Nina fell, landing hard on the spiral below. She caromed off it and tumbled down again, and again, each touchdown like being trampled by a football team. All she could do was try to protect her head as she fell past the ranks of reviving prisoners—

She slammed down on her back. The pain was so intense she almost passed out. The chamber swam around her. She was about thirty feet above the entrance, Sidona and the other dead Nephilim below.

She also spotted the key. It had landed not far from her, perched at the edge of the path.

Nina knew she had to keep it from Gadreel – but she also needed to use it first. The sleepers had to be returned to their endless night. But she couldn’t reach the tracker, not with the warrior in her way—

She didn’t need to reach the tracker. The realisation was as clear and sharp as ice water. The device was connected to the great crystal pillar, now part of the network of earth energy – and when she used the resurrection key, she would be too. She would be able to amplify her ability to manipulate the power without being in direct contact with the machine.

She hoped.

A look up. The warrior stared back at her from on high. He saw she was not dead, and started to run down the spiral.

Nina crawled down the slope. Pain crackled through her spine, one leg blazing as if someone had driven a chisel into the bone. Blood ran from her nose. Rippling darkness encroached on her vision. She forced herself onwards. She had to reach the key, or she would die – and before long, all the Nephilim survivors, including the innocents, would suffer the same fate at the hands of the frightened human race.

The warrior continued his looping descent. Much closer, she saw the crystalline tendrils holding a Nephilim child start to melt away. The prisoners would soon recover – and once they did, there was nothing she could do to stop them.

The key was almost in reach. She dragged herself closer—

Got it.

Not knowing what to do next, she acted on instinct, pressing it with her palm against the crystal wall beneath the child.

The hidden dimension of energy surrounded her. She was still firmly connected to reality, though; her pain did not lessen. She forced herself to push through the torment of cracked bones and torn muscles to concentrate on her task.

She had to reverse the resurrection process. But how?

The thought alone was enough. She willed it, and it happened. Energy flowed through the web of crystal fibres surrounding each Nephilim captive, suspending every cell in their bodies in a state of perfect stasis – but that flow’s force had been fading to nothing. Now, as she redirected the currents, it began to rise again.