Jasper squirmed in his bed as thunder boomed in the distance. For some reason, his mattress felt as hard as a rock and cold as hell too. With a shudder, he fumbled for his blanket and, as the thunder boomed again, prayed he could fall back asleep quickly. He couldn’t remember the party he’d attended last night, but judging from the pounding in his head, it must have been a rager.

  But the breath caught in his lungs as he reached for the blanket. Lightning bolts of pain jolted up his arm and across his torso from the small movement and, worse, his fingers brushed against something hot and sticky that was definitely not his blanket. What the hell happened last night?

  Despite the pounding in his head, he had no choice but to pry his eyes open. His vision was blurred, and he stared in confusion as a squad of winged creatures danced above him. His head reeled as two of the dancing figures extended their hands and bolts of lightning exploded from their palm. What-?

  His hand twitched, and Jasper felt something stir within his chest. The odd feeling circulated toward his hand as his fingers moved in an oddly familiar pattern, and he felt the feeling inside him diminish ever so slightly as his fingers ceased their movements.

  “Crap.” He bolted upright as his thoughts cleared and stared up at the fight above him. He was still seeing two of Ihra and Tsia, so he cast Circle of Forgiveness again as he tried to recall what had happened and where the hell he was.

  His memory came back in bits and pieces. The unknown goddess. The strange pyramid. The severed hand. The - explosion!

  Ihra’s twin disappeared as his vision stabilized, and Jasper struggled to his feet. He ignored the half-dozen bursts of pain that stabbed his back, where the skin had healed around crystal shards, as he surveyed the area around him. The explosion had done what Tsia had been hoping for. The previously floating platform was buried a few feet into the shattered floor, and the ward that had protected the ritual ingredients was gone.

  None of that, though, explained the source of the creature they were fighting. It was at least three times taller than the girls, with features that were roughly human and bulging muscles that could have made a Greek god weep with envy, but the most remarkable part of its appearance was the partially transparent nature of its body. The spectral man lit up with a soft, bronze light as Tsia’s lightning struck its heart, but it appeared to feel no pain as the bolt passed through its body and hit the wall behind. At the same time, an arrow passed through its eye and fell to the ground without harvesting a single drop of blood. What is it? Some type of ghost?

  Spectral wings furled around him as Jasper rose into the air and, sweeping low beneath the fight, surged up from behind. Frost gleamed on the tip of his glaive as he thrust it between the man’s shoulder blades, but there was no resistance as the weapon passed through. Damn it.

  He lurched backward as the creature spun around, almost, but not quite, ducking out of the reach of its translucent sword. Hot pain creased through his cheek and his fingers came away bloody as he dodged a second strike. Punishing Hand.

  The being froze as the pale, wriggling manifested above the shattered floor, but only for a second. With a mighty shudder, it tore its gaze away and locked its eyes on Jasper. As red as glowing embers, the eyes pressed down on Jasper with a physical weight, slowing down his movement as the creature surged toward him.

  Mas?s?artu. Unable to dodge the coming blow, Jasper extended the glaive in front of him and summoned his guardian. The dark pit lit up as a beam of light exploded from the mas?s?artu’s fists and raked across the oncoming attacker, but it was as powerless as their other attacks. He braced for the attack, but Ihra got there first.

  She collided with him at full speed, spinning him to the side as the spectral man thrust his sword toward Jasper‘s heart. Her movement slowed too as she passed before the creature’s gaze, but the momentum carried them both out of harm’s way. Sparks flew as the glowing sword raked across the temple’s sloping walls, but as the creature turned to face them, Jasper spotted something unusual.

  A grey, luminescent thread hung from the being’s leg. Seemingly free of both gravity’s grip and momentum’s pull, the nearly invisible threat floated behind him serenely, spiraling in wide loops and curves until it disappeared out of sight.

  “What’s that?”

  “What?”

  “The thread.” Jasper ducked beneath the creature’s frenzied blow and thrust his hand, casting a Hail Mary. Purge.

  “There’s no thread.” The man showed no sign of having been hurt by the spell, he refocused his attention on Jasper. He ducked and dove, bobbed and weaved as the being slashed at him, carefully avoiding looking into the being’s red eyes. Wind, lightning, and arrows beat down on it as Jasper tried to keep its attention, but nothing he or the others did seemed to harm it.

  Worse, Tsia's spells quickly overwhelmed his. Losing interest in him, the creature turned its attention back to her, yet as it did, Jasper glimpsed the strange thread again. Oddly, the thread didn’t seem to emanate from the man’s tunic but spooled directly out of his heel, like stuffing leaking from a plushie. Or a tether.

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  Acting on impulse, he dove beneath the fight and swooped low over the shattered floor. There were clumps of green powder surrounding the fallen platform. A red tusk, with a long crack along its side. Two glyph-covered gems, though he did not see the third. Then he spotted the severed hand.

  It was almost unbelievable how far it had rolled from the broken platform and, lodged in the shadow of a crystal shard, it was almost invisible - nearly, but not quite. Tsia screamed above him as the creature attacked, but Jasper dared not turn back. As he surged forward, the thin thread appeared again, floating idly into the air.

  He raised his glaive but struggled to bring it down. Painful cold invaded his body as the amulet and the hand fought for dominance, and his hand shuddered. Come on, come on. As another cry of pain echoed above him, new strength filled his veins. His eyes shut and the glaive descended. He hammered into the ground again and again until the bitter cold around his neck began to subside.

  “Could use some healing!”

  His eyes flipped open as Ihra called out from above. For a second, his gaze flickered over the minced remains of the hand but felt no pull. As he soared upward, his hand twisted with the spell, and he cast it in quick succession, once for Ihra and once for Tsia.

  “Is that it? Did we do it?”

  “I don’t know-”

  Ihra’s response was cut off as a sonic boom filled the inverted pyramid. His body shook like jello as the wave passed through him and he fell to the ground, too dizzy to remain flying. For a moment that felt like an eternity, there was nothing in the world but him and the noise, his body and the endless shaking.

  When the blessed silence returned, Jasper was plastered to the ground. He rose slowly, prying himself from the broken crystals with a pained grunt as he looked for his friends. “What was that-”

  The words froze on his lip as he looked upward.

  The statue was missing.

  The giant statue holding up thousands of tons of rock and dirt from the sinkhole had vanished - and all that dirt was headed toward them. “Get up!”

  He lurched to his feet, nearly falling again as a splintered crystal sliced his calf open but, somehow, he kept his balance. The others stirred sluggishly, not seeing the calamity headed toward them and his hand wrapped around their collars. “Up,” he said, more to himself than to them, and his arms screamed as the spectral wings beat, lifting him and them toward the surface.

  S?ams?a?dur was unprepared for the devastation they’d released. Nissila?t’s spell was the first to hit. A thick black mist manifested around the enemy’s feet, shadows that writhed and swirled of their own accord, and their perfect ranks finally broke as the men struggled to move through the grasping shadows.

  A second later, Erin’s spell activated. The broken wood they’d scattered across the floor erupted in rows of magically hardened spikes that punched through their armor, pinning more in place.

  And then S?ams?a?dur's finally took hold. Terror.

  He’d been resistant about accepting at first. Technically, it wasn’t a mind-control spell; it tricked them into believing they were seeing something they weren’t but didn’t directly force them to do anything, but Samsadur probably wouldn’t have taken it if Kas?dael hadn’t practically forced him to. But as the spell took root, he realized he had, if anything, underestimated it.

  Incoherent screams filled the air, and their ranks crumbled as the need to flee took hold. He watched in horror as they hacked their own feet off, bound to the ground by Erin’s spikes; as they fell in Nissila?t’s mists and were trampled beneath their comrades; as they turned on each other, thrusting spears through the throats of their allies.

  It was a total route, more than he could have ever expected, and then it all came crashing down.

  A horn echoed from the darkness, a rich, deep bravado that stirred his spirits. S?ams?a?dur straightened up as a sudden desire to leap from the fortifications and charge the enemy flooded his soul. It was a nudge more than a command, and he wasn’t foolhardy enough to follow it, but its effects on the enemy were more pronounced.

  The chaos ceased immediately, spears falling to the side as the men stopped fighting, and those who had fled turned back to face them.

  The horn sounded again, higher and more upbeat, and the men began to form ranks, stepping over their maimed compatriots as they resumed their march on their fort.

  “Kruvas?,” he cursed. “I thought we had them.”

  “Can you do that again,” Nissila?t asked, but he could only shake his head in disgust.

  “Once per day.”

  “Any other tricks up your sleeve?”

  “Got enough mana for a few mind spikes,” he grunted. “Aside from that, there’s my axe.”

  “Erin?” She prodded.

  “Got about half left, but I’m going to need it to repair the walls.”

  She glanced over the ledge of the inverted pyramid, searching its depths again to check on the rest of their party. “Not going good,” she muttered, but she pasted on a smile as she turned to face them. “We’ll just have to hold out a little longer.”

  She pulled a dagger out of her belt and held it against her arm. She muttered under her breath as she slid it across the inside of her forearm and blood began to drip out. She repeated the process on the other arm and then tossed the blade to S?ams?a?dur, who caught it with a startled glance. “What’s this for?”

  She pulled a torch out of her bag and tossed it at him as well. “Wait until they’ve reached the walls,” she ordered, “then set it on fire.”

  “And why can’t you do it?” he questioned, holding the bloodied dagger away from himself.

  “Because I have to prepare the second part of the spell,” she said, stepping to the side of the fortifications. “Just hold out till I return,” she added as she dissolved into shadow and jumped off the wooden walls.

  “What the hell’s up with that,” Erin asked as she disappeared.

  “Cultist magic,” S?ams?a?dur replied grimly, “Or something far too close for my liking. But if it does the trick…” Wordlessly, he set the dagger and torch at his feet and returned his attention to the enemy. They were only a few hundred feet away now. Hope her plan’s better than mine.