Sera felt the bonds of Kai’s control snap, and then a wave of pure ice shot out of his hands toward Finn. Kai was fast, but not fast enough. Alden had boosted Finn’s magic too high, taken him too far. A wall of fire burst up in front of him, dissolving Kai’s ice.

“Nice try,” Finn told him, smiling with cool indifference. “But not good enough. You will never be good enough, Kai. Not anymore.”

Then he spun around. A stream of fireballs erupted from his hands, raging toward Sera. She poured ice across them, freezing them out of the air—all but one. The final fireball broke through the ice. She moved to duck, but Kai got there first, dissolving the fire into steam.

Sera glared at Finn. “What would your master think if you killed me?”

Finn laughed. “You need to have a little more faith in yourself, Sera. I’m not trying to kill you.”

“Then what are you trying to do, you lunatic? What game are you playing?”

“Excellent question,” he said.

The wall behind her cracked open, then Alden’s soldiers streamed into the cave. Alex and Logan turned to fight the new arrivals, pushing them out again.

“How many are there?” Sera asked.

Alex cast a magic barrier inside the opening. “A lot. I suggest you kill this clown already, and we get out of here.”

“An excellent idea,” Kai said, stalking toward his deranged cousin.

He shot a chain of elemental spells at Finn. Sera added her own magic to Kai’s, burning the storm of spells hotter. Laughing with maniacal glee, Finn waved his hand, and their magic puffed out like a birthday candle.

“Alden has made me strong,” Finn said proudly. “Stronger than you Kai.”

“But you made yourself crazy all on your own,” Sera shot back, fighting the rising fear inside of her. Finn was too powerful, and he was just one of Alden’s thousands of minions. If they couldn’t take him out, how could they hope to stand a chance against Alden himself?

“You can’t save her,” Finn told Kai. “Not forever.”

Tiles cracked and fell away as the ground opened up. Sera and Kai dropped into two neat holes, as though they’d been cut with lasers. Magic swallowed her whole, pushing her down into the seemingly bottomless pit. This was vile magic. Unnatural magic. Normal magic couldn’t create voids like this.

As she dropped, she pushed out with her magic, trying to catch her fall, but the walls just bounced it right back at her, bombarding her body with tiny splinters of pain. It felt like she was being punched a hundred times in rapid succession. Bruises blossomed up on her body, fueled by unnatural magic. Scratches covered her, several of her bones were broken, and her nose was bleeding, hot blood gushing down her face.

A horrible screech cut through the hollow silence. Sera turned her head, locating the source. It was an enormous flying beast, as large as a small airplane. Of course it had to be a flying beast, a creature that looked like something out of a prehistoric nightmare. The beast’s red eyes locked onto her, and it dove, swiping out with its serrated talons. She kicked it away, the impact making her spin in the air. As the beast passed under her, she grabbed hold of a hard knob behind its neck and climbed onto its back.

She had no sword, no knife, no weapon of any sort. She was the only weapon here—her body. She grabbed the head of the monster with both hands, digging her chipped, broken fingernails into the vile flesh. The monster screeched out in anger, trying to buck her off. She just dug in harder. Lightning sparked on her hands. She shot it through the beast’s head. It spasmed for a few seconds, then it resumed its ragged bucking. It scratched out with its claws, turning and twirling in tight loops that made Sera’s stomach churn. Acid rose in her parched throat, exhaustion burned in her muscles, but she clenched her teeth and electrocuted the beast again.

Its body seized up. The leathery wings stopped flapping, the beast’s resistance obviously at its end. It felt dead. Sera crawled around to its front and shot ice into its heart, just to be sure. Then she kicked free of it, giving it a solid shove toward the bottom, wherever that was.

The second beastly roar nearly stopped her heart. Of course Big, Bad, and Prehistoric wasn’t alone in this void of monsters. What was the fun in that? The second flying dinosaur was only about half as large as the first, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in speed. The thing zipped around Sera, its claws raking her side, lathering fresh pain onto her ribs.

The creature shot past her, then came around for another pass. It let loose a breath of magic as it turned, a vial miasma of sparkling, oozing, snapping fire rolled into a glistening dark ball as black as death itself. Sera rolled away, the mystery magic sizzling past her head. It bounced off the wall behind her and slammed into the beast, hitting it square in the chest. The creature died with a gurgled cry of wretched agony as it dissolved, liquifying into black, oily goo. Yuck.

Sera’s descend continued, no end in sight. She felt like Alice falling into Wonderland.

More like falling into hell, Amara commented as a beast swam through the air toward them. It looked like a warped cat with giant bat wings.

Think we can hit it? Sera asked.

The winged cat spontaneously combusted.

Cool, said Sera.

Here comes another, Amara told her.

Her dragon tried her magic again, but this time, the winged cat dove out of the way. Amara’s spell bounced off the glossy walls and slammed into Sera. Electricity ripped through her body, scorching her blood, burning her flesh.