At one point, he managed to bind her powers—he was an expert at that after all—but she only laughed again and broke free even faster than she had when I’d held her against the wall. As she got loose, I slammed her as hard as I could, and Shadow’s power increased at my side until my skin hurt from the hot blast of his energy. But together, we were holding her. The only problem was that Len couldn’t get close enough to attempt to remove the stone. The fae was trapped in the middle of Inky and Midnight, who were shielding all of our friends from the lava and creatures. And they were almost losing the battle thanks to powerful mist-driven zombies.

It had been a mistake to bring her back to the mists, but then again, maybe she would have used the creatures against us on the island. Dannie always had ten plans to fall back on, leaving the rest of us scrambling. Not one of us had expected she could do this, though, and there was no contingency plan for her secret lava army.

“This was where she was funneling her power in the cage,” Shadow bit out, pushing more power against the phoenix. “Her army needed to rise at the same time she broke free. That fucking stone is giving her near unlimited power.”

“Hence why we need it freed,” I groaned, my words barely audible.

For the first time since my rebirth, I felt my energy waning.

“I’m here.” Len’s words whispered through our ears, carried on his fae energy. “Hold her for a few more minutes, and I’ll work my Silver Magic on her.”

A few more minutes; it sounded so short when someone said it, but the reality of holding a raging, powerful phoenix goddess was akin to a human trying to hold a bull still for a few minutes.

Impossible and deadly.

Shadow joined me in his Anubis form, powering himself up further. Dannie looked between us and let out a squawk, shaking her head. “Neither of you are natural,” she managed to say through our hold. “I broke the balance with you both. A balance I must repair.”

It was a warning that this time she would not hesitate to kill us, but who the fuck was surprised by that? We all knew she had learned her lesson in leaving threats alive. Only one side of this war was walking away today.

Shadow and I gave it everything we had to hold her, and I thought we were going to make it, right up until she drew on whatever she had left in her stone, blasting us back. I stumbled, but Shadow caught me before I could go too far.

“We need the others,” he said near my ear. “All of us have to hold her for Len.”