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“I have to stop this,” I muttered. “I have to.”

Bella flicked her hand, and tables flew out of her way, clearing her path to the gods.

“Bella, stop!” I shouted over the thunder of battle. My legs might not be working right now, but my voice was as loud as ever.

Bella spun around to look at me.

“The Bella I know doesn’t hurt people,” I told her. “She heals them.”

Bella snapped her fingers. A swarm of dinner knives shot at me.

Nero pulled me behind the table, and the knives sank into the wood instead of my flesh.

“We need to take her out,” Colonel Fireswift told Nero. “Now.”

“Hey.” I shoved my finger in his face. “You promised to be nice to her.”

“I am being nice.”

“He really believes that,” Nero told me.

I frowned at Colonel Fireswift. “I’m sure he does.”

Colonel Fireswift’s eyes locked with mine. “Killing her is a mercy. If she’s captured alive, things will be much worse for her.”

“Things can’t get worse than dead,” I shot back.

“Of course they can,” he replied as our table caught on fire.

Nero frosted over the flames with his magic.

“Being captured is better than being dead,” I growled at Colonel Fireswift.

“So you can rescue her,” he said drily.

“Yes,” I replied, defiant. “She’s my sister. I know her. Whoever this fiend is, it isn’t Bella.” I shook my head. “She isn’t doing this by choice. So I won’t allow you to kill her. Someone has done this to her. Someone’s controlling her.”

“Leda…”

Colonel Fireswift had never called me by my first name. And, right now, he actually looked like he felt sorry for me. Like he knew Bella was already dead.

No, I wasn’t giving up on her!

“I don’t see a control collar,” I said to Nero. “Maybe whoever is doing this, they are using some other artifact to control her?”

Just like the Guardians had controlled Meda. She’d nearly destroyed the world, and the gods had forgiven her. They would forgive Bella. They had to.

“We just have to figure out which artifact is controlling Bella and remove it.”

I looked at the phone in my hands, searching for answers. Bella had modified my phone to protect me from anyone who wanted to do me harm. The cruel irony of this turn of events almost made me break down and cry.

“That device won’t help you, Leda.”

I turned at the sound of Harker’s voice.

“I was with Bella just now. Before…” His jaw clenched up. So did his fists. “She was totally normal, and then she suddenly went berserk and attacked me. Like something triggered inside of her.”

“Something? What is this, Harker? What’s happened to my sister?” I gripped his jacket, shaking him in desperation.