Suddenly the tan, thin boy who appeared in my last vision is next to me. Once again, he’s transparent, like a ghost. When I see he’s wearing a Loric pendant around his neck, I reach out for him. But he shakes his head at me and places a finger to his lips. The boy leaps onto Sam and climbs up his legs and body until he can get his hands around the chains. I watch him strain, trying to pull apart the shackles, and I can see the surprise on his face when he realizes he doesn’t have the strength to do it.

In my last vision, he asked me what number I was, and I feel an enormous pull to speak to him. I cough, clear my throat, and I know my voice has finally returned. I yell, ‘I am Number Four!’ just as the arena falls silent.

‘Have you made your decision?’ Sam asks. He continues to twist and turn in his shackles, the other boy still struggling to break his chains above him. Sam looks right at me and I can see his eyes are a deep maroon color. This is not Sam, I tell myself.

All at once, Sam’s body begins shaking so violently that the other boy loses his grip on him and I can only watch in horror as he falls and disappears into the same chasm that swallowed the agents. A purple glow then surrounds Sam, and the chains break of their own accord. Instead of falling, like the boy, like the agents, Sam floats, suspended in midair. A spotlight snaps on and I watch, disbelievingly, as Sam grows and transforms – into Setrákus Ra. The three Loric pendants around Setrákus Ra’s neck glow brightly, as does the purple scar circling his throat. ‘Do you want the human back?’ he bellows.

‘I will take him back!’ I yell at him, furious. I’m rooted to the spot, nothing but abyss around me, nowhere to step on to get closer to him.

Setrákus floats slowly to the ground. He lands and the rocks show no sign of giving way as they have for the rest of us. ‘This is your surrender? Fine. I shall accept your pendant now.’

I look down and my pendant is already gone. I look up again to see it hanging from Setrákus Ra’s giant fist. His cracked lips open to reveal a sharp, crooked-toothed grin.

‘No! I will not surrender!’ The moment I say it, I feel a sudden weight around my neck. My pendant is back.

The other boy leaps from the chasm into which he fell and lands near Setrákus Ra, his head held high. The boy joins my cry, ‘I will never surrender to you! Let Devdan go, and fight me!’