“I can’t imagine what that would be,” Angel said, keeping his arm ready. Silver’s eyes flicked down to it.

“I see you’ve improved your arm. Congratulations. I genuinely do wish that we could talk, but the Magistrate of Salt Lake has put a very tight time limit on me. I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone the chitchat – unless you’d like to come along with us? I wouldn’t mind inviting you to my crew. Your group have proven themselves quite formidable.”

“You know nothing about us,” Vanessa said. “How can you work for such a horrible man?”

“Money, my dear,” Silver replied, looking somewhat upset. “It’s hard to come by for those of us that aren’t born into it. I hate to inconvenience you all, but it’s just business. The Magistrate doesn’t want to kill you, so you’ll come to understand this in the future. The desert is far colder than you can imagine.”

“So much for no chitchat,” Angel said, smirking. “But there are still three of us, and we’ve got a Hunter. Is there a point putting food on the table when half of you are dead?”

Silver gave him a sympathetic look. “I really do have to apologize again. I’m not generally a fan of such tactics, but I couldn’t take any risks with a job like this.”

Angel’s heart dropped. The sand shifted under Cowl’s feet as he stepped away from them, walking to join the bandits.

“You bastard!” Vanessa said, her tone clipped and furious. “I thought we were friends.”

“Silver is right,” Cowl said after a small pause. “The desert is cold. You’ll come to learn that – or you’ll die.”

“What could Silver have possibly paid you off with?” Angel asked. His teeth gritted in anger at the Hunter’s betrayal. “I know you’ve been working towards some goal of your own, but some small part of me hoped that you were still on our side. What did you want? The relic? And why all of the misdirection? You could have just taken it from me!”

Cowl cocked his head. It took several long moments before the Hunter finally responded. “Yes. I want the relic.”

“You’ve got a relic?” Silver asked, clicking his tongue. “No matter. Cowl gets you, and I get the girl. If it’s any solace, he refused to join my crew. He has no interest in your charge.”

“So this is it? Are you even a Hunter?” Angel asked, glaring at Cowl and narrowing his eyes. The Hunter’s response hadn’t felt genuine, but he hardly had the luxury to quiz the man. “It’s funny. I was getting a bit paranoid, but I used to think you were a friend.”

Cowl’s sword lowered for a moment. Then it rose again. “There are no friends in the Barren. Simply business partners, and our business has ended.”

Angel couldn’t help but notice that Cowl hadn’t answered his question.

“What do we do?” Vanessa whispered, backing against Angel.

“Depends,” Angel replied. “Would you rather die or get taken back?”

There was a moment of hesitation before her answer. “Die.”

Angel tossed her a canister. “Make it count.”

Silver shook his head sadly. “A shame it came to this. It’s been a pleasure, Angel. Boys, kill them.”

A bolt of lightning ripped out of Angel’s palm. The brilliant yellow flash nearly blinded him as the spell came out significantly stronger than it ever had been before. His arm shuddered from the force as magic crackled across the clearing and slammed into Cowl’s body.

The masked man flew backwards and tumbled across the ground for several feet, smoke rising up from his body. Vanessa fit the canister into her gauntlet in the moment of silence that followed Angel’s attack.

She raised her hand and fired a green bolt at the nearest bandit. The spell caught him in the throat, carving a hole clean through it. His eyes widened and he grasped at the wound, his mouth flapping in disbelief for a moment before he staggered and fell to the sand.

The silent spell was broken. With a roar, the bandits charged towards them. Angel spotted Cowl rising to his feet out of the corner of his eyes, but Silver was upon him before he could spend any more thought on his traitorous teammate.

Silver’s blurred in the air. Angel was only saved by his arm, which was so large and bulky that he managed to block the man’s strike on accident. The bandit pressed forward, forcing Angel to constantly keep his arm between himself and the bite of Silver’s sword. There was no chance to load another canister into it.

“Just surrender,” Silver hissed. “You don’t have to die for her.”

Angel lunged forward, barely avoiding the man’s blade and driving his left shoulder into Silver’s chest. The bandit staggered back and Angel grabbed a canister, loading it in seconds.

“I don’t work with bandits,” Angel snarled, slamming his palm against the sand. The earth surged around him as several thick spikes sprouted around them. Silver twirled out of the way, but one of them carved a painful looking wound across his chest.

A streak of white light filled the air. Angel instinctively rolled out of the way as a blast of energy slammed into the sand where he’d been standing. Cowl strode towards them, his large sword burning with energy.

“Give me your arm, Angel. I don’t have to kill you,” Cowl said. “It had to come to this. You don’t understand what you hold. The stakes are much higher than you could ever imagine. If you were anyone else, I would have killed you already.”

“Pry it from my corpse, shitbag,” Angel replied. It wasn’t his best comeback, but he was a little under pressure. He loaded his third spell into his arm and raised it, alternating from Cowl to Silver. “Next person who walks forward catches a lightning bolt to the face.”

“Telling people your next move is stupid,” Cowl said, charging towards him. “Your lightning is strong for a Seeker, but you’re far from my match.”

Angel cocked an eyebrow. The spent canister fell out of his arm as the air before him grew chilly. A blue bolt sailed through the air. Cowl twisted, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the entire attack and it slammed into his thigh. Ice shot across his lower chest and right leg. Cowl fell to the ground, unable to put weight on his injured limb.

“You’re right,” Angel said, turning back to face Silver. “Telling you what I was doing would be stupid.”

“Such a shame. I would have loved to have you on the team,” Silver said, pressing his lips together. “But I think you’ve made your stance clear.”

His sword rippled, almost seeming to become semi-liquid. The bandit swung the strange blade at Angel, who raised his arm to block it. As the sword moved, it extended and warped, forming into an arc of metal that reached around him and cut a line across his leg.

Silver yanked the blade back and Angel grimaced. Silver’s attacks had already been terrifyingly fast, and now they were impossible to read and had a significantly extended range. He risked a glance towards Vanessa but instantly regretted it. Four bandits had surrounded her and had their swords at her throat. Another one of them laid smoldering on the ground beside her, and several looked to be injured.

“Your girl did a number on my men,” Silver observed. “A necessary cost of business, but unfortunate nonetheless. It’s over, Angel. You have nothing left to fight for.”

A trace of something dark speeding towards them from the horizon caught Angel’s eyes and a small smirk crossed his face. “I agree.”

“You do?” Silver asked, taken aback.

“It’s over,” Angel said. “Although not in the way you’re thinking.”

Silver glanced over his shoulder.

“Barge!” He roared. “Get back to the chopper, before –”

A roar tore through the desert. An instant later, a blur sailed across the sky from the barge. The chopper exploded as the projectile struck it. Fragments of machinery and metal rained down on them as the force of the strike sent the vehicle careening across the sky.

Cowl shook off the effects of Angel’s spell, rising to his feet with a mechanical growl. “I don’t know how, but you did this.”

Angel shrugged. “We’re all screwed now. Enjoy.”

“I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Cowl growled, turning towards the rapidly approaching barge and raising his sword. The sand ship was huge – easily the size of a small village and heavily armored. There were several dozen men milling about at the top, yelling out commands. A large cannon and two ballistae were mounted on the front.

The massive sword in Cowl’s hands grew brighter and he reared back, swinging it into the sand. A halfmoon shaped disk of energy shot out, shooting silently through the desert and carving a thick line into the huge sand ship.

Screams rose up from the deck. The men manning the ballista turned it towards them and Angel caught a glimmer of magic at its tip. His eyes widened and he hurled himself out of the way.

Cowl jerked backwards, a huge arrow the size of a small tree trunk sprouting from his chest and pinning him to the sand. Angel hadn’t even heard the ballista shoot. A moment later, the cannon fired again. Shrapnel rained down on all of them. Angel raised his hand to protect himself, but something hard caught him on the back of his head. He fell unconscious and crumpled to the ground with the faintest trace of a smug grin on his face.