We grabbed everything we had in that room and escorted the emperor out into the main hallway. Trap and Skit moved to take him to a hidden panic room, but Lumi insisted that he’d be better off teleported somewhere else.

“If the Shills catch my scent here, we’re screwed,” Taeral said.

“Over short distances, yes,” Lumi replied.

“So, what, we take the emperor to a Hadeen town, then?” Riza asked.

Before Lumi could answer, we all heard the growls below. The Shills had breached the palace. Cerixian Armed Forces poured in from every corner, both on the ground floor and rumbling down from the upper levels.

I leaned over the balustrade to watch another Shill nightmare unfold, as the monsters tore through the soldiers’ ranks like they were nothing more than chunks of meat. Blood sprayed out. Limbs were torn. Screams and wails cluttered the open reception area, while we watched in horror from the first floor.

Lumi was pale. This was the first time she was seeing a Shill herself. “Your descriptions did not do them justice,” she murmured. “They’re much worse.” She turned to look at Trap and Skit. “Take the emperor to his panic room. We’ll distract them.”

“Wait, what?” I croaked, my skin already riddled with goosebumps at the thought of another showdown with those monstrosities.

“They’re after us, Tae,” Lumi replied firmly. “The emperor shouldn’t suffer because of that, and neither should anyone else on Cerix!”

A hiss made me turn around. Coming up the stairs, one Shill had already spotted us. Its many black eyes blinked, its whiskers twitching as it opened its jaws wide. Drool dripped onto the marble floor.

“Link hands. Outside garden first!” Lumi commanded us.

This was the one time I wasn’t willing to disobey her. This was a seasoned swamp witch we had on our side. I had to follow her lead if I wanted to survive—or that’s what my instincts screamed at me, anyway.

We caught each other’s hands as Skit and Trap took the emperor away. I had no idea what would happen to the Brothers we’d left in the room, but I hoped they’d emerge in one piece, since, as Lumi had already pointed out, the Shills were looking for us. Surely, they’d stop harming innocents once they all had eyes on us.

I teleported us out into the palace courtyard.

Here, it was worse. Bodies had already been left behind, some no longer whole. Blood glazed hefty portions of the green spaces and the stone pavement that bordered the stairs leading up to the palace building. Cerixians had already scattered—the many who had survived the Shills’ appearance, anyway. But there were plenty of monsters left around, and they were all sniffing the ground, searching for us.

One by one, they glanced up and found us.

“Okay, what now?” I asked, my voice stuck on a higher pitch.

“I can set up an interplanetary travel spell here, but I need you all to cover me,” Lumi said, and instantly got to work.

That required precious minutes I wasn’t sure we had anymore. The news quickly spread among the Shills, leaving me curious as to how they were able to communicate so quickly. The others came back out from inside the palace and… “Oh, damn,” I managed, taking the entire view in.

“Way more than last time,” Raphael concluded.

There were hundreds now! Coming down the stairs, gathering around the palace gardens. We were more than outnumbered. We were completely screwed as the Shills all locked eyes on us. The collective growl made me shiver. My stomach was practically gone. My knees were weak.

With every second that passed, they came closer, tightening the circle around us.

“I only need five minutes,” Lumi said.

“That is literally impossible this time,” Amelia replied.

“Then we’d better make the impossible happen,” Eva muttered and put her hands out. Her lips moved as she whispered a series of Druid spells. She reached into the pouches mounted on her belt, dipping her fingers in yellow-and-green dust. As her hands came back out, her fingertips glowed. She finished the incantation, and a shimmering bubble expanded around us. “This won’t hold for long.”

The Shills pounced. All of them at once. Hundreds of bloodthirsty monsters with claws and fangs that were itching to rip us apart. Still, Eva’s Druid spell worked. None could breach the bubble—for now.

“Four minutes!” Lumi announced as she continued drawing the symbols on the stone pavement and placing all the spell paraphernalia she’d brought with her in their allocated spots.

Nothing but blackness surrounded us. A vibrating mass of overly muscular beasts that continued to push against the Druid spell bubble.

“Gah, I hope the emperor and the others are okay,” Riza said, and put her palms together in a praying pose and closed her eyes. She whispered spells of her own, the kind that made her hands light up that same color as her eyes. Amethyst flakes came off her, feeding into the bubble just as shimmering cracks began to appear around us.

The Shills’ strength was incredible, if they were able to break a defensive spell like this. Eva was covered in sweat, trembling and struggling to keep it together. “I can’t hold it for much longer,” she grunted. “They’re so freaking strong!”

“Three minutes!” Lumi shouted.

Raphael produced a couple of fireballs, getting ready to throw them out. “Don’t!” Eva shouted. “I can’t sustain attacks from within at this point! I’m putting everything I have into defense.”

I didn’t even realize that Eira had tagged along with us until she gripped my forearm. “Tae, I can try and reach out to Inalia for help.”

“There you are!” I said. “You stowaway.”

She pursed her lips. “Been here the whole time.”

“Think it’s wise to call up Inalia now?” Raphael chimed in.

The Shills kept pummeling our bubble. It became increasingly difficult for both Riza and Eva to hold it up. They had no choice, though. If it burst before Lumi’s interplanetary spell, we were all lunch meat. Eira might have a shot at surviving, since she was a Hermessi child, but the rest of us? Lunch. Meat.

“Two minutes,” Lumi said.

The sound of glass cracking froze the blood in my veins. I knew what that was. The bubble was about to break, two minutes too early. Riza gasped and dropped to her knees. “I can’t… much… longer…”

“Do we have any other option?” Eira asked me. I shook my head, just as Eva collapsed, as well. The cracks in the bubble continued to appear. We were seconds away from doom. From death. “Then I’ll give it a shot,” Eira added.

She closed her eyes.

One Shill managed to stick its claws in through a gap in the spell bubble. Raphael was quick to grab the creature by the wrist and cut its entire forearm off with a single blade strike. The creature growled and pulled itself back, making room for others to try and widen the gap.

Flames exploded all around us. It startled Eira, whose eyes popped wide open. It was as if a furnace had just burst beneath the stone pavement, its devastating flames desperately looking for any form of release. The pavement burst. Shills were obliterated by multiple deflagrations. Orange blossoms swelled through the monstrous crowd.

The sight made us all still, Lumi included, as we watched it unfold.

“She was quick to respond.”

“I barely managed to think about her,” Eira murmured. “I don’t think she’s here because of me.”

Inalia’s Hermessi manifestation was majestic and destructive, all at once. As our spell bubble came down, more than a minute earlier than we’d hoped, the purest fires engulfed the entire Shill crowd. Some died on the spot, consumed by the flames. Most, however, fled, screaming and wailing, desperate to survive.

“Holy… crap…” Raphael breathed.

The fire field expanded around us, restless as it scorched everything in its path. Fortunately, only Shills were left on its radius. The Cerixians had already run to safety. Fire forgave nothing. Not grass. Not trees. Not carefully manicured flower boxes. And certainly not any of the Shills within its reach.

“It’ll take forever to regrow that lawn,” Herakles replied, and helped Riza back up, while Varga held Eva close. We weren’t sure how this would end for us. I was inclined to believe Inalia’s intervention was to help us—but I had no guarantee we’d actually make it out of here alive. Her brethren wanted us dead.

I, for one, was speechless. I hadn’t seen a fire so intense in a long time. All it left in its wake were ashes. None of the Shills caught in it survived. Not even the ones who’d tried to get away. In the end, every living organism that Inalia’s flames touched was gone. Only the stones of the pavement and the gardens’ borders were left, covered in soot.

The fire ocean dissipated. Only a flaming figure remained, about twenty yards from us, beautifully framed by the palace gates behind her. I knew we were looking at Inalia. I could tell from the way my heart pounded in my chest.

“We owe this girl a drink or two,” Varga mumbled.

We all watched in awe as she approached us. Fire licked at the air around her, emanating a pleasant heat as she got closer.