I hit the ground hard.

A bone popped somewhere in my shoulder, sending trillions of burning knives through my flesh. Blood and sweat dripped from my face, instantly crystallized upon landing on the frozen dirt.

The temperature had dropped some more, and while I was heated by the fires of combat, I could still tell there was a frosty hell building around us. Ice made its way up the black trees, spidering across the cracked bark as it reached for the branches. Dragons made of steam rolled out of my mouth as I groaned from the pain of simple movements, such as trying to get myself back up.

Riza was in front of me, hacking and slashing left and right with her sword, zapping herself a yard here and another yard there just to keep the Shills confused and busy enough not to come at me while I was still down.

Needless to say, I was losing this. I didn’t want to admit it, but I could feel it. All my might had simmered into aching muscles and too many cuts and bruises to count. It hurt to even sit up, and it was only a matter of time before one of these monsters snuck around Riza and chomped my head off. It wasn’t death that I was afraid of, to be honest. It was the agonizing pain they would inflict on me, and the thought that I’d never see my friends again. As much as we poked one another whenever we got a chance, Raphael and I had grown incredibly tight. I could tear down entire armies for this guy, and he was ready to do the same for me.

Only, in this instance, the odds weren’t in our favor. Too many Shills, no time or room to get close to one another for Riza or Taeral to teleport us away from this place. All I could do was watch my crew fight, bloody and ruthless, until they got tired. At the first sign of weakness, the Shills would overpower one or more of them. They’d already taken me down. Riza was close to exhaustion, as well. I did appreciate her efforts to keep me safe, though.

I had a thought that, maybe, if we got lucky enough to survive this, somehow, I might kiss her for saving my ass. She’d probably slap me right afterward, but… it would be worth it.

I wasn’t blind. I saw how she looked at me, whenever she thought I wasn’t watching. I’d learned to identify those glimmers of desire and curiosity in her amethyst eyes. For a while now, I’d spent my spare moments wondering what her lips would taste like. How she’d feel against my body, my arms wrapped around her.

It looks like I’ll never find out.

I didn’t want to come across as a quitter, and I sure as hell wasn’t a coward, but even I had to admit, it didn’t look good for us. The Shills kept coming. The more of them we stabbed in the head, the more emerged from the bowels of Cerix. They were the Hermessi’s doing, for sure—it didn’t take a genius to figure that out, especially since we could practically feel the three elements watching us struggle against them. They also represented the lengths to which these entities were ready to go to, just to catch and destroy us.

That, I found a little flattering.

“We’re not getting anywhere with this!” Riza said, gritting her teeth. She’d just taken down two Shills, only to see them replaced by two more. “They keep coming, dammit!”

“Listen, Riza, leave me be,” I replied, still halfway into getting myself back up. My knuckles pressed against the frosted ground, while I struggled to push my knees upward. I looked as though I must’ve had one too many gallons of the succubi’s spiced rose water. “Get the others. It’s too late for me.”

“Don’t be stupid!” she said. “I’m not letting you die here!”

“We’ll all die if you don’t get to the others!” I shouted.

I spotted Eira and Inalia across the festering puddle of bloodthirsty Shills. They were both watching this nightmare unfold, but there was something different about Inalia. She said something to Eira, something that made her nod, despite the tears streaming down their cheeks. My chest constricted. I had a feeling I knew what the conversation was about.

“Riza, you need to get Inalia and Eira out of here,” I said, my gaze fixed on the Hermessi girls. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t do it myself. I barely managed to get into an upright position, with Riza constantly fighting off the Shills that had now seen me standing again.

“How?! These bastards keep following me around whenever I teleport!” Riza replied, genuinely and understandably frustrated.

“You have to figure something out,” I answered. “I told you, stop fretting about me.”

Glancing around the area, I saw Taeral struggling with Shills as he tried to protect the injured Brothers of the Shadows. Eight were left—the monsters kept sneaking past Taeral and snatching them away from their cluster. Taeral couldn’t risk teleporting them away. First, he probably couldn’t bring himself to leave the rest of us, not even for a moment. Second, he most likely worried the Shills would teleport right after him. We weren’t yet sure of what maximum distance they could zap themselves across, but we couldn’t exclude the possibility of them reaching Taeral all the way to the edge of the woods, at least.

Everything was happening too fast. Too much of everything at once. It left little time to make any kind of rational or productive decision.

Varga and Eva had managed to get side by side, about sixty yards from Amelia and Raphael. They weren’t faring well, either. Varga’s barriers were dropping in intensity, even though he syphoned energy from the Shills. The amount of mental power he took in was proportionally lower than what he put out through his barrier attacks, and his recharging times got shorter as the Shills figured out what he was doing.

But Inalia was the one who worried me the most. The look on her face told me we were reaching the end of a road I’d hoped we’d never get to. She stepped forward, putting more distance between her and Eira. The Shills snarled at her, but, for the first time, she didn’t seem intimidated.

“I demand to speak to the Hermessi of Cerix,” Inalia called out to the raging winds above us. “I’m ready to take my place!”

Everything came to a stunning standstill. The Shills all froze, all black eyes fixed on her. The occasional growl slipped from their crowd, but none made a move—not toward her, and certainly not toward us. This was equal parts creepy and concerning. It was as if they’d all turned into statues, though their mangled expressions showed curiosity, rather than rage or hunger or whatever else drove them to keep attacking us.

“What? What are you doing?!” Taeral blurted, his eyes wide.

“Oh, man,” I grumbled, fully understanding what Inalia was doing.

She gave him a pained smile. “What I should’ve done a while back. Tae, let’s face it, this isn’t going anywhere.”

“No, you can’t! We still have time!” Taeral replied, then tried to step forward, in a bid to reach her before she could do anything else. The Shills didn’t move, still focused on Inalia, but Eira intervened, unexpectedly. She drew water from below and shot it at Taeral in thousands of icy pellets. They hit him hard enough to stop him in his tracks. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Stand back,” Eira said firmly, though even I could tell she hated every second of what was happening. She’d probably made a promise to Inalia, and she was determined to keep it.

“Eira,” Taeral mumbled, shocked by this sudden change in the Hermessi girls’ demeanor. “We’ve been trying to save Inalia. Why are you…”

His voice faded as the winds grew stronger. The black trees of Lemnos Woods began to groan and bend under the gale-force currents that gathered around us. It became difficult to breathe, the air too cold and heavy to take in. Water poured from the charcoal whirlpool of clouds above. Inalia certainly had Air, Earth, and Water’s attention now, and their increasing presence sent shivers through my limbs.

Instinctively, I caught Riza’s hand and pulled her closer. The Shills were still motionless, and annoyingly so. To think we’d been fighting them for so long, and all it took to stop them was Inalia giving up. Son of a…

“It’s my decision,” Inalia said, her eyes still wet as she tried to keep it together. “Eira is doing what I asked.”

“I’m not happy with this, by the way!” Eira said, trembling.

“There’s no other choice,” Inalia replied.

“Inalia… Don’t…” Taeral was utterly distraught.

Amelia sighed. “Tae. She chose this.”

The ground started to shake, as if announcing the Hermessi’s physical approach. We were dangerously close to butting heads with them. I felt Riza’s hand grip mine tighter. It gave me the sliver of courage I needed. “Cerix needs a Fire Hermessi. Our library work hasn’t yielded anything useful.”

“We don’t know that yet!” Taeral barked, now furious. “We read a lot, we took some notes! We were supposed to sit down and discuss them before anything else! The answers aren’t just given to us, here. We have to work for them.”

“The Shills have us surrounded,” Raphael said. He, too, was displeased with what we’d been reduced to. “There’s no time to study any notes.”

“Enough with this!” Inalia cut in, her lower lip trembling. She glanced at Eira. “They’ll be here soon.”

I could feel that. The cold winds practically slapped us. The earth continued to shake, making it even harder for me to stand. The rain intensified, casting curtains of water between us. Eira nodded once more, then looked at Riza. “Bring us all together, now, while the Shills are standing still.”

Riza didn’t hesitate. She zapped us across the mass of monsters, then linked hands with Taeral and the eight remaining Brothers. A second later, she got us to Amelia and Raphael, then Varga and Eva. When we reached Eira, Taeral moved to break from the group so he could try to convince Inalia not to do this yet.

But even I could tell there was no changing her mind at this point. It hurt like hell for all of us to see the girl go, but it seemed to be a lot more painful for Taeral. I knew he had a soft spot for her—only, I didn’t realize how soft it was, until now.

“Don’t!” Inalia said to him as he reached out to touch her.

Eira pulled him back and forcibly caught his hand. “Tae, she’s made up her mind.”

“This isn’t right,” Taeral replied.

“But it is, Tae,” Inalia said, smiling gently. Her skin lit up in shades of amber and orange. Fire burned beneath, brighter and mightier than ever. It was as if her entire being was becoming aware of what she was and what she was ascending to. “It’s okay. I’m going to be okay…”

“You don’t know that!”

“I do. Now, go!” Inalia whispered.

Her features vanished altogether, as her figure was filled with a blinding light. I felt Amelia’s hand catch mine, while Riza held the other. I heard Taeral say something else, but I couldn’t make anything out. The winds howled. The ground split beneath us. Chunks of it shot out, throwing the Shills off balance.

I got one last look at Inalia before we all vanished and left her behind, and before the gaping earth could swallow us whole. We weren’t sure the Shills wouldn’t be able to follow, but we had to get away from all this. Becoming a Hermessi didn’t sound like something I’d want to be close to when it happened.

Lumi’s voice made me realize where we had transported to. “I was about to set up a tracking spell to come find you!” she exclaimed as soon as she saw us appear before her, the emperor, and Trap Mellon, inside the palace.

Suddenly, it was quiet. No more growls and hungry snarls. No more screams of pain or muffled groans. No more bodies dropping, bones breaking, or flesh tearing. There weren’t any Shills around, but I couldn’t feel any true relief. We’d just left Inalia behind, so she could become the next Fire Hermessi. The sacrifice we’d all been striving to stop… it had been made, nonetheless.