“He’s too… calm.”

“When was that ever a bad thing?” she replied.

Whisper unstrapped his seatbelt and shot to his feet. His hands glowed orange, and my instincts were alight. He summoned a fireball in his palm and hurled it at Kafei, Corrine, and Ibrahim. It happened so fast, I barely had a second to react.

“Watch out!” I shouted.

As if gifted with eyes in the back of his neck, Ibrahim threw his arm back and cast an energy pulse which instantly disintegrated the fireball. Whisper wasn’t done, though, and I couldn’t understand why he was doing this.

I got out of my seat and darted toward him, my fight reflexes completely on and buzzing. He spotted me and threw fireballs to stop my advance. Mona appeared between us, her forearms crossed in an X as she caused a rippling shield to spread out and protect me.

Before he could launch another attack on me or Kafei, Whisper was suddenly flanked by two jinn. One tapped him on the side of his neck with the hypodermic needle ring, and Whisper’s eyes rolled into his head. He collapsed, unconscious.

Mona allowed the shield to dissipate and turned around to slap me over the shoulder. “What did I tell you about dealing with Fire elementals, in particular, huh?” she snarled.

I gave her a sheepish half-smile, knowing I’d let the urgency of Whisper’s offense get the better of me. “Let the witches or the jinn engage them, since I’m vulnerable to fire, as a vampire.”

“That’s right! So maybe remember this next time, when I might not be around to save your ass,” Mona shot back. Her anger was endearing. It came from a good place. Fortunately, I’d spent lifetimes surrounding myself with kind and loyal friends. Mona was definitely one of them.

Sofia reached us and briefly hugged Mona before rushing farther across the shuttle to get to Whisper. The jinn had already cuffed him and strapped him back down. Basti was shocked, unable to speak, and scared out of her mind as I approached her.

“I swear, I had no idea he’d do that,” she managed.

The shuttle trembled as the interplanetary spell broke through the atmosphere and left Yahwen altogether. We’d barely made it out of there, but we could already feel the temperature dropping inside, as we were no longer compressed between crippling layers of Hermessi fire.

“Why did he do that?” I asked Basti. “I thought he was on our side.”

Basti teared up, as if realizing something she’d maybe considered before, but hadn’t taken seriously until this particular incident. “I’m sorry… I think… I think he’d already decided to join Brendel by the time you got to us. We were talking about it just before you showed up.”

“She’s right,” Sofia said, looking at me. “We heard him, remember? He did contemplate giving in to Brendel. Maybe he’d already done that, and he was grooming Basti and the others in the group to join him.”

The other female fae in that initial cluster sighed deeply, shaking her head in dismay. “The fool. He should’ve known better than to come after you. It didn’t take a scientist to realize you’re all seasoned and skilled enough to neutralize a Hermessi child. I mean, we’re not even half as powerful as our parents. At best, we’re capable fae hybrids.”

“He was likely quick to understand that opposing us from the very beginning would get him stung like the others,” I said. “He waited until he was inside to make his move, only… he severely underestimated us.”

Claudia chuckled from her seat. “Not even the first time that’s happened to us.”

“That’s true,” Yuri added, crinkling his nose. “So it’s off to the galleys with Whisper, too, huh?”

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get through to him once we reach The Shade and have you all accommodated properly,” Sofia replied, looking at Basti.

“I need everybody to get back to their seats,” Corrine announced, her eyes on the windshield screen. Her expression didn’t inspire much confidence. I hated feeling like this, with the universe so… out of my control. Helpless, even.

Outside the spell bubble, the guardian Hermessi that surrounded Yahwen caught us in their crosshairs. They were joined by the Fire elementals that had stopped us on the ground. Ramin and his rebels were still around, dodging and teasing some of the hostile Hermessi, but they were no longer the center of attention.

All eyes were on us, as our spell bubble darted farther away from Yahwen.

“Needless to say, we’re in a heap of trouble,” Corrine added.

And then some, I thought. I’d hoped Ramin and his handful of rebels would keep the others busy long enough for us to get out of the solar system. But there were too few of them, and too many of the ritual supporters. The alarms had been rung, and the guardians off-planet had known we’d be coming up.

Had Gennen kept his mouth shut in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. Now, we had extremely unpleasant consequences to deal with. Our survival and the success of our mission depended on our ability to overcome them.

“Whatever you need to speed us up and get us the heck out of here, Kafei, just say so,” I said, my voice uneasy. “It’s about to get rough.”

Sofia

Buckled back in our seats, all Derek and I could do was let Kafei power up the spell with everything she could, in order to stop the guardian Hermessi from crashing into us and putting a premature end to our extraction mission.

The thought of not making it back to The Shade terrified me.

Kafei drew energy from Corrine and Ibrahim, as the Fire Hermessi we’d left back on Yahwen were the first to reach us. Out here, they didn’t seem to have the same elemental dexterity as on the ground, since they didn’t surround us with fire. Instead, they rammed into the spell bubble, repeatedly, causing our shuttle to rock back and forth in its suspended state.

Kafei cried out in pain, and Mona and a few other witches joined Ibrahim and Corrine. They touched Kafei’s back, allowing her to draw more energy and focus it into strengthening the interplanetary bubble spell. Much to my partial relief, I could see us staying on course. We had a trajectory and a destination, thus making it more difficult for the Hermessi to throw us off.

However, it wasn’t impossible.

Some of the guardian Hermessi joined in, battering the spell bubble with everything they had. Elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth from multiple worlds in the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension had teamed up to fight us, to stop us from delivering a most crippling blow to Brendel. Without the Hermessi children, she had nothing to use against rebels like those currently assisting Ramin.

But what about the others she’d already swayed into her service like that? Were they here? Were they okay with stopping us from taking their children to relative safety?

The universe unraveled ahead, black and filled with countless stars and swirling solar systems. The silence was almost deafening, occasionally interrupted by the spell bubble’s agonizing moans as the Hermessi guardians continued their attacks.

“The serium batteries aren’t fully depleted,” Kiev said, his gaze fixed on the glowing blue tanks. “There’s enough in them to make a difference.”

Mona, Derek, Claudia, Yuri, and I watched as Kiev got out of his seat and proceeded to pull the battery wires from beneath the control panel.

“This is going to hurt, but I need you to touch these ends, directly,” he said to Kafei, holding up a handful of rubber-covered cables that, until recently, had connected the serium batteries to the pilot panel in front of her.

She stared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“You need all the raw power you can get, and the pilot panel is like a filter. It’s thinning all this blue juice out,” he replied.

“Health and safety concerns were key to this!” Ibrahim hissed, scowling at him. “Do you realize what it’ll do to her if she touches the wires directly?!”

“It’ll burn through my skin, my flesh…” Kafei mumbled.

“It’s the only way you’ll get the energy burst you need to push us farther out of the Hermessi’s reach in a matter of seconds,” Kiev insisted. “Drawing from witches and warlocks and jinn is too slow, because you’re not a full swamp witch and don’t have Lumi’s ability to pull much power at once. Trust me, I’ve seen that swamp witch in action. I know what you’ll be capable of once you ascend. Until then, however, you’re limited, and I don’t see the Word stepping in to help us. If the Hermessi keep piling up on us, we will not make it out of here alive.”

Kafei thought about it for a moment, as the hard truth sank in. Kiev had a point, as much as any of us hated to admit it. Kafei was still young and inexperienced, compared to her deceased sister, Nethissis, Kailani… not to mention Lumi. The Bajang was an apprentice, and thus restrained by the rules of her position. Her magic was good, but not strong enough to pull us through with so many Hermessi focused on us.

We’d taken her on assuming we wouldn’t have to deal with all of them like this. But the worst-case scenario had already caught up with us, and drastic measures were required.

“Um… What are they doing?” Corrine asked, staring somewhere outside.

I leaned out to get a better look and found myself stunned by what we were all suddenly witnessing. The guardian Hermessi were relentless in their pursuit, but the ones we’d seen standing back at the sight of us had now turned against their colleagues, joining Ramin and the other rebels in a group attack.

The two dozen hostiles that had surrounded our spell bubble were… virtually outnumbered.