As soon as I finished speaking, Sylvester’s head turned so that his eyes were trained on Eliza, who was standing in front of him, though in the shadows. His fangs bared, he started to move in her direction, and Eliza opened fire.Another of her team members, one I didn’t know, leapt off of a rooftop behind the Vampire, a knife in his hand, and started stabbing Sylvester, knocking them both to the ground. I covered my mouth, shocked at how savage it looked, even though the Vampire wasn’t going down easily. Brandon asked me if I was okay, and I nodded, but I couldn’t tell him what was going on at the moment. Lukas had taken off toward the warehouse, and Eliza was chasing him.The view was bouncy as Eliza sprinted after the newbie, leaping over pallets full of miscellaneous items that hadn’t exactly been moved into the warehouse neatly. Her boot caught on a box, almost tripping her, and a million screws clanked across the concrete floor. Luka

The flight to Budapest had been a long one. I’d tried to sleep as much as I could, but Aurora and Elliott were arguing more than usual. Apparently, she’d thought it would be funny to have all of the Cheetos Elliott had requested taken off of the plane before we left the airport. He didn’t think it was humorous at all, and they spent a couple of hours screaming at each other, airing all their dirty laundry for all of us to hear. Even when Aaron stepped in like he was their dad, it took forever for them to settle down. By the time we got to Budapest, I was exhausted.But the meeting we had with Mila and the rest of the elite team members the leaders had invited in was invigorating, so by the time we started to climb the mountain where Christian, and Daunator, awaited us, I was wide awake. It helped that Jamie had had enough time to examine the creature Eliza and Sergio had captured and the Healer thought he had an antidote that could save some of the people in

Christian’s eyes widened. “Get out of here? We can’t. We have to get Daunator.”“We will. But for now, we need to go back and regroup. The most important thing is that you’re safe now,” Cadence explained to him.Christian was starting to freak out again. “No, Cadence, you don’t understand. We can’t just leave from here! We can’t just let him go!” His eyes were wild, and he reached forward and grabbed my sister’s shoulders. That lasted about half a second before Aaron grabbed him and pulled him off.“Listen, Christian, I agree. It’s important we come back and end this, but you need medical attention. And a good visit with Hannah.”And a shower, I thought to myself. But I was staying out of this one for the moment. I felt a stirring in the ground and a shift in energy somewhere further up the mountain. The argument was about to be moot.“No,

“You okay?” Brandon shouted to me as he moved a little closer to where I was standing. The holes in the ground were not shaking now as much as they had been before, but they were still an obstacle we had to consider. I didn’t want him to get too close because of my tornadoes, but I was glad he was nearby.“Great,” I called back, sending another pile of creatures over the side of the mountain.Aaron was fighting his way through the crowd of black creatures, working his way to Cadence. The path was getting clearer, as far as the minions were concerned, but once he got within about a hundred yards of Cadence’s location, one of the Vampires that had been engaged with our forces closer to the top of the mountain broke off, clearly on his way to intercept the Guardian Leader.Whether he liked it or not, Aaron wasn’t alone now. I wasn’t sure where she’d come from, but Eliza was running parallel to him, fighting off

“No!” My scream echoed across the mountainside as I watched in horror as my sister fell. I cannot guide what I cannot see, and I didn’t have a chance to get a grip on her before she plummeted. My hands shot out in her direction, but the surge of power I’d sent to grab her went over her head. I saw a streak of blue do the same and knew Jamie had missed as well.Fumbling through Cadence’s stream of consciousness, I tried again, hoping I’d be able to figure out how to get my powers around her before she hit the ground, but she was moving too fast, and without my eyes on her, I wouldn’t be able to get a grip.Part of me wanted to at least jump into her head, to be with her, to let her know she was okay, but then, the thought of what she was about to endure, when she hit the tops of the trees and then cascaded down through them to the earth, I couldn’t bear the thought, and I knew she wouldn’t want me to see it.I