We had wasted too much time on the fallout from the battle. We stole across the field, scaled a cliff, and entered the next passageway without any other guards pursuing us. They hadn't given up, that much was certain. Now they knew their enemy. They'd be preparing for a battle that could take down a powerful demon rather than throwing away lives haphazardly. The higher up the mountain we journeyed, the fewer routes we'd have. There would be no escape.

Leif tried to help me as we traveled up the steep stairs. I was nauseous from the slip. I refused to let anyone near me though, refused to look at them even and have to face them.

"Max," Nash said gently. When he moved close to me, I jolted away, terrified I'd drag him through time with me again.

"I told you it's not safe," I said.

"I–"

Leif rammed his thick forearm into Nash's chest and plastered him against the rock wall. "Didn't I tell you to stay away?" Another shove. "If you upset her again and she has a spell, who knows what will happen. She said she can't control it."

Wren turned around from higher up the stairs and sighed. "Let's all stay quiet and give Max time. Let him go, Leif."

Nash had not tried to push Leif he away. He just held the other man's stare. Another tense moment, and Leif backed away. I turned my stare to the ground, struggling to keep my mind in the present still. I could hear the screams of the guards I'd killed echoing off the walls of the stairs and through my mind.

We traveled quietly after that and slept only a few hours before we left the safety of the passageway for the inevitable battle that awaited.

A burst of icy wind cut through the opening of the passageway and scattered snow at my feet. I squeezed outside, sank into knee deep snow, and focused on listening for the guards. It was pointless to even try counting. There were too many.

We waded together through the snow, the icy coldness eating through our clothes, making us heavy and wet. No guards approached but they were there. I could hear them assembling more soldiers out there in the white, hear them gathering supplies, whispering in clashes of sound I struggled to isolate.

Up here there was no such thing as flatland. Rolling white clearings would suddenly crash into cliffs or stretch into precarious outcroppings, steepening with every foot closer to the peak. I couldn't see anything.

Damn it, we were easy targets out here.

Whizzing pierced my ears.

I tuned in so acutely that it hurt and attempted to create a barrier around us to shield us. The power within me felt like it spurted through the cracks in the damn, most of it trapped within me still, while what could escape rushed out at an incredible speed. Though the barrier wasn't visible to the eye, I could feel it and imagine the edges of it. It was uneven and fading. Come on!

Was all this for nothing? Would I really fail now? Enraged with myself, power burst from me and strengthened the barrier.

Sunlight glinted from hundreds of arrows, all raining down in the sky, glittering in the haze of snow-dusted air. I planted my hands on the ground for support and thought of how helpless I'd felt as the past stole me and Nash away. Or when he'd called me demon. When the people I killed looked at me in fear. Then, I imagined little Rune waiting for us to come back to save him. Everything I felt hardened inside me, and I used it to destroy the limitations of my power, not caring if I destroyed myself in the process.

With a scream, I unleashed a wave that knocked away all the arrows.

Shrieking blared in the distance, just like when I'd killed those people during the eclipse. Some of the arrows broke and fell to the ground, but dozens arched back toward where they’d come from. I breathed deeply as they thudded into bodies.

I rushed forward to put distance between myself and the others and sank into knee deep snow. Focusing on listening for the guards, I gave up in the end. It was pointless to even try counting. There were too many.

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No break. Hundreds of more arrows came. I created a shield around my friends much more easily now. At the same time, I knocked the arrows away. My eyelids flickered. My body trembled. Hands burned with heat. Even now, I was not as powerful as I had been when I trained at the Sacred School, and the fury of that beat at the crumbling walls around my power.

Flames bit into the sky. This time, I didn’t get them all. Some sank into the snow. The fire would move underground beneath the snow if it got hot enough and there was anything to burn. I couldn't risk letting the flaming arrows hit.

“Run!” I motioned at the others.

The next bout of arrows came. How many people did they have? They must have been using some kind of machine. I stumbled as I knocked them away. More fire hit the ground, melting pockets of snow where they disappeared.

Nothing was going as it should have. That awful landslide had set us on this collision course from the start. Grief panged in my chest.

Men rushed for us in the clearing. I’d missed them in all the commotion. I flattened five of them to the ground with a sweep of my hand, but more continued for us.

Nash met one with a powerful swing of his blade, cutting into his chest. Wren and Leif weren't far behind, flawlessly battling against the guards launching their attack. I struggled to defend us from the onslaught while also keeping a barrier around my friends as they fought.

Something cut the air to my right. I snapped it in half and it fell to the ground. A spear. Heads popped up in the snow as dozens of men threw more spears at us.

Even with how the mountain energized me, the struggle to unleash my power overwhelmed my body. It felt as if my skin would melt off. I clenched every muscle, struggling against the agonizing fire burning over me.

This time I destroyed every single arrow. Every spear. They splintered and rained down over us.

The ground beneath me trembled with my power.

I had to find all the men and kill them. They were splitting my focus with this onslaught. I didn’t want to spill so much blood, but they wouldn’t stop. These people had devoted their life to protecting this mountain. Killing them was the only way.

Searching the clearing beyond what I could see, I snapped the neck of every person I found. My muscles twitched with the burst of power that broke fragile neck bones. Two, five, eight people. Ten. More. So many more. Pops and cracks every few seconds, my own spine-curling war drums.

All the while, waves of arrows darkened the sky over us. Spears flew, guards rushed for us.

I searched for more to kill, but I couldn't juggle all of this at once. A swath of arrows hit the ground. Sharp pain crackled through my arms in a jolt of electricity from my power.

My father's voice slithered through the past and the whistling wind, tugging at the seams of my control, drawing the deep power hidden inside myself. Fear tangled my limbs, my thoughts. If I lost control, I could kill Leif, or Wren, or Nash. I needed more power, but terror froze my body, colder than the frozen mountain peak.

“Stop it!” I screamed and swiped my hand through the air, throwing the spears into the hearts I heard nearby. "I don't want to kill you!"

More arrows darkened the sky. My body hurt so badly I could hardly stand. How many more were there? I reached within myself for more power, begging myself to open up a door I'd kept closed for so long.

Leif grabbed a man's arm to pull him close as he stabbed his sword deep into his gut. Wren ducked a swing. Nash slayed two in only seconds.

I searched the woods as I destroyed the arrows overhead. But when I tried to catch all the spears, I missed some.

They slammed into the ground all around us.

My eyes rolled back as I struggled to hold off everything that blasted us all at once.

That was when I felt it. The shattering of my barrier. My eyes widened.

Thud.

A thick spear tore through Nash’s chest and knocked him back a step. He touched it with his face contorting. The bloodied tip stuck out through his back, skewering him.

My world froze. Nash's eyes found mine, and then his head fell back as he collapsed onto the ground.