A purple lightning bolt thundered through the clearing, accompanied by a shout of exertion from Natalie. It blasted through the chest area of the nearest golem, cutting it cleanly in two. The material crumbled into dust and coated the ground in a sickly light grey. Another golem swung for Alden. He only barely got out of the way in time, flinging himself backward using his mind far faster than he could have moved. The golem's fist slid past his cheek with a whisper of wind.

  "We need to run!" Ryan called. He threw a punch at the golem that had tried to blindside him, and his fist sent it bending over backwards. Ryan didn't waste a second getting far away from it, having been forewarned by Rachel. It pulled itself back up as if it hadn't taken a hit, continuing its unrelenting, unyielding approach. "Natalie, let's go!"

  "I'm coming!" Natalie shouted back, but she didn't seem to be. She spun in a circle and flung out a flat palm.

  Another brilliant purple lightning bolt crackled out and annihilated a fresh golem that had just finished growing. Branches of the bolt split off as it passed through and connected with tree branches and rocks on the other side, finding whatever path they could to the ground. Natalie finally relented, climbing onto her wolf. She pulled on her hood and made to leave—but paused, looking over her shoulder into the distance.

  Alden followed her gaze. There between the trees was a man holding out a strange blackened rod, with short brown hair and an unshaven face. Alden didn't recognize him, but there was only one person it could possibly be.

  "Natalie, we have to go, now!" Alden shouted. He needed her to look away before she recognized him.

  Natalie turned away and rode into the forest. Alden followed her at a sprint. She was taking a slightly roundabout way to the spot where Rachel and Rika were supposed to be waiting, but that made sense given where the golems had been appearing. It didn't have anything to do with the man standing out in the forest, Alden told himself. We aren't going anywhere near him. Natalie didn't recognize him.

  The golems continued to chase them, but with their lumbering pace it wasn't long before they'd lost them completely. Ryan's arms had returned to normal size while he kept easy pace with Natalie. The wolf wasn't running anywhere as fast as she obviously could, but Alden suspected that she was trying to help Natalie stay on. Alden, meanwhile, was barely keeping up with his shorter stride and his general lack of exercise.

  Still, something was wrong. The golems were never the issue they were concerned about. Jackson should have been fast enough to catch them. They'd chosen a spot just far enough that Rika wouldn't be blindsided by a golem, but not so far that they couldn't get to her in time to trap Omega. So where is he?

  He spotted Rika sprinting through the trees directly at them. Alden shouted at her to draw her attention.

  "Why are you out here?" shouted Ryan.

  "We fucked up!" Rika called back. Rachel emerged as well, following Rika. "I didn't know he could bring someone with him. The trap didn't work."

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  Ryan cursed. "What do we do now?"

  "Try again?" Alden said. "Omega's… friend is alone back there. If Natalie casts something else, maybe he'll come here solo?"

  "Do it," Rika snapped.

  Natalie looked up at her name. "What am I doing?"

  "Cast something big, doesn't matter what."

  Natalie thought for a moment. She looked up at the trees and held out a fist into the sky, closing her eyes. She muttered something under her breath. Her stomach seized inward as if she'd just been punched, and she doubled over. Natalie pulled herself back upright on Gwen's back, still muttering rapidly. Finally, she opened her hand.

  A piercing cry of a hawk echoed through the forest. The bird dove through the canopy and fluttered its wings, coming in for a soft landing to perch directly on Natalie's outstretched hand. Its talons were huge clamped onto Natalie's fingers. It had handsome brown and white plumage with a set of light orange feathers at the tail. Natalie opened her eyes, smiling at it. It took a few steps to steady itself on her finger, while Natalie stroked the back of its head with her other hand.

  "How the fu…" Ryan started, but stopped himself.

  "That's 'something big'?" Rika asked.

  Natalie nodded. "That's the hardest thing I know how to do. It gets harder every time I do it, too."

  "Okay then." Rika looked around. "I don't feel anything. He should be on his way, shouldn't he?"

  "He should, unless…" Rachel trailed off. "Oh no."

  "Oh no what?"

  Rachel started sprinting away back to Rallsburg. Alden realized what Rachel must have—Omega was going after the other natural awakened.

  Rika came to the same conclusion. "Oh, fuck."

  The rest of the group chased after Rachel in desperate panic, stumbling over tree roots in their haste to stop the pending catastrophe.

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  Rachel hurtled headlong through the woods, heedless of the danger she was more than likely heading into. She'd seen the results of a broken ritual firsthand and secondhand several times over—with her own, with past Council experiments and now with Jessica as well. She'd seen the potential scale of disaster that was possible from Julian's reckless hydrogen experiment.

  Now, with no less than the most powerful awakened in the world combining their power under Cinza, Rachel wouldn't be surprised by anything that came out of it.

  Rachel had to get there before Omega did.

  She didn't make it.

  There was a ear-shattering rumble of sound. It was like a bass note so low that it was barely perceptible, and yet the pressure felt like it would crumble her eardrums. Rachel clapped her hands to her head, falling to the ground in agony. Her over-sensitive ears felt like they were on fire.

  The ground shook. Rachel felt a gentle force grab her from above, affecting her entire body at once. It felt like she were being pulled straight into the sky. She was lifted off her feet and brought slowly into the air. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was discomforting. Far more disturbing was the sight of the town that she could barely make out through the trees.

  Sounds of tearing and scraping reverberated across the landscape. Anything with metal tore itself to shreds throughout Rallsburg. Rachel could see entire buildings splitting apart at the seams as metal shot through wood and flung into the sky, far more violently than she'd been. The radio tower crumpled and splintered away from its concrete foundation. The only structures that seemed unaffected were the looming spires of the old library, standing firm while the rest of Rallsburg was ripped to pieces.

  The screaming started. Shouts of pain and terror filled her ears, only to be drowned out a moment later. The unseen force vanished in the blink of an eye.

  Rachel fell back to the ground, and the town fell along with her.