Taeral glanced at us, and I could see the genuine concern in his eyes. “We can’t let her do this on her own.”

“We have to,” I said. “Getting Zetos and Eirexis out of here is important, now more than ever,” I replied. “Remember, Eira can’t be killed.”

Eira stood up. Instantly, the battles came to a screeching halt, the hostile Hermessi glowing in shades of white, blue, orange, and green, twinkling at the sight of her. Of us. My throat closed up. I really didn’t enjoy this much attention from the elementals. I could almost feel them poking through my head, even though I knew they didn’t possess such an ability. They were just so intimidating.

Lumi and Nethissis joined her. “We’ll help,” Lumi said. “I’ve still got some mojo left, and so does Nethi. We’ve come this far, dammit. Can’t let these pricks take us now.”

“What are you thinking?” Nethissis asked her.

Brendel moved away from Fallon-Kabbah. She was a shapeless blob of liquid fire, trembling and spinning through the water as she headed toward us. The other Hermessi were quick to move out and around the coral mound, as well, in a bid to surround us. It didn’t seem to set Eira back.

She was scared out of her mind, it didn’t take a sentry to tell, based on her expression and shaky hands alone, but she stood her ground. Unwilling to back down.

“As soon as you feel you can teleport, Taeral, you do it,” Lumi said. “You don’t wait for us. For any of us, you hear me?”

Taeral blinked several times. “Wha… What?”

“This is about getting Zetos and Eirexis out of here. We can catch up with one another later. What matters is that we get you out of here first,” Lumi insisted.

“They’re right, you know,” the Soul Crusher interjected, most of him still down in the coral tunnel. He rested his elbows on the upper surface, as if he’d just come up to watch a really good movie. There weren’t enough words in any of the existing languages that could possibly describe how badly I wanted to just tear him apart, limb from limb. The thought went away fast as the Soul Crusher’s relaxed expression faded away, his starry eyes widening at the sight of Brendel shooting toward us. “Um, might wanna watch out!”

Brendel was a fierce projectile at this point. We swam away from the coral mound shortly before she bombed it and exploded outward in a giant flaming flower. She clearly wasn’t as strong underwater, but her fire still burned. She could still do some damage.

We scattered, with Taeral moving back. Brendel wanted him the most. She quickly gathered herself into a tighter fireball and went after him again, but Eira was already spinning her raw elemental magic on the great mass of water around us.

It rippled out and knocked Brendel to the side, prompting her to temporarily move away from Taeral, who’d just reached the sandy bottom. Down there, he was joined by the Widow Maker and the second Reaper, to whom I was finally close enough to recognize. “That’s Seeley,” I said. “The Reaper from Hellym!”

“What is he doing here?” Raphael asked, following my gaze.

The two of us had made it fifty yards back from the exploded coral mound. I caught glimpses of Riza, Herakles, Eva, and Varga on the other side. Lumi and Nethissis released a flurry of energy spells that shimmered through the water and expanded into broad shields, but the Hermessi were able to get past them.

The Water Hermessi tried to use the ocean against Eira, but she resisted, conjuring a massive whirlpool around her. The rest of us were practically useless down here, given the titanic enemies that we were dealing with, so I pulled Raphael by the hand and swam toward Taeral and the Reapers.

I glanced back occasionally, watching as Brendel got closer to Eira, unfazed by the thick currents of water swirling around the Hermessi child. Only, as soon as Brendel approached her, Eira took her mask off and lit up in a bright blue, from head to toe. She brought her hands together in a clap and screamed through the water, bubbles rushing out of her mouth.

Taeral watched in awe as cerulean energy emanated from Eira, spreading out in concentrated rings that cut through the incoming Hermessi. To our shock, Eira had pulled some kind of ancient magic from the depths of her consciousness—likely something she’d picked up from Fallon and Kabbah, judging by the amount of damage she’d just caused. It was unbelievable, since she was only a Hermessi child. Yet something had changed inside her on a fundamental level since we’d left the Soul Crusher’s puzzle, and it was a most welcome surprise.

The nearby Fire and Air Hermessi were the most damaged, cut in burning halves by the energy rings. Fallon-Kabbah was quick to take advantage of this sudden turn, shooting through the water like a glowing green bullet and piercing through multiple Earth and Water Hermessi at once.

Brendel moved back, swirling downward to avoid the energy rings and to get closer to Taeral. Eira had managed to distract her, but we’d yet to disable the magic she’d used to stop us from teleporting. Eira needed to up her game here, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough. My stomach churned, noticing that Fallon-Kabbah’s efforts weren’t as effective as before. Or maybe Brendel had found some other trick to use against us, something that Fallon-Kabbah couldn’t tear down as easily.

To our surprise, Brendel stopped halfway through, her fire growing and swelling into a massive ball. White and orange danced across the surface as energy gathered within.

“Oh, dear,” I said.

“She’s charging up. How the hell is she doing that?” Riza’s voice came through the comms channel. They were all watching.

We got our answer soon enough, as several Air and Fire Hermessi failed to recover from Eira’s energy attacks. They withered away in flakes of white and orange, pulled toward Brendel like wandering asteroids suddenly caught in the sun’s devastating gravity pull.

“Holy crap, she’s sacrificing them to get more energy!” Raphael croaked. “She’s killing Hermessi and literally feeding on them!”

The more she consumed from the fallen elementals, the bigger she got. Dread coursed through my veins, freezing everything in its path. Brendel’s voice made its way into our heads, while Eira ran out of power. She’d put everything she’d had in those energy circles.

“Surrender Zetos and Eirexis now, Taeral, and I will spare your friends,” Brendel said.

We couldn’t teleport yet. If anything, Brendel was just getting stronger. Fallon-Kabbah left the other Hermessi to the side and concentrated his efforts on Brendel, once more. He darted toward her, but the giant fireball released a ripple of amber-colored energy that nearly obliterated him.

Fallon-Kabbah wound up floating backward, his eyes and hands burning green as Brendel’s attack missed him by mere inches. This was quickly headed toward a point of no return. There was no way Brendel was letting Taeral walk out of here with two of Thieron’s pieces, and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

“You know I will stop at nothing to complete this mission,” Taeral replied.

“That’s nice, but we both know you don’t have what it takes to make such sacrifices. Your father and your friends? How many more people must I kill before I make you understand that only my way will shape the future?” Brendel asked.

Eira was tired after what she’d just pulled off. Fallon-Kabbah seemed spent, too. The Widow Maker and Seeley were out of options, as well; otherwise, I was sure they would’ve come up with something by now. And what scared me the most wasn’t the fact that we couldn’t teleport out of here.

No, what truly terrified me was that Taeral might hesitate. That Brendel was, in fact, right, and that he didn’t have the strength he’d hoped he would, the strength to let us and his father go to save everybody else. Taeral had a good soul, a big heart, and a noble character. He’d resisted until now, focused on his mission, but what if he couldn’t pull through, in the end?

What if this was the end of the road for us? I hated thinking like this, but I could see the look on his face. He was conflicted, and with entities as determined as Brendel, he simply couldn’t afford a second’s worth of hesitation.

No matter what Brendel did to us, Taeral had to persist and hold on to Thieron’s two pieces. No matter what.

Taeral

I knew I couldn’t surrender Eirexis and Zetos. It would’ve meant the end of everything.

However, I couldn’t let Brendel kill my friends, either. It would’ve been the end of me. Maybe Lumi and Eira would be spared, but everyone else… I cared for them all, deeply. My father, too. Every life Brendel threatened to take was precious to me, and our crew was incomplete without Amelia and Raphael, without Herakles and Riza, without Nethissis, and Eva and Varga. This entire challenge had worse odds of success without us in it.

“I take it this didn’t turn out as you would’ve expected,” Seeley said. He’d already mentioned to me that Death had sent him. We hadn’t had time to discuss the details, but I was perfectly fine with him by our side.

“I got Zetos, didn’t I?” I replied dryly.

“What about your friends?” the Widow Maker replied. “Brendel is forcing you to make an unpleasant choice. And none of us can do anything about it.”

“Is that true, though? If Brendel kills any of my friends, wouldn’t their deaths be considered unnatural and against the universal balance?” I asked, weighing my less pleasant but still potentially valid options, as callous as it made me sound.

Seeley shook his head. “We cannot intervene.”

All eyes were on me, now. I was supposed to make a choice here, and I knew what my crew would want me to do. But I just couldn’t bring myself to let them perish down here. I’d never be able to live with myself, and I was destined for an afterlife as a Reaper. That implied an eternity of… living with myself.

I wished I’d had a cold heart. I would’ve given anything to be able to sacrifice my friends and allies for this. But after losing Acantha already… there was doubt gripping me by the throat, tripping my feet and forcing me to stand still, to risk losing everything. Where was my strength? I’d had it until now. I’d held on to it. I’d fed on it, pushing my way through the Soul Crusher’s puzzles.

“Speaking of…” I murmured, looking around. Where was that maniac?

He stood not far from us, hands behind his back as he watched me intently. A smile wiggled its way across his face, and it irked the hell out of me. “Do I really need to spell it out for you, bucko?” he asked. “Can you just listen to your instincts for once, without worrying so much about everybody else?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

The Widow Maker looked down at my thigh. “Oh…”