I give the signal.
Poppy and Marie pull the rope, tripping the first Guard. She falls hard on her face, and Marie bludgeons the girl with her log. Chill grabs a cast-iron pot off the fire pit and swings it mercilessly into the second Guard’s skull. Two blinding balls of magic race past me, down into the valley.
I blink against the bright impressions they leave in my eyelids. But they’re not spots I’m seeing. They’re lights. Small and distant, forming dotted lines across the dark landscape.
Headlights... dozens of them, a few miles down the road.
Lyon. It has to be.
A fireball crashes into a tree beside me, the wet sparks hissing under the fall of rain. I turn as the Guard behind me winds his arm back to throw another. Amber surges between us, taunting him as she heads into the forest. He chases after her, close on her tail. Julio takes down the last Guard, wrestling him to the ground and showering him with punches a few yards away.
Leaving Kai and her bow.
The tip of her arrow shifts toward Fleur’s back. Fleur’s attention is turned toward the valley, her mind already engaged in battle with the next team of Guards ascending the ridge toward us. Kai takes aim. Releases the arrow. I blow a gust of wind across the gap, sending the empty tents hurtling toward her and throwing her arrow off course.
Kai turns. Finds me. There’s a spark of recognition in her eyes as she nocks another arrow. I run from the campsite, drawing her fire away from Fleur.
The first arrow whistles past my head as I duck. The bow releases again. I stagger as a white-hot pain rips through my thigh. I fall hard onto my knees, groping behind me for the shaft. The arrow’s slick with rain and blood, and my leg screams when I try to pull it out.
Kai draws another arrow from her quiver.
Teeth clenched, I break the shaft close to the skin. Then I push myself to my feet and run.
I have to get to Chronos. Have to get to the lake. Have to keep his Guards distracted until Lyon and Gaia get here.
An arrow rushes past my ear. The next finds its mark, jolting my body. Two more slice through me, hot pokers in my back. I stumble,blinking back stars as I slide down an embankment. Roots scrape my skin and grab at my clothes.
An arrow whistles close. I crawl to the next slope, letting gravity pull me over. Branches crack as I tumble past them in a shower of mud and loose stones.
I land facedown in the dirt, unable to move for the pain, listening to the crunch of Kai’s feet getting closer and closer in the brush.
No. This is not where I end. Not here. Not yet.
On shaking arms, I push myself up, struggling to breathe, resisting the urge to look behind me as another arrow impales the ground by my feet. As I stumble to the bottom of the hill, Kai swears and I stop running.
She’s out.
She tosses her bow to the ground. I turn and plant my feet, gripping the broken shaft close to my side. She bares her teeth as she hurtles toward me. I thrust out with the broken point just as her body slams into mine. She sucks in a sharp breath. Her blood’s warm on my hands, her tiny frame too heavy to hold as she falls limp against me and slides to the ground. I turn my face from the bright flare when her magic soars home.
Fleur calls my name, her shouts distant and muted. The stars at the edge of my vision close in, and I drop to my knees, then down on all fours.
“Impressive, Jack!” Chronos calls out. His cold voice cuts through the fog. “You would have been a worthy Guard, were it not for your ill-informed choices.”
The arrows sting like bees as I force myself to rise and limp to thelake’s edge. Chronos stands on the far side of it, the pointed foot of his staff digging into the soft soil where the water laps. Lightning forks over the valley, its flash captured in the eye of the scythe. The lake is all that stands between us.
Behind me, I hear the others descending the hill, searching for me. And Fleur, frantically calling my name.
Chronos bellows, “Come down from there and face me, Jack!”
We both know how this ends.
I don’t have to look far beyond him to know Lyon and Gaia won’t make it in time. It’s all happening exactly the way it did in his staff. And because of that, he’ll never see the true ending coming. The one Fleur controls. The one she decides. The only one I have faith in.
I stumble to the water’s edge. Summoning all the cold left in me, I step out onto its surface, struggling to stay upright.
I am the bait. The distraction. The chaos. The one who’ll clear the path for the others. They will fight him and fight like hell for each other. Chronos will underestimate all of them, because he can’t imagine any other way this could end. Because he has only chosen to see as far as my death. He can’t fathom the power of the bonds we all share—the risks and sacrifices and choices we would make for each other; he’s only ever looked out for himself.
The lake freezes under me, the ice spreading like a mirror beneath my feet. No past. No future. Just my bleeding reflection staring back at me.
