“Dex!” Hathor called. “Over here!”

Her friend saw them between the beams. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We could ask you the same thing!” Troy exclaimed. He pushed against one of the beams, struggling to move it. “We came to help. What’s your excuse?”

“Same thing,” Dex said, pulling the beam Troy pushed. It shifted but not enough for him to get through. “I was headed back to my Dorm when I saw the explosion. Thought I’d check for survivors.”

Hathor pulled her knife from its sheath on her thigh, removing the glamour hiding them while she was at it. She wedged the knife’s blade between two beams. The metal was all but unbreakable. At least, that’s what Hathor had been told when Zoe gave her the knife as a birthday present.

With a grunt, Hathor used the blade as a wedge, moving the wood. Troy and Dex pulled and pushed it further. The gap was only little, but it quickly grew.

“You got it?” Dex asked.

Hathor and Troy grunted their confirmation. Dex dropped his part and crawled through the small gap. The second he was through, they dropped the beam.

Dex, laying on the floor, rolled onto his back. “Well, that happened.”

“Okay?” Hathor asked, holding out a hand.

He took it. “Yep. I’m good.”

“We should get moving,” Troy said, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “I don’t like the look of those cracks.”

Hathor glanced up and grimaced. “Yeah, that looks nasty. Let’s—”

Whack!

Troy crumbled to the ground.

Dex stood behind him, wielding a broken piece of pipe. He raised it to make the finishing blow—

Hathor tackled him through one of the remaining walls.

Jay made it down three levels of ramp before he realised he was cut off. A group of students and teachers were there, too, searching for a way out. Jay knew he’d get out no problem, burst through a wall or something, but these people didn’t have the pros of immortality on their side. They were very much mortal.

“Have you found a way out?” he asked the group.

“No,” said one of the teachers. “We are trying to make a way out.”

“Dangerous plan.”

“We know.” A second teacher joined them. “There’s no other way we can find.” She tilted her head toward the group of students nearby. “We’ve searched everywhere.”

“Are there others?”

A third teacher shook his flaming head. “They all got out. We were still here getting the last group of students out, but the doorway collapsed. The others tried digging through but had to leave when the hallway started collapsing.”

Jay nodded. “I think I have a way out but it’s real fucking stupid.”

The woman gave him a small smile. “I’ll happily take fucking stupid if it gets the students out.” The two men nodded their agreement.

“Cool.” Jay walked over to the group of students, giving them his best smile. “How’re you lot holding up?”

They all spoke at once.

“Terrified.”

“Not good.”

“Never been so scared.”

“Seriously wanna get out of here.”

“Can you help us?”

One of the women stepped forward, voicing what was clearly on the minds of the others. “Are we going to die here?”

“I won’t let you,” Jay assured her. “You have permission to haunt me if you do.” The joke brought out a few small laughs. Jay clapped his hands together. “Okay, I have a plan. You guys remember everything your parents and teachers taught you about coming up with well thought out plans that you know will work?” They nodded. “Forget all that bullshit. This is the real deal, so I need you all to answer this one question: Do you trust me?”

Hathor held down the struggling Dex, kicking away the pipe. It spun into the corner of the room. Sadly, this didn’t stop him. Dex threw a strong punch into her face. Hathor stumbled to her feet, spitting out gilded blood, and surged forward.

Trapped between the wall and a pissed off woman, Dex did the only thing he could. He ducked to the side. Hathor’s punch put a hole in the wall. Dex grabbed her from behind. Hathor elbowed his stomach, winding him. Still trapped in his grip, she went down with him. The pair rolled apart.

Hathor recovered first, grasping her knife. With a flap of her wings, she was on top of Dex and bringing her knife down on him. Dex rolled to the side. Hathor’s knife went through the floor. She cursed, spinning and slashing with one move, managing to slice open his arm.

Dex covered the bleeding with his other hand. “You know, I really did like you.”

“And Troy you were happy to kill?”

He made a show of thinking. “Yeah, very happy.”

Hathor roared and shot forward, slashing Dex’s face with her knife. He twisted to the side, right where her fist was waiting. She smashed it into his stomach, earning a cracking noise. Dex gasped, winded, ribs broken. He bent over at the pain. Hathor kneed his face. He stumbled back against one of the few lounges in the room, falling over its back.

Now out of her way, Hathor ran to the recovering Trou. He groaned, dazed from Dex’s strike. Hathor helped him to his feet.

“What happened?”

“Dex.” She put an arm around Troy’s waist to support him. “Whacked you ever the head. I think he was the one who planted the bombs.”

“You think he killed Ella, too?”

“Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me.” She glanced over her shoulder. Dex was yet to appear in sight again. “Let’s get out of here.”

Dex watched as Hathor and Troy stumbled down what remained of the ramps. He frowned. He hadn’t lied to Hathor. He really did like her. More than like. It had been a problem. Dex hadn’t counted on catching feelings for the daughter of his enemy, nor had he known about her immortality. Everything was complicated.

Dex leaned against the wall, pulling a small vile of silver liquid from his pocket and downing it in one mouthful. He cried out as his broken ribs fixed themselves. That always felt bad. What had he been thinking trying to take her on? Hathor was one of the tops in Combat, had been the whole time he’d known her.

He stumbled toward the nearest fire exit, climbing over the rubble and keying his throat mic. “Got their attention. Move in.”

“This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Alev—the male Firebringer teacher—said for what must have been the tenth time.

“I warned you it would be,” Jay shot back.

Nasim—the female Lyriumian teacher—ushered the group of students toward Jay. “I hope you’re right about this,” she told him.

“Can we try to stay optimistic?” Tarak—the male Dreama teacher—asked. “We have to set an example.” He tilted his head toward the students.

Nasim pulled her star-streaked red-pink hair into a low ponytail. “Fine. Optimism. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“None of us do,” Jay said. He turned to the six students—Enya (male, Firebringer), Idalia female, Fae), Helen (female, Light-Bender), Jasmine (female, Nightwalker), River (non-binary, Lyriumian), and Pulan (male, Fae)—who looked just as freaked out as their teachers. “This will be terrifying,” he told them. “Don’t let that stop you. As soon as we get to the ground, run for your fucking lives.”

“Yes, Sir,” he said.

“Right, then!” Jay clapped his hands. “Positions, all!”

The group moved to form a layered circle. Helen and River stood in the middle with Jasmine, Pulan and Tarak around them. Jay and Nasim stood on each side. Enya, Idalia and Alev made up the outer ring. They all took a step forward, the circle tightening.

Nasim called, “Ready?” The group have their confirmation. “On three.”

Jay and Nasim raised their fists. Together, they counted down. The others braced themselves.

Three.

Two.

One.

Jay and Nasim slammed their fists into the ground. The floor beneath them shattered. The group fell. The level below approached rapidly. From an outside perspective, it would look like there was no chance of survival.

And they’d be wrong.

Enya, Alev and Idalia used their powers of fire and light to create a flaming shield, protecting everyone from the falling debris that rained down on them. It turned to ash the moment it touched the flames. Jasmine, Pulan and Tarak used basic elemental magic to increase the fall of their decent. Helen and River created a shield of their own to protect everyone from each impact. Jay and Nasim, the moment they hit each floor, used their power to smash through it.

It was a painfully quick decent. No doubt the Tower would come down when they were out. They could only hope it would hold long enough to get away.

Sky was running toward the Towers. He’d barely reached the entrance of Tower One when several things happened at once.

The doors of the Second Tower were thrown from their hinges from the inside, the force throwing Sky onto his back. A group of exhausted looking teachers and students ran outside. Jay was with them, directing the other students in the area to run as far away from the Tower as possible.

That was when it happened. The Second Tower cracked and crumbled, and fell to the ground. It smashed study nooks, shops, cafes and blocked everything in its path.

At the same time, a ship aired over the Academy. Everyone stared with a mix of horror and awe. No one used ships. Ships weren’t able to access the God Worlds, and that certainly wasn’t a Lyriumian or Terpolite design. It was impossible for anything outside the God Worlds to get in without permission.

Who gave permission?

Ropes were tossed from the ship, soldiers covered in black armour lowering themselves to the group. Their armour was marked with the symbol of the New Rebels, those who wanted the Forgotten War to continue.

Everyone had been so busy staring at the ship that they didn’t notice the danger until it was too late. The soldiers raised their weapons the moment their feet hit the ground. Sky and Jay yelled “RUN!” as they opened fire.

Across campus, Hathor was carrying the barely conscious Troy outside when a similar scene took place. Soldiers came down from the sky. Hathor eyed their weapons. They looked a lot like those gun things Leo told her about years ago. The main weapon of Humans.

Her eyes snapped up as one clicked. Imogene was at her side in an instant, the pair dragging Troy back into the collapsing building as a hailstorm of bullets came down on them. They crouched behind the remains of a wall.

The firing stopped. Then it started again.

Hathor risked a look outside, peaking over the remains of the window. Maddie, Isaiah and a few others were behind a nearby Dorm. They all watched the scene in front of them Hathor raised a hand to her mouth at what she saw.

The soldiers had switched targets. They fired upon everyone who ran away. Bursts of blue, green, red and silver splattered on the walls, the path, other students. Those who had come to help the people trapped in Vivus were shot from behind as they ran away.

The shooting stopped and, for a moment, Hathor thought the soldiers would move on. Then one of the soldiers ordered the others to make sure the students and teachers were dead. The injured were killed, and the soldiers spread out to find more. This time, Hathor had to look away. What was happening? Why were these people attacking the Academy? What had they ever done?

Dex.

The name appeared in Hathor’s mind out of nowhere. He knew what was going on. He was probably part of it.

“Look after Troy,” she told the shaking Imogene. “Don’t leave until they’re gone. I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?”

“After Dex.”

Two women sat in the ship’s cockpit, watching the onslaught below. With them were some of the soldiers, all checking over the ship, making sure it stayed and place and monitoring the nearby city of Lapide for anyone coming in to help. The commander often sent in updates to one of the two women. After all, they weren’t just here to turn the Academy into a slaughter house. That was just a way to get her attention.

The first woman was watching with wild eyes, her red-painted lips twisted into a cruel smile. It had been her idea to attack the Academy, the most vulnerable place on Lyriumia because no one would even consider attacking the school. It was the perfect way to get the enemy’s attention and take out any allies while they were at it.

“The girl has been found,” the Commander said. “She’s cowering in one of the buildings.”

The woman nodded. “Good. Very good. I want her alive.” The smile widened. “If she fights back, don’t be afraid to hurt her.”

“Understood.”

The second woman was watching the scene with a deep, disapproving frown. “The mission is to get the girl,” she said, voice raspy from unuse. “What is this supposed to accomplish?”

The first woman spun in her chair. “Clearly, you’ve never tried to steal anything from A.K. If you don’t distract her, she will defeat you.” She swept a hand across the scene below. “She will be so focused on saving the kids that no one will notice us taking her child.”

The second woman’s frown deepened. “Your ways are not mine. We could do this without killing innocents.”

The first woman laughed. “Innocents? Them? You really have been out of the game for ages.” She grinned. “Don’t worry. We will get out prize. Our King’s mission will be complete.”