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“Thank you,” Topknot gasped.She was no longer young, and this had already stretched her to her limits, as it had all of us.

Including Æsubrand, who was limping badly, and Alphonse, who was struggling to heal a head wound until Mircea brushed his temple and sealed it up, and Enid, who was missing a large clump of her abundant auburn hair on the left-hand side, a testament to the fact that something had gotten through her formidable shields, and—

And everybody, with not one of us less than a bloody mess.

And blood loss wasn’t something that Mircea’s abilities could replace, leaving me and Bodil, who had lost the most, gasping in effort just from making it this far.But we didn’t have a choice because they were coming; Bodil could see that much, or rather hear it, in the shouted commands from the other gods who had dispersed to deal with the threats from our allies.And who were only now realizing that the real threat was behind them.

“How long?”I panted as we started running again, because I could hear them distantly in my head, an echo of her abilities coming through.

“Not long.”

“How long?” I needed a timeframe, damn it!

“A few minutes.The death of an elder god resonated through metaphysical space like a bomb going off.”

“How many?”Mircea said hoarsely.

“All of them.”

“Goddamnit!”I snarled.

“Go… ahead,” Zara said breathlessly.“We’ll… hold them…”

“Yeah, for about a second,” Alphonse said, “and that’s if they even notice you’re there before they fucking run you over!You saw what one of those bastards was able to do—”

“That was an elder god,” Purple Hair said.“The others might be… easier...”

“You can’t even convince yourself!”

“They’ve been fighting for a while,” Butch Cut pointed out.“And Marsden was throwing everything he had at them.Maybe they’re exhausted—”

“So are we!”

“Do you… have a better… idea?”Zara demanded, as we stopped at the huge bank of golden elevators, which had somehow escaped the renovation.Or maybe the gods just liked the human faces, caught mid-scream, that writhed all over the carved surround.

“Yeah, we get the hell out of here!”Alphonse snapped.“Now, while we still can!”

“Not without Rhea,” I said, frantically hitting buttons.And wondering why none of them were lighting up.

“Fuck Rhea!We don’t have enough time to make it to her, much less—”

“What is wrong with these things?”I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.And failing because I sounded like I’d been running a marathon and was reaching mile fifteen.

“No power,” Pritkin said, his own voice clipped.

“Why not?”

“At a guess?The fight triggered the wards, and electricity—”

“Doesn’t play nice with the big boys.”Damn it!

“Can you turn the wards off?”That was Mircea.

“Turn them off?”Alphonse stared at him.“I’d say we’re gonna need ‘em!”

“The gods put them in place.Do you really think they don’t know how to bypass them?”

Alphonse swore.“Turn ‘em off!”he told Pritkin, who shot him the look that deserved.