Fire shot out from her fingertips. It wasn’t a compact little ball like I’d formed. Nina was wielding sheets and sheets of fire. Substantial amounts of fire. Flames lit up the night, wrapping around the three Strigoi. There was no need to stake them; I think they were killed almost instantly.

I shook her again. “Let go! Let the magic go!”

What she’d done, to create that ridiculous amount of fire, hadn’t been a small change to the dream. She’d not only had to break through Olive’s control, she’d also had to break through mine at the dream’s foundation. The spirit that had required—to blast all those Strigoi away in one fell swoop—was staggering. It was at least twice as much as I’d seen her wielding when we were in the dream together before.

The fire vanished (as did the incinerated Strigoi), and Nina dropped to her knees. She rested her hands on the side of her head and began to scream. And scream. Around us, the dark parking lot transformed to the sunny Getty Villa as my control of the dream returned—thanks to her efforts. I knelt beside her and gently rested my hands on her shoulders. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, lost, as she kept screaming.

“Nina, Nina . . . it’s okay. It’s okay.”

But I didn’t know if it was. She wasn’t screaming because of the Strigoi. There was something else going on, the terrible aftereffects of all that spirit use. Week after week of so much use, now followed by this . . . it was too much. The final straw. I had no idea how much damage had been done, but something was seriously wrong. I needed to wake us up and find out how she was in real life. With a thought, I let the dream begin to disintegrate.

“Nina . . .”

The small voice jerked my attention up. I hadn’t realized that Olive was back with us in the Getty Villa. When Nina had blasted through the Strigoi, she’d wrested control back from Olive and temporarily from me. Now Olive was left with nothing, no more control, no ability to escape. She was fading, though, just like Nina and me as I sent us to the waking world.

Before we all disappeared, however, I saw a few things very clearly. One was concern on Olive’s features as she stared at Nina. No matter what had passed between them, Olive loved her sister and wasn’t trying to purposely hurt her with these obstacles.