Malakai tilts his head, considering. His smile is a knife-edge. "On your way to the quarry, huh? Sure. It’s that way,” he hooks a thumb over his shoulder. “Just gotta go through us to get there. And then the pair of legacies you’ll face if you make it.”

"I’m tired of talking,” Serena says, face twisted with hatred. “I want to watch them burn.” She claps her hands together, fire magic flaring brightly. A moment later, she has gathered a fireball and launched it toward us.

The magic streaks through the sky, headed directly for the center of our group. But Mireen conjures an even larger sphere of water and flings it high into the air. The spells collide with a splash and sizzle, canceling one another out.

The sound and sight is breathtaking, but the stillness only lasts one heartbeat.

Two…

Three…

Someone shouts and then the sound is picked up by students on both sides. More magic explodes through the trees, shaking the air itself and making flashes of light that are blinding. Shadows stretch long as students clash, weapons swinging and sabotaged blades exploding into dust, providing a small advantage for our side.

“Stay to the back,” Raith says, one hand held protectively in front of me as he uses fire to blast away a small vortex of air someone threw at us.

"I can help," I whisper, nodding toward Malakai's closest ally—a muscular earth whose elemental resembles a bull made of living stone. Together, they’re both smashing away students, triggering stasis tokens left and right. "I'll need to get my hands on one of them."

Understanding dawns in Raith's eyes. I feel his concern and worry, but strongest of all is his confidence in me. He believes in my ability to handle myself. To be useful.

Raith gives me the slightest nod. “Be fucking careful, Nessa. I’ll be close.”

We fight our way into the chaos as elementals clash overhead in dizzying displays of power. I see Malakai’s shark swim just past me, biting a girl in the leg and triggering her stasis token.

Raith cuts a line with his sword toward Malakai and the earth. Nobody can touch him. Nobody even gets close. I follow in his wake, rapier ready.

Blue flashes bright and steady like lightning through the chaos. Stasis tokens trigger rapidly at first as the first waves fall and the pace of spells and sounds slows significantly.

Elementals fall from the sky or tip sideways, suddenly frozen as their humans are locked in stasis.

I clench my teeth, trying not to think about what will happen if the last of us falls. Malakai's people will go through us one by one, executing us. We have to win this.

Distantly, I sense Typhon whirling among the elementals like a demon, his serpent form not as deadly as his dragon form but doing more than enough damage. He's single-handedly turning the tide of the elemental battle.