I broke into a sprint, staggering because my right leg was more hurt than I’d thought, and didn’t like having my full weight on it.

But in a minute, that wouldn’t matter.

Thralls grabbed me, struck at me, tried to tackle me. The shield helped, but only a little.

Anger helped a lot. Anger at Teacher, at Amy, at my dad, at my mom.

I punched the shield into wires, and I felt the electricity run up my arms like snakes writhing through my tissues.

And tech all around us went dark.

The woman with spikes stopped what she was doing. Thralls turned to face her. Some began climbing up to Teacher, to help extricate him, when he looked much like my hand had a minute ago. The more they pulled, the more human his shape became.

It’s the agent. They’re organizing, and Teacher’s a prime organizer, I thought.

At least I broke his hold over his pet. What had that been, a generator? Tech to carry his power outside the bounds of the portal?

Whatever it was, it was a distraction. Only ten thralls were focusing on me now, because there was something way more threatening in play.

She reached out for me—I’d freed her from control but I was still the enemy, but I could put Teacher’s apparatus and agent between myself and her. She scratched at the ground and severed more wires.

I stumbled, my leg still hurting, and walked a half-circle around the apparatus, keeping a healthy distance from everything.

Watching the lines of power and control that didn’t require any tech, because they were operating from here to here.

I decided on a crystal that seemed to be doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Damsel was climbing Teacher’s apparatus, clawing her way up as thralls fought to get in her way. She reached a band of flesh that was Teacher, and stuck her claws into it.

But as his head was pulled free by thralls, Teacher looked my way, not toward the wound.

“No!” he hollered.

I was in the midst of charging toward the crystal, buckler raised high.

Was that a no, the world will end?

He was someone who wanted the world to end, because he wasn’t a man anymore. He might not have been for a while. He’d gone down the same path as Khepri.

Was it a no, my plans, then?

My whole life was fucked and had been fucked from the beginning. My mom was… not even disappointing. I was angry at her, but most of all I pitied her, and that was so much worse than just about any other feeling.

But she’d taught me from the start that I should take away what the bad guys wanted most.

I smashed the buckler’s edge into a crack in the crystal.