She clenched her fists, then straightened, facing up the slope. The priestess pounded down it. Nina started towards her. Bad idea. Her knee flared again. She could hardly walk, never mind run . . .

Let her come to you. Let her think you can’t fight . . .

She let out a loud gasp, stumbling on her aching leg. It was an exaggeration, though not by much. Sidona seemed taken in, however. A cruel half-smile came to the Nephilim’s face as she rounded the spiral and charged at the smaller woman—

Nina threw herself at the giant’s feet.

Sidona was too close and moving too quickly to draw either leg back into a kick. All she could do was jump awkwardly over the unexpected obstacle, stumbling as her feet came down behind her opponent.

Nina swung around. She did have the chance to kick – and drove her boot’s toecap against Sidona’s ankle.

Giant or not, Nephilim anatomy matched a human’s, the same spots just as vulnerable. Sidona shrieked, staggering – and Nina sprang up and body-slammed her at hip height.

Sidona sailed over the edge with a scream—

She hit the path thirty feet below, her right leg folding with a hideous crack of breaking bone. The impact flung her away from the chamber’s inner wall – and she plummeted all the way to its floor. Her terrified cry ended sharply as her skull burst against the unyielding crystal.

Panting, Nina looked down. The crimson spray around Sidona’s body told her the high priestess was no longer a threat. But the events she had set in motion were still a colossal danger. They had to be stopped.

She limped back up the slope – seeing to her alarm that the resurrection was well under way. The crystalline threads holding every entombed Nephilim were starting to shrink. She only had minutes before facing an entire army . . .

Leg throbbing, she finally reached the ledge. The key lay on the floor near the tracker. The device’s laptop displayed the world map, the lines of earth energy flowing through the planet—

And the Chinese weapon’s target.

Her breath froze in her throat. The Mandarin was unreadable, but the crosshairs were fixed upon a location she recognised instantly. The eastern seaboard of North America, a third of the way down the United States from the Canadian border . . .

New York. Her home.

The pain in Wu’s shoulder and arm almost overwhelmed her, and Chase was right: she was losing blood. But she refused to submit. Even if it cost her her life, she would carry out her self-appointed mission – to burn every last one of the Nephilim monsters from the earth.

She heard rustling noises. Was the Englishman searching Liu’s body? He hadn’t been carrying any grenades, but Chase could still use his gun to double his firepower. Could she withstand an attack?