And in the center of it all, rising from the shattered mountain range, was the Titan.
He was made of earth and fire, a humanoid shape vast enough to block out the suns. His shoulders were mountain peaks covered in snow and lava. His eyes were burning lakes. He was shaking the debris of the city off his back like dust.
And hanging in the sky above him, a black wound in reality, was the Devourer.
"We have to get clear!" Thane shouted over the wind. "Land there! The lower shelf!"
He pointed to a jagged outcropping of rock miles away, near the edge of the floating island, where the mortal realm merged with the divine. It was the jumping-off point.
Kaelen dipped his wings, entering a steep glide. We descended rapidly, the wind tearing at our clothes.
We hit the shelf hard. Kaelen landed first, his legs absorbing the impact, but the momentum was too great. We tumbled, rolling across the rough stone, limbs tangling.
I skidded to a stop near the edge of the cliff. I scrambled up, dusting off my knees.
"Is everyone intact?" I called out.
The Princes were pulling themselves up. They looked wrecked. Kaelen’s wings were tattered, smoke curling from tears in the membrane. Flynn was limping. Thane was holding his ribs. Elias looked like he was about to vomit.
"Define intact," Flynn hacked, spitting blood.
"We made it," I breathed, looking back at the Titan. He had turned his attention to the sky, raising a fist of stone to punch the Devourer. The resulting shockwave flattened a temple complex near the peak.
"We aren't secure yet," Kaelen said, his eyes fixed on the horizon. "We need to get to the mortal realm."
He walked to the edge of the cliff. Below us, through the swirling clouds and debris, I could see flashes of green. Forests. Oceans. The human world, bleeding into ours.
"We jump," Kaelen said. "We use the updraft to glide across the gap."
"I never thought I was terrified of heights, but this is something else entirely," Elias whispered, clutching his robes.
"You're a bird, Elias," Flynn pointed out, shoving him gently toward the edge. "Act like one."
We lined up on the precipice. Behind us, Olympus burned. Before us, the drop into a world that I doubted was ready for us.
"Together," I said, reaching out.
We linked hands. Through the bond I could feel them all, Kaelen's hot grip. Thane's rough callouses. Flynn's twitching fingers. Elias's cool, slender grasp.
"One," Kaelen counted.
"Two," Thane rumbled.
"Three!" Flynn yelled.
We leaped.
For a moment, we were weightless. The wind roared in my ears, whipping my hair across my face. We fell toward the green world below, leaving the fire behind.
Then, the wave of power hit us.
It didn't come from the Devourer. It came from the Titan.
As he stood fully upright, shaking the foundations of the world, he let out a roar. It wasn't sound; it was pure, unadulteratedOld Magic. It was a pulse of primal authority, a command from the grandfather of gods that stripped away all artifice. It demanded that things be what they truly were.
The pulse washed over us in mid-air. It felt like being hit by a wall of golden water. It soaked into my skin, into my metal, into my soul.
And it hit the Princes.
