Magic shot out of my staff in bright sparks that flew toward Nulan. It curled into a rope, trying to latch on to her, but she surrounded herself in a cloud of fairy dust. The rope went limp and landed on a trash pile.

“Is that the best you can do?” Nulan laughed. “You’ve lost your touch.”

“But I haven’t,” Zeran said as he rose into the sky. His eyes began to glow, and black clouds swelled over his head. Come to think of it, I’d never seen him use his powers beyond shapeshifting, so I didn’t know what to expect. His father, Commander Rovey, could absorb other people’s magic and turn it against them. Zeran raised his arms, and all around us, trash flew together. He smiled as random garbage reshaped itself so limbs jutted out in every direction.

“Nice trash spider,” I called up to him.

Captain Nulan’s knives disappeared, and she lifted her palm to her lips and blew. Silver dust spread across the trash spider and froze it in place along with Zeran. He glared at her, and she laughed even harder. No one could ever say that Nulan wasn’t overconfident. She thought she was invincible, but she hadn’t noticed that my rope was easing up behind her.

“Stop this, Auntie Tyana,” Eleni said, closing in on Nulan. Real Talk: My sister smelled bad, like ten times worse than sweaty socks. She was covered in gray slime. Not her best look by a long shot. Although Eleni was focused on Nulan, I could feel the space shifting around us. It was subtle, like a sudden brush of cold air. Is she opening a gateway? “You must be punished for your crimes.”

Nulan snapped her fingers, which turned my rope into ashes. “Not today, little nibling.”

So much for her not knowing about it. Okay, time for plan B. Before I could think of something, several dozen arms raised out of the ground beneath where Nulan was hovering. They grew impossibly long and fast, like weeds shooting up in a flower bed. They latched on to her feet and legs. Nulan startled and struggled to free herself. “Argh!” she screamed. “Let go of me, you dreadful creatures.”

Something flew across my line of vision and smacked Nulan across her forehead.

“Goal!” Eli said, suddenly appearing atop a pile of trash.

Frankie crouched beside him and shot a ball of electricity at Nulan. “Remember me?”

“I really hate children,” Nulan groaned before the electricity turned into a net and knocked her out cold.

When Nulan hit the ground, ghosts, young and old, appeared, surrounding her—Eli’s army. Unlike when we were in the Dark and he’d hijacked the darkbringer ghosts from the bog to help us break into the Crystal Palace, these were human ghosts. Zeran unfroze, and his trash spider disintegrated as he landed next to me.