I knelt on the hill where I’d gathered with Nash, Piercey, and Val the first time we battled the Prophet when we were freeing my people. It felt like such a long time ago now.

Even though I’d agreed to this plan, worry sat like lead in my gut. Wren and Leif had returned to our village to gather our warriors to march to the Prophet’s village, because when this was over, there would be chaos to continue. Piercey had sent word to his graduates, but I knew they wouldn’t make it in time.

It should have only been me here, risking a life I’d already lost once. Instead, Nash and Piercey both knelt beside me as we eyed the Prophet’s village.

I glanced over to the man who I had never expected myself to fall for and wondered how we’d ended up here. Only hours ago he’d been silenced by the shock of my return. It didn’t take long after I announced my plans that he quickly found his voice.

“We already lost you once,” Nash had said. “You’ve just returned. Let us handle Flare and the Prophet. Piercey will call on his graduates and this time they will act because you carry the gods’ favor. Rest and recover from what you’ve been through.”

“We can’t wait for them. Flare may already know I’m here. I’ve waited too long as it is by talking to all of you. Now’s the time. Piercey can gather everyone, but I’m going ahead.”

Nash had clutched my wrist and drawn my close. “Not without me.”

“You don’t have power. What can you do?”

I hadn’t meant any cruelty by the words, but it had been clear from the pain in his eye that the words had cut him deeply. How must he have felt finding my body and grieving my death? The powerlessness surely haunted him now.

“I can fight.” His voice had rumbled deeply. “Piercey and I will partner together again like we did before. Take us with you.”

“I’ve never traveled like that before.”

“Excuses. You can do this, Max. You will not fight this battle alone.” Nash had clutched the back of my head and bent to press his forehead against mine. “Do not deny me this battle.”

How could I when I would never forgive him for doing the same to me? “I’m scared of what could happen to you.”

“Then you know how I feel about you.”

The conversation kept playing through my mind without end. I hadn’t thought I would be successful in bringing the three of us to this place, but Piercey had focused on me, trying to lend me his own power. I’d managed to teleport all three of to the village.

The Prophet had been training and preparing and I knew Flare was with him, so it wasn’t ideal for only the three of us to fight. We really needed more allies, but I couldn’t afford to wait another moment. What if Flare knew that I’d returned? What if she knew the Collective wanted her out of this world?

There had been a time for waiting and that had passed.

“I’m ready,” I said, rising. “It’s time to end this.”

“The Prophet and Flare won’t be alone,” Piercey said. “The disciples will be ready for us this time.”

I nodded. “We'll have to kill them all. Together."

Nash held my stare, eyes determined. "Together."

“I’m not wasting time being evasive when I believe Flare will already know we’re coming,” I said. “We move fast for Flare and the Prophet.”

“I’ll focus on clearing a path and covering the two of you.” Piercey nodded at me. “Max, give them all you have.”

“Thank you,” I said, eyes on his. We had always made a good team. When this was over, I'd have to tell him about how we were identified by the gods as potential candidates. “You've always been there for me.”

He smiled. "I always will be."

We sprinted down to the front gates. The guards shouted from the top of the wall, screaming their warnings as they aimed their bows at us. A wave of arrows rained down over us moments later. Piercey deflected them all without slowing down so the arrows splintered and rained down around us. I lifted my hands and threw the gate off its hinges with my power. It slammed onto the ground in a cloud of dirt.

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No slowing down to even look at the damage. We stormed into the Prophet’s village, cutting right for the Temple at the center.

Guards and warriors rushed to the streets, fighting against our unseen shields with thrusts of swords, with flailing arrows that burst upon impact, with spears that shattered. Doorways and windows clogged with normal men and women screaming the alarm, throwing chairs, pots and pans, anything that could do damage.

But between Piercey and me we blocked every last assault. I pumped my palm and shoved everyone on the road away. People flew back against buildings, through windows, into people crowded together.

My power flowed freely through my avatar, even easier to draw upon than before I’d died. Maybe it was that I had changed. Maybe this new body was just better. All I knew was that at my peak of training before I died, it never felt this natural.

I narrowed my eyes as the darkness within the temple door came into view. The towering stone doors of the temple were always open, but today they would close once we were all inside. I’d trap the Prophet and Flare with us and ensure they never left.

We reached the stairs and Piercey raised his voice above the screams in the village. “I’ve got it! Save your energy, Max!”

I snapped off my power as I slid through the huge doorway with Nash at my heels.

Piercey held back all of the warriors on his own with a protective shield around the temple that buzzed with his power. "Hurry!" His body trembled as he stumbled back to the door. It had been easy when we did it together, but the work had just doubled for him.

My eyes adjusted to the dim light inside and my muscles coiled.

The Prophet stood at the altar in his black cloak. The five disciples who'd survived our last battle circled him with their heads bowed and their hands lifted at their sides. A dozen warriors guarded them. No Flare.

"Wait. Turn back,” Piercey yelled.

I twisted for him. He grunted as he reached for me with his power. The force tugged Nash and me a few feet toward him but his power was weak as he held off an entire village.

"They're meditating on the Prophet,” Piercey said. “They gave him their power. Turn back now."

Alarm tensed my muscles. We needed to draw them out of this temple and try to separate them. Nash and I lunged for Piercey when a creaking started and then turned to deafening scraping. The heavy stone doors of the temple slammed closed and sealed us inside. The flames of the lanterns lining the walls flickered.

Piercey was still outside.

“Shit.” I drew my blade.

Nash turned, swords already raised.

In a flash, immense pressure clamped down on every fiber of my being–my limbs, my heart, the very blood flowing through my veins. Power erupted from my core as I fended it off from Nash and me. It took so much energy that it felt like I trudged through a river as I struggled toward the Prophet and unleashed my own power upon him. There was no longer any holding back. With a scream, the heat within me erupted and exploded out, all aimed right at the Prophet.

The incredible pressure on his body was immediately obvious as he knees buckled and his neck strained.

Still, panic rushed through me, because Piercey hadn’t come through the doors yet. I needed him to guard Nash. I opened my mouth to tell him to stay back when he took off in a sprint for the dozen warriors standing guard over the Prophet and his demons. Piercey wasn’t here to block him. What was he thinking?

“Nash!” Energy rippled through me. I drew from deep within the well of my power and extended my hands like claws out toward the guards. Their heads shook. Eyes popped wide. One neck snapped. Another. Two more.

Without slowing down, Nash slashed one sword through a man’s chest and blocked a swing from a quick guard with the other.

Snap. Snap.

I took down two more in the same instant Nash’s twin blades wrenched a guard’s sword free. Sweat dripped into my eyes and tickled the nape of my neck. Nash cut through another guard’s neck like butter.

Only five guards left. Nash reared his blade back when it looked like he slammed against an invisible wall and then his body flew back through the air. I tried to soften his fall but he still bounced when he hit the stone floor.

The disciples moaned low, bodies trembling with exertion, some collapsed on their knees. The Prophet’s eyes bulged. His face burned deep red. So much power. A cry ripped from my chest as I struggled to break through their power and crush the Prophet.

It felt as if I had to shred my muscles just to walk for Nash. Pain burned within my body and danced along my skin. Nash leaned against a knee, his determined stare on the Prophet. Blood trickled from his nose. My stomach tightened at that look on Nash’s face. The brazenness. The fearlessness. His ferocity wild and almost inhuman.

It could get him killed.

No. I couldn’t give in to despair or worry. Nash was fighting with everything he had. More than he had. All for me and Elsie. My nails pierced my skin as I dug them into my palms, turning my mind to the eclipse, when my life had rushed from me through my wounds, and I wanted nothing more than to stay with Nash. I had to find more within myself.

Everything inside of me stilled.

I looked at the circle around the Prophet and imagined that I could see the threads connecting them all. The threads of energy pulsating from the disciples to the Prophet. Trembling, I focused on that, my insides feeling as though they were melting.

Pop.

A disciple’s wrist snapped. He fell back from the circle, panting as he stared at his wrist.

A woman screamed as she convulsed. All the veins in her body bulged against her skin, as if trying to escape. She was fighting so hard to stay connected, but I saw the fractures in the circle.

Nash took the distraction to move on the last guards. I ran with him, my legs finally flooded with energy now that I didn’t need to use so much strength to hold off the Prophet.

We struck at the same time, my blade catching against a guard’s and forcing his own against the soft of his neck, deeper and deeper, until it embedded in his flesh. I grabbed his sword and slid it all the way through, killing him. Nash blocked hits from two guards.