Alden stopped in front of her. “You could have been magnificent.”

He lifted his hands over his head. Bright red magic flared up on them. It was building up, getting ready to explode. As he released, Sera put up a barrier, even knowing it wouldn’t be enough. His magic tore through her barrier like it was made of tissue paper. But before it could hit her, a new barrier formed above her, bouncing back Alden’s magic.

“Hey, sis,” Alex said, grinning at her. “I thought you could use a hand.”

Sera got to her feet. “Your timing is perfect.”

“I aim to please.” Sweat trickled down Alex’s face as she struggled to maintain the barrier.

Anger flared in Alden’s eyes, and suddenly his face didn’t look so young. It looked positively murderous.

“You are broken, Dragon Born,” he snapped at Alex. He pushed her aside with his magic, flinging her across the room. “The two of you cannot join to defeat me.”

He wove a web of magic around Alex, trapping her against the wall. Anger burning in her eyes, Alex pounded against the field with magic-charged fists. Cracks began to form in the sparkling silver crust, but not fast enough. Balls of Alden’s magic shot across the room, trapping Riley and the commandos. Kai and Logan were surrounded by Alden’s forces, being bombarded from every direction. Alden was winning.

Anger surged in Sera, but she pushed it back down. Her power came from love. Love was what made her strong. It fueled her. Makani had said every Dragon Born mage had their own special power, and this was hers. She thought about her friends, her family, everyone she loved. Everyone she’d already lost to fear, to the evils of the world. She would not let everyone she had left die because of hate and fear too.

She opened her eyes, and it was as though the world had shifted. It was different now. Softer. More beautiful. Melodic. Sweeter. Good.

Sera ran toward Alden, her dragon splitting from her. As Amara attacked from the air, Sera hit him with a storm of spells. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to defeat him here on earth, so she concentrated on pushing him back.

“Naomi!” she shouted.

Her friend ran to her side, weaving a ball of spirit magic between her hands.

“You are not strong enough. Not to defeat me,” Alden told Sera.

“You’re right.” Sera could feel the threads of Naomi’s spell weaving together. “You feed from your followers’ faith. I’m not strong enough to defeat that collective magic. But I don’t have to.”

She tackled him hard through the door Naomi had made into hell. As the portal swallowed them up, as the earth faded away, Sera looked at Kai, meeting the hard look in his eyes, the fear.

“I love you,” she whispered.

The harsh stench of hell slammed her hard in the head, and she blacked out.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

To the Death

SERA AWAKENED TO burning trees and dark sulfur clouds. She stood slowly, trying to catch her bearings, if that were even possible in hell. Far below, rivers of fire cut through blackened rocks. Up above, the sky was lit up by vicious green lightning. The ground thumped beneath her feet, the heavy, constant beat of a war drum.

She didn’t know how long it had been since she’d passed out, but she was pretty sure she was in hell. As bad as it looked, it felt worse. Her head was being compressed, pushed in. Her tongue burned, her stomach churned. Her skin was sticky with a feverish sweat. Like a stream of sulfur, acid rose in her throat, and she threw up into the nearest bushes, which promptly caught on fire. Flammable vomit. Lovely. The world was full of wonders—and the underworld even more so.

Alden was nowhere in sight. Sera looked out across the fiery wasteland, trying to catch a glimpse of him.

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

Sera turned. Naomi stood behind her, a sarcastic twitch on her lips.

“Oh, yes,” said Sera. “Absolutely beautiful.”

“The ghosts told me it wasn’t always so ugly here. So evil. Until the demons came.”

“Aren’t the demons from the spirit realm?”

Naomi shook her head. “Apparently, the demons traveled here from another dimension. They came to the core of the spirit realm and warped it from the inside with their dark magic. They can only survive here, in this area they warped. They didn’t have the magic to fully change every level of the spirit realm. The effect is stronger here, at the site of that original spell. The effect weakens the further out from the spell you go. But that vile magic is spreading. The demon’s influence is spreading. They plan to conquer the spirit realm and then the earth.”

“We cannot allow that.”

“They aren’t strong enough yet,” Naomi said. “And we have a more immediate problem.”

Sera looked around, but she didn’t see the Grim Reaper anywhere. “Where is he?”

“He is very close. He’s trying to get away, but he can’t move that fast in hell. His magic is tied to the earth. It is weaker here in the core of hell. He’s trying to put some distance between him and the core. He took the opportunity to flee while you slept.”

“How long was I out?” Sera asked her.

“Just a minute or two.”

“Well, I guess I should be happy he didn’t slit my throat in my sleep.”

Naomi grinned at her. “I put up a barrier. Spirit magic. It drains his magic fast. I’m not strong enough to be here, not all the way, but I can at least look out for you.”