Thea went to one of the openings and felt into it. There wasn’t much she could sense. There didn’t seem to be anything living inside it. “Open all the doors to the surface, all the way to the outside world,” Thea said over Valkyrie link. The Valkyries complied, then she pulled down aeroplankton—m

“Lilith?” Thea said. The woman sucked a long breath in through clenched teeth. It sounded like a hiss. “No one ever remembers my real name,” she said in that grating voice. She snapped her jaw a few times. Her teeth looked razor-sharp. The exit she blocked was elevated from the rest of the room,

A wave of shocked chattering ran through the army of dead things as they all cowered. “That shouldn’t have happened to you,” Thea said. “Everyone should have treated you better, the gods included.” Lilith made a noncommittal grunt. “Have you ever been hugged?” Thea said. Another grunt. “It’s a s

They didn’t stop running until they were back with Delta team, the Alpha pups, Alpha John Lyall, and Full Moon’s warriors. “What happened?” Liam said. “We felt—” “It’s all recorded,” Xavier said, still holding Thea, limp in his arms. “Save your recordings to the cloud. They couldn’t have relayed w

The image of Conri’s body being used against Thea flashed through everyone’s mind. The idea had been forming in her head since they watched the videos on the drive back to Full Moon, but it was then that Thea realized Lilith and her army were unstoppable. No one else had figured that out yet. A