The cultists threw themselves at us, but they were disjointed, terrified by the Skal that was currently eating a man who had tried to cast a lightning bolt at it.
Spicy meat!Steve projected cheerfully.
Kaelen carved a path. His sword was a blur of golden fire, severing cultists and mundane weapons alike. He didn't kill unless he had to, disabling with brutal efficiency, but the dragon was close to the surface. Every strike was accompanied by a flash of scales, a roar of heat.
We were halfway across the chamber when Marissa raised her hand.
"Enough," she said.
She didn't cast a spell. She simply exerted her will.
The gravity in the room shifted.
The air pressure multiplied. It felt like being at the bottom of the ocean. My knees buckled. Kaelen stumbled, his sword dipping. Flynn was forced to one knee, snarling. Even Steve collapsed flat against the ground, making a noise that reminded me of a dog whining.
"You think you can interrupt the Queen's work?" Marissa asked, floating inches above the ground. She drifted toward us, her white eyes locking onto me. "You think you can steal my vessel, break my toys, and then march in here with your mongrel pack?"
She flicked a finger.
Kaelen went flying backward, as if kicked by a giant. He smashed into the stone wall with a bone-jarring crunch and slid down, dazed.
"Kaelen!" I screamed, trying to move, but the air was solid around me.
"He is durable," Marissa dismissed. She stopped in front of me. The smile on her face was deeply unnatural. "But you... you are disappointing, Aria. I built you better than this."
"You didn't build me," I spat, straining against the invisible weight. "You just tortured me."
"Potay-to, potah-to," she said with an airy wave. "The point is, you are flawed. Corrupted bythem." She sneered at Flynn, who was struggling to stand, his muscles trembling with effort. "Wolves. Bears. Beasts. Pandora was meant to control them, not wallow in the mud with them."
She reached out, grabbing my chin. Her fingers were freezing cold.
"But no matter," she said. "The new vessel is nearly ready. Once I harvest the Catalyst..." She looked at the golden markings on my neck. "...I can finish the making."
"Get away from her!" Thane roared.
Thane fought the gravity Hera was pumping into the room. His joints popped and his veins bulged in his neck as he stood up and raised his slab of rock.
Marissa didn't even look at him. She just gestured with her other hand.
The ground beneath Thane liquefied. He sank to his waist in stone that turned to quicksand, trapping him instantly.
"Stay," she commanded.
She turned back to me. "Now. Let's get that blood out of you before it spoils, shall we?"
She raised a silver ritual knife, the twin to the one Ellie had used to stab me in the Sanctorum.
I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. My magic was blocked by the crushing pressure of her aura.
But I remembered something Elias had said.
You let us through you. Now... you must let us bind with you.
I couldn't bind with them. They were scattered, pinned.
But I could bind withsomething.
I looked past Marissa, at the Titan bone looming over us. It was weeping dark energy. It was the source of the power she was using to hold us down.
