done before, revealing a room past it.

Right in the middle of the small square chamber, the spear floated in a cloud of bright white light.

“Wow,” Nadine whispered, echoing my thoughts. The spear was beautiful with a crystal body and a sharp end. She took a step toward it and I closed my hand around her wrist, holding her back.

“What if it’s booby trapped?”

She glanced at me as if I were crazy. “Why would it be? Nothing we took so far was booby trapped.” She was right, as usual.

I released her. “Just be careful.”

A small smile adorned her lips, betraying the harsh shake of her head. “I will be.”

She went to the spear, reached for it, and wrapped her fingers along the shaft.

The bright light disappeared, only to appear again in the blade of the spear. The bright light traveled through the shaft until it touched Nadine’s hand. It then traveled into Nadine’s skin, a white line that went up her arm and shoulder to her chest. She raised her eyes to me. I wanted to reach to her, I wanted to help her, but we had seen similar actions before, and it had all been part of the ritual, of what was supposed to happen. I didn’t want to touch her, to help her, and risk interfering.

The line reached her heart. It disappeared for a second, only to explode the next moment, a bright light that blinded me. I shielded my eyes as Nadine gasped.

Soon enough the light was gone and Nadine was on her knees, grasping the spear with both hands.

Now her aura felt more like Alice’s, but a little different. Stronger. Like the high-ranked lady of Diana that she was.

“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching for her. I closed my hand around her elbow and helped her up.

She stared at the spear. “I-I think so.”

“Feeling different?”

“A little,” she muttered.

My attention snapped as I felt hundreds of demons closing in on us. “When you touched the spear … the demons must have felt something because they are coming this way. Apparently, the magic also broke the barrier around Rome.” I held her hand firmer in mine. “Ready?”

Still with a dazed gleam in her eyes, Nadine nodded.

I teleported us out of there.

Nadine looked around, her eyes narrowing. “Where are we?”