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‘Make it count.’

Rising to her feet, Alex wiped her face and steeled her spine, summoning A’enara for whatever she would find on the other side of the Gate, for whatever point in time Athora had created for her arrival.

And without waiting a second longer, she ran straight into the glowing arch.

It wasn’t like when she had been in Vardaesia and had come straight through the other side. Instead, it was more like travelling through theabrassa, her body being pulled this way and that, the pressure pushing against her to the point of pain. But then she was through, the silence of the Gate replaced by battle cries and clashing steel as she became aware of where she was—ofwhenshe was.

Because crumbled on the ground before her was Queen Niida, reaching for Aven, whispering to him her final words of forgiveness.

Alex had only a single moment to reorient herself, to prepare for what came next. But she didn’t waste that moment.

‘Make it count.’

So she did.

XIRA, GET OUT OF HERE!she yelled at him, just as Niida toppled and Aven turned his blazing eyes on her.

“You did this!”

This time she didn’t fear him lunging for her, knowing he had something much more catastrophic planned.

Alex, what—

Xira didn’t finish, because she shoved her memory from the alternate timeline at him just as Aven slammed his shockwave power into the earth, sending her flying backwards yet again. But she had succeeded in her warning, and with an almighty roar, Xiraxus bellowed a command to the other draekons, all of whom immediately began to scatter.

But Aven’s veeyon was already dropping from the sky, already reaching with its sharp talons and lifting him into the air.

“No!” Alex cried, scrambling back up to her feet. “SORAYA!”

She nearly sobbed with relief when, in a flash of light and shadows, her wolf appeared, bloodied and limping, but still alive, not yet having received whatever death stroke she had previously endured.

Without needing to be told, Soraya swept Alex up in her power and dropped her mid-air, vanishing again to leave Alex falling, falling,fallinguntil she landed on the veeyon’s slimy back. Gripping with her legs, with one vicious thrust, she sent A’enara straight through the vulnerable flesh of the beast’s neck.

“No!” Aven screamed as the veeyon began to tumble from the sky, screeching loud enough to pierce Alex’s eardrums.

She lost her hold just as its talons released Aven, the three of them freefalling to the ground. But before Alex could summon Soraya again, Aven swiped his blade at her and she was forced to meet him with A’enara, the two of them clashing swords as they plummeted end over end down, down,downtowards the lake.

And thenintothe lake.

There was nothing to break their fall. Such a distance would have killed anyone without immortal blood running through their veins. As it was, Alex felt as if her bones had been crushed from the impact, and she struggled to make her limbs move as she fought her way back up to the surface before gasping in a lungful of air.

Having no chance at fighting Aven while battling the icy lake, but also aware that Soraya’s shadowing ability couldn’t work in water, Alex swam madly towards the shore, knowing Aven had broken through the surface and was giving chase.

“YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME, AEYLIA!”

As the water shallowed and she scrambled across the slippery rocks leading up to the bank, Alex heard him behind her. He was close—too close. But she was nearly there, fully out of the water now and only a few feet from stable ground.

It was then that she felt his shockwave again, then that she flew forward and landed with a jarring crash atop the slimy shale, then that she rolled over just in time to see him leap towards her with Vae’varka swinging down on a path for her skull, ready to cleave her in two.

It was an attack Alex knew she wouldn’t be able to block, both the power and the speed. Her heart stopped as the alternate timeline flashed across her vision, realising with painful clarity that everything she’d suffered through both then and now had been for nothing. She was going to die, and after her, everyone she loved, along with the rest of the world.

But then the impossible happened.

With a blazing flash of light, Zaylin was there, her own golden sword intercepting Aven’s fiery weapon.

The look on his face was pure shock, identical to Alex’s own expression as she gaped at the Tia Auran, hearing a whisper of the prophecy play across her mind.

If Day and Night combine and fight—