By the time Dannie flew back toward us, the flames around her the largest I’d ever seen, Shadow was ready and waiting. Gathering up the finished golden strands, he flung them at his mother using every last ounce of his power and strength.

When Dannie was almost coated, she let out a cynical laugh. “You’ll never win,” she squawked, the vibration of her power felt for a brief moment before the last strand of the golden spell locked into place.

I hurried to Shadow’s side, just as he collapsed to his knees, barely able to hold himself up.

“It’s got to work this time,” Angel murmured, bringing to my attention the fact that all of them were on their asses, having given everything they had, and then maybe a little more.

I hated to see them so broken and defeated, but it would be worth it if this cage worked. We needed it to work.

Wrapping myself around Shadow, I shared as much of my energy as I could, all the while keeping my gaze firmly locked on Dannie in the golden fortress. So far, it was holding, with no slivers of light breaking free.

For many minutes, we watched the prison, the eight of us still and silent in our blackened section of forest. I wondered at what point we could relax and expect that this time it had worked.

“I think we did it,” Len rasped out, managing to pull himself to stand so he could straighten and clean his silver jacket. Lucien stood as well, wiping ash from his face, exhaustion pulling at his perfect features. Even Shadow turned to the others, preparing for the next step.

I was the only one still staring at Dannie. The only one who refused to be lulled into a sense of false success. Not until there was not a shred of doubt.

Just when I was satisfied and about to turn away, the tiniest speck of light caught my eye as it crept out of a sliver of the prison, right near her left hand. My blood iced in my veins as I took a staggered step toward her.

No! No, no, no, no, no, no! Fuck.

It hadn’t worked.

Our last effort was about to fail, and none of them had an ounce of strength to try to prevent it from happening. Except me.

I had no idea if it was possible, but I’d learned from watching them weave this cage multiple times, and this was my chance to prove that I was strong enough to do this. Darting forward, I pulled up the deepest, strongest parts of my energy. The parts that burned like the center of a volcano, molten and intense, and when it filled my hand, I pressed it against the sliver of light that had already started to spread as Dannie poured her energy into the weak spot.