“I wonder what Danika’s thinking about all this,” Sofia said.

  “She got the airships to go after them,” Valaine replied. “But they’re not firing their cannons, so I’m guessing they don’t have a kill order yet.”

  Trev shook his head. “Definitely not. They’re trying to wear the shuttle out. I guess they’re looking to bring it down with minimal casualties.”

  “Well, they’re in for a nasty surprise, because that shuttle can go on for days before its serium batteries are depleted.” I chuckled.

  “Ridan is about to breach the atmosphere,” Sofia announced, pressing a button on her earpiece. “I think it’s time to break out the fireworks.”

  “Say no more,” Trev replied.

  He walked farther ahead, putting some distance between us and him. Whispering, he brought his hands up to his sides and drew an invisible circle around himself. Tiny threads of light formed as his fingers moved, and the circle became visible, glowing brighter with every moment.

  “It’s a beacon,” Kalon said. “His signal to the Rimian kids, so they will detonate the charges.”

  I nodded slowly, watching the light as it danced around Trev. There was beauty in mazir, I realized. Even if it was basically a watered-down version of death magic that didn’t require a scythe, it was still complex and aesthetically pleasing. The circle thickened as he uttered the last verse of the spell—in that sense, mazir reminded me more of swamp witch magic than of death magic. It made me wonder how connected the different types of magic might actually be. From the white witches to the swamp witches and the Reapers… what was the common thread that bound them together on a universal scale?

  Magic was, at its core, the manipulation of matter. From healing potions to Reaper spells, it went against the otherwise natural order and rhythm of things. When used for good, it saved lives and nurtured entire worlds. When used for evil, it destroyed lives and souls—it upset the natural balance. I found it interesting that the universe had allowed its development into so many forms.

  A beam of light exploded from the circle around Trev. It shot into the sky, visible to anyone who was looking up. The airships spotted it, too, and several tried to fly toward it, but the light vanished before they could pinpoint its precise location.

  Moments later, explosions echoed in the distance. From the hilltop, we had a full and gorgeous view of the entire city. Around it, fireworks shot into the sky—straight beams of blue and green, purple and rabid pink, red and gold. They reached for the stars before they burst into myriads of sparks and colors.

  I was breathless watching it all unfold. Fiery flowers swelled against the tourmaline backdrop. They ate all the stars and stretched out like glimmering suns. Amethysts and sapphires, citrines and rubies, they formed oversized gemstone showers that dazzled all who saw them.

  The shuttle flew between them, but the airships weren’t that capable. Some went straight into the fireworks’ explosions, parts of them coming off in plumes of white smoke. They crashed on the outskirts of the imperial city as the alarms continued to wail.

  Cannons were fired from the ground. Flaming projectiles joined the fireworks’ dances but failed to hit our shuttle. Instead, they took out more of their own airships. Amane gripped my hand, and I could feel her angst as strongly as my own. She worried for Ridan most of all.

  We looked to the east, where we knew we’d see his shuttle coming through.

  The city’s sky was ablaze and chaotic, riddled with flying monsters made of metal, cannon charges, and furious fireworks. But the east… the east was dark and quiet, with nothing but stars twinkling in the celestial silence.

  “Here he comes!” Sofia said, and we all saw the growing glimmer.

  A singular point of bright white grew in size as Ridan’s shuttle breached Visio’s atmosphere. Loud noises and flashing lights covered the imperial city, and no one was paying attention to the east. The sky rippled around the white dot. Blue circles expanded around it like a pebble had been tossed into a lake.

  “They’re in,” Sofia continued, exhaling sharply.

  Relief washed over me as I watched the white dot disappear. Our diversion mission had been a success. Ridan’s team had reached Visio, and now Esme and Tristan could go invisible, as well, and head back to the hilltop. They’d teased the Aeternae’s air forces long enough. The Aeternae had begun using the cannons, and it was time to get away before one of their projectiles caused significant damage to the shuttle.

  In the midst of all this, as we hugged and congratulated each other, I knew I had to tell Sofia something—something my sister and I had set aside since this morning, given the troubling number of issues we’d been dealing with.

  “Tristan, it’s done. Come back to us now,” Sofia said through the comms system. A second later, we saw their shuttle disappear amid the airships zooming around as the last of the fireworks burned out.

  Smoke blanketed the city, ashes sprinkling across its rooftops. The sky grumbled as the Aeternae pilots tried to figure out where Tristan and Esme had gone. Ridan’s shuttle was safely on its way to us, and I finally felt like we’d earned a small and much needed victory.

  “Well done!” Sofia laughed, hugging Trev. “Thank you!”

  “I never say no to screwing with the bigwigs once in a while,” Trev replied, flattered by her display of affection and gratitude.

  Kalon breathed deeply, and Valaine wore a generous smile. They were both relieved that Esme and Tristan were returning to us unharmed. I gently touched Sofia’s arm to get her attention, while Ansel stayed with Kalon and Valaine, beaming with excitement.

  “Sofia, I need to tell you something,” I said.

  Amane grinned. “Oh, this is definitely a good moment.”

  “A good moment for what?” Sofia asked, slightly confused.

  “To tell you that we’re pretty sure we cracked the day-walking formula,” I said. My sister and I had pondered when it might be a good time to tell Sofia. After what she’d witnessed at the palace, we’d both agreed it wasn’t exactly the best of good news, considering the very person who’d spearheaded this mission was still being held captive in an Aeternae jail. But now that Ridan and Esme’s shuttles were about to reach us, I felt Sofia could use the additional boost.

  Her first reaction, however, was muted astonishment.

  “You… you what?” she managed, blinking rapidly as she tried to process the revelation.

  “It needs testing on an actual vampire, but we think we got the measurements right. We clipped the protein and inserted it into Esme’s gene samples. We used Derek’s blood as a benchmark… and it looks like it worked. We’ve been at it since we got on this hilltop.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything before?” Sofia asked.

  Amane sighed. “Because the Black Fever cure had become a priority, and my sister and I made an executive decision not to focus on it exclusively,” she said, then gave Valaine an apologetic half-smile. “Sorry. We are still working on your issue, though.”

  “We just wanted to have the day-walking cure ready, in case we had to leave Visio for good,” I added. “I know it wouldn’t be the optimal course for us, but it’s still something we might have to do if the Aeternae grow even more aggressive. After all, we were all in agreement that starting a war with them over any of this was not an option.”

  Sofia stared at Amane and me. “So, you wanted us to leave here with something, making sure our journey wasn’t all for nothing.”

  “Yes. I know how much it means to Derek and how much good it would do for the vampires going forward,” I said. “At least this part of our mission is done. We can leave if we have to, and not entirely regret coming to Visio.”

  “Do you regret coming to Visio?” Thayen asked. He’d been so quiet, I’d almost forgotten about him.

  Sofia shook her head. “Not at all. But I understand what the twins were thinking, and I appreciate it. It doesn’t mean we’ve stopped fighting against the Darklings and the Black Fever. That’s why Ridan and his crew are here.”

  “Exactly,” Amane replied.

  “I can’t believe it,” Sofia murmured, smiling faintly. “After all these years, after all our troubles—we might’ve actually done it. You’ve brought the sun back into our lives.”

  “We still need to test it,” I reminded her.

  “That’s fine!” Sofia exclaimed and wrapped her arms around Amane and me. “What matters is you’re confident you’ve got it. I trust you. And there aren’t enough words to thank you for your incredible work.”

  I didn’t need any thanks, and neither did Amane. Like Sofia had just said, we were one step closer to bringing the sun back into the vampires’ lives. To me, that alone was worth more than any amount of gratitude. For too long, the vampires had been confined to the shadows and the darkness. They deserved better and fuller lives, and we could finally give them that.

  It made me feel good. It reminded me of the early days of my life with Ta’Zan, when our sole purpose had been to evolve, to move forward, and to push our boundaries. Finally, my work—our work—was being used for the greater good.

  “Uh, guys? I think… I think we’ve got a problem,” Ansel said.

  Instantly, all eyes were on him. We followed his gaze up to the night sky. A crackling sound echoed in the distance, then a pulse erupted from the woods nearby, approximately three miles to the east.

  “What the hell is that!” Trev exclaimed, his eyes wide.

  The shimmering blast shot upward and hit… something. “Ridan’s shuttle,” I breathed.

  “Oh no,” Amane managed, covering her mouth.

  Ridan’s shuttle became visible, its cloaking faltering and glimmering all wrong. Kalon cursed under his breath, his posture suddenly tense and stiff. “That’s death magic.”

  “You mean to tell me the Darklings spotted them?” Sofia replied, pale and genuinely horrified.

  “They must’ve kept their eyes on the sky even when the imperial observatories didn’t,” Trev said. “Your friends are in trouble.”

  Trouble didn’t even begin to cover it. Ridan’s shuttle was now fully exposed, and the Aeternae’s airships were still looking for someone to punish after the earlier scuffle. With Esme and Tristan’s shuttle no longer visible, it was only a matter of minutes before the Aeternae focused their efforts on Ridan, instead.

  Ridan

  “What the hell just happened?” Rose gasped, hands shaking over the controls.

  She and Caleb had done a masterful job of getting us through the atmosphere just in time for us to see an amazing lightshow courtesy of Esme and her friends, but something had hit the bottom of the shuttle just minutes after we’d gone invisible—and now the cloaking shield wasn’t working anymore.

  Every single surface inside and outside was vibrating, making my skin tingle. Whatever had hit us, it was still reverberating through the ship.

  “Oh boy,” Kailani murmured, gawking beyond the windshield, where the piloting schematics were flickering, glitching along with the rest of the systems.

  Airships were headed toward us. Dozens of them, fires burning angrily behind them as they increased their speed, eager to greet us in a most unpleasant fashion. Grayish smoke lingered above the imperial city, and the vessels shot past it, causing rolls to wisp away.

  “They’re coming for us,” Hunter said, already preparing the pulverizer cannons that had been preemptively incorporated into the shuttle. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with obliterating the Aeternae. It didn’t fit our usual incursion protocols, even under tense circumstances like these.

  “Hunter, no!” Kailani intervened before I could. “That would be a declaration of war!”

  “It’s not the Aeternae we’re fighting here,” I reminded him. “It’s the Darklings. We have to find another way to get away from them.”

  “We can’t exactly go to the hilltop now,” Caleb interjected. “They’ll follow us straight to Sofia and Thayen. The kid’s the only leverage we’ve got.”

  “Well, we can’t fire at the airships, either,” Hunter replied, his nerves stretched as thin as mine. “So, what are our options?”

  Moments passed in heavy silence. The clock was ticking, and time was flowing against us. Ahead, the airships were grouping in clusters of three, spreading out to take us on from multiple angles. Esme and Tristan’s shuttle could no longer be seen, but I knew they were around there somewhere. Even so, there wasn’t much they could do. Not without firing their weapons.

  “Sofia, can you hear me?” I asked through the comms system.

  “Yes, Ridan, we’re here. We can see what’s happening. We suspect the Darklings are guilty of foul play here.” Normally, as the matriarch of GASP, her voice offered me a sense of comfort. In this instance, however, it only pushed me closer to the edge.

  “Any suggestions? We can’t exactly fire the pulverizers at them,” I said. “We can’t engage them in battle at all. It’ll be cause for war, and you know that’s—”

  “Exactly what we’re trying to avoid, yes,” Sofia replied.

  Caleb glanced at me, his hands firmly gripping the controls. “They’ll start unloading their weapons on us soon.”

  “And they’ve got cannons on the ground,” Sofia added.

  “What do we do?” I asked, suddenly wondering what my odds of seeing Amane again looked like. I’d been dying to hold her again since she’d come here, and I’d nearly gone mad with concern after she’d had to flee the palace with the rest of the crew.

  We’d come through so optimistically…

  The flight over had been seamless. We’d entered the solar system without detection, thanks to the shuttle’s embedded cloaking shield. With help from our ground forces, we’d even managed to breach the atmosphere unnoticed, only to see everything go up in flames right before our eyes.

  I’d made myself a promise that I would stop at nothing to keep Amane and the others safe. But as the airships were flying toward us, I began to doubt the power of my own words.

  “I’m not sure,” Sofia finally said. “Avoid them until you find a safe place to land. That would be my first priority.”

  “There are a lot of airships locking in on us,” I replied. “I doubt landing is even a possibility.”

  Kailani got up from her seat, her skin glowing with the power of the Word. “I can try to put the invisibility shield back on,” she said, spreading her arms out.

  “The sooner, the better,” Rose muttered, her eyes on the menace ahead.

  “Dammit, it’s not working, and I don’t know why!” Kailani cursed, shaking her hands.

  “Sofia, we’re having some swamp witch magic trouble, too,” I said through the comms system. That news tore a string of expletives out of her.

  We were pretty much screwed six ways to Sunday on this one. The Aeternae airships surrounded us, and we couldn’t engage them without igniting a literal war. There were too many lives at stake for us to bring the whole of GASP into this conflict, and deflection maneuvers would not be enough to save us from the wrath of the Aeternae.

  They were angry and scared and confused. The Darklings had somehow managed to find and sabotage us. Our friends were counting on us to reach them, but I wasn’t sure we could do that anymore.

  Derek

  My eyes peeled open. My body felt heavy, as if every limb had been turned into lead. I was slumped over in a small cell. Three walls were made of dark gray stone, and sturdy steel bars prevented me from getting out.

  The only light came from a couple of torches mounted somewhere nearby, and the silence was deafening except for the occasional drip of water in a puddle. I pulled myself up into a seated position, trying to remember how I’d gotten here.

  It didn’t take long for Danika’s image to flash before my eyes. The gold guards. The ambush. I’d come to the palace to reason with her, but I’d been captured instead. Danika had no intention of discussing this any further. It was either her way or nothing. My ears were ringing.

  I eased my way up, trying to use Telluris to reach out to Sofia. My earpiece was gone. The gold guards must’ve found it. A sharp pain throbbed through my skull. There was something wrong here. Awfully wrong. My knees were stiff, and I held on to the bars to stop myself from falling over. I wasn’t in full control of my body, and that wasn’t normal. They’d done something to me.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” Corbin’s voice cut through the silence.

  He walked in from a side door, its hinges creaking and scratching my brain. Clad in his military tunic, with war medals decorating his chest, Corbin had an official look about him—not at all like the Aeternae I’d met before. He’d… changed.

  “Master Commander, this is insane,” I said, my voice raspy, my throat dry. “You can’t keep me imprisoned like this.”

  “You didn’t give us much of a choice.”

  “Are you serious? The Lady Supreme wanted to have us and your daughter arrested!”

  “All you had to do was surrender, right then and there, and everything would’ve been over,” he said. “I admit my own weakness. It took me a long time to accept what a menace my daughter truly is. I’ve spent millennia watching other parents burying their children as sacrifices against the Black Fever. I never thought I’d be one of them.”

  “Valaine is innocent,” I replied. “She’s too young to be the cause of the Black Fever. Dammit, you know that! How did you end up turning against your own daughter?”

  Danika’s heels clicked as she walked in to join Corbin outside my cell. “Because he saw her at the courtroom. The way she looked when she killed the Nalorean nanny—that’s no ordinary dark side. No Aeternae has that appearance in a fit of rage,” she said.

  “I can’t believe you’re on board with this madness now,” I muttered, glowering at Corbin. I’d hoped to see some kind of emotion in his brown eyes, but there was nothing. Just emptiness, as though his very soul had left his body. “How can you even live with yourself?”