“Oh, come now, Kai,” said Olivia. “You were never so tight-lipped before.” Her big lips puckered up and blew him a kiss.

Kai countered the gesture with his cold smile, the look that said he was going to tear her apart, piece by piece.

Proving how crazy she really was, Olivia just let out a little, ladylike laugh behind her hand.

Sera.

Sera shook her head, trying to eject Alden’s voice from her mind. It didn’t work. Magic flashed before her eyes, and then he was standing right there beside her. Sera’s friends and Alden’s army were still engaged in a staring contest, so she was apparently the only one who could see him. Lucky her.

“Kai would tear an innocent woman apart.” Alden walked a tight circle around Kai, her face the poster child of innocence. “He’s ruthless. A cold-blooded killer.”

“Olivia is far from innocent,” Sera snapped back. “If she got the chance, she would kill us all.”

“Oh?” His brows lifted. “Yes, I can see that you believe it, but let me assure you that my people do not kill, not unless they have to.”

“Your assurances mean nothing to me.”

He set his hand over his heart. “Your lack of faith wounds me, Sera.”

“Cut the crap. Your people sure had murder in their hearts back at the tower on Alcatraz.”

Alden’s innocent smile faded, melting into one of pure anger, one that reflected who he really was inside. “They were not acting on my orders,” he said it a voice that could cut diamonds. “I was still too weak then. They thought they needed the power to protect me.” His lips softened into a kinder smile, that fake smile he wore like it was his own. “Their devotion blinded them in that moment. I explained to them later that we need to make friends, not enemies.”

Sera could only imagine what that explanation had entailed. Mind control and magical punishment, no doubt. Oh, she knew Alden was smart enough to realize he needed to convert powerful people to his side, not alienate them by going off on murderous, destructive rampages—at least not until he had solidified his power. That cool intelligence was what made him more dangerous than any threat she had ever faced. In her eight years as a mercenary, Sera had taken down a lot of crazy mages gone wild on magic. Those were the easy ones. They acted on pure emotion, on instinct. The really hard ones to fight weren’t the crazy ones; it was the criminal masterminds, those who thought out every detail of every plan. Hell, most misbehaving supernaturals didn’t have a plan—unless you could call getting really high on lots of magical drugs a plan. Alden was a thinker. And he definitely had a plan. Every action he took was calculated, like one big chess game.

“I am not evil,” he said.

“Then get out of my head. If your cause is so just, you wouldn’t need to invade people’s minds. You wouldn’t need to muddle them all up with magic to convince them to join you.”

His face looked innocent, genuinely curious. “I don’t. People come to me willingly.”

Sera shot him a dry smile.

He laughed. “Yes, you are different. So stubborn. So stuck in one pattern that you can’t see the truth of what’s right in front of you. You’ve spent most of your life hiding yourself. Now the Magic Council knows you have magic, but you are still hiding. The truth is too dangerous for you. You will always be hiding, always holding back. Because deep down you know what I do: you will never be free to be yourself, be what you were born to be, not as long as the Magic Council is run by those hateful, fearful, jealous, close-minded fools.”

“You would have me kill them all so I can be free? No. You turn others into monsters, but you won’t turn me. Not now. Not ever.”

Alden sighed. “Dear Sera, don’t make promises you cannot keep.”

“Get out of my head!”

There was another flash of magic, and then he was gone. Everyone was looking at her. She’d apparently shouted those last words aloud. Olivia smirked at her. Sera smirked right on back. For her entire life, people like Olivia had been looking down on her. She hadn’t cared what they thought about her before Alden, and she wasn’t going to start now.

Kai took Sera’s hand. That was his equivalent of looking worried. He knew she was battling Alden’s mental attacks, and he was offering her his hand as support. If they hadn’t been surrounded by enemies, Sera could have kissed him. She settled for mouthing a silent thank you to him.

“See the light,” Olivia declared, lifting her hands into the air. “Alden’s light.”

Before Sera could blink, Logan was in the thick of the vampires, cutting a line through them. That tiny knife was surprisingly efficient, at least in his hand. In a flash of inhuman speed, Alex darted to his side, freezing the supernatural soldiers with her magic. Sera nodded at Kai, then the two of them cast a huge wall, pushing back the army with a raging tempest of elemental magic.

Then, with the path clear, they ran. Most of the army was still trapped behind the wall, but the ghosts had passed right through it. They were flying overhead, moving fast through the air, their translucent bodies rippling like flags in the wind.

“We need to get to higher ground,” Logan said. “We’re vulnerable in this valley.”

Kai pushed ahead, sprinting toward the ridge. Behind them, the barrier shook as the giant stomped and punched it. Ahead, more soldiers were waiting. Sera and Kai ran toward them, clearing the way, snapping at them with whips of wound magic. A ghost turned and dove for the ground. As the ghosts turned solid one by one, Alex and Logan ran into their midst, working in perfect unison to send them back to hell.