The barrier was shaking, quaking. All of Alden’s army had joined in the assault, trying to break through. Fissures split across the glowing magic surface. And then the barrier ruptured, spilling out broken shards of magic like a river of debris. The magic stream of slivers poured across the grassy ground, roaring, dissolving as it moved. Until it was nothing but smoke.

Now unimpeded, the army surged forward. Sera blasted spell after spell at them, but there were too many enemies. Olivia led the charge, lit up in a blaze of insanity, a battle hymn humming on her magic. She wove her telekinetic magic, ripping monstrous trees from the ground. She hurled them across the field, wood splintering, leaves whistling. Holy shit. There was a whole fleet of those flying trees. Olivia had grown more powerful since their last encounter.

Magic split like lightning cutting across the sky, and Kai shifted into a dragon. He swiped his massive, magic-charged talons through the air, shredding the trees. As they dropped to the ground, a mass of toothpicks and dust, a second army poured over the hill, cutting Sera’s group off.

“Ice,” Alex said.

Sera nodded, and together the sisters cast a wall of glacial ice. The ground quaked as Kai turned, positioning his body as a shield against the first army. Magic ricocheted off his sleek black scales.

Sera eyed the wall of ice. It was holding—for now. But they were completely cut off, surrounded by an army that seemed to swell with every passing second.

“We have to get out of here,” Alex said as a chunk of ice broke off the wall. The whole barrier was starting to steam.

Sera looked from the weeping wall to the soldiers beyond Kai. “This way,” she said.

She rushed toward Kai, running up his swinging tail, along his back to sit behind his neck. Alex and Logan followed, falling into place behind her. Kai lowered into his knees, then sprang up into the air. The thrill that rushed through Sera as they gained altitude stilted when she saw the mass of ghosts chasing them.

The ghosts swarmed around Kai, pushing and kicking at his passengers, trying to knock them off. Alex leapt up, blasting away a cluster of them who’d settled on one of Kai’s wings. A ghost caught her by the arm, tugging hard. Alex fell.

Sera reached out and grabbed hold of her sister’s ankle. Alex’s back banged against Kai’s side.

“Your boyfriend is as prickly as a porcupine!” Alex shouted over the wind.

“And you’re heavy,” Sera replied.

“It’s all muscle.” Alex smirked from her upside-down position. “And boobs.”

Sera snorted. “Do you think you could pull up our Wonder Woman?” she asked Logan.

“Naturally,” he said.

His hand locked around Alex’s leg, and in one smooth, easy movement that made Sera feel massively underpowered, he lifted her onto Kai’s back in front of him. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her back against him.

“Stay,” he said, his voice hard.

“Ah, Logan, were you worried?”

“When you jumped off the dragon to attack a ghost midair? Of course I was worried.”

“But not surprised?”

“At this point, I don’t think you can surprise me,” he said.

“I take that as a challenge.”

Logan sighed.

“Kai,” Sera said softly. Even though the wind was blasting hard against them, she knew he could hear her. His senses were enhanced in dragon form. “We need to find a safe place to land.”

They’d outrun the first batch of ghosts, but another swarm waited up ahead. And they’d formed a thick wall. Even though ghosts were usually non corporeal, they could turn solid. And Sera had a feeling they would do so the moment Kai flew through them, just as they launched a coordinated attack from all sides.

Kai grunted, then began to descend. Below, the landscape was green and soft and free of Alden’s forces. He landed in the middle of a grassy field. After his passengers jumped down, the dragon shifted back into a man.

“The ghosts have changed directions,” Kai said, looking up. “They’re headed this way.”

“You’re thinking about attacking them,” Sera said.

“Yes.”

“Kai, there have got to be over a hundred of them.”

“And there are four of us. I like those odds.”

Sera shook her head.

“I agree with your sweetheart,” Alex told Sera.

“Big shocker there,” said Logan.

Alex narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, what would you do?”

“For starters, I’d come up with an actual plan.”

Magic flashed like lightning through the sky, followed by the angry roar of thunder.

“A storm is coming,” commented Sera.

The lightning struck again, the thunder trailing it more quickly this time.

“It’s getting closer,” Alex said.

Logan’s eyes panned across the grassy expanse. “There.” He pointed.

They looked—and saw the storm. Except it wasn’t a storm of the skies. It was a storm of soldiers. Like a living carpet, the army streamed across the green hills, growing, never-ending.

Sera reached deep into her magic, punching it through the earth. The ground quaked and split. She pulled at it, opening a wide canyon between them and the approaching army.

“That should hold them off for a bit,” Sera said, turning toward her companions.

Alex looked from the canyon to Sera. “Cool.”

Kai set his hand on Sera’s shoulder.