Damned if Nerezza would destroy this place. Damned if she would. Eyes fierce, she took out a swath of flying black death.

She caught the blur of movement to her left, swung around. What had been Malmon grinned at her even as she shot him.

Thick green liquid trickled down his chest.

“She made me stronger. She gave you to me.”

Her next shot missed as he seemed to vanish from one spot, appear in another. Before she could shoot again, he closed a hand around her throat, choked off her voice, her air.

“She is Nerezza. She is my queen. She is all. Give me the stars for my queen, and you may live.”

Riley managed to choke out, “Fuck you,” when he eased his grip.

Now he squeezed harder, lifting her off the ground so her heels drummed the air. “She gave me my pick. I chose you.” Those reptilian eyes barely blinked when she plunged her knife into his belly. “I can take you back, feed off you. I have hunger.”

His tongue snaked out, slid horribly over her cheek.

“The others die here, and the immortal—”

“Hey, asshole.”

Malmon’s head swiveled, front to back. As he blinked, as his clawed fingers loosened fractionally, Riley sucked in air.

Sawyer shot him between the eyes.

“That’s for Morocco.” Dead center of the forehead.

Choking, Riley lifted her gun again, saw there was no need.

“And for Riley.” As Malmon stumbled back, eyes clouding, claws clicking, Sawyer took aim once again. “And that, you son of a bitch, is for Annika.” The last shot simply blew away the face of what the man had become.

Sawyer gripped Riley’s shoulder as she wheezed air in and out. His face was stone, his gray eyes hard as flint. But his voice soothed. “Works for zombies, so you had to figure.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Malmon didn’t go to ash, but seemed to dissolve, scale, blood, bone, to simply melt into a stain on stone.

Riley swallowed, winced. “I gotta say ick.”

“I’ll go ditto. Okay?”

On a long breath, Riley nodded. Then looked up. “Shit, shit, here come the big guns.”

Nerezza rode the sky on her three-headed beast. Her hair, streaked with gray, flew in the roaring wind. Armed with sword and shield, she sliced the air with black lightning that turned to a rain of fire. Bran hurled his own as Riley and Sawyer ran down to the others.

The ground sizzled, gardens burst into flame. Beneath them, the quaking ground cracked, opening with fissures where fire spewed.

“Come on, Bran, come on,” Riley urged as she dodged tongues of flame, fired her sidearm. “We’ve got to get her away from here. Sash!” She leaped, grabbing Sasha’s arm and propelling them both aside as the ground split.

Above their heads, like a shield, the coat of arms burst. Blue, white, red in flames to mimic the stars. Fiery rain struck against it, sputtered out.

“That’s our cue. We gotta go.”

Sasha shook her head at Sawyer, watching as Bran stood atop the parapet, drawing Nerezza’s wrath. “Bran.”

“He’ll make it. Trust him.” Riley gripped Sasha’s hand, nodded to Sawyer. “Go.”

Riley kept her hand gripped on Sasha’s during the shift. She knew love now, and knew the fear that came with it. When they dropped into the boat, Doyle moved fast to take the wheel. All around them the wind and rain lashed. The roar of the storm masked the roar of the motor as he aimed from shore to sea.

“He’ll make it,” Riley repeated. “He’s just keeping her off us until we can—”

Bran landed lightly on the boat, his arms filled with glass-shielded stars. Sasha threw her arms around him.

“Are you hurt? Bran.”

“Just a bit singed here and there. Take the stars, fáidh. If they’re to guide us, it would be in your hands.”

The boat reared up on a wicked wave, crashed down. Wind and water whipped and churned.

“I can swim if I need to,” Annika shouted. “But—”

“Hold on.” Sawyer held on to her as the next wave threatened to swamp the boat.

Riley fought her way to the wheelhouse where Doyle stood, feet planted, muscles straining. “Get back with the others, and hold the hell on.”

“I’m with you.”

He glanced at her, saw the raw marks on her throat. “What the hell—”

“Later.” She braced herself as the sea tossed them like rags.

“She’s coming!” Sasha shouted. “And the stars . . .”

Not pulsing now, Riley realized as the next wave drenched her. Beating faster and faster, and beams of light shot from them like beacons.

To show them the way. And showing them would show Nerezza exactly where they were.

“Ten degrees starboard,” she told Doyle.

“Christ. Do you see what’s out there?”

A waterspout, swirling up, black against black. And the rain again turned to flames. Arrows of it sparked in the air, hissed like snakes in the sea.

As Bran lifted his arms to form the shield, Nerezza dived out of the sky.

Her lightning crashed against Bran’s, and power screamed through the storm.

“Take the wheel,” Doyle ordered as Sawyer’s shot went wide when the boat tipped. He yanked Sasha and the stars into the wheelhouse. “Take us where we need to go. They need help.” He kissed Riley, hard and brief. “Don’t lose it,” he added, then fought his way back to stand with his friends.