Max steps forward, his tail unwinding from around me. His body ripples, turning translucent. Anna mutters incoherently—or perhaps I just can’t hear through the growing numbness.

There’s a sharp hiss, and I manage to raise my head in time to see Max pull one clawed hand from his chest, a beating, glowing heart of energy pumping in his palm. Deep inside, something tells me to stop him. But it’s such a quiet voice. So quiet it can’t compete with the one telling me to lie down and sleep.

Max crushes the beating heart.

Pure energy explodes from his body. It’s as if his luminosity has separated from him. His physical body collapses to the ground, shrinking into cat form. The silver energy spreads, breaking apart into separate streams. It dives into Kara and Rose, then Anna. She gasps, bolting upright. The last of it strikes me in the chest, knocking me back.

“No!” Anna’s scream pierces me as powerfully as the energy, which drives through every inch of my body. Everything comes alive again. The pain flares, my skin tingles and burns, my muscles scream. Then all at once it goes quiet, and I feel more powerful than ever.

The smile is gone from Fin’s face when I sit up. But it isn’t him I care about. It’s the limp black form in the grass beside me.

“Max?” I reach for him. He’s already cold.

Anna drops beside him, her cheeks flushed and wet with tears. She wraps him up, drawing him close to her chest. “The Shield,” she whispers, her voice breaking.

The Shield is more jagged lines than solid pieces now, and the things on the other side strain against it. I rise to my feet, flexing my fingers. Max’s energy courses through me, and on my chest the trinity tattoo glows silver. It pulses with the growing anger inside me. Fin has taken yet another person I love from me.

Fin shoots forward, and I meet his knife with mine. He’s still quick, but I’m equally as fast. I swipe at his stomach. He leaps away but I close the distance.

Fin merely smiles. “We can do this all night,” he says. “I’m in no rush.”

He’s right. The Shield is one strike away from shattering, the last of its glow fading, and my body is weakening. Max’s energy has helped, but it isn’t enough to defeat Fin.

I can’t let him sacrifice himself for nothing.

Fin’s next blow takes the air out of my lungs. I clutch at my stomach, and his fist catches the side of my face. My vision blurs, and I stumble. I can barely hold myself upright.