The impact’s explosive force sent him hurtling out through the opening and over the precipice beyond. His entire body wreathed in flames, he plummeted into the void with a long, echoing scream of defeat.

Macy stared after him in shock – then dropped the trikan and ran into the pillar. ‘Mom!’ she cried. ‘Cheng, help me!’

He limped after her around the spiral’s first leg. She saw the gas cloud falling towards them. ‘What is that?’

‘Bad!’ Cheng replied. The toxic yellow miasma would reach Nina in seconds. They got to her first. He saw the spike through her leg – and the dead giant pinning her in place. ‘We’ve got to move him off her!’

‘Oh God,’ Macy moaned, cringing – but she still strained to help him lift the impaled corpse.

Nina released the key, gasping in pain – then saw the young pair and reacted in horror. ‘No! What are you doing? Get out, get out!’

‘I’m not leaving you, Mom!’ cried Macy. She tugged desperately at the Nephilim’s arm as Cheng crouched to lever his body upwards. Blood gushed from the body’s wounds, flowing over the glowing surface underfoot. ‘Come on!’

‘You’ve got to leave me! There isn’t time – you’ll die as well!’

‘You’re not going to die!’ Macy shouted back. Her voice was nothing like her father’s, but to Nina she had never sounded more like him. The gas cloud reached the level above, sickly tendrils wisping downwards as if clutching for their prey. ‘We can do it!’

Her daughter’s utter conviction and determination sparked Nina’s own. Despite the pain, she pushed at the giant with all her remaining strength. All three of them gasped and growled, straining – then the Nephilim came free, his dead weight sending him slithering over the bloodied edge to land with a crack of bones below.

‘This is going to hurt, sorry!’ said Cheng. Before Nina could respond, he pulled her wounded leg sharply from the spike. She screamed. He and Macy tried to support her – but like the warrior, her own weight dragged her over the slick side.

She fell, screaming again – and landed hard on the Nephilim’s corpse.

‘Mom!’ Macy cried, running down the crystalline ramp to her. ‘Are you okay?’

‘No, I’m – fricking not!’ Nina managed to gasp. She crawled off the dead giant, Macy taking her arm to help her. The gap under the door was now only three feet high and shrinking every second. ‘Go on, go – get out!’

‘Not without you!’ Macy dragged her mother across the floor. ‘Cheng, come on!’

Cheng moved to jump down – then swayed as his vertigo returned, stepping back—

He slipped on the Nephilim’s blood – and tumbled down the slope.

His flailing ankle struck a jagged crystal spike. The snap of fracturing bone was clear even across the chamber.

‘Cheng!’ cried Macy. She shoved Nina through the shrinking opening, then started to run back to him—