Shocked and puzzled, Josh was turning to Nicholas when he felt a cold chill run across his back. He turned around just as Sophie climbed out of the car.

The tingling had begun the moment she had seen Prometheus’s huge head peering into the car. It was like a thousand pins and needles racing through her body, beginning in her fingers and toes, rushing up into her skull. And with the tingling came the surge of memories.

… a red-haired boy on a cliff, a tentacled monster rising out of the raging sea…

… the boy, now a young man in exotic silver armor, wielding a flaming red sword against a host of armored warriors…

… the same young man raining balls of fire down on a distant fleet of sparkling metal ships…

… the man, older now, walking away from the Nameless City, followed by thousands-tens of thousands-of newly created humani…

… the man, older still, terribly wounded and chained to a rock on a poisonous Shadowrealm, being attacked by savage birdlike creatures…

The moment her foot touched the ground, Sophie’s aura blossomed around her, instantly hardening and solidifying into a suit of exotic-looking silver armor that encased her body. A smooth oval helmet completely covered her head, the eye openings protected with green glass, and although the gloves on her fingers were metal, they were as flexible as leather.

“Do you recognize this armor?” Sophie’s voice echoed slightly inside the helmet, giving it an otherworldly quality. The armor was a perfect copy of the suit Prometheus had worn as a young man.

Prometheus took a step back, his skin now the color of chalk. Aoife reached for her uncle’s hand.

“Do you remember when you made a suit like this for me out of your own aura? To keep me safe, you said.” The smell of vanilla was strong in the air, and then it was touched by another odor: the crisp scent of burning leaves. A slender thread of brown now dappled the silver metal, making it resemble leopard skin.

Shaking his head, Prometheus backed away. Sparks had gathered in his red hair and beard. Shimmering crimson armor started to form over his chest and shoulders. “Who are you?” he asked in the lost language of Danu Talis.

“I am Sophie Newman,” she replied in the same language before slipping back into English. “And I have a message from your sister.”

Prometheus’s aura blazed bloodred, and a suit of armor like the one Sophie wore shaped around his body. The two metal suits-one red, one silver-sparkled, leaking threads of colored aura into the air. “My sister is dead to me,” Prometheus boomed, his voice amplified inside his helm. “She betrayed me… she betrayed all of us.”