They didn’t stop. They all attacked at once. She pushed out with her magic, forcing them back. They came again. She tried to push them back once more, but her magic sizzled out. The strain of her missing dragon was too much. She felt like she was about to burst. She managed to throw up a magic barrier around herself. One of the people slammed against the barrier, and he died on impact. Sera felt his magic and life unravelling, fading.

Her barrier shook. It was fading fast against so many opponents. She felt the threads of her mind splitting. She was breaking. But she had to hold herself together. Breaking while Alden was here, watching over her, would not be good for her. It would give him power over her.

Sweat dripped down her face, down her neck. Her whole body was shaking, convulsing. She dropped to her knees. Blood splattered against the pavement. Her nose was bleeding, and that was just the beginning. She felt like her body was being ripped apart. Her hands hit the cracked, decaying pavement, her skin scraping against the rough and rippled surface.

She heard Kai’s voice, distant, faint. She looked up and caught a glimpse of him standing in the shadows of a broken building. Alex and Logan moved in behind him. They were surrounded by monsters, but they were fighting them off.

Kai met her eyes. The world went silent. The whirlwind of emotion and magic tearing at her overloaded her senses, turning them off one by one. Her tongue went numb. Her body shook, her magic rocking it hard to get out. It wanted to explode.

Sera watched Kai and the others fight the monsters. Were they really here, or was this just another one of Alden’s tricks? She felt a gentle pressure on her hand, and she turned. Alex was beside her.

“Alex?”

Alex smirked at her. “Who else?”

“Alden…”

“Push him out, Sera.”

“I’m not sure that I can.”

“I’ll help you. We’ll do it together.”

Alex slapped her other hand against Sera’s, and Sera felt a surge of magic flare up inside of her. It burst from her, knocking Alden out of her mind. With him gone, his illusions began to fade one by one, dissolving away. Sera reached for her dragon in this fading world, drawing Amara back inside of her.

At that moment, that instant they linked, Sera’s mind cracked. A shockwave of cascading magical explosions shook her. The whole illusion shattered like a broken mirror, and then they were inside of a plain concrete room, surrounded by Alden and his minions.

She could feel something odd from Alden, like her surge of power had temporarily cut off his connection to his people. They were dazed, their magic weak. Kai and Logan were cutting through them easily. Alex stood at Sera’s side, holding her hand. Sera looked past the skirmish. Alden was retreating, stumbling back, and it was then that she realized something. When she’d broken the connection between Alden and his people, she hadn’t just weakened them. She’d weakened him too.

As his people fell, Alden cast a glyph on the floor. Alex ran forward, trying to stop him, but he’d already stepped onto it. The spell snapped shut, sealing his escape. He was gone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A Power Beyond Imagination

SERA STEPPED OUT of the tiny concrete building, her arm linked in her sister’s. Outside, the weather was sunny, pleasant, and alive with chirping birds. Nothing here hinted at the horrors inside that prison—or whatever the building was. It was no larger than a single room.

Up ahead, Kai and Logan walked down a path overgrown with weeds, trying to figure out where they were—and whether there were still enemies about. Sera’s pulse throbbed, popping against her skin. A slight twitch lingered in her body, though adrenaline had washed most of that away—that and a pounding need to thoroughly kick Alden’s ass.

“Your magic is full of attitude. I like it,” Alex told her, grinning.

“Alden won’t like what he unleashed when I find him.”

A vicious gleam shone in Alex’s eyes. “No, he won’t.” She linked her fingers with Sera’s. “How much of what we went through inside of there was real? And how much was an illusion?”

“I don’t know,” replied Sera. “Alden could have teleported us away. Or he could have just fooled our minds. I don’t know. And that bothers me.”

“Yeah. If he could transport us away, then his power is beyond imagination. And if he could weave such an elaborate illusion that none of us could sense it, then his power is also beyond imagination.”

As they emerged from a grove of trees, a big metal fence came into view. From the looks of it, the fence surrounded the whole place. And past it, a thick forest stood as a second barrier.

“The front gate is that way,” Logan said, pointing off to the right.

Kai didn’t question him. He just walked beside him in silence as they followed the fence.

“Our guys are getting along,” Sera whispered.

“Aww, it’s so cute.”

Kai had been right to trust Logan. The front gate soon came into view. And past that gate a huge SUV was driving down the road right at it. Just as Sera thought the car would crash, a blast of wind magic tore off the gate, shooting it into the air. It landed with a heavy clang on the street as the car screeched to a stop in front of Kai and Logan. The doors spread open, and the commandos stepped out, their big sunglasses sparkling in the light.

Kai looked at them for a moment, then said, “What took you so long?”

Tony’s face was the epitome of professionalism. He launched immediately into his report. “When you didn’t arrive at the airport, we tried calling you. You didn’t pick up. We figured you were either dead or captured.”