Everything was bright when Amneris opened her eyes. Too bright. And painful. Amneris groaned, rubbing her head as she sat upright. A sudden sense of nausea overcame her. She slumped. An arm slipped around her waist, helping her stay upright. Amneris’ eyes needed a moment to focus of Jay. She reached out and tugged a strand of his short, blonde hair. Jay swatted her hand away. Yep, he was definitely real. Amneris let out another groan and lay on the floor, hands over her face.

“You good?” Jay asked.

Amneris pouted at him. “Feel like someone blew my head off.”

“Probably because someone did blow your head off.”

“Oh.” She stared at the ceiling. “Yeah, that explains it.”

Jay sat beside her, resting his arm on his knee. “Nephthys said something about new bullets. I got one, too.” He tapped the side of his head. “Took a while to heal. Could still hear everything, though.”

Nephthys. Amneris jumped to her feet. “She took Hathy.” Her power sparked light lightning around her. “That bitch took my daughter!”

“Queenie,” Jay said, sounding worried, “I know you’re angry but you really need to calm down before—”

“Calm down? Calm. Down?” Amneris turned to Jay and screamed. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?”

He raised his hands. “Bad words, I know, but we all know what happens when you get pissed—”

A mix of white and cyan energy exploded from Amneris’ body and, for the first time since the Battle of Erostah, her body shifted into its God form. The building couldn’t take the strain of her energy. The walls cracked. The metalwork bent. The few enhanced glass windows still intact shattered entirely. The building begun to crumble, but none of the debris hit Amneris or Jay. The building gave one final groan of effort before it crumbled entirely.

Standing in the ruins, Amneris panted, her eyes glowing with white fire, her six wings splayed behind her in a show of absolute rage. Anyone with sense would’ve run from her immediately.

Jay, who’d instinctually thrown himself over a silver wolf Amneris hadn’t noticed before, sat up and brushed white dust from his clothes and hair. “Are you finished throwing your tantrum?”

Unable to do anything in the face of his neutralness, Amneris said, “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Great.” He pointed at the wolf. “Can you heal this kid before he dies?”

“Sure.” Amneris knelt beside the wolf, looking over the extent of his injuries. She hummed. Kayla would be better at this. Her healing power was far more effective and easier to control. “Since I assume we don’t want another immortal on our hands, I can only do so much. His arm will be fucked for a while.”

Jay gave her a flat look. “I’m sure he’d prefer fucked over death via blood loss.”

“Point taken.” Amneris snapped her fingers.

The wolf’s green eyes shot open, and it pushed itself up on three legs. It shifted into a form Amneris recognised as one of Hathor’s friends.

Troy sat upright in his human form, eyes wide, grinning. For lack of a better word, he was high on Amneris’ power.

“You good?” Jay asked.

“I feel like a million bucks!” He laughed to the sky.

Jay glared at Amneris. She shrugged. “It’s only temporary.”

“It better be.”

Amneris looked around the frozen landscape. “This is new.”

Jay nodded. “Hathy activated her power.” His blue eyes met her Violet-gold ones. “She has Time Magic.”

Amneris gaped. “Time Magic?” Well, that explained why everything was frozen. But still, Time Magic. That was . . . “Wow.”

“I know, right.” Jay helped the still-high Troy to his feet. “Can you do your OP thing before it wears off? I’m gonna take this one to the Healers.”

A flap of Amneris’ wings had her flying over the Academy. A wave of her power covered the frozen island. She could see everything that was happening—or had been happening before it froze. She could tell friend from foe, living from dead. Something she could normally only do on the Lower Planes. Amneris smiled to herself. Okay, so being in God form again wasn’t that bad.

Amneris closed her eyes and took a non-existent breath. She raised her hands until they were at her chest and faced them palm down. The breath was let out. Amneris lowered her hands. The enemy soldiers were unarmed and trapped in bonds made from her power.

When Amneris opened her eyes, time restarted. The silver floating arms vanished. The sounds came back to life, only something had changed. The cries of fear came to an end as the soldiers, unarmed, fell to the ground, trapped in binds made from a pale blue light.

Now that time had restarted, she was able to fly over the Academy. From above, Amneris could see the teachers and students all helping each other. She eventually managed to spot her Courtiers around the island, each doing their own thing. Some helped the students evacuate to the mountains, some worked on rescuing those trapped that they were able to reach, and some worked with the Healers.

Unfortunately, the good deeds weren’t the only things she could see. The Academy itself was totally trashed. One of the three Towers had fallen, crushing everything in its wake. Some of the Dorms were badly damaged or entirely destroyed. The place was riddled with bullet holes and covered with burns, scorch marks, and blood. The entire island would have to be rebuilt!

Amneris landed beside the fallen Tower, the entirety of the situation finally hitting her like a hover train. Dead, dying, probably missing and injured students and teachers scattered across the island. The island itself would take months to recover. The Healers would be overworked like crazy and even their abilities wouldn’t be enough. Some wouldn’t make it through the night and others would be left with permanent, life-altering injuries, not to mention the mental scars this would provide.

And what about homes? There were students who lived year-round at the Academy because of bad home lives. She couldn’t just send them back. Sure, there was room in the Palace for them all, but what then? What about the people she couldn’t actually see? Would they be found in time? Would enough people be willing to help search and rescue? Rebuilding would cost a fortune.

Was this what Nephthys wanted?

A hand appeared on her shoulder. “Everyone did their best, Tali, including you.”

Without looking at Colt, Amneris said, “I know, but it wasn’t enough.” Her hands clenched, her power sparking once again. “Who knows how many we’ve lost.”

“And who knows how many we have saved.”

This time, Amneris did turn to Colt.

“Nephthys outsmarted all of us,” he said. “She took everyone off guard. None of us had considered an attack on the Academy because it was off-limits, even during the War.” He smiled softly. “But the students and teachers were able to fend off the soldiers all by themselves. They helped each other and worked together until we were able to arrive. They were able to take care of themselves. Is that not the point of this place?”

“It is,” Amneris said slowly, wondering where this dramatic speech was going.”

“Lives were lost, irreplaceable lives, and I suspect more will come over the next few days.” Colt’s hand moved to take hers. “That brings us to the question: what are we going to do about it?”

Amneris turned to the ruined Tower. “She attacked innocent children intentionally, killed and kidnapped my daughter, and had an infiltrator. That boy, we have to find him before he gets offworld.”

“He’s probably headed for Iruu,” came Nikki’s voice.

Leo and Nikki were standing nearby. Far enough to give the pair their privacy but enough to hear what was going on. Iruu was the name for the main off-world travel area of the Academy – literally a room of doors able to go anywhere.

“Don’t worry,” Nikki said. “We already thought of that.” She and Leo shared smiles. “We put some very capable and incredibly pissed teachers on the job. They’re keeping Dex out of trouble.”

“Good.” Amneris let out a sigh. “First thing’s first, we need to organise search and rescue and get a supply train to the Healers. We should move those who need urgent help away from the Academy as soon as possible.”

“It would be safe to assume Nephthys has moved away from the God Worlds,” Leo said, hands resting on the hilts of his swords. “I doubt we will be seeing them again any time soon. We need a new way to track them.”

“We know they will go after Xix,” Amneris said. “If we find her first, we will find Nephthys and Aurelia – the Frozen One Nephthys released. I want to go after Hathy but . . .” She waved a hand at the Tower. “There’s only so much I can do right now.” Her eyes narrowed. “Nephthys broke the rules worse than I or the Dark King ever did.”

Nikki nodded. “Agreed. We’ll get word out of our off-world allies. If they see anything, they’ll let us know immediately.”

“Good.” Amneris squeezed Colt’s hand. “Come on. We should all be helping.”