Hours had passed since we’d had to settle on one of Neraka’s moons, unable to get through whatever shield surrounded the planet. Most of us were pacing around the main chamber of the capsule, while Viola feverishly flipped through her swamp witch magic notes, looking for a way in.

My nerves were stretched and close to snapping. I occasionally glanced out through the main glass pane that gave us a full view of… well, nothing. We couldn’t see Neraka, anyway.

“There must be some way for us to get through that damn thing,” Jovi muttered, scowling at the view.

“Our magic doesn’t work against it,” Corrine replied, massaging the back of her neck in order to relieve some of the tension that had gathered since we’d landed.

“Well, at least we didn’t blow up when we first made contact with the shield,” Draven said, as Serena leaned against him. They’d kept to their seats, for the most part, leaving the rest of us to claim the walking space for our nervous pacing.

I had to give the kids credit. In some ways, they seemed more restrained than us. Maybe it had something to do with their experiences on Calliope. After all, the Daughters had shielded Eritopia in a similar fashion for hundreds of years. Draven, Serena, Jovi, Vita, Bijarki, Phoenix, Viola, and the others had been on the other side of the problem.

At least, in this case, our memories were intact. We had not forgotten about our children. It was hard to look for a bright side at this point, but I had to, for everyone’s sake. Personally, I was beginning to grow tired of these challenges and mishaps. This was supposed to be a routine recon mission on Neraka. We were now actively trying to rescue our people, after having been duped for days by impostors through Telluris.

“This has to be the work of Exiled Maras,” one of Jax’s wards said, staring at the tattoos on his bare arms. “I can feel Jax, you know. The closer we are to him, the more attuned we are to him, as his wards.”

The others in his group nodded. “They’re definitely down there,” a second ward said.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Serena asked, then gave Tejus and Hazel a concerned look. Her parents were obviously distraught and worried sick over Harper. They’d been through this kind of scare before. This time, however, it was worse for them, because they were aware of it all.

The first ward sighed. “Yes. It means he’s alive. We’d feel something if he died, too. So, there’s that.”

“How many days has it been? Four?” Heath asked, his brow furrowed.

Draven nodded. “Approximately, yes,” he replied, then looked at the first ward. “I think we should keep some reserve in pointing out potential culprits, for the time being. They reached out to us for help, after all. Maybe whoever is doing all this is also responsible for all the abductions they’ve been dealing with.”

“But this is definitely swamp witch magic,” Phoenix chimed in. “And Rewa clearly said they rescued a Druid delegation with a swamp witch on board. She also said she waved them goodbye, but the delegation never made it back to Neraka. This could all be some kind of ploy.”

“But for what purpose?” I asked, shaking my head slowly. “I’ve been going over everything, repeatedly, and I cannot, for the life of me, find motive.”

The first ward scoffed, bitterly amused. “The Exiled Maras were terrible creatures. I wouldn’t be surprised if they continued to promote the toxic culture that got them thrown off the planet in the first place. Some of us never learn, to be honest.”

“But why would they reach out to us, then?” Sofia replied. She made a very good point.

The ward’s shoulders dropped, and he rolled his eyes. “I don’t know.”

I turned to face the Daughters, who kept to themselves in a corner of the main chamber. They’d taken off their golden masks, and they were quietly looking at each other. They were flawless and beautiful, and brimming with supernatural powers.

“Do you think you could try something on that shield?” I asked them. “Anything?”

Safira was the first to stand, exhaling. “We can try. But, like I’ve said, we are not as strong out here as we are back in Eritopia. Our solar system gives us the energy we need to do what we do.”

“It’s worth a shot, instead of not doing anything,” Viola muttered, exchanging irritated glances with her sisters.

Draven got up, his expression suddenly illuminated. “I could try something,” he muttered. “And the Daughters could give me the energy I’d need for this. It’s serious dark magic. I’ve never done it before, because it would drain the life out of hundreds of creatures in order to work. But if I get my energy from the Daughters, instead, I could pull it off.”

“What are you thinking of doing?” I asked.

“There’s an attack spell,” Draven explained. “It’s a pure energy pulse. That’s why it needs so much of it. It can generate enough power to shatter almost anything. I don’t know if it’s ever been tried against a shield of this magnitude,” he added, pointing at the invisible planet, “but it’s definitely worth a shot.”

I nodded, willing to try anything. Our people were down there, and we had no idea what state they were in. The longer we took to get to them, the more they could be at risk… or worse.

“Okay. Let’s try it. What do you need from us?” I replied.

Draven shrugged. “Nothing. I just need you all to move back and clear this area for the Daughters and me,” he said, pointing at the front area of the chamber.

Corrine, Ibrahim, Serena, Viola, Phoenix, Shayla, and Arwen moved back with the rest of us, while the Daughters came forward, joining Draven in front of the arched windshield. They gathered behind him in a semicircle as he drew a flurry of Druid symbols in chalk on the metallic floor.

Serena stilled, gazing out the windshield. “Draven, stop. Stop,” she muttered.

I followed her gaze and found myself holding my breath. Gasps erupted from our group, as we all stared at the seemingly empty space between two planets, where Neraka was supposed to be. The shield started to burn off the invisible globe, its shrinking edges glowing gold until it all went away.

Holding my breath, I watched Neraka as it revealed itself to us in all its splendor—its blue oceans and vast continents, the wisps of white clouds gathering on the side of sunset… Finally, we could see our destination.

“Good grief, it’s beautiful,” I heard myself whisper.

“Corrine, can you have a look through your telescope?” Viola interjected, then opened her backpack. “I’ll get the travel spell ready.”

Phoenix grabbed two glass helmets from a side compartment and gave one to her. “Here, babe,” he said. “I’ll come with you outside, so we can speed this along.”

Corrine nodded, then angled the hybrid telescope toward the now-visible Neraka. She pointed at the glass helmets. “Put the small metal collars on first, then the helmets,” she said. “It’s the only way you’ll lock the ambient oxygen in.”

Both Viola and Phoenix nodded, and they geared up and headed toward the exit hatch. Corrine had designed an exit chamber for situations like this, making it safe for us to get out and explore a planet without an atmosphere or with toxic air—without compromising the capsule itself.

My heart skipped a beat, watching Viola and Phoenix as they stepped into the exit chamber. The glass door slid closed and sealed them off, then decompressed the exit chamber and opened the main hatch leading out to the moon’s surface. They both bounced out, unbound by gravity, and vanished to the right as they proceeded to draw the swamp witches’ interplanetary travel spell on the ground.

I then shifted my focus to Corrine, who was busy looking for signs of life through the telescope. I instantly noticed her concerned frown.

“What is it?” I asked.

She looked at me, then let out a long and heavy sigh. “Well, our team is having a little bit of trouble.”

“Define trouble.” Hazel shot to her feet, concern etched into her beautiful features.

“War. Mostly. I mean, there’s some weird stuff going on down there as we speak, but, from the looks of it, all our GASP team is still alive,” she replied.

I rushed over and looked through the telescope myself. The hybrid telescope offered a highly detailed view of Neraka’s surface.

“War?” Hazel gasped. “We need to get ready,” she added, then looked at Tejus, who gave her a reassuring nod.

“We’re almost there,” he said, his voice low and calm. “The dragons we’ve brought are more than capable of ending whatever is going on down there in a matter of minutes.”

“Damn straight,” Heath replied, his tone clipped as he gripped the edges of his seat. If he squeezed any harder, the entire thing was going to come off with a snap.

I took my time to analyze the area that Corrine had pointed at through her telescope. It was a large mountain surrounded by a curtain of gorges. Its eastern side faced the ocean. That was Azure Heights, just like Rewa had described it when we’d first met her.

My stomach churned at the sight of an army laying siege against the city. I couldn’t see what sort of creatures they were, exactly, but I could tell that Blaze didn’t like them. He was in full dragon form and was delivering a veritable firestorm against their ranks. They’d come with large war machinery—catapults and ballistae—but Blaze seemed to do a pretty good job of avoiding them.

The city of Azure Heights cascaded across seven levels, massive terraces carved into the southern mountainside. I could see the buildings and narrow streets, many of them on fire and riddled with a variety of strange creatures, especially on the ground floor.

“Corrine, is there any chance we could see closer?” I asked.

She fumbled with the lens controls next to my visor. In an instant, I had an even better view, and it instantly filled my entire body with burning tension.

“There’s definitely a siege going on there,” I said. “I’m seeing some of our own and the locals. There’s an army of massive warriors with… horns, attacking the city. I see Blaze at the bottom, burning them in troves, but he’s not enough. Most of our team are moving down from the top to the base, to join the fight. They’re not going to last for much longer. There are thousands of these horned creatures, and—” I froze, watching Jax and Hansa leading the charge against a crowd of Exiled Maras on the third level. “You were right.”

A couple of moments passed as I kept watching.

I took a deep breath as soon as I heard the outside hatch open. Viola and Phoenix were back.

“The Exiled Maras definitely have something to do with this,” I said, looking at the wards. “You were right.”

“Dammit,” Jovi muttered. “I was hoping they’d learned something from this whole exile thing.”

“Everybody gear up and get ready to fight,” I said, raising my voice. “We’re going in hot. Telluris is probably working again, now that the shield is down, but with the fighting is going on down there, I would hate for us to distract our team with it.”

Heath nodded, then motioned for his dragons to line up by the door, just as the cabin regained the interior pressure levels, its door sliding open to let Viola and Phoenix back in.

“Come on, guys,” Heath said. “We’ll be the first line of attack. My boy needs us.”

The wards shot to their feet and assumed the second line in front of the main exit, their weapons ready. The rest of our crew gathered behind them, checking their swords and combat gear.

Viola took the central position in what was basically the middle of the swamp witch pentagram she’d drawn outside, then began chanting the incantation for the interplanetary travel spell. She brought one of Rewa’s red beads to her lips, closing her eyes.

We all backed away, while Corrine and Ibrahim resumed their positions by the control board.

“We’ll need the Daughters to stand by and help steer this thing down there,” I said, as the capsule began to whine and creek. “We can’t land on the mountain at this point. We have to land in the field and attack the army from behind.”

The Daughters nodded, then moved to stand closer to Viola.

Once her incantation was complete, a great ball of light swallowed the capsule and temporarily blinded us all. I closed my eyes, wrapping an arm around Sofia’s shoulders and holding her close to me.

The capsule trembled as it lifted off the powdery ground.

We all wobbled when it took off and shot toward Neraka.

“This is it,” I murmured against Sofia’s temple. “We’re getting our people back.”

I braced myself for what came next. There were creatures out there, thousands of them, looking to hurt our family, our friends, and our allies. Under no circumstances could we let that happen.

Heath gave me a sideways glance and a brief nod. I could see the fire in his sky-blue eyes.

Like all of us, he was determined to lay waste to the enemy, and obliterate anyone who threatened the lives of those we loved and held dear.