What would she do then?
I stared at Nimue, at the beauty hidden behind a mask of blood, at the eyes gone wild, at the face set on snarl. It was easier to see the woman within now, to glimpse the iron usually covered by velvet, the warrior instead of the queen. And the vicious pride that matched anything Aeslinn could boast.
I thought I had my answer.
Which was why, the next time Aeslinn sent a blast back at her, laden with cutting sand and smothering earth, I didn’t oppose him. Instead, I helped, adding whatever small effect I had to the strength of his assault. And maybe I was more powerful than I’d thought, or maybe he was just overcompensating for my previous efforts. But for whatever reason, the blow landed.
And it landed hard.
I heard Nimue scream, saw the shock register, saw her personal shields dissolve in tatters. And saw her look up at the only other protection available to her, which was also the only thing keeping out the inferno. It was barely a flicker of her eyes, but it was enough to tell me that I’d been right.
Because if she was going down, she was taking Aeslinn with her.
He realized it the same moment I did, but he was halfway across the arena and the shield’s source was on her arm. He dove for it anyway, and with his speed, he might have made it. I’ll never know if throwing everything I had left at him was enough to slow him down, or if Nimue was just that fast.
I only know he missed.
And suddenly, the world was fire.
It burned through the towering stands that rose around us on every side. It blew through the air in flaming bits scattered through choking clouds of smoke. It roared in the howl of the winds that were released when our protection dropped. And it sizzled in the avalanche of spells that threatened to melt the very sand underneath my feet.
Instead, they knocked me backward, throwing me the length of the arena, like a blow from a giant’s club. The body I was using hit the stands, felt the searing heat, saw a mass of flaming wood towering precariously overhead. And then saw it come crashing down in a cascade of fire, like a flaming waterfall, as I screamed and screamed and—
The world shifted and slurred, with the fire running together in long blurred lines across my vision. Ones that swiftly changed from orange-red to blue-black, and from intense heat to freezing rain. I realized that I was tearing through the sky, my body racked with pain, like it was still on fire even with a torrent bucketing down around me.
I had a second to understand that I was back inside my own skin, and that the rain felt like a massive deluge because I was speeding through it, my thighs clamped around something that looked a lot like a broom. And that there was a witch behind me, throwing curses at the fey running below, a wand in either hand, and laughing despite the speed of the ground rushing by underneath. And then something hit us, blowing us out of the sky and sending us crashing into the ground.
The impact was enough to stun me and possibly more. For a moment, I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t move. There was a roaring in my ears, a numbness in my limbs, and a feeling like my chest might just explode.
Because I also couldn’t breathe.
And then my body convulsed and flipped to the side, allowing me to gasp in air like a beached fish. And to realize that we’d landed in the great field in front of the arena, which was now mostly churned-up mud. And charred grass from the world’s biggest bonfire raging a few dozen yards away.
It wasn’t nearly far enough.
The heat was scorching, hitting my face and then my palm when I raised it to shield my eyes from the sparks flying everywhere. Including upward, where I watched in disbelief as what looked like a fiery gash opened up in the heavens. Red and livid against the haze of firelight and vast blue blackness, it looked like a great wound towering above us, one that my mother’s spell was trying hard to close.
Trying, and failing.
Because Aeslinn’s device was still intact.
We’d tried to slam the door, but we hadn’t been fast enough, and now Ares had a foot in it. Or a hand, because that was what my mind insisted I was seeing. A giant hand, ripping through the fabric of space and time, forcing his way into our world.
“Options,” I whispered, but this time, my power didn’t respond. Maybe because of the lead weight that seemed to be dragging on me, as Ares’ power tamped down whatever remained of mine. Or maybe because there was nothing to show.
Billy Joe emerged from my skin, where I guessed he’d possessed my body while I was away. I hadn’t noticed, since for once he’d been silent. And still was, staring upward in disbelief for a moment, before looking at me, his eyes huge. “He’s coming through.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Cassie! What the hell?”
“We lost.”
“What? You can’t just— Do something!”
He was staring at me, like a child expecting Mommy to fix this. And suddenly, I was angry. Suddenly, I was furious. “I did. It wasn’t enough.”
“Then do something else! Don’t just lie there and say we lost. You’re Pythia!”
“So are they!” I gestured outward. I didn’t see the others; my eyes were too bleary with rain and blowing ash, and I doubted they were stupid enough to be out in the open anyway. But their power was here, slow and sluggish, spreading across the ground like fog.
And useless, just like mine.
Because of course it was. Ares might not know he had half the Pythias who ever lived here, but he knew he had at least one. And one is all it takes.
So he wasn’t taking any chances, wasn’t risking having one of us flit back in time and get more, wasn’t going to let us do anything. And God, he was powerful! He wasn’t even here, was still struggling to push open a door that was trying its best to close on top of him, was still battling my mother’s spell. Yet my power was all but useless.
I suddenly remembered something she’d said once, to the demon council. Reminding them how she’d fought whole demon armies to a standstill in her day, and how Ares was every bit as powerful now as she had been then. And about how, if he came back, we would have no way to stand against him.
And here I was, seeing the truth of it.
I stared upward, the tears on my face mixing with the rain, and despaired. How had we ever thought we could do anything? Small and puny, weak and frightened. How had we ever thought—
And then someone grabbed me.
I was jerked up out of the mud, not by the Svarestri soldier I’d been expecting, maybe because most of them had stopped fighting and were also just standing there, looking upward in awe. But by someone else. Someone familiar. Someone with burning green eyes staring at me out of a blackened face.
Someone I’d never thought I’d see again.
“Pritkin?”
He grabbed my shoulders, but instead of hugging me, he pushed me backward. “Go!”
“What?”