But she didn’t hear him. Her only focus was her brother. Sophie pushed open the right-hand door and climbed out, her aura sparking the moment her feet touched the ground, sheathing her in a mirror image of the armor she’d seen Joan wear. Unlike Josh, she had no weapon, but she’d been trained in Air and Fire magic. The girl deliberately lowered the barriers Joan of Arc had put in place to protect her from the Witch of Endor’s memories. Right now, she needed to know everything the Witch had known about the Archon Cernunnos.

Rumors, fragments, whispered tales.

Once it had been beautiful. A giant; tall, proud and arrogant. A respected scientist. It had experimented first on others, then, when that was forbidden, upon itself. Finally, it had become repulsive, bony outcroppings appearing from its skull, its toes fusing to thick hooves. Only its face remained, a hideous reminder of its former beauty. The incomprehensible passage of time had destroyed its great intellect, and now it was little more than a beast. Ancient, powerful, still with the ability to warp humans into wolfkind, it inhabited a distant Shadowrealm of dank rotting forests…

No animal likes fire, Sophie reasoned, and if the Archon lived in a wet forest world, it was probably afraid of fire. She felt the briefest flicker of fear-what if her fire failed her again?-but she savagely quashed the idea. Her magic would not fail her this time. In the heartbeat before she pressed her finger against her tattoo, calling upon the Magic of Fire, she used a tiny portion of her aura to bring the Magic of Air to life.

A whipping tornado appeared around the Archon. The remnants of the Wild Hunt, every particle of dust and grit swirled up to surround Cernunnos in a thick buzzing blanket. Blinded, its mouth and nostrils filled with dirt, the creature covered its face. Then Sophie pressed her thumb against the circular tattoo and ignited the dust cloud. In the last second before she slumped to the earth, unconscious, she was aware of the Horned God’s scream. It was the most terrifying sound she had ever heard.

“Josh,” Dee gasped, desperately parrying the tremendous blows that actually numbed his arms. “There is so much you do not know. So much I can tell you. Questions I can answer.”

“There’s a lot I already know about you, Magician.” Blue-white and red-black sparks exploded every time the twin blades met, showering the fighters with burning specks. Josh’s face was flecked with black spots, and Dee’s ruined suit was pitted with a score of holes. “You. Were. Thinking. Of. Killing. The. Archon.” Josh drove home each word with a blow.