Once we breached Neraka’s atmosphere, the interplanetary spell stabilized itself.

We shot through the sky at an incredible speed, and yet we were so far from the surface it seemed as though we weren’t even moving.

A beacon of light shot out of the field between Azure Heights and the gorges. It was thick and bright, and my instinct told me to follow it. I looked at Viola.

“Can we land there?” I asked.

Sofia gently squeezed my arm. “Are you sure it’s a good idea? What if it’s a trap?”

“I doubt it’s a trap,” Corrine interjected. “Someone took the shield down so we could come in. There’s a war going on at the base of the mountain, but there’s a beacon out in the field. I’m inclined to think they’re with us and they’re trying to signal us away from the mountain.”

She looked through her telescope, then frowned slightly.

“Who do you see?” I asked.

“Four people. Two of them Maras, a Druid, and… a fae, I think,” Corrine replied.

I looked at Viola again. She nodded once. “I can head toward it, yes,” she said, then gave her sisters a sideways glance. They all huddled together, humming as they lit up in a bright shade of hot pink. Viola put her arms out, muttering a spell as she helped guide the orb toward the beacon.

“Everybody, hold on!” Safira said, closing her eyes. “I can feel something coming.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure I can explain it,” she replied. “But as Daughters of a galaxy ourselves, we feel the planet’s energy. And right now, it’s aimed at us. It’s as if Neraka knows we’re coming and it’s reacting.”

“Is that good?” I asked.

Safira shrugged. “I have no idea, but—”

Something hit our capsule hard. It knocked me down. I caught Sofia and held her close as I fell backward, cushioning her landing. I heard the others grunt. Corrine and Ibrahim held on to the control board. Only the Daughters stayed upright, all of them glowing pink and shutting their eyes as they focused on steering the orb.

I looked around, then at Sofia. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Mm-hm. But what was that?”

“Wind,” Corrine answered. “Extremely powerful wind. I think Safira may be on to something here,” she added, looking at the multiple glimmering lights on her control screen.

“What do you mean? What’s happening?” I asked, suddenly overcome with concern. There were many of us on board. At this altitude, an impact could do a lot of harm to half of our group. Our chances of survival were even slimmer if our travel spell exploded. Until our feet reached the ground, I had no choice but to stay on edge.

Safira groaned, then chuckled softly, her eyes still shut. “It’s the wind. It’s rough, but it’s actually helping us. It’s steering us toward the beacon.”

“Wait,” Corrine murmured, looking through her telescope again. “The fae… The fae and the Druid. I’ll bet they have something to do with this.”

I looked out through the windshield, then got back up and took a seat, with Sofia next to me.

“Maybe we should buckle up,” I said.

“No need,” Corrine replied, shaking her head. She gave me a brief look over her shoulder and smiled. “We’re steady now.”

“We’re too fast, though,” Ibrahim interjected, looking at the controls before him. One of the screens blared red. “Pink ladies, can you help us slow down?”

Viola chuckled softly, then continued with her incantation.

“We’re working together here,” Corrine replied. “We’re slowing down, and, judging by the wind direction, the fae is doing something on her side to help us, too. It’s pushing back against the capsule now.”

I took several deep breaths, holding Sofia’s hand. I felt the capsule tremble, hurling toward the surface of Neraka.

“Everybody, hold on!” Corrine said. “We’re landing.”

The impact wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. The dragons and the wards lost their footing as soon as we hit the ground. They fell and toppled one another like bowling pins, grunting and cursing as they struggled to get back up and retain a sliver of dignity.

I stifled a chuckle, as did Jovi and the others. Heath gave me a joking death stare, prompting me to offer him a smirk in return.

“You all right there, Heath?” I asked dryly.

He scoffed, then got back up and stretched his arms out.

The capsule settled on the ground, just feet away from the beacon.

We all got out through the main hatch. Two at a time. Sofia and I rushed around to the front, where the beacon died out. In its place, four creatures awaited, as described by Corrine. A Mara couple, a Druid, and a young fae.

They all stared at us with wide eyes, measuring each of our crew members from head to toe.

Corrine and Ibrahim joined our side, while the others gathered around the gemstone circle left in the tall grass. The air was clean and fresh—though I could smell the burning wood and flesh from the city. It made my spine tingle, and not in a good way. It was the smell of death.

“I guess a thank you is in order?” I asked, looking at the four strangers.

They all bowed before us. The Druid then stepped forward.

“I didn’t think we’d see Eritopians again,” he said, and offered his hand. I shook it firmly. “I’m Laughlan,” he added, then pointed at the fae and the Mara couple. “These are Vesta, Rush, and Amina. We’re part of the Druid delegation that crash-landed on Neraka a long time ago.”

“Oh, wow,” Draven exclaimed, coming around to get a better look at them. “You’re… You were with the swamp witch, right?”

Laughlan nodded.

“What’s going on back there?” I asked. “Where are our people? How are you still here? What happened?”

Laughlan, Vesta, Rush, and Amina looked at each other, bitterly amused.

“There’s a war going on back there, but before you go in, there are a few things you need to know,” Laughlan replied.

We all huddled closer and listened as Laughlan and his group brought us up to speed on what had been going on in this world for the past eight or ten millennia. My stomach dropped as I heard about the Exiled Maras’ inability to turn their lives around and their horrible treatment of the Imen, along with other endemic species.

We learned about the daemons and their addiction to eating souls. That alone required a lot more clarification, but, given the war transpiring less than a mile away from our location, we had to make do with what the Druid could tell us.

We found out about Lumi and how she’d been abducted by the Exiled Maras, then tortured and shared with the daemons for her spells. Ten minutes later, we had a much better picture of what had been going on here. And it made my blood run infinitely colder. On top of that, there were a lot of gaps that needed filling, and details that didn’t fit the overall picture.

Sofia was the first to spot the most important anomaly. “Hold on,” she said, shaking her head. “You said our people have been here for weeks. How is that possible? They left Neraka four days ago.”

Laughlan stilled, his eyes widening as he realized something. “It wasn’t just a cloaking shield, then,” he muttered. “It was a—”

“You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me!” Jovi snapped, suddenly exasperated. “It was a time lapse!”

“No,” Phoenix gasped. “Like in Eritopia?”

“Kind of? I guess?” Jovi replied, shrugging. “It’s only been days, though, not years. Plus, it’s reversed. Last time, we were the ones slowing down, while The Shade was going twenty years faster. Dammit, we really need to scrap this type of spell out of any recorded document. People can’t just screw with time like this again!”

Laughlan watched the exchange, somewhat confused.

“We’ve been through something similar before, where the flow of time is concerned,” I said, trying to speed things along.

“So, you’re saying the Exiled Maras and the daemons have been working together for thousands of years, bleeding Imen dry, wiping out the other species, and consuming actual souls?” Tejus asked, taking a step forward.

“Pretty much,” Vesta replied. “They’ve been keeping the surviving delegation members prisoner. They’ve been draining this world dry.”

“And the reason they reached out to us was so they could capture some of our people and force them into breeding camps?” Tejus muttered, his hands balled into fists. I could see rage swelling his veins already.

“Yes. Which explains why they shifted time within the cloaking spell,” Laughlan said. “They needed more time to figure out the best way to capture your people. They’d been putting on an elaborate play and looking for the right angle to attack. You see, they didn’t know you had dragons. That threw them for a loop, and they had to improvise. It didn’t work out too well for them because your kids are sharp.”

Heath chuckled, crossing his arms. He could see his son spitting fire over the daemon hordes at the base of the mountain. We could all hear them screaming.

“That’s my boy,” he muttered.

“Anyway, long story short, your people found us and freed us. They found out what the daemons and Maras were doing. We teamed up, we found allies in the Manticores, the Adlets, and the Dhaxanians still living in remote parts of the continent, and, well, here we are,” Laughlan explained. “We weren’t looking to start a war, but Shaytan, the daemon king, decided to rescind his alliance with the Maras and fight us all. Hence this,” he added, pointing over his shoulder at the mountain.

“We sabotaged several daemon locations until we found out where they were keeping the swamp witch, Lumi,” Vesta added. “We knew that our only chance to put an end to this was to have her bring the shield down so we could reach out to you.”

I nodded slowly, taking it all in.

“Okay then, ready to go?” I asked our crew.

Vesta came closer. “Hold on!” she said. “There’s a problem. You can’t just unleash your dragons on the city. We have allies up there. Hundreds of innocent Imen who are still alive and scattered throughout the levels. They can’t get off the mountain with all those daemons working their way up.”

“She’s right,” Corrine said. “We can’t kill them all in one strike.”

“What do you suggest, then?” I asked.

Corrine exhaled, then motioned for Ibrahim, Arwen, Shayla, and the Daughters to come closer. “I’ve got an idea for how we can evacuate all the innocents and allies safely,” she replied. “I’ll work out a quick plan with our resident warlock, witches, and Daughters. We’ll be ready to go in five minutes. We’ll deploy first.”

“Once you get everybody out, we’ll unleash the dragons,” I said, then glanced at Jax’s wards and the rest of our crew.

“The rest of us can stay on the outskirts, around the mountain base,” Field suggested, motioning at the allied troops that we’d brought with us. They all wanted to be a part of it. Lucas and Marion, Pippa and Jeramiah, Hazel and Tejus, Grace and Lawrence, Anjani and Jovi, Dmitri and the Hawk brothers… They were all here, along with our additional succubi, incubi, and fae fighters, our werewolves and Druids.

“Sofia and I will stay back here with the parents,” I replied.

“What? No, I’m going to—” Lucas tried to say, but I cut him off.

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve got fire and ice dragons. It’s more than enough,” I said. “Besides, our kids need us here. Once Corrine and her group get them out, they’ll need some familiar faces.”

Corrine came back from her brief powwow with Ibrahim, the witches, and the Daughters.

“We’re ready,” she said. “We’re going in now. Once we get everybody out, we’ll give your dragons a signal.”

“Once the innocents are out, you’re free to level the whole damn mountain, if you want,” Vesta replied, crossing her arms as she looked at the city.

A bright red light shone above it. Smoke billowed out of most buildings. Bodies were scattered all over. The streets and stone steps were covered in blood. There was nothing but pain and despair oozing out of Azure Heights. There was a terrible story in that place—a story I knew we’d hear in full as soon as we brought this fight to an end.

“It’s time for the grownups to get involved, then,” Tejus said, scowling at the mountain.

Laughlan chuckled, prompting all of us to stare at him. “Don’t worry. Your kids have already done most of the hard work. I think you people are, at best, the cleanup crew.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, resting a hand on Tejus’s shoulder.

“Why am I not surprised?” I asked rhetorically.

“Because our team is fierce, and they’ve been trained well?” Tejus replied.

Sofia smiled. “Good. I didn’t expect anything less from our Nerakian team.”

Laughlan had a point, though. Our team lacked the numbers they needed to take on an army of daemons and hostile Maras. And yet, they’d managed to free the swamp witch. They’d brought the shield down, and they’d made it possible for us to come in and provide assistance. They’d definitely done most of the hard work.

“Should I reach out to them via Telluris?” Draven asked. “It probably works now.”

“I would advise against it,” I replied. “They could be fighting as we speak. We cannot distract them in any way.”

Draven nodded slowly. We all made room for Corrine, Shayla, Arwen, Ibrahim, and the Daughters to gather in the middle. Corrine had brought with her a bag filled with tiny gemstones. She emptied it into multiple satchels, which she handed over to the others in her first intervention line.

She then turned around to face us and smiled.

“Okay. We’re off now. See you old farts in a bit!” She giggled, then vanished into thin air.

One by one, Ibrahim, Arwen, Shayla, Viola, and the Daughters disappeared. They teleported onto the mountain to begin the evacuation procedure. I wasn’t exactly sure what it entailed, but I had all the faith in her and the others. I’d been fortunate enough to cross paths with some of the most incredible creatures across multiple worlds.

I had a feeling that, despite its turmoil, the Nerakians held the same extraordinary potential.

We all watched the mountain, waiting for Corrine and her crew to do their thing. The daemons were ruthless, but those on our GASP team were admirable adversaries, to say the least. I was stuck in limbo, somewhere between concern and pride. I wasn’t going to breathe easily until they were all out of harm’s way, but, at the same time, I knew they were going to come back to us.

Because they were blood of our blood.

They were fighters.