My earlier assessments had come true, I realized, as Hermessi who’d been forced into servitude to Brendel for the sole purpose of protecting their children no longer had a reason to support her. We had their kids, and we were taking them away.

“They finally realized what’s really going on,” I said. “The Hermessi whose children Brendel stole… they all opposed her before. We are saving their children, so—”

“They’re helping us,” Kiev said, equally astonished.

Fire, Earth, Water, and Air crashed into the remaining ritual supporters. Fireballs mingled and tore at one another, causing streaks of bright orange, green, blue, and white to stretch across our field of vision. The elements turned on their own, if only to give us a better chance at escaping.

My heart swelled as I recognized Ramin and his earlier rebels joining in, viciously attacking the very Fire Hermessi that had tried to keep us grounded in the first place. It was truly an extraordinary spectacle—while it was chilling and of cosmic proportions, I couldn’t stop myself from admiring its inadvertent beauty.

The Hermessi’s war was a feast for our eyes, like fireworks exploding in the black void of outer space. This was our last shot to return to The Shade in one piece.

Kafei knew it. Bracing herself for the surge of serium energy going directly through her, she gripped the cables in Kiev’s hand and resumed her spell chants. Her hands burned blue, and she cried out from the searing pain, but she didn’t give up.

She held on and completed the chants, as the ranks of rebel Hermessi grew outside against the ritual supporters. I saw the serium batteries die out as all the energy was transferred into Kafei’s body. She glowed as she pulled her hand back, dropping the dead cables. All the power had nestled inside her.

“Hold on!” she croaked, and slapped both hands against the pilot panels in front of her.

The energy surge flowed through the shuttle, sending sparks flying from different parts of the ship. It spread outward, causing everything to turn white for a split second. Every piece of the shuttle, every cog and grate, every wire and metallic plate, every single damn atom burst brightly as the power exploded farther out and supercharged the interplanetary spell bubble.

For a brief moment, we were all surrounded by a sea of luminescent white, before it vanished, and the spell bubble gained a speed well beyond supersonic. Time and space warped around us, the Hermessi’s skirmish turning and twisting like color drops stirred into a glass of black water.

Seconds passed. I felt my entire being disintegrate, as if pieces of me were falling apart, somehow. It was just the effect of a solid object going through hyperspace with unprecedented velocity. Stars shot past us—thin white lines that vanished before we could even acknowledge their existence.

Slowing down seemed to take forever, as not a single member of our crew dared to say anything. We were all paralyzed. I wondered if we were even breathing at this point.

Hours passed, as far as I could tell, before the universe around us regained its better-known form. We flew past planets and unfamiliar solar systems. We saw galaxies expanding in spirals of sparkling blue, pink, and yellow, with giant stars in the middle—like directors of this extraordinary space ballet. Silence reigned supreme as the spell bubble hummed softly.

“Is… Is it over?” Basti asked, her voice raspy. She’d been gripping the armrests with such strength that her knuckles had turned white.

“I think so,” Kafei replied, wobbling. Corrine, Ibrahim, Mona, and the other witches around her kept her up, flanking her on all sides and holding her close as she regained her strength with a dozen tonic vials.

“You did it,” Kiev said from the floor.

I hadn’t even seen him fall, but, given the sudden speed of our interplanetary spell bubble, I was surprised to see him in one piece. He could’ve easily gotten himself thrown around like a rag doll. My seat straps had been digging into my flesh through the leather suit, but I was thankful I’d had them on.

“How are you still alive?” Mona asked him, both eyebrows raised.

“I’m not sure. I blacked out,” Kiev replied. “I’m not even sure what happened…”

“Kafei practically wormholed us out of there,” Mona said. “I was so focused on her, I didn’t even see you fly backward.”

Kiev chuckled. “Don’t feel guilty. It all happened too fast.”

“But we made it,” Basti interjected, staring at me.

This time, I was more confident in my smile. “We made it. You’ll be kept safe until we stop the ritual, I promise.”

She almost melted in her chair, her lips stretching into a satisfied grin. She tilted her head back, enjoying the soft hold of the headrest, and stretched her legs. “Thank you,” she mumbled before succumbing to a deep sleep.

The other Hermessi children were also exhausted, barely holding on to consciousness, but they could rest easy now. The hardest part was over, and we were headed back to The Shade. While Derek sent word back to GASP about the success of our mission, I gazed out through the shuttle’s windshield, hoping that Ramin had already taken his increased rebel ranks out of that planet system altogether.

We had much work to do, and we needed every rebel we could get on our side. In the meantime, our universal fate continued to rest in the hands of Taeral and his crew. It was time to speak to Nuriya and find out if she’d heard from them.

Our contribution, while minimal in the grand scheme of things, was worthless if Taeral didn’t emerge with a completed Thieron for Death. Looking at Basti again, now fast asleep and safe, I basked in a sweet sense of relief. Minimal or not, it was worth it.

Taeral

Time did not forgive. Whether slowed down or sped up, it continued its linear flow, sooner or later. It did not wait. It did not stop. And it certainly did not care about what went on in the outside world as we struggled to make sense of the Soul Crusher’s puzzle. The urgency was ours and ours alone to feel. The agony, the frustration, and the simmering anger bubbling beneath the surface… it all belonged to us. We had to deal with it. We had to overcome it.

Time had nothing to do with it.

We’d stopped in the umpteenth room with an arrow painted on its floor. I’d yet to touch it with Eirexis, knowing it would yield the same result as before. Nothing changed. The wall it pointed at would pull back with a few clicks. It would slide aside and reveal yet another hexagonal room. This maze went on forever.

“So, what could we possibly try differently?” Varga asked, no longer hiding his doubts.

Dismay had settled over us. Hopelessness threatened to dull our minds into inaction. And inaction meant death—for ourselves, either physical or spiritual; for our worlds, our families and friends; and for the many undiscovered planets out there that were dealing with this Hermessi nightmare without fully understanding what it entailed or why it was being carried out in the first place.

“The arrow is no longer an option. Let’s start there,” Amelia said, holding on to the little thread of hope that still lingered in a few of us.

She toured the room, checking every wall, every joint and corner. Her study offered no new insights, though. Suddenly feeling that inkling of hope slipping through her fingers, Amelia put her back against the wall and slid down, settling on the cold floor. “I’ve got nothing,” she admitted, tearing up.

Raphael joined her, crossing his legs and putting an arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead, closing his eyes in the process. Riza sighed and sat with them, swiftly accompanied by Herakles, who took Amelia’s hand in his, squeezing softly.

“It’s not over yet,” he said.

Soon enough, Lumi, Nethissis, Eva, Varga, and Eira had also taken their places around Amelia, each of them comforting her whichever way they knew best. Amelia was the first to come apart at the seams, and none of our crew seemed able to bear watching that. No one wanted to see her suffering like this. It was one thing to endure physical exhaustion and gaping wounds, and another completely to succumb to hopelessness, to unravel and unwillingly hurl toward utter despair. It wasn’t in our nature to give in, and we couldn’t let any of our friends surrender, either.

“There’s something we’re missing here,” Lumi said after a while. “Something we’re taking as normal and expected, but it isn’t. Not really. It’s staring us right in the face. We just need to see it.”

“Ironically, it’s when we know it’s there that we don’t see it,” Nethissis replied. “The more we look for it, the better it hides.”

Amelia sobbed quietly, surrounded by Raphael and her friends. I stood on the outside, not because I didn’t want to comfort her as well—I did, with all my heart. But I had to stay focused, to dig through the patterns and the apparent nothingness that we’d stumbled into, in order to find a way out. My father was Brendel’s prisoner, and he was also under the Hermessi’s influence. We were cut off from the rest of the world, and my mother was probably climbing the walls, unable to reach me. The Hermessi were still racing to push us into the apocalypse and to wipe us all off the map.

Those I cared for most beyond these wretched walls were grieving and scared out of their minds, struggling to fight against the current as the stream of hazards continued to swell and drag them all down with it. We’d managed to get Eirexis. Zetos was within our reach. We’d made it farther than anyone else before us. Why give up now, when we were so damn close?

But Lumi had a point. Something here wasn’t right. Something here was escaping us. And judging by the distant booms outside, I wasn’t sure how much longer we had to investigate. The Hermessi would eventually come down and break this spell. They wouldn’t be able to do anything to Zetos or the Soul Crusher, but they could easily pull us out and torment us, kill whomever they could, and force us out of here, without remorse.

And it would all have been for nothing, unless I walked out of here with Zetos in my hands, first.

“Is it just me, or are you kiddos stuck?” the Soul Crusher asked.

I rolled my eyes. “I think at least one of us has said it before, but, unless you want to help us, you should hold your tongue,” I said.

“Oh, testy. Okay. Well, just to let you know, this puzzle won’t last much longer. Your friends outside are putting up a good fight, but the Hermessi outnumber them, and Brendel… ugh, she’s relentless,” the Soul Crusher replied.

“So not helping!” I snapped. “What did I just say?”

He giggled, but his voice faded away. Glancing at my crew, I noticed Amelia staring at Eirexis in my hand, her tears drying up. Deep down, hidden in the depths of my sullen consciousness, an idea blossomed. A fleeting thought, something so faint and fragile that it might die before it could see the light of day… on the tip of my tongue.