Shadow and I were up in an instant, and we joined the desert deity, using our powers against her once more, finding a hidden strength neither of us knew we had. Desperation and adrenaline were the reasons human women could lift cars off their babies. Today we were the desperate ones, and we were using it to our full advantage.

“She’s weakening,” Shadow roared. “But not enough to tear the stone free. Not yet.”

“One last attempt,” Reece bit out, his voice a rumble like the storms he had raging around us. “All of us. All of our power. Hold nothing back.”

The others fell into line, Midnight and Inky still giving us some breathing room from the creatures, but that wouldn’t last long. This truly was our last shot.

Our one chance to save the world.

55

The eight of us faced the phoenix. Maybe this was how it should have been all along, our power versus her power. No games or prisons. No conversations or attempts at redemption.

I didn’t regret allowing her the chance to save herself, but that chance was over now. Now we had to play for keeps, and I would hold nothing back.

Len held back, since he was saving his energy to remove the stone, but the rest of us shot power into her focusing on our individual strengths and magics. The strongest aspects and skills of our races. Reece with his desert power, dry as it ripped against our skin like magical sandpaper. Alistair’s was water-based, but his water turned into large weapons he shot at Dannie in the form of icy green swords, pointed spears, and other missiles. So far, none were penetrating the shield she had formed over herself, but it was all working to weaken her. Angel had her blades, moving up close and personal, slicing and dicing against Dannie’s power, moving like a freaking ninja so that the goddess could never touch her.

Lucien zipped around super-fast, his vampire strength and speed allowing him to pummel into the shields, searching for weak points, and when Dannie winced more than once, I knew that he was finding targets. Galleli still didn’t speak or make any sounds at all, but he was flapping his wings above Dannie, staring down with a look of complete focus on his face.

Everything okay? I quickly asked, worried that he might have spotted something.

Her mind is strong, he replied. But I will continue to try to break through to take control of her.

Awesome. Good luck.

Mentally, I pulled away, allowing him to focus, all the while having a minor freakout that he could take control of minds. As handy as it could be in this situation, there was always the worry that one day he might use it against us.