Meg exploded.
Literally.
No other term for it. One second she was facing Tiron, clutching that medallion of Velanna’s like it was her last lifeline, and the next the entire chamber shook as blinding white light spilled out of Meg’s body and knocked everyone off their feet, whether they had two or four of them.
Jenny winced, clutching the plasma burn on her arm, blood pooling between her fingers. The back of her head throbbed where she’d struck it, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything else other than the roaring storm of light and fury boiling at the heart of the volcano.
It wasn’t the Andhera. There was no darkness now. Everything was light. So bright that even the rocks underneath them felt like that were shuddering in agony.
Blinking the dust out of her eyes, Jenny peered through the roiling fog of pulverized rock and arcing lightning. Her mouth tasted like she’d been chewing on rusty nails, which she’d only ever actually done once and didn’t enjoy in the least.
What had Meg done?
Obviously, she’d figured out what she needed to figure out in order to get Velanna’s magic crystal thing to do its job, but—where was Meg?
A shaking hand seized the fabric of her torn, burned blouse.
“Jennifer.” Velanna’s voice wavered in her ear as the Celtican woman gathered her close. “Are you wounded?” The words were nearly lost in the raging wind and terrified screams of the Centaurs.
“Where’s Meg?”
A wave of grit crashed into them, and Velanna bowed their heads against it, her bloody hands shielding Jenny’s face. Celtican blood smelled so different from human blood. It was almost floral, dark purple in color. Velanna gasped for air.
Barb slid into them, hissing in pain she clutched the wound in her side. “Jenny?”
“I’m okay.” Jenny reached for her hand.
The three of them bowed together beneath the pulsing tidal waves of wind and hurling stone. The howls of terror rose higher around them.
“Velanna, what is this?” Barb sounded hear hysterics. “What is Tiron doing?”
“It is not Tiron.” Velanna’s skin was pale as chalk.
Jenny wriggled out of Velanna’s firm grasp to peer around the protective barrier of the older woman’s ragged robes.
Another shockwave of power throbbed from the center of the volcano, sending frenetic fingers of brilliant lightning arcing through the cavern as though they were trapped inside a plasma ball. And at the center, Meg floated.
Meg—but not Meg.
Jenny’s heart twisted.
Legs apart, arms spread, head thrown back, mouth twisted in a scream of fury—her hair had come loose from its coil and braid and swirled around her body like a sheet of golden silk in a hurricane, nearly silver-white in the ferocity of the light-storm around her. Tendrils of light and electricity in every rainbow color stabbed outward from the cyclone of power, lashing at Tiron as he stood against her.
Close to her—too close—Tiron cowered, driven to his knees, shielded by the inky blackness of the Andhera, its sticky tentacles of fear and darkness lashing at the overwhelming force of light burgeoning against it.
He was failing.
“Velanna.” Jenny clutched at her mother’s robes. “What’s happening to Meg?”
Barb uttered something under her breath. It was probably a bad word. This was the sort of situation that called for a bad word in Jenny’s opinion, and while it might be nice to know some Terran curses, now wasn’t the time to ask Barb to repeat it.
“Is that the Light thing?” Barb yelled.
Velanna didn’t answer.
“I’m going to assume it’s the Light thing.” Barb sagged, resting her head on Jenny’s shoulder.
The deafening wind roared, and the spray of rocks and gravel pelted bystanders like hailstones. With every blow, the Kirana drove Tiron and the Andhera back a step. Every strike shook the mountain and dislodged boulders and rocks overhead, causing them to tumble to the main floor and burst into thousands of shards.
The fearsome light pinned the Centaurs above them to the surrounding walls with an invisible hand and only released them when the rocks beneath their hooves let go. Even hiding under Velanna’s arm, Jenny saw at least eleven fall, cartwheeling to their death.
“Stop her.” Jenny turned back to watch the rigid form of her sister hovering at the heart of the volcano. “Velanna, she’s going to kill them all! We have to stop her!”
Velanna hushed her and turned. “We must leave. This chamber is unstable. Barbara, do you see the others?”
Barb groaned as she shifted.
“What about Meg?” Jenny pulled back. “We have to stop her!”
Velanna took her shoulders and stared into her face. “Margaret is bound within the Kirana, Jennifer. We cannot reach her.”
“Kirana?”
Velanna rolled her eyes. “The—Light thing.”
The mountain shook beneath them.
Tiron leapt off the dais as the Kirana plowed through the floor, scooping up truckloads of burning rocks and flinging them away. Tiron shielded himself with the Andhera, but Meg kept pounding away at him. Seven arms of colored light rose up around her, twining together like silk in a river current.
Alive.
The storm of light, the Kirana, flowed and shimmered around Meg’s body like it was part of her, lashing, recoiling, twirling in a dance as intricate as any of her Andai practice katas.
Barb and Velanna were shouting about something again.
Jenny tuned them out and crept under Velanna’s restraining arm to better see the horrifying match between Darkness and Light.
How could Velanna have had a power like this and never used it? How could she have given it to Meg? Would Meg ever be the same after this? What if it killed her too?
A cracking sound overhead rose above the screech of the wind, and Jenny glanced up just in time to watch the ceiling over the lava pit collapse.
Boulders as big as trucks tumbled into the center of the volcano, lava splashing and growing taller and higher with each one. Earth shattering cracks sounded overhead as the rest of the ceiling began to fall.
“Barb!” Jim shouted over the wind noise, from somewhere near.
“Jenny, where are you?” Mickey shrieked.
Jenny couldn’t see them. Couldn’t see anything in the furious rain of dust and debris, could only hear the merciless thump-thump-thumping of boulders big enough to crush them.
We’re going to die? Now? After all this?
Jenny squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain.
Being crushed like a bug probably wasn’t the worst way to go, if you thought about it. But no less terrifying. Jenny made a mental note not to squish any more bugs. If they felt half the fear she was feeling at the moment, it was totally and completely uncalled for. No more squishing bugs. She’d gather them up and make them bonnets and have tea parties instead.
Jenny blinked.
Had she been crushed yet?
Those boulders really were taking their time.
She opened one eye.
Her lips parted in a soundless gasp.
The crushing fall of boulders hovered over their heads, held back by a shimmering arm of light that glittered, iridescent and tangible. As Jenny stared, the boulders rolled off the back of the ribbon of light and clumped and thudded harmlessly to the other side of the chamber.
“Asambhav!” Velanna hissed from where she had curled herself around Jenny. “Impossible.”
Jenny twisted in Velanna’s arms to look back at Meg—or, well, not-Meg—who was still pounding away at Tiron while the arm of luminescent power shielded them from the falling rocks.
Had Meg done that?
It made sense.
Tiron’s Darkness could touch people, so surely Velanna’s Light could do the same.
Jenny turned her gaze to the protective curve of the Kirana’s arm that had tucked around her and Velanna and Barb so carefully. Waves of energy shifted through the translucent skin of the ribbon of light. Tantalizing, like the glittering scales of a perch under the water.
Slowly, Jenny reached toward it.
Would it shock her? Would it hurt her? Would it tear at her, like the Kirana was tearing at Tiron?
Jenny pressed her fingers into the wall of light and felt the resistance of a physical force push back under it enveloped her hand in warmth, tingling and welcoming.
The light twirled around her fingers, up her arm, past her elbow and to her shoulder, tickling and sparkling and full of bright joy. So much joy! Jenny had to laugh. She couldn’t keep it inside as the light surrounded her and embraced her.
And it was Meg.
It felt like Meg. Safe. Home. Somehow the Light was Meg.
Jenny withdrew her arm, and the Kirana didn’t cling to her. Didn’t force her to stay, peeled away from her embrace and left her arm a tingling mass of glittering light.
The mountain shook again.
The rising hurricane of light and wind spun around her as though she were the eye of the storm, and all its power was at her disposal. And the harder Tiron tried to hit her, the harder she hit him back, swinging her arms like dual clubs, directing the colored arms of light and power to smash against him.
Boulders over her own head loosened and fell, but the streaming power knocked them away.
Velanna shifted to a crouch. “We must go. Now.”
“The whole place is coming down.” Barb peered around a fallen boulder. “The others are making their way outside.”
“We can’t leave her.” Jenny glanced from Velanna to Barb.
Barb, pale and shaking, shook her head. Velanna refused to even look to where Meg still fought against the darkness.
“There is nothing we can do, Jennifer.”
Jenny set her jaw.
“That’s quitter talk,” Velanna.
“Jennifer.”
Jenny ducked under Velanna’s arm and scrambled out into the open.
“Jenny, you idiot!” Barb screamed.
Gathering her strength, Jenny raced for the center of the chamber where Meg had been entirely swallowed by the raging storm. Even from this distance, Jenny could see her sister’s body shaking at the core of the tempest, as though she were trapped in a seizure.
The closer Jenny came, the louder the wind grew, until the high-pitched screeching hit an agonizing note. And suddenly the storm stopped. So suddenly Jenny tumbled forward, the resistance gone, as she collapsed on her hands and knees, skidding across the jagged stone.
Gasping, she looked up.
Across the chamber, Tiron flailed to get to his feet, the Andhera shivering around him like a sentient being terrified for its life.
Above her, Meg floated. As though her entire body were suspended in liquid. Her hair hovered around her in a halo of gold, lightning arcing between the cascading curls. Her eyes were white. Not empty. White. With light, as though her very soul had turned to pure power and couldn’t be contained anymore. It shone out of her.
Jenny froze as not-Meg—maybe Kirana-Meg?—stared at her. Empty. Hollow. Unfamiliar. Gone was the warmth she’d felt before. Replaced with an icy chill.
Clank.
Something made of metal hit the stones directly behind her. A heavy, gasping breath echoed.
The rocks dug into her knees. Slowly, Jenny looked over her shoulder, and her heart dropped into her stomach.
Jinsoku.
The warlord was even bigger close up. He towered over her, the shine of his yellow armor almost blinding in the brilliant of the light around them. And he hadn’t even straightened completely. He was bent over at the waist, armored hand clutching his side.
Her stomach tightened.
Jinsoku was hurt?
The monster warlord that had just slaughtered fifty Centaurs without breaking a sweat hadn’t been able to escape the power of the Kirana?
In fact, the warlord wasn’t even looking at her. His gaze was fixed on Meg, floating above them.
Jenny rolled over to stare up at him. She’d been wrong. Meg wasn’t glaring at her; she was glaring at Jinsoku.
Like she knows him. The realization came so forcibly it stole the air out of Jenny’s lungs. Meg only glares at people like that when she knows them.
The warlord lifted a hand in a gesture that might have been intended to calm the situation.
It didn’t work.
Meg snapped her arm up, and instantly the seven ribbons of color crashed around the warlord, wrapping around his armor like boa constrictors intent on squeezing the life out of him. On contact, his back arched, and a tormented wail of agony escaped the metal of his armor. His back arched, and the light constricted more. Above him, Meg’s rigid fingers closed into a fist, her face twisted in an expression of hate, white-glowing eyes wide.
A pulse shook the air. Like a heartbeat in Jenny’s ears. And the warlord, rigid in the grasp of the Kirana’s fingers, seized once as though having a spasm just before the glimmering yellow armor around his body shattered in a storm of swirling fragments like falling flower petals.
He collapsed, tumbling backward, his body clanking against the rocks. He was still wearing a layer of armor, black and yellow and much less ornate, but his face—
The warlord had a face.
Long, thin nose. Curving eyebrows. Shoulder-length auburn hair. Almond-shaped eyes the same color as the swirling darkness rebuilding itself around Tiron.
Jinsoku gasped, clutching the hemorrhaging wound in his side, red blood seeping between the cracks in the armor of his ribs. Confusion filled his expression, followed by fear that widened his eyes and made him stare at Meg.
Across the chamber, Tiron was back on his feet. He screamed wordlessly in rage, drawing Kirana-Meg’s attention back to him before the Andhera tore through the air again, sharp blades of pure darkness shooting toward them.
Jinsoku muttered something, clenched his fist, and blurred.
Jenny reached for Meg, and she lifted her hand. Jenny gasped in pain and shock as the force of power out of Meg’s hand threw her backward, rolling across the rocks until she crashed into Barb, knocking her legs out from under her.
“Barb!” Jenny scrambled to stand.
“Not now.” Barb grabbed her arm. “Move. Go.”
“Did you see that?”
“Go.”
“The warlord! His armor came off!”
“Jenny, go!”
The mountain shuddered, and more of the far mezzanine collapsed.
Ahead of them, Danny had Jenny, and Mickey was helping Velanna. Tzaitel already stood at the mouth of the cavern, staring at Meg and the Kirana with wide eyes and a face the color of chalk.
Jenny climbed out of the cavern and sank into Danny and Mickey’s welcoming arms. Mickey’s breath against her neck was warm and shuddering, her cousin’s arms trembling in relief she didn’t know how to speak aloud.
Danny set his chin on top of her head and looked at Velanna. “How is Meg doing that?”
Jenny eyed Barb and Jim as they embraced quietly, eyes drifting shut as they leaned against each other.
“Jinsoku’s armor came off,” Jenny said.
Velanna glanced at her sharply.
“He’s a man inside.” Jenny pulled Danny and Mickey’s arms around her more tightly. “And he has red hair too. I didn’t expect that.”
“What did you expect? Polka dots?” Mickey snickered.
“Oh, that would be cool.”
The mountain rumbled beneath them.
“How much more can it take?” Jim hissed, peering into the chamber. “What happens if this thing erupts?”
Velanna didn’t answer.
“Hey, look at that.” Barb pointed to the other end of the cavern where a steady stream of Centaurs were retreating down the side of the mountain.
“They’re running away?” Mickey scoffed. “Typical.”
“I don’t think I blame them,” Danny mumbled.
Inside the cavern, the swirling rings of power around Meg had only increased in size and brightness, and in a blast of power that hit them like a truck, the rings expanded into a swirling column of color that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The strength of it blew the top off the mountain, turning the rocks to dust and dragging the particles into the swirling vortex that churned around Meg’s body.
Even through the shimmering colored column, Meg glowed. Her whole body had become like a sun. From this angle, her hair looked white.
Tiron jumped out of the way and hit the ground hard, scrambling to get back to his feet before Meg attacked him again with her seven arms of electricity. As she lashed at him, each arm tore into the rocks and split boulders in half.
“You cannot defeat me!” Tiron screamed. “This power is mine!”
He flung his arms out, and the Andhera spilled out of the dark crystal in a massive eruption of shadowy power. Like a dam breaking, the Darkness surged toward Meg’s pillar of colors and crashed against it, bursting into sticky tendrils of pure shadow that burned and shrieked on contact with the light.
Inside the column, Meg doubled over with a silent scream.
Velanna started forward, and Tzaitel grabbed her.
Meg flung her head back and took a single powerful step forward, snapping her arms down as the column convulsed and broke apart, streaming like ribbons of lightning around each tendril of darkness.
The shriek was louder than one of Tiron’s horrible dragons. Light and Darkness tore at each other above a shifting pool of lava at the heart of Centaur Mount. The Kirana and the Andhera twined around each other like wrestlers refusing to tap out, each shifting band shaking the mountain as they vied for dominance. On the ground beneath them, Meg and Tiron held their ground and their focus, both of them screaming as the two forces ripped each other apart.
The air pressure dropped so suddenly that Jenny’s ears popped.
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
The air itself erupted with a force great enough to blast the rest of the mountaintop to dust, peeling the layers of rock and pumice away and sending them to the far edge of the peninsula.
Mickey dragged both Danny and Jenny behind a sheltering boulder as the wave of shrapnel and projectiles streaked overhead.
Finally, the air calmed. The rumbling stopped.
Jenny lifted her head, and Mickey and Danny both peeled their hands off of her hair so she could peer into the crater. Her ears rang with the sound of the explosion, as though her ears were plugged with cotton.
“Wow.”
The mountaintop was gone. The blast had destroyed the chamber itself and left the top of the mountain as flat as a plateau, and all the boulders had filled up the lava pit.
Tiron was nowhere in sight.
Meg alone stood at the center.
“Meg.” Jenny threw off Danny’s arm and jumped over Mickey’s leg.
“Jenny, wait!” Mickey cried after her.
Jenny slid down the embankment of broken, jagged stones, her focus only on Meg. The lava pit had been filled in. There were no Centaurs in sight. Only Meg remained, the shifting aura of power radiant around her.
Jenny slowed her pace as she approached.
She stared.
What happened now? Could Meg go back to normal? Was Meg even inside anymore?
Tears stung her eyes. She had to be.
“Meg?”
Meg didn’t turn. Didn’t acknowledge her at all. She just stood with her eyes focused on the stars and her hands loose at her sides.
“Meg.”
Jenny stepped closer. Meg didn’t respond, her hair floating above her shoulders, waving like a silken golden flag in a wind. But there was no wind.
She touched Meg’s shoulder softly. “Meg?”
Meg went rigid and turned to stare at her, and Jenny’s stomach lurched. The glowing white eyes in Meg’s face didn’t belong to her, and the voice that rumbled out of her mouth came from a stranger.
“Atma’drishti.” The thundering voice rolled off of Meg’s tongue like a lion’s roar in the distance. “A’asru gri’naami.”
Her eyes flared white, her hair fell to her shoulders, and her knees buckled. Meg collapsed in a heap of limbs, bleeding from her nose, her mouth, and her ears, Velanna’s medallion falling from her fingers with a large crack through its heart.