I leapt into the golden cloud, Cade’s words echoing in my ears. When I stumbled out on the other side, the air was vastly warmer.

Ana tripped out of the portal behind me, slamming into my back.

Of course she’d come. I didn’t want her to risk herself, but she was like me.

She’d come for Rowan. And me. No matter what.

And there was no way either of us could defeat Chernobog alone.

A bright moon shined on this new realm, highlighting the white marble columns that surrounded us. The smell of the sea hit my nose, and the breeze pulled my hair back from my face.

Eris’s realm. We were in Greece.

In the distance, Chernobog pulled Rowan along.

“There!” I sprinted after them.

Ana followed.

Figures marched out from behind the columns, warriors in Ancient Greek garb. Their stony faces met mine, and I realized that they were actually statues. Fabulously painted statues, and definitely not human.

Didn’t mean they couldn’t put the hurt on us, though.

I called on Thor’s power, drawing the lightning down from the sky. I gave it everything I had, a complex magical demand that had twenty spears of lightning striking toward the earth. The thunder deafened me, nearly sending me to my knees.

The lightning was no better, blinding me quickly. When it faded, all of the soldiers lay on the ground, cracked into a million pieces.

“Nice.” Ana raced ahead, and I followed, shaking my head to recover from the bright white light.

My lungs burned as we ran after them.

As much as I wanted to catch them, I liked that he ran from us. It meant he feared us. I was terrified we couldn’t beat him—but if he feared us?

Yeah, that was good.

I called upon Loki’s illusion power, commanding it to create a massive tiger. The beast prowled out from behind the columns ahead of Chernobog, then roared, sprinting for him.

Chernobog stopped dead in his tracks, then turned.

A vicious scowl crossed his face as he spotted us.

“Nowhere to go,” I shouted. “I control the tiger.”

He had no way to know it was an illusion. I made flames burst up on either side of us as the tiger prowled behind.

“What magic is this?” he roared.

“I am a Dragon God!” My voice reverberated over the land, so powerful it shocked even me. “I am all power.”

It wasn’t true, but the nature of my magic meant I sure had a ton of it.

From the brief faltering expression on his face, he seemed like he might’ve believed me. Right now, lots of power and all the power were pretty much the same.

I prowled closer, calling on the magic that I had inside me. If I was going to kill him, I needed to create the biggest lightning bolt in the history of time. But I didn’t want him to be holding on to Rowan, or she’d get some of the shock.

The magic gathered inside me as he hurled a black ice bolt at me. I called my shield from the ether, but the ice was so big that it collided with me and sent me flying onto my back. Pain flared.

Ana crouched over me, casting her protective shield. “I don’t know if this will work against him for long. Every hit is like a Mack truck.”

I scrambled to my feet, aching everywhere. Chernobog had Rowan’s arm gripped in his hand, and he was studying the flames that trapped us in a circle. If he tried to break through them, he’d realize they were just an illusion.

With every bit of strength I could muster, I called upon a lightning bolt. Fortunately, Rowan had stepped away from him. Her cooperation had convinced him, maybe.

Or maybe it was because he was holding out both hands, ready to shoot a massive and deadly ice bolt that required two hands. Considering that the one-handed attack had nearly killed me, I didn’t want to know about the two-handed attack.

I didn’t hesitate, sending the lightning down toward him. It cracked through the sky, the scent of ozone burning my nose, and sent him to his knees.

Pale and drawn, he shook his head. Clearly not dead.

Damn it.

Next to him, Rowan’s eyes turned blue.

Hope flared in my chest.

Her gaze darted to the large dagger sheathed at his side, then back to me.

I mouthed, “Wait.”

She nodded, tension clearly vibrating in her shoulders, but she got what I was trying to say.

“We can’t kill him alone.” I glanced at Ana, then nodded toward Rowan.

Beside me, she glowed with a pale white light. It was the same light as before, back in Chernobog’s realm, but it was spreading fast. So fast. It reached Chernobog in seconds. He turned white, gasping.

“You’re doing that!”

“Holy fates, I am.”

I called upon my lightning, wanting to add to the attack.

It crackled inside me. I reached toward the sky, harvesting every bit of energy that I could, until finally, it nearly burst out from the inside. I commanded it to hit Chernobog. The bolt shot down from the sky, striking him on top of the head.

He crashed to the ground.

Rowan jumped, grabbing the blade at his waist and plunging it into his heart. His neck.

She went wild, hacking him apart as blood sprayed.

“Shit.” I raced for her. She was losing it.

Ana sprinted alongside, breath heaving. We stumbled to a halt by a blood-covered Rowan. The god was nothing but mincemeat from the waist up. She’d hit him so many times in the neck that his head was severed.

She looked up at us, panting.

Then her blue eyes clouded over.

Shit.

Ana lunged for her, throwing her to the ground. She sat on her chest. “Get the knife!”

I grabbed it out of Rowan’s hand, throwing it aside.

She thrashed like a wild thing, but Ana held her down, determination adding to her strength. “We’re not going to lose you now!”

I fumbled in my pocket and dug out the vial of antidote. It took everything I had to get the top off without spilling it. If we didn’t get this down her throat, we would lose her again.

I will not lose Rowan.

With the open vial clutched in my hand, I lunged for her, pinching open her cheeks and pouring the liquid down her throat. She coughed and sputtered, but I closed her mouth and pinched her nose until she swallowed.

Guilt streaked through me—this was not how I imagined our first moments together—but when her blue eyes popped open, recognition and joy flared in their depths.

Tears sprang to my own eyes. “Rowan!”

Ana and I collapsed on her, hugging her. Chernobog’s blood stuck to me, clogging my nose, but beneath it, I could smell Rowan.

“Your magic smells normal!” It hadn’t before—one of the reasons I hadn’t recognized her earlier. But now, I could smell the fresh scent of clover and taste honey on my tongue.

She squeezed tight. “Oh fates, I can’t believe you found me.”

Ana cried next to us, deep sobs that didn’t allow any words through. Tears poured from my own eyes now.

Finally, we were together again.

I jerked back, remembering where we were.

Next to us, Chernobog’s body was disappearing into the ground, being absorbed by the earth. A godly realm claiming one of its own?

Whatever the case… “We have to get out of here.”

Ana gasped and straightened. “Yeah. They could follow.”

“How the hell do we get out?” I asked.

“There’s a portal.” Rowan scrambled to her feet. She was so coated with blood that she looked like Carrie after the prom, but she was the best thing I’d seen in years. “Come on.”

She sprinted across the ground, and we followed. I kept my senses alert, trying to identify oncoming threats. Depending on how my friends did back at Chernobog’s castle, we might have two more Rebel Gods on our tail.

Fear and guilt streaked through me at the thought.

I’d left them. It’d been part of the plan—approved by everyone—but still, guilt reared its ugly head.

Don’t worry. My friends were strong. Cade was a damned god, and Cass was ridiculously powerful. Not to mention Caro, Ali, and Haris.

I had to have faith.

“There!” Rowan pointed to a glowing blue portal.

“Where does it go?”

“No idea!”

“Shit, really?” I stumbled to a stop in front of the portal.

“I only remember some things,” she said. “Depends on how foggy I was at the time something happened.”

“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened to you.”

She looked me dead in the eye. “Not your fault. Not the time.”

I blinked. She was right. We needed to run for it. Rowan had always been the practical one.

Right now, I was so used to danger in my life—and so not used to her—that I wanted to focus on her instead of getting the hell out of here. I could happily sit down and have a chat, entirely forgetting about the Rebel Gods on our tail.

And that was really freaking dumb.

“Let’s go, then,” I said. “Because this is the most dangerous place we could be.”

At that, energy popped in the air. I turned, drawn by the sensation. Far in the distance, two figures stood.

Eris and Cocidius. Their power rolled toward us.

I turned back. “Go!”

Rowan leapt through the portal, and we followed, stumbling out onto a rocky cliff. The morning sun peeked over the horizon, illuminating the gleaming blue sea that surrounded the rock upon which we stood.

I turned, realizing that we were actually inside a large, ruined temple. The broken white columns speared toward the air.

“We’re on Despotiko Island. The entrance to Eris’s realm,” Ana said. “I was here with Cass.”

“And those gods are coming after us,” I said. “Run.”

We sprinted away from them, but I had no idea where we were going. There was nothing on this island. It was just a freaking rock.

“Should we jump into the sea?” Ana asked. “Maybe there’s a sea cave we can hide in.”

“I could use a bath,” Rowan said.

I laughed, forgetting how funny she was. If we could jump into the sea and find a sea cave, that would be ideal to hide in. But… “There could be sharks. And Rowan, you smell like a shark cookie right now.”

“Good point.”

But we couldn’t fight two gods. We’d barely managed to take out one. My heart thundered as the seconds ticked by. Fear chilled my skin. They were going to jump through that portal any minute now.

Fifty yards away, two figures appeared out of the blue.

Cass and Cade.

“Holy fates!” I sprinted toward them, Rowan and Ana racing to keep up.

“Who’s that?” Rowan asked.

“Our ride out of here,” Ana said. “We’re going home.”

I couldn’t believe our luck.