Frankie gulped hard. “Let’s hope you’re right about the school coming back.”

I slammed the gate behind us, but there was no lock—not that I thought it would help. We backed away, and the fog stopped just short of crossing the gate. It pressed against the wrought iron, rolling over itself like a den of snakes. “You can’t hide in there forever,” hissed one of the voices.

I almost thought we were in the clear until something knocked against the gate. It began to creak, and the ground shook beneath our feet.

“We might be in trouble,” I murmured.

“Might be is an understatement,” Frankie said.

Something whooshed behind us, and I crouched and spun around. A single door had appeared in the middle of the empty field with light pouring from it. “Could it be as simple as that?” I asked, staring in disbelief.

“I guess we’re going to find out,” Frankie said.

We dashed through the door and landed in the grass on the other side. The door disappeared. We were on the lawn about a dozen feet from the school’s main building, near a marble statue of a woman holding a plaque that read: Welcome to the Intergalactic School for the Magically Gifted.

We hadn’t had time to process where we were when a window exploded in the building directly in front of us. Dread twisted in my stomach as I saw flashes of godling-blue magic. “The school is under attack,” I said as we set off at a sprint.

“So much for being impenetrable,” Frankie shouted.

The fighting was in the main building at the center of campus, and when we burst through the door, the scene was unimaginable. Some three dozen ghosts flooded the hall as Eli’s archnemesis, Carran, floated above the floor, controlling them. Normally, I wouldn’t hate being right, but I wished I were wrong this time. Carran and the other darkbringers had only been able to attack the school because they were children.

Zeran and Eli were fighting side by side with Winston, Tay, and Candace. They held the front line, battling the ghosts. As Oya would say: What’s the point of having power if you don’t use it to make the world a better place? Begrudgingly, I was glad to see Winston and his cronies . . . um, his friends. At their backs, the rest of the godlings, along with Billu and the former recruits, fought the other darkbringers.

My heart pounded against my chest. Where were Mama, Pam, Dee, the other adults, and the younger godlings like Jayla? They had to be okay. I refused to think about the alternative.

“A little help here, Brother,” Billu called as his Darkzilla batted back four darkbringers.