She stepped up to the wall of magic flapping in the wind like an enormous sheet of transparent fabric. It was invisible to normal senses, but not to a Sniffer’s senses. It reeked of Alden, of sugar-sprinkled compost with a side of vinegar poured over burning rocks.

She punched her fists against the barrier. It rippled over her hands like elastic gel, jiggling, holding. She drew on more magic. Amara added her own power too. The spell flickered, then the whole barrier went visible. It was huge, covering all of the building like a web of melted plastic wrap. It rippled and shook like a flag going wild in the wind, the color slowly draining from it. Dark blue gave way to lighter and lighter tones as the barrier thinned. Until finally, it was pale, nearly clear. With a harsh crack, it popped like a balloon, the echo howling down the streets, a shockwave of sound that set off car alarms across the city as it whisked past.

“Well, I think they know we’re here,” Cutler commented.

Kai strode forward, grim determination burning in his eyes. He took the lead into the building, not looking the least bit surprised when Sera closed up beside him.

“I can’t let you have all the fun,” she told him.

Before he could answer, a pair of supernaturals drinking the Alden Kool-Aid rushed into the entrance hall to greet them with nefarious smiles and putrid-green blasts of magic. A blast hit one of Kai’s allies. The man shrieked and convulsed in agony as the vile curse slowly devoured his body.

More of Alden’s people flooded the hallway, dozens of them, but Kai charged straight for the mage who had cast the curse. Sera rushed toward the other curse-caster, a fairy woman. The others in Alden’s army weren’t as strong. They were using only normal magic.

Sera zigzagged through the battlefield, dodging steel and magic. One of the vampires tried to grab hold of her, but she rolled under his legs and hopped up on the other side. She kept running for that fairy. Magic swooshed and sizzled, the glass walls singing with hundreds of overlapping notes, each with a different resonance.

Sera closed up behind the fairy. She slammed her fists into either side of the madwoman’s head, breaking her magic as she pounded. As the fairy went down, a body flew over Sera’s head. It was the male mage who’d been using dark magic. He hit the wall, his head twisted at an unnatural angle. The impact had broken his neck. Sera could feel the fairy stirring. She looked up at Sera, green fire flaring to life in her eyes, a smirk on her lips. Sera lifted her sword and stabbed the woman through the heart before she could curse anyone else.

Sera and Kai pressed on, the others close behind. They made their way through the building, chopping and slashing, burning and blasting. But Alden’s followers kept coming. How many of them were there?

The hallway opened up into a large central chamber. A line of mages and fairies barred their path, vile magic sizzling on their hands, manic delight dancing in their eyes. Sera prepared herself to run at them, to take them down before they hurt anyone with their dark spells. Something loud popped, then fizzled out, like a bottle of champagne being opened.

“Stop!”

The magically-charged voice echoed through the chamber, bouncing off the walls, multiplying with every passing moment. Finn rose from a chair set atop a raised platform. Carved from stone, it looked like some kind of throne. Alden’s forces parted, moving to the sides of the room as Finn descended the stairs to the floor. But their eyes remained trained on Kai’s forces.

“Where is your master?” Kai asked his cousin.

“Out of your hands.”

“Alden has escaped through a portal,” Sera whispered to Kai. That must have been the loud pop she’d heard as they entered the room.

“He has fled in fear,” Kai said to Finn, smiling.

“The great Alden is not afraid of you.”

“That’s not what it looks like to us.” Kai looked at his forces. “Let it be known that the Grim Reaper is a coward.”

Sera knew Alden wasn’t afraid. He was too arrogant, too devious, to be afraid. Something else was going on here. Something that reeked like five-day fish left out to rot.

“Stop calling him that!” Finn exclaimed.

“A coward? But that is what he is.”

Finn gritted his teeth. “Watch your mouth, cousin. Alden did not flee. He only ever does exactly what he intends. Everything is calculated. Everything is as he wants it to be. And he wanted you to come to us. You and your allies.”

His eyes panned across the room, then settled on Sera. “My dear Sera. You should have taken Alden’s offer while you still had the chance.” He looked past her to address Kai’s forces. “Kai has lied to you all. He told you that you were fighting for justice. He rallied you against the great Alden. He told you that Alden was a monster. But all the while, you’ve had a monster hiding within your ranks.” He pointed his finger at Sera. “That woman is not a woman at all. She is an abomination.” The word slid off his tongue with satisfaction. “A mage of forbidden magic. Dragon Born.”

Those two words echoed unnaturally in the chamber, amplified by magic. Disgruntled whispers rose from Kai’s forces.

“Is this true?” one of the mages asked Kai, the captain of Margery Kensington’s security team. He’d convinced Margery to stay behind, that if something happened to Kai, they’d need someone to rally their forces against Alden.

“Alden is trying to turn us against one another,” Kai said. “He wants our alliance to fail. If it does, he wins.”