I’d done my best not to be pissed off about the Hermessi ruining my wedding with Caspian. I’d tried to be mature about it, but with every hour that passed and every fae that fell under their wretched influence, I could feel the anger bubbling. I’d been slow-cooking for days now, and watching chunks of my Novak family fall sick and get locked inside charmed crystal casings was the last straw. The camel’s back wasn’t broken. It was shattered.

In our constant turmoil and the multiple field ops to track down and bring in as many of the death cultists as we could, both Caspian and I had forgotten about Ramin and my connection to him. Thankfully, Taeral had remembered. Our Nerakian adventure seemed so puny and so long ago, in comparison to today’s catastrophes.

Caspian came with me to Neraka—no way he’d let me do this alone. Fiona and Zane were kind enough to host us in their palace in Infernis, the daemon capital. White City had been quarantined and secured, with several witches and Manticores in charge of taking care of the ill fae. We’d had some stationed here as part of GASP, and they’d all fallen under the Hermessi’s influence. Whether the cultists had come along with them—our own people betraying the others—or they’d been locals of other species recruited by the Hermessi, we didn’t know for sure. None of the assailants had been caught here. Instead, there were five hundred crystal casings already occupied in White City, all of them fae. At first, we’d thought it impossible for the Hermessi to affect anyone other than the fae, but the Cerixian cults had proven otherwise.

In order to get what they wanted, the Hermessi could reach out to anyone. Fortunately for us, only the fae were affected by their elemental influence. At least that bought us a little time before the five million body mark for the ritual was hit.

Down below, in Infernis, the atmosphere was slightly calmer. The daemons weren’t easily shaken by the events. Maybe they were just fearless, even a little reckless by nature, but it helped. A strong mind and spirit were needed to keep the overall mood up. Therefore, Neraka was less gloomy than The Shade and Eritopia, for example. My heart broke for the fae planets. They’d taken the heaviest hit, with thousands of fae already sealed inside crystal casings. My only hope was that, if the Hermessi completed their occupation, the casings might stop them from moving forward with the ritual. They were the work of the Supernatural Dimension and The Shade’s most powerful witches. I had to cling on to that sliver of hope.

“We haven’t had any other fae fall ill since yesterday,” Fiona told us as she and Zane escorted us into one of their guest rooms. The palace was huge. Glancing around, I could almost see the moving statues that Shaytan had used to hunt us down—the Death Claws that had claimed the lives of many. Ironically, I would’ve given anything to go back to that time, instead of dealing with this ample disaster. Greedy daemons and Exiled Maras I could handle. The elements themselves… not so much.

“That’s good news, right? It means the field ops here are yielding results?” I asked.

“Not really,” Zane said. “There aren’t that many fae left standing on Neraka. Most of the envoys were already affected.”

“And we haven’t caught any cultists, either,” Fiona added.

As soon as we were settled in a wide, circular lounge room, one of the servants brought in baby Sophia, Fiona and Zane’s gorgeous little girl. Swathed in soft linens, Sophia was half human and half daemon—the latter evidenced by the pair of tiny horns, each growing about two inches from behind her ears. They were little now, barely a couple of bony lumps, but, as the years would pass, they’d grow long and curved, much like Zane’s. All we had to do was make sure she’d live to see that day, since the Hermessi were hell-bent on wiping us all out.

Fiona was turned back to her vampire self, once again pale and destined to never see the light of day again. There was a faint sadness in her eyes. The nine months she’d spent as a human had reminded her of the joys of walking in the sun, of eating food and other bits that made it harder for her to drink vampire blood afterward. She settled into one of the giant, silk-threaded cushions, with Sophia in her arms, while Zane lounged next to them, never too far away from the apple of his eye.

It felt good to see them like this. It reminded me that there was still love and purity in this world, all of it worth protecting and even dying for. I softened in Caspian’s arms, both of us sinking into our oversized cushion. Another servant brought in chilled blood and water for us to have, along with Sophia’s special baby bottle. The formula inside it shimmered, catching my eye.

“What’s in that?” I asked.

Fiona smiled, then gave Sophia her bottle. “Corrine’s special formula. A little bit of magic goes a long way to help a baby hybrid like ours develop to her full potential.”

“Oh. That’s new!” I exclaimed, wondering what the benefits were.

“She worked with Amal and Amane on it, actually,” Fiona said. “It’s got some essential nutrients, along with my milk and a few genetically modified proteins to help her bones grow strong.”

“We’ve come a long way, it seems,” I observed, resting my head on Caspian’s chest. The sound of his heart beating was the only thing I needed right now. It was smooth and even—the kind of rhythm I’d never get tired of.

“Truth be told, there have been a lot of hybrids born lately,” Caspian replied. “Some species are dramatically different, too, so I’m guessing this type of formula is meant to help the baby’s survival and healthy growth.”

Fiona nodded. “Absolutely. As much as we’d want, it’s not just our love that makes little miracles like Sophia happen,” she murmured, then kissed her baby’s forehead, while the little one gripped her bottle and continued suckling, without a care in the world.

“You’re head over heels.” I giggled at Zane, who gave me a proud grin in return.

“How could I not be? She’s perfect; her mother’s perfect,” he said, but quickly turned serious. “We just have to make sure we get to live to watch her grow up.”

“I’m sorry about your wedding,” Fiona replied, wearing a faint but sad smile. “You didn’t deserve that fresh hell.”

“Yeah, us too,” I muttered, feeling Caspian’s arms tighten around me. “I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this alive.”

“Hey, don’t go down that road,” he softly said to me. “It’s too early for despair, and you’re not one to wallow in it, anyway.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” I sighed, almost not recognizing myself for a moment.

Zane smiled. “It’s absolutely normal to feel despair. But it’s not in our nature to let it eat away at us. We’re in a lot of trouble, yes, but we’ve got a hell of a lot to fight for, don’t we?” We all nodded. “Let’s take it one step at a time. We’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve got right now. GASP has operations all over the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension to annihilate the Hermessi death cults. They might not succeed in weeding them all out, but I’m sure it’ll at least slow them down—enough for the Hermessi to take longer to hit that five million they need. We’re all involved, we’ve all put our best warriors into this. Then there’s Cerix. That place has been a treasure trove of information since Tae’s crew found it. We’ve learned more about the Hermessi in, what, three days?” he asked, and we all nodded again. “We’ve learned more about the Hermessi in three days than we did in the past year. And I’ll be honest, I don’t think they’re invincible. The universe wouldn’t allow it.”

I found myself intrigued. And so did Caspian. “What makes you say that?” he replied, asking for both of us. Our souls were synced. We knew what the other was thinking and feeling all the time. And this link was one of the key elements that helped me retain my sanity. Watching Caia and Vita sleep in those crystal casings had taken its toll on me—I loved them both dearly, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing them to the Hermessi. The same could be said about their mom and grandfather, of course. But, emotionally speaking, I was most attached to the girls.

“When my father thought he was invincible, the universe proved how horribly wrong he was,” Zane explained. “Granted, the universe did it by bringing you people here. But it was the universe, and nothing else. He tried to be above everyone, and he failed. Ta’Zan tried the same. He, too, failed. And your family has a ton more historical instances in which some attempted to reach this invincible and supreme status, only to be dragged back down from their pedestals. I’m just saying, I don’t think the Hermessi are any different.”

“But they kind of are,” I said. “In most of the instances you’ve mentioned, the Hermessi were the agents of the universe as you describe it. They proved our villains wrong. This time, however, the Hermessi are the villains. How do we prove them wrong?”

Zane thought about it for a moment, while Fiona put Sophia’s empty bottle away and wiped her little, pink mouth with a silken scarf. The baby was happy and ready to sleep, now, her eyelids gradually dropping. “I think we should start by acknowledging that the Hermessi are no longer operating as agents of the universe,” Zane ultimately concluded. “If we start treating them like the enemy, and not this unstoppable force, we might get somewhere. Think about it. If they really were invincible, they would’ve wiped us out by now. They wouldn’t have needed these extreme and ample rituals to break us. They’re limited, Harper. That should tell us something, along with the fact that they’re really keen to stop Tae and his crew.”

I nodded slowly. “You make a fair point.”

He did. If the Hermessi were this all-powerful mega-force of doom, why did they need to seduce these cultists into doing their bidding? With that in mind, I started to see them through a different lens. Sentient entities with a lot of power, yes, but natural limits and restrictions that could only be broken through these insane rituals.

I relaxed in Caspian’s arms. “Then it’s time to talk to Ramin about it.”

“We’re here if you need us, babe,” Fiona said to me.

“Let’s wait and see if I actually manage to reach out to him. It’s been a long time, and, since I left Neraka, I haven’t thought about talking to him again.”

“You’re a little rusty,” Caspian jokingly muttered in my ear. “But you’ll be fine. I’m not letting anything happen to you, Harper, so just let go and close your eyes.”

“And think about him,” Fiona added. “Set your mind on Ramin. I know it’s how Vesta made her connection to Aya on Strava.”

Vesta, too, was in the same kind of trouble. I’d teared up at the sight of her. She’d come a long way since her savage teenage years on Neraka, and she didn’t deserve any of this monumental crap storm. Zeriel was devastated.

Ugh, focus! Think of Ramin. He might help fix all this. Emphasis on “might.”

“Okay, here goes,” I said, then closed my eyes, content with Caspian’s body heat enveloping me and gradually carrying me away from consciousness.

“Good luck, babe,” I heard Fiona reply.

Darkness swallowed me whole, though I could still hear their voices and their conversations. It took me a while to completely disconnect—or maybe it was just seconds. I no longer had a notion of time. I focused on Ramin, remembering the Ekar bird and its fiery form as it crashed into Shaytan, setting him ablaze.

I feared hope, in general, but I couldn’t help it this time. I reached out to it in my sleep, wishing it would come to me in the burning form of Ramin—the one Hermessi that might still be on our side. Emphasis on “might.”