She kept going. The inverted figures flicked past her. Disturbingly, many of the sleepers were frozen mid scream as if the process had been both rapid and terrifying, faces twisted in torment. Men, women – and children, ranging from near adulthood to toddlers. She felt a surge of disgust towards the Veteres. If their idea of civilisation was imprisoning babies for no crime other than being born, the world was better off without them.

She shook off her anger. The Veteres were long gone. It was the Nephilim, their bastard outcast offspring, who now posed a danger. Hate had begat hate, Gadreel and Sidona about to take it out on the race they considered the inferior side of their genetic heritage.

Unless she could stop them.

Halfway up. What to do when she reached Sidona? Proving Gadreel’s beliefs about humans true would, ironically, be the best approach: resorting to violence. Even if she could speak the Nephilim language, Nina doubted she could persuade the high priestess to embrace peace.

She neared the top. Sidona came into view. She sat cross-legged, one hand raised to hold something against a large, spiky node protruding from the ceiling, the other touching the crystal inside the tracker’s toroidal case. The machine was linked by cables to the wall – to the entire pillar. The colossal spire was a confluence for vast amounts of earth energy . . .

And Sidona now controlled it all.

Not for long, Nina vowed. If the Nephilim could influence the flow of power across the world, so could she. Deal with Sidona, and she could stop the attack.

She clutched the spar more tightly as she passed the final prisoners to reach the ledge. Sidona still had not registered her presence, entirely focused on the other world beyond the physical. Again Nina hesitated. She was about to club down a completely helpless, unaware woman. Even though she knew the stakes, it still felt wrong—

Something changed.

The light coursing through the crystal shifted in hue, a turquoise glow flowing through the chamber’s walls like dye in clear water. She looked down. One place was unaffected – because it already was the new colour.

Where the warrior was awakening.

‘Oh shit . . .’ Nina whispered. She saw what Sidona was holding against the node: the resurrection key. The qi tracker was again amplifying her control of the earth energy flow, weaponising it – to wake all the Nephilim simultaneously.

She wouldn’t just be facing one revived warrior. She would be confronting hundreds, emerging from their long imprisonment confused, angry . . . and with Gadreel and Sidona to lead them against their enemies.

Gadreel, at least. His wife could be taken out of the equation right now. Nina hefted the bar and hurried towards the sitting giant—

Sidona gasped – and her eyes opened.