Setrákus Ra’s smile doesn’t fade. He knows we’re up against the wall. He lunges at me, slashing towards my midsection. I leap back and feel the tip of the blade pass right in front of my abdomen. The rocky ground beneath my feet shifts and I almost stumble over.

Behind me, Marina’s managed to drag Adam to where the crater starts going uphill. She stops there and shouts. “Ella! What—!”

Both Setrákus Ra and I turn towards the well, where Ella has climbed up onto the stone rim. She’s just inches from the raging wave of Loric energy. Her hair flies out in every direction, almost like a halo. Electric sparks pop all around her, and the dark blood on her neck turns a shade of purple in the vivid blue light. The skin on her face and hands ripples like she’s in a wind tunnel, and small debris buffets her. She ignores it all.

Immediately, Setrákus Ra forgets all about me. He takes a halting step towards Ella. “Get down from there!” he bellows. “What are you . . . ?!”

Ella turns in our direction, her eyes on Setrákus Ra. They aren’t spaced out anymore. For a moment, I can see the old Ella in there. The shy girl we first met in Spain who blossomed into a brave fighter. Her voice is small, yet somehow amplified by the torrent of energy behind her.

“You don’t get to win, Grandfather,” she says. “Good-bye.”

And then Ella falls backwards into the Loric energy.

Setrákus Ra screams and races forward, but he’s too late. There’s an almost blinding flash of light. Ella’s body, basically a silhouette at this point, hovers in midair, caught between the Loric well and Setrákus Ra’s machine. For a moment, her body twists and contorts, arching painfully. Then, a surge of energy flows up from the well, too much for Setrákus Ra’s machine to handle. The circuits on its side explode in showers of sparks and the Loralite carvings melt in a searing burst of white-hot heat. Meanwhile, Ella’s body seems to disintegrate—I can still see it there, caught up in the energy, but I can also see through it, like every particle in her body has come apart at once.

A moment later, Ella’s body is spit out of the energy flow. She’s thrown like a smoking rag doll to the side of the crater. Then, the glow from the Loric energy dissipates and retreats back underground, while Setrákus Ra’s pipeline makes a metallic creaking noise and falls apart, twisted hunks of metal burying the Loric well.

Setrákus Ra stares at his ruined machine in disbelief. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the old bastard at a complete loss.