We need her at her strongest, but it’s not fair to expect him to figure out what we can’t even find a way to explain.

She pushes away from him, turning her attention to all of us, and takes a deep breath, before glancing over at the hovering dove.

“We’re ready,” she tells it.

The crow squawks, and she flips it off, before turning to face the cage again.

All my muscles grow tight, and my heart rises to my throat, pounding so hard it feels as though it’s going to escape my body. My eyes move to Paca, whose attention is solely on the cage before her as her own eyes turn volcanic.

A deafening, wind-tunnel sound kicks in, raging suddenly, as a burst of fierce air almost knocks me off my feet. Paca dives forward, and my eyes widen, as my body follows as if compelled to do so.

This is it.

The moment we’ve spent every waking hour preparing for these few short weeks, against an opponent who has had eons to hone its skills.

Purple fire blazes out, and the ground quakes beneath our feet, as Paca digs her heels in, lifts her hands, and smirks when the tar-like substance burns back.

The wind shuts off abruptly, and I note that we’re definitely inside, along with our horses, who’ve apparently fucking decided to follow us like they’re not going to get in the damn way.

The air is redder in here than it seemed through the Pure Branch outer shell, and thinner. It smells like endless sulphur, and I fight a gag, as Paca continues to break the ground to pieces and burn away the puppet tar.

“Paca, look out!” Jude shouts as a black wave of the sludge lifts from the ground behind her.

It bursts into flames in the next instant, the purple fire shattering it into ashes, as Paca moves forward, not really exerting herself to clear a path. At least that’s a damn good fucking sign.

I get distracted, seeing the most intense, focused, determined look on her face, as her dress whips in the wind.

As if it wants to rattle her, the stars above us start swirling faster and faster, spinning into a dizzying cyclone over our head until there’s a steady humming. Then, those streaks of faux stars start slashing down like burning rocks aimed right at her.

My breath catches, but Paca just continues walking, undeterred by the assault she easily deflects. A deafening roar shakes the ground we’re on, as those flaming rocks crash to the ground all around her.

Kai starts toward her, slamming his triton into the ground. The tar all around begins lighting up red, as he yells with the effort, as Paca gets lost amongst the dust and fire.

All the red tar suddenly sprays into a pile of ash, but Kai stops abruptly when we spot Paca emerge, walking through smoke at her leisurely pace, with those intense, volcanic eyes and her devilish smirk.

“Watch her back!” I shout, reminding them of our job, as though they don’t already know that.

Jude slings out his scythe, slicing through the pulse of power that almost catches me off guard, since I’m too busy watching Paca. The wind splits around us, his scythe parting the funnel of it that would have surely knocked me back into the massive hands sticking up out of the ground and reaching for me.

The creepy neigh of my horse resonates, just as it crashes into a stretched pile of goo beside me, obliterating it with some wonky power I can’t even begin to describe.

Well, I’ll be damned. The horses do have a purpose.

“Watch your own back too!” Jude gripes, chasing away the laughing puppets, as we prepare to play by Paca’s plan that scares the hell out of me.

Watch her back.

Keep our distance.

Prepare our strike.

Repeat.

It seems too simple now.

Ezekiel roars with the effort it takes for him to peel through the section of tar he’s supposed to rid the ground of, channeling his toxic power into the puppets that don’t react.

“My power is ineffective. Kai!” he shouts.

Kai flips through the air, even as I stand still, unable to look away from Paca. I lose track of all of them, my heartbeat thudding in my ears, as the fog ahead begins to clear and a lone figure’s shadow appears just a little ahead of Paca.

As if it wants us to remember we’ve invaded its territory, the ground begins to quake, the air starts to heat, and the whole sky of stars begins swirling this time, growing faster and faster above our heads as gravity seems to cease to exist all around us.

Everything begins floating up—tar, debris, boulders…rattling all around us as the humming overhead turns into an ominous whirring.

My feet dig into the ground, fighting against the force that’s trying to drag us toward them. The ground quakes, and purple fire sprays into the air all around Paca, as thunder and lightning crash overhead.

The wind grows more and more unbearable, the abrasive sand grinding across our bodies as they simply stare at each other through the ring of fog.

That’s when it steps out, and those collective voices sound over the wind, causing my stomach to coil with dread.

“You cannot defeat me. You die this day.”

Chapter 28

PACA

The fog parts, and before me, a human-like form steps forward through the staggering wind as though it’s as easy for it to walk through my force as it was for me to step through its.

Wearing a top hat, a tattered suit, and a mimicry of our skeletal-face war paint, it comes into full view. A chill slithers all the way up my spine, as my hair whips against my face.

Pulling the chakram from my hip, I grab my hair, lift it, and slice it off at my shoulders, letting the chopped off portion blow into the wind.

“Shall we stop posturing now and get this party started?” I ask it, lifting my other chakram.

It lifts its hand, white teeth sticking out as the skin around its mouth recedes more and more, steam flowing from the melting face.

“Surrender yourself,” those voices say without it ever moving its mouth.

It’s a little less intimidating in this form.

As my chakrams catch fire, I slide one foot back, posing for attack, and smirk. “You first.”

Chapter 29

EZEKIEL

My eyes widen, my heart drops, and my body stiffens when Paca launches the chakrams in the first strike.

Fire blazes up, and I lose sight of them for a split second. In the next, Paca is on its other side, and the chakrams are battering it in unrelenting strikes, one right after another as she goes all out.

The ground quakes, and a rock shoots up, piercing the thing right through the stomach, as the flaming chakrams continue to assail it.

It stands still, letting her attack it, still holding out its hand and repeating that same phrase over and over.

My knees wobble, and a sick feeling inches over me, as the lightning crashes into it, the flames burn against it, the ground wars it at all angles, and…it doesn’t even flinch.

“It acts like she’s not even leaving a scratch, even though she’s tearing it apart!” Kai shouts over the windstorm to me, as those stars suddenly drop, raining down on everything, including us, when Jahl finally decides to strike back.

I narrowly dodge a few, feeling trapped inside a war zone with bombs going off in every direction, dirt spraying up, as the debris clouds the air and forces me to lose sight of her.

Red flames spray up, purple flames attack them, explosions rattle my ears with every wrong step I take in this minefield, and the puppets seem to only multiply, so much like those things we fought in Hera’s ring.

Every time I catch a thin spot in the smoke and fog, I spot Paca moving at a speed I’ve never seen her use, her body blurring as she catches the chakrams and flings them out in such quick succession that it’s impossible to keep up with.

When she tears through it, it simply regenerates, never screaming in agony, never feeling pain, never reacting at all.

I gasp when she’s nailed by a barrage of those falling stars, and lose sight of her again when she’s thrown back.

But just as quickly, she leaps back through the fog, and she lifts her hand as all the falling stars still in the air explode with purple flames. Then, she lands her own massive attack. One like she’s delivered Rafael a few times.

The head is blown off of the thing this time, but a new one just shoots up in its place, as it continues to extend its hand in expectance, repeating its constant phrase.

Paca doesn’t let up, hitting it over and over again, as the ground all around them continues to explode under the pressure of her power. We continue to keep the tar down, rushing toward her back when I see an army of spears heading in from behind her.

Ezekiel beats me to them by seconds, twirling his staff and batting them down, as I flip through the fray, slicing through them, defending Paca’s weak spot.

It becomes a blur, after that. The battlefield gets disorienting, making it impossible to keep up with everything that’s going on all at once. Every time Paca cries out in pain, I have to force myself to stay attentive.

I’m no good to her dead.

Chapter 30

PACA

Not…making…a…dent…

I pick myself up off the ground again, wincing when it feels like my ribs crack, and I fight back the stinging tears as I grit my teeth and unleash all I have once again.

The earth, air, sky, and fire all attack in one blinding attack, striking the thing in front of me that merely laughs amidst the attack.

Its hand finally lowers as the dust clears, the extended invitation falling away at last.

“You die now.”