When Makani shook Naomi awake the next morning, the sun wasn’t even up yet. She used to think anything before seven in the morning was an unholy hour, but since embarking on this demon hunt two months ago, she’d had to rethink her definition of unholy.

Naomi pushed herself out of bed, shaking out her heavy limbs. She just wanted this demon hunt to be over so she could finally get some rest and recharge her magic. Maybe go on a vacation, one where she had to do nothing but lie on the beach all day long and drink super-sweet tropical magic cocktails.

By the time she, Makani, and his commandos reached Castle Soulbreaker, the enforcers had already gathered outside the magic bubble. There was no way Firestorm and Darksire could miss the army waiting on their doorstep. Which was the whole point. Their eyes would be focused on the army trying to bang down their front gates—and the demons inside of them wouldn’t see the other two teams going into hell.

If they were lucky, they’d break down the wards in hell before the demons realized what was going on and sent beasts, warlords, and lesser demons to stop them.

As the enforcers began to make a lot of noise bombarding the bubble, Sera waited beside Kai, saving up her magic. Naomi opened up a passage to the first circle of hell, dropping off Alex, Logan, and Makani’s commandos at the creepy black castle. Chastity hovered over Alex, waiting.

“When you get the signal, hit the castle and the storm with as many Magic Breaker spells as you can,” Naomi told Alex.

Alex pounded her fist to her palm. “I can’t wait.”

Monsters growled inside the castle. So much for the element of surprise. Paladin and Paragon must have realized where they were vulnerable. If Naomi was being honest with herself, she’d have admitted that she’d known all along their ruse wouldn’t work. The princes of hell had eluded them for months. They certainly weren’t stupid.

Logan turned to face the approaching pack of hell beasts. Emma, Troy, and Bruce closed in beside him.

“Go, my prince. We’ll protect Alex from the beasts as she casts her spells,” Emma said.

Naomi opened a passage right into the core of hell. She, Makani, and Valor jumped in.

The weather in the ninth circle today was hot and dry with a heavy helping of sulfur, just like every other day here. When the demons had come to the spirit realm millennia ago, they’d warped the deeper circles to suit them.

“Let’s hurry this along,” Naomi said, ash biting her tongue.

Alex and Makani were growing weaker with every passing moment as the spirit realm slowly drained away their magic.

Skeletal winged horses peeled off the decayed castle’s walls, spawning from the black particles swirling around. They stalked toward Naomi and Makani.

Naomi glanced up at Valor, who was hovering in the air. “Give the signal.”

The ghost nodded, then faded away.

“You’re up,” Naomi said to Makani.

He moved toward the storm. His fingers closed around the amulet hanging from his neck. The skeleton horses clopped forward, acidic green smoke fuming from their snouts. Naomi drew back her bow, lighting up an arrow with a special blend of swirling pink-and-white spirit magic.

Makani unleashed his first Magic Breaker spell. The storm shuddered. Thunder rumbled, answered by two roars, the echoes of Sera’s and Alex’s spells rippling across the ward that spanned the realms like an enormous sail.

One of the horse beasts jumped at Makani, jagged-edged blades sprouting from its hooves. Naomi shot an arrow through its chest. The beast froze midair. A magic film rolled over its body, swallowing it. A faint pop sounded—then the beast shattered.

Makani hit the storm with his magic again. The clouds churned faster. The beasts kept coming. Naomi didn’t stop shooting, and Makani didn’t stop hurling his spells at the ward. Sweat glistened on his skin. Pain contorted his face. Hell was hurting him.

But he was hurting hell worse. The clouds were dissipating. A third of them had disappeared already. It was working.

Dog-sized spiders crawled out of the castle’s windows, scampering down the broken stone walls like a thick black carpet. Naomi’s breath hiccuping, she turned to face the hell spider army as Makani unlocked his magic armband and released his next batch of spells into the storm. The Magic Breaker spells thundered against the dark clouds like fireworks.

Spiky purple tentacles burst out of the ground, snapping at Makani. Naomi cast a wall of spirit magic around him to ward off the enraged plants. Overhead, the storm swirled and rumbled. Lightning crashed down, narrowly missing Naomi. Another bolt broke off a piece of the spirit magic barrier around Makani. Hell was throwing everything it had at them. Naomi only hoped that everyone could hold out long enough. She seriously doubted Sera and Alex were drowning in lollipops and friendly kittens where they were.

“How’s it going?” Naomi asked Makani over the screech of spiders and tentacles smashing against her spirit magic barrier.

“I’ve gone through nearly all my magic gems,” he said, his voice eerily calm. In the heat of battle, when things got really bad, he went completely cold.

Each of his magic gems was packed with about ten spells. The storm overhead was almost gone, but so was his stash of magic. He was on his final batch of spells now. And the storm looked like it still had some fight in it. Makani unleashed his final barrage of spells on the storm. They echoed faintly, like distant cannon fire.

Color and light flashed across the sky. The last of the storm bled away—and then it was gone. They’d done it! They’d broken down the ward’s unnatural glue, the dark magic glue that had pinched the circles of hell together and ruptured the veil.

Naomi shot a spell across the veil, supercharging it with her spirit magic to boost its self-healing so it could repair the tears.

A chorus of enraged howls answered her spell, the cry of demons in the distance. They were coming.

Naomi had to get herself and Makani out of here, but he was hardly standing on his own two feet. Hell was dragging him under, burying him beneath the weight of its magic.

Naomi wasn’t doing much better. The battle had drained her. She tried to create an opening in the veil, to go back to the first circle, but her magic was nothing more than a weak flicker. Like a lighter that had run out of fuel.

We are going to die here.

“We are not going to die,” Makani declared, setting his hands on her shoulders.

Had she spoken her fears out loud? Or had he just read those fears on her face?

“I believe in you,” he told her. “You are the most powerful Spirit Warrior I have ever known.” He kissed her forehead.

“Well, who am I to argue with the Prince of the Pacific?” she said with a hard-wrought smile, then painfully created a passage in the veil.

She took Makani’s hand and pulled him after her into the first circle of hell. They nearly fell over Alex on the way in.

“We broke it.” Alex looked up at the sky, grinning.

Logan viewed the sky with less enthusiasm. “We need to rejoin the others.”

Thick purple clouds, intertwined with threads of silver, were rolling in. Those silver threads were spirits, the souls of dead humans. Spirits were stronger and faster than ghosts—and there were thousands of them headed this way like a storm.

“The demons sent them here,” Valor commented, hovering beside Chastity. “To kill you.”

He was right. Naomi could feel the strings of demonic magic controlling the spirits, directing their actions.

“We need your magnificent magic once more, my love,” Makani said.

Naomi smirked at him. “No need to flatter me, Your Majesty. I was going to do it anyway. I have no intention of allowing that spirit storm to pour down on us.”

Spirits could not leave the spirit realm. If they escaped to earth, the spirits could not follow.

“We await your pleasure,” Makani said.

“Charmer,” Naomi chuckled.

She looked up at the ceiling of spirits. The whole sky was full of the glowing, glistening, non-corporeal silver forms.

She focused her magic into a point, making an opening in the veil. Pain exploded from her torso, splitting down her arms and legs. Her head felt like she’d just rammed it through a brick wall. The spell hurt more than it ever had, even the first time she’d performed it. The magic passageway was wobbly, flickering—but it was an opening.

“Jump through before it slams shut,” Naomi said.

They hurried through the opening. The spirits dove, trying to follow after them. They bounced off the passageway’s wall, screeching in anger as they burst into pieces. Their silvery bodies reformed, and they tried again. And again. And again. They didn’t give up, the continuous booms of their exploding forms bouncing off the passageway’s walls like bombs. The demons had to know the spirits were barred entry to earth, but they continued to vent their frustration by beating them against the opening.

Naomi emerged in the middle of a battlefield. The ward around Castle Soulbreaker had come down on earth as well. Kai’s forces were locked in a bloody battle with Darksire’s and Firestorm’s warriors. They had already broken down the fence and blown a sizable hole in the front of the building. Alex and Logan ran off after a pair of giants who was causing trouble for Kai’s army.

“Good to have you back, Naomi.” Sera cast an earthquake spell that swallowed up a werewolf. “And you arrived just in time. We’ve almost made it to Firestorm and Darksire.” She lifted her hands in the air, summoning a gust of wind that flicked aside a telekinetic’s boulder. The whole time, she didn’t stop running toward the castle.

Naomi struggled to keep up with Sera and the stream of fighters following her. They fought through the castle’s defenders, never slowing. She made it all look so easy. She was still going at full power, even though she must have been wiped out from all the Magic Breaker spells she’d launched at the ward before it collapsed.

Excitement and trepidation collided inside of Naomi as their forces burst through the castle’s broken gates. They were so close to the demons. They couldn’t give up now, no matter how much Naomi’s abused muscles burned, no matter how much her head was pounding. She pushed on because she had to; there was no other way. The final two demons were within her grasp, and she was going to send them back to hell. She was going to end this two-month nightmare. Puffing, gasping, aching, she felt like her legs were just moving by themselves, pulling her along for the ride.

Riley and Dal jumped through another hole in the castle wall. Dal covered Riley with a protective barrier as he tossed a bottled spell. Glass balls shattered against the barred doors at the end of the hallway. Riley’s spell opened its jaws, and magic roared to life like an enraged beast. The smoky shape of a wolf huffed and puffed—and blew the doors off their hinges. Riley had more flair in his potions than anyone Naomi had ever met.

They all rushed through the doorless opening, into a very grandiose, gold-plated throne room. Two black thrones sat at the far end, but Darksire and Firestorm did not sit upon them. Instead, hell beasts stalked around the thrones. There must have been at least thirty of them. Lions and lizards, tigers and tarantulas, bears and bulls—each of them oozing hellish magic.

Naomi scanned the room. Darksire and Firestorm were nowhere in sight.

Logan pivoted around, launching two knives. They fell to the ground with two hollow clanks. Logan kept throwing knives in rapid succession, moving so fast that his body was a blur. The knives all dropped to the floor.

Smoke swirled, revealing Darksire and Firestorm, a sea of Logan’s knives at their feet. Apparently, their concealment spell was no match for his heightened senses.

“Have you no shame?” Makani growled at Firestorm. “Hiding like a coward, too afraid to face me.”

Firestorm laughed, a sound that was beautiful and tragic and cruel all at once. “I have no reason to fear you, even though you have brought an army to my doorstep in this unprovoked attack.”

“Unprovoked?” Makani’s voice bit like dry ice. “And what do you call the betrayal of all Dragon Born?”

“That was centuries ago, Makani. Honestly, you need to let bygones be bygones.”

“You must know that your continued depravity makes that impossible.”

She strode forward, her steps forceful, her eyes burning. “This will not end well for you. I am more powerful than you, Makani.”

“We shall see.” He pointed his sword at her. “Tonight, we will finally end this, once and for all.”

A vicious smile lit up Firestorm’s face. “I can hardly wait.”

She hurled a fireball at him. A swirling ball of water burst off his swinging blade. The spell doused Firestorm’s flames, but it didn’t stop there. It continued to roll toward her, growing bigger with every rotation.

Naomi’s eyes widened with astonishment. She’d thought that after their trip to hell, he had no magic left. The spells exploding between Makani and Firestorm proved her wrong.

Darksire waved the hell beasts forward. They charged at Sera’s army, moving like they were all different pieces of the same beast. Darksire conducted them, dancing and turning and waving his magic-charged hands about. The beasts collided with Sera’s army. She and the others held them off, but they couldn’t push past the beasts. Every time they killed one, a new one seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

Naomi had read accounts of Darksire in the Spirit Warrior Journals that Gran had given her. She wasn’t the first Spirit Warrior to clash with the dark fairy. He wielded some impressive and horrifying powers, but the ability to summon and control hell beasts was not among them. This was very dark magic, beyond even his powers. It was demonic magic.

The hell beasts reshaped into the form of a huge monster with long arms that touched the ground. One of those arms swept toward Naomi. She swung her sword, cutting through the rows of beasts that formed the arm.

Naomi ran past the reforming arm, angling toward Makani. He and Firestorm were throwing weapons and magic at each other, and they weren’t fooling around. They aimed to kill with every move.

Naomi ran faster. The room was so vast. The distance between her and Makani seemingly endless.

Firestorm caught Makani around the ankle with a flaming lasso. She tugged hard, upsetting his balance. His back hit the ground. Firestorm’s lasso wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides, tying his legs together. He pushed against the lasso, hissing as it burned hotter, brighter. Firestorm stood over him, pumping more and more magic into her lasso.

“You are no match for my magic,” she taunted. The flaming lasso slithered up his neck, tightening, choking him.

Naomi burst forward, closing the distance between her and Firestorm. She slammed her body into Firestorm. Firestorm swung out her arm, knocking her aside easily. Naomi’s head hit the wall. Before she could pull herself up, Firestorm was there, pressing the silver heel of her boot down on Naomi’s throat.

Sneering, Firestorm cast a second fire lasso and wrapped it around Naomi. Unlike Makani, Naomi had very little resistance to fire. The golden coil burned her skin, bathing her in hot agony.

Makani made a sound that wasn’t even human. It was so dark, so primal. So dragon. Muscles tensing, magic flaring, he pushed with all his might to free himself from the flaming lasso.

A cool, calming power washed over Naomi. The lasso binding her puffed out, dissolving into smoke.

“How did you do that?” Firestorm demanded.

Honestly, Naomi didn’t have a clue. She stole a glance at Makani to see if it was his doing, but he was still thrashing to free himself from his own bindings.

“I have many skills,” Naomi told Firestorm, forcing a smile. Forcing herself to stand.

Firestorm made a derisive noise, then turned her back on Naomi, as though she wasn’t a threat at all. She focused her attention solely on Makani. Her grip on the burning lasso tightened. Flames bit into Makani’s skin.

“I will kill you!” he hissed.

Firestorm laughed, tightening the noose further.

Naomi’s mind was racing, trying to figure out a way to help Makani. Physically, she was no match for Firestorm. The Fire Monster had thrown her aside like she was nothing but a mosquito. And Naomi’s spirit magic, her best weapon, was pretty much gone.

Or was it? She’d broken free of the lasso. Somehow. Maybe there was some magic left in her. And maybe she could repeat it to free Makani. That was a lot of maybes.

Naomi waved her hand, trying to summon the sparks of…whatever that magic had been. Nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” Firestorm demanded, throwing an irked look over her shoulder, as though Naomi’s continued existence was the most inconvenient occurrence of the century.

Firestorm’s hands were pulling back on the lasso—then she simply froze. The delight on her face melted away into something else, something Naomi couldn’t quite pinpoint.

“What are you waiting for?” Darksire called out across his swarm of hell beasts. “Kill him now.”

Firestorm’s gaze shifted from Naomi to Makani, then finally landed on Darksire. “She’s pregnant.”