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Mouse man appeared behind him in his human form and ripped the necklace off Herrick’s neck with a single yank. The second he did, I blasted Herrick so hard that he flew through the room and through the window.

Mouse man fell to the ground.

“Are you all right?” I asked, running a hand over his damp hair.

“I’m okay. Just weak.” He smiled up at me. “I knew the pool was poisoned. I took an antidote before I got in, so that I’d absorb it all before you came. I’m weak, but I’ll live. Now go get Herrick.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. Hurry. He might still be alive. Don’t let him get away.”

I put his head down gently and ran from the room, cradling my arm. Kaden met me just outside the door.

His eyes ran over me, my shoulder.

“I’m okay, but I blew Herrick out the window. We have to get him and make sure he’s not escaping.”

He nodded, realizing the urgency and running beside me.

I climbed over the carnage, seeing dead and injured soldiers everywhere. The ones who could still stand were fleeing for their lives.

I froze as I came to one corpse. Mason was lying there with his head barely attached to his body.

I looked to Kaden.

“He’s lucky I was in a rush, or it would’ve been slower and worse,” he said. “We’ve got to go.”

I stepped over Mason, running for the door.

Herrick was miles in the distance, running for his life. I didn’t know how he’d survived the blast through the window, but he had.

“Can we catch him?” I said.

“I don’t know,” Kaden said.

The smart choice would be to chase him, track him down like a dog, and shoot him. He was my enemy, and worse than that, he wouldn’t go softly into the night. He’d come back for me, this place. He’d want vengeance.

But as I stood there, in Nowhere, knowing that this place was safe, that Kaden was alive, some of the anger and fury I’d had slipped away.

No, it was being squeezed out by the love and joy that had filled my heart. Soleil had been right: I had so much love in my life that I didn’t have any room left for the hate I’d been harboring for Herrick. I’d never forget what he did, or whatI’ddone, but I could move past it.

Farrow was the first to make it to our side. “What are you doing? He’s been trying to take Nowhere forever, and he won’t stop. We need to chase him.”

Cookie was there halfway into his diatribe and gaped, looking at me to clarify what had just happened. “He’s getting away?”

“He’s running, and I…” Before I could finish, there was a stirring of air that was so unnatural it robbed me of my concentration. I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

Farrow let out a low sigh, looking up and around before whispering, “Chaos.”

“Chaos? Here?” I asked. Even as I felt a tinge of the heaviness and dread that came with it, it somehow felt shielded from us.

“Why is it here?” Cookie asked. I’d never seen true fear on her face until this moment.

“No one move,” Farrow said. “It’s not here for us.”

Every one of us turned to where Herrick was still running for his life. I could see the ground around him swell with a funnel of dirt and dust that seemed to narrow in around him. He stopped, or was unable to move. He spun around, looking as if he were banging on the air. His mouth opened as he screamed, but all I could hear was the roaring of wind as it circled him. The funnel around him grew smoky and dark until it was nearly black, growing wide and tall, rising fifty feet into the air.

There was a loud cracking sound, as if God struck down a thousand-year-old redwood right beside us, and then it was gone. The funnel was gone and so was Herrick.