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“Who are you?” she demanded, gripping my shoulders, shaking me.

I felt the final fleeting threads of Mordon’s control fade away from my body, and as they did, I couldn’t help but taunt him.Now, how about that? You thought you were in control. You thought you were using me. But I was using you.

Mordon howled and banged and grasped for any way to stay in control, but he didn’t stand a chance, not with Nero and all of the others here with me, linked to me. The floodgates opened, and their love and support rushed in.

Noooo!Mordon screamed, and then was silenced.

He was gone. His consciousness was gone. And since it had nowhere to go, that meant he was gone too. Forever.

I blinked at Kia, who stood before me. Nero’s soul burned through her eyes.

“I am Leda Pandora,” I said, setting my hands on his cheeks. “Your wife.”

Nero squeezed me into a hug. “I heard you calling out to me.”

“And you came.”

“I will always come for you, Pandora.” He pulled back just far enough to meet my eyes. “Always.”

I gave him a final squeeze, then rushed over to Sierra and untied her from the tiny table. I carried her over to Nero.

She recognized him immediately, despite the different body. “Daddy!” she squealed in delight.

He lifted her into his arms. “How are you doing, little angel?”

“I don’t like this place.” She looked around and declared solemnly, “Everyone is evil here.”

Nero and I laughed.

“I’m just glad that the three of us are back together again,” I said.

“I felt what you were trying to do,” said Nero. “But I wasn’t sure you’d be able to take back your body and bring me here.”

“Well, then you seriously underestimated my stubbornness.” I smirked at him. “You really need to stop doing that, Windstriker.”

“Yes,” Nero agreed. He fell quiet for a moment, before speaking again. “How did you even think of bringing me here, into Kia’s body?”

I shrugged. “Your consciousness is linked to mine, so I thought: hey, why not bring you here? I figured if the Guardians could pull off a body switch, then so could we. Plus, I am kind of in love with the irony of using their own trick against them. And I managed it before Mordon kissed Kia with my lips. Thank goodness. I would have had to burn them off.” I made gagging noises.

“You are crazy,” he chuckled, then hugged me again.

Sierra giggled, wedged between us in this family sandwich.

“Yeah, well, that’s me,” I said. “The one with all the crazy ideas. So you aren’t mad?”

“Mad about what?”

“Mad that I improvised,” I said. “Mad that I changed the plan midway through. I know how you hate that.”

He shook his head. “Not this time, Pandora. I couldn’t be happier about this change of plan. Because it means I’m right here with you, fighting by your side, protecting you and Sierra.”

“Well, in that case, we’d better get started,” I said, turning toward the window that looked out upon the castle’s interior grounds below. “Let’s open the gates and invite our army in. Here and now—on the gods’ battleground—we’re going to make this a legendary battle, an epic story for the ages.”

CHAPTER 36

THE FINAL BATTLE

Mordon must have had a failsafe that triggered a silent alarm the moment he lost control over my body. Or maybe the alarm went off when he died.