This time, I didn’t give the water a chance to submerge us.

I reached for it with my magic, pressing it backward, forcing the masses of liquid away from the buggy. My stomach jumped into my throat as we fell through the blackness, wind whipping my hair back from my face.

Then the ether sucked us in, taking control.

When it spat us out in the hellscape on the other side, the buggy was upright, sitting on its wheels.

“Holy fates!” Ana cried. “That was amazing.”

“And this is terrifying,” Ali said.

I had to agree.

This realm was just as dark and scary as it had been. Lightning cracked in the sky, revealing a long expanse of land prowled by oil monsters, rows of giant, thorny black hedges, and the massive beasts near the building on the hill.

The stench of the curse made my eyes water and my stomach lurch.

As if on cue, the oil monsters that roamed the land in front of us turned to face us, their gaping black mouths revealing white fangs.

“They look like the aliens from that movie,” Ali said.

“Alien?” Ana asked.

“That’s the one.” Ali grinned. “Now let’s fight these bastards.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Ana lay on the gas and laughed. The buggy shot toward the monsters, who’d started to run toward us.

There were at least two dozen. I drew my sword and shield. There was no water in sight, and my sonic boom power was officially kaput, so it had to be hand-to-hand.

Next to me, Cade drew his shield from the ether and hurled it toward a group of oncoming monsters. The silver disk flew through the air, beheading three of the beasts one after the other. Black oil spurted into the air from the stumps of their necks.

From behind, I heard Caro laughing. I glanced back. She was shooting her water jets at the creatures, turning them into oily, black puddles.

These things were weird.

And then it was my turn. One of them had neared the truck and leapt for me, long arms outstretched and claws glinting in the glow of the lightning. The impressions where its eyes should’ve been were fixed right on me as it grabbed onto the truck railing.

I slammed my shield down, knocking away the arm, and then sliced out with my blade, leaving a deep gouge in the chest of the creature. It fell back, splatting onto the ground.

Ali and Haris fought with swords, seeming unwilling to try their possession trick with the oily creatures.

“Why don’t you possess them?” Ana called.

“They’re made of magic, not flesh and blood.” Ali hacked at a beast with his blade.

I kept busy on the front of the buggy, along with Cade, using my sword to hack away at the monsters that jumped up to grab the front railing. They left black streaks where their hands gripped and stunk like fetid garbage.

Ana just plowed right through them, giving us a relatively stable platform from which to work. The only downside was the splatter, and soon my clothes were flecked with evil, black oil.

When one of the creatures nearly managed to make it over the railing, I kicked out, nailing him in the chest. He flew backward, but not before one long claw reached out and sliced at my calf.

Pain welled.

I winced, then turned to face the next monster, trying to ignore the ache, and stabbed him in the throat. He clawed at the blade, and I used my shield to shove him onto the ground.

All around us, the oily bodies soaked into the dirt.

“Incoming!” Cade shouted.

Ahead of us, six of the monsters had formed a pyramid, holding each other aloft high into the air. They wanted Ana to plow through them so they could toss one into the buggy.

Holy crap, these bastards were smart. Who created them?

“I’m gonna swerve!” Ana said.

“No, take them out!” I cried. “We’ve got this.”

“All right!” She rummaged around on the seat next to her, then tossed me a pair of the sand goggles I normally wore in the desert.

I caught them. “Thanks!”

She tossed another pair, and Cade caught them. He pulled them on.

“Here we go!” Ana laid on the gas, and the buggy jumped forward.

I looked at Cade. “You go high. I’ll go low.”

He nodded, his handsome face concealed by the goggles and streaked with the creepy, black oil. He looked like some kind of steampunk oil rig worker.

I raised my blade and crouched slightly. I’d need my balance for this.

Ana plowed into the pyramid of monsters, immediately pulverizing three of them. Their oil splashed and exploded, coating me. I could still see through the goggles, but there were dozens of little flecks of black on them.

The other three oil monsters leapt for us, flying through the air with their claws outstretched.

I raised my shield. One of the beasts slammed into it, sending vibrations up my arm. It reached out, raking claws down my bicep.

I lowered the shield and stabbed the beast in the shoulder, tearing my blade to the left. The creature whirled from the force, and I kicked it in the gut, sending it over the platform.

Cade had just beheaded one, which was now a puddle on the platform, and was sending his sword through the middle of another. I lent a helping sword, slicing through the creature’s neck.

It collapsed in a puddle of oil.

“Gross.” I was covered in the stuff.

“Well done!” Ana cried.

“That’s the last of them!” Caro called.

I looked around, realizing we’d taken out every single one. They were puddles of oil dotted over the dark landscape, gleaming in the light of the constantly striking lightning.

Cade caught my eye. “Good job.”

I pulled off the goggles, grateful to see again. “Yeah. Not a bad team.”

He grinned, pulling off his goggles. The skin around his eyes was pretty much the only clean part of him. He lifted a shirt to wipe at the oil, revealing a swatch of hard stomach and smooth skin.

I turned away, ignoring the extremely poorly timed warmth in my belly—and inspected the oncoming barrier of thorny hedges. Lightning strikes illuminated them, revealing them to be all thorns and branches—not a single leaf. The thorns were each about a foot long. Wooden daggers.

“Twenty bucks those thorny things start whipping out at us!” Haris called.

“Not taking that bet,” Ali said.

“Me neither,” Caro said. “You always take the obvious ones.”

I eyed them, considering. There were at least four rows of deadly hedges between us and the giant monsters prowling the yard in front of the big brick building. There were gaps in the hedges that we could drive through, but they were all narrow.

The thorny limbs could strike out at us. There were so many that we probably couldn’t beat them all off. And what if they hit a tire?

I glanced back at Ana, who grinned at me.

“Thinking what I’m thinking?” she said.

“Yep. But don’t slow the car.”

“As if I would ever.” She shot me a mock offended look.

I stashed my sword and shield in the ether, and my body fell into the remembered routine of switching places while on the road. Ana and I were used to this kind of shit—we might be newbs at the Academy, but this kind of thing was our jam.

I unhooked my harness and moved toward the cockpit.

“Put your foot on the gas, Ali,” Ana said.

We used to pull this maneuver with Rowan, but after she’d disappeared, we’d usually get a client to help us make the switch.

Ali did as instructed, sticking his leg down into the well and pressing on the gas. Ana unhooked her seatbelt and climbed over the railing onto the front platform. She kept a hand on the wheel until I grabbed it as I climbed into the driver’s seat and took her place.

I pressed my foot to the gas. “I got it.”

Ali let go.

The car never slowed.

“Everyone get low!” Ana said. She looked back at me. “Punch it.”

I laid on the gas and the buggy leapt forward. Everyone crouched low except for Ana, who raised her hands. Her magic swelled on the air, and her shimmery pearlescent shield formed around us. It covered the buggy like a dome.

As we neared the first row of thorny hedges, I felt a sharp prickling against my skin. A warning. There’s more where this came from.

The first branch lashed out at Ana, cracking against her shield and shattering into shards of wood. The shield flared white from the impact, but held strong. Another thorny vine flew, this one larger. It smashed against Ana’s shield. She winced, crouching low, but kept her shield strong.

My stomach jumped as a massive branch slammed into my sister’s shield. Sweat rolled down her temples from the strain.

I pressed harder on the gas, giving the buggy every bit of speed it could manage. The massive tires ate up the ground, bumping over rocks and dirt.

“Almost there!” I yelled.

Ana’s shield was almost permanently and opaquely white from all the blows it’d received. She was sweating and red-faced, her muscles trembling.

By the time we made it to the other side, everyone looked tense. Ana dropped her shield immediately, sagging against the railing. Cade grabbed her, keeping her from falling into the gross oily puddle on the platform.

“I got it. I’m good.” Ana panted and stood.

I slowed the vehicle a bit, dropping down from the mad 100 mph we’d been doing to a more reasonable 60. This wasn’t exactly highway-grade land, and the only light we had came from the lightning strikes.

“Let’s trade,” Ana said.

I nodded.

Ana had just started to climb over the railing when Caro screamed. “Watch out!”

My gaze darted up, away from Ana and toward the ground ahead of us.

It’d risen up like a wave of dirt. A wall of dirt.

Oh shit.

Caro hurtled past me, having leapt off the back platform like a gazelle, and climbed onto the front platform next to Cade. Ana tumbled off into the front seat.

Caro threw out her hands, directing a sharp stream of water toward the earthen wave.

The magical water hose cut through the dirt from left to right, slicing it down the middle. The stuff collapsed, the wall of dirt crumbling down.

“Hang on!” I swerved right, barely managing to avoid the massive pile of earth that would wreak havoc on the front of the buggy. The left tires rode up on the edge of the dirt pile, nearly tipping us.

Cade and Caro clung to the railings at the front. My seatbelt cut hard into my skin, and Ali kept an exhausted Ana from tumbling out the side of the car. Haris whooped, clearly enjoying our near crash.

The buggy slammed upright back onto the ground. I let up on the gas just a bit.

“We’re almost to the giant monsters!” I looked at Ana, the question in my eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll drive.” She straightened, already looking a bit better. She’d used up a lot of magic back there—most of it, if I had to guess—but there was no room for quitting.

We made the trade as Caro returned to her spot in the back, and I climbed up next to Cade.

Ahead of us, four giant beasts prowled. From a distance, it’d been hard to determine what exactly they were.

Up close, it wasn’t any easier.

“They look like a cross between boars and alligators,” Ali said.

“HellBeast,” Cade said. “Straight from Hell. Kill one, and it’ll wake up back home, sleeping at the foot of Satan.”

“Good,” Haris said. “We’ll take care of two of them. Send them back to Daddy.”

Ana drove toward the monsters, the last obstacle between us and the big building that gleamed black under every lightning strike. The HellBeasts turned toward us, eyes blazing red and bright.

We were about twenty yards from them when Ali shouted, “We’re out!”

“See you later!” Haris jumped off the back of the truck. Ali followed. They sprinted away from the buggy.

“Hey, Uggo!” Ali shouted.

One of the beasts turned and raced after him, massive feet pounding at the earth.

Haris ran straight at the HellBeast closest to him. The creature’s eyes were riveted to the buggy, but Haris raised a hand to his mouth and whistled. The sound pierced the night, loud and sharp.

The creature’s head swung left, its eyes gleaming. Then it charged for Haris.

Haris charged it right back, leaping up just as the beast neared him and disappearing into its face.

Weird.

The creatures stopped, stood stock-still, then jerked toward one of its fellows, looking like a beast yanking against a lead.

Haris was clearly trying to get it to attack one of the other monsters, but it was resisting. Unwilling to fight its brethren?

Ali’s creature was doing the same. They appeared to give up at the same time. Both possessed monsters sprinted for the brambles, away from us.

“Woo! Nice!” Ana called.

I grinned. This was monster fighting of the best variety. We’d send them right back to Hell, where they probably preferred being anyway.

Cade pointed his sword toward a monster to the left. “I’ll take him.”

“Have fun.”

He grinned. “See you later.”

He stashed his sword and shield in the ether, then leapt off the buggy, easily catching his footing on the ground, and sprinted toward one of the monsters. He shifted as he ran, blue light swirling around him to reveal the massive wolf. He might be four times bigger than a normal wolf, but the demon monster dwarfed him.

Cade leapt for the beast’s throat.

Caro appeared next to me on the front platform. “Let’s tag team this last one.”

“Deal.”

The beast was about thirty feet away, prowling toward us. Ana slowed the buggy. Caro raised her hands and shot a jet of water at it. It plowed into the beast’s shoulder, blasting straight through it.

The creature roared and stumbled.

“I’m a bit tapped out.” Caro panted. “Won’t be able to do much of this.”

She shot it again, in the leg this time. It roared, thrashing its alligator-shaped head, and stumbled. I leapt off the buggy, stumbling briefly, then charged the creature.

The rank scent of its magic was indistinguishable from the horrible curse stink that flowed from the huge building, though it was bad enough to make my eyes water.

Caro hit the creature one last time, straight in the chest. The beast slowed, going to a knee. I ran, leaping onto its leg and then scrambling onto its back. Its leathery hide scratched my hands like sandpaper.

Something pale blue in its mouth caught my eyes. A tiny baby sock?

This thing ate babies?

Oh, this thing had to go.

The creature shook like a dog, trying to throw me off, but I clung to its neck. It paused long enough to allow me to rise up and call my sword from the ether.

The hilt appeared in my hand. I punched the blade down into the creature’s skull. I grunted at the impact, driving the blade deep.

The beast shuddered and fell, immediately disappearing in a poof of dusty, dark magic. Returning to Hell.

I crashed against the ground, covered in the dusty remains of HellBeast.

“Gross.” I spat out black dust, which stuck to every inch of my skin that was covered in the black oil. “This place is seriously disgusting.”

Across the way, Cade polished off the last HellBeast, tearing out its throat in a spray of black blood. Ana and Caro had made a big loop to pick up Ali and Haris, who’d lost their beasts somehow. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what they’d done to them, to be honest.

The buggy sped toward me. I staggered to my feet.

Whatever was inside that creepy, black building had better be impressive, considering the protections that surrounded it.

The crew on the buggy clapped as they approached.

“Well done!” Ali shouted.

Caro grinned and reached down off the front platform, offering to give me a hand up as Ana slowed the buggy. I grabbed her hand and jumped, scrambling over the railing.

Cade loped back to us, his gray wolf muzzle streaked with black HellBeast blood. He leapt into the air, shifting in a flash of blue light before landing on the platform next to us.

“Not bad.” Caro nodded. “You trainees know your shit.”

I bowed. “Thank you, thank you.”

But the moment of levity was brief.

Ana was driving us closer to the creepy building, and it was hard not to notice the strength of the dark magic surrounding it. I’d almost become inured to the stink, but it managed to surprise me.

Worse, my muscles felt weaker. My brain a bit foggier.

“Do you guys feel that?” Ana asked.

“Aye,” Cade said. “The curse definitely originates from here.”

The exterior walls and the building were entirely black from it, the walls looking crumbled and decayed. There was one exterior wall that surrounded the property lawn. Through the wrought iron gate, I caught sight of a large building within.

“I think you can ram it,” I said. The buggy, with its reinforced grille meant specifically to break through things, was perfect for the job.

“Everyone get off the front platform,” Ana said.

We climbed off, finding seats in the main cockpit. Ali and Haris took the back seat.

“Hang on!” Ana pressed on the gas, and the buggy jumped forward. She laughed as she sped toward the gate at breakneck speed.

The vehicle plowed through, breaking apart the iron gate in an explosion of metal. Dark magic surrounded our vehicle.