Portendorfer and Marya parted, one heading for Magus and Fautos, the other for Eleia, Soleus, and Oerse Gulmore. Rowan and Seiren hurried straight ahead to Kristen, who appeared so far oblivious to the Karman reinforcement that had descended the ancient Hannan tomb.

"Stay calm, don't let her manipulate you," Rowan said in her ear as they broke into a run. Seiren didn't need him to tell her twice. She'd had enough altercations with Kristen to know she wouldn't hesitate to manipulate emotional ties but would discard those close to her without a blink of the eye.

"I wouldn't give her the chance!" Seiren's last words ended in a shout. She slammed her hands together. The irritation and fear that had built up so far condensed down her arms into a ball of pure energy. Her core energy fell to a dangerously low level; exhaustion would soon make her magic useless. Rowan's arms crackled with his flash magic as well.

A daemon's tail, as thick as Seiren was tall, lashed out of nowhere. Rowan grabbed Seiren's arm; both of them were too slow to evade the attack.

Eleia's daemon dived in from the skies, sinking its teeth into the yellow and white flesh, penetrating the scales, and yanked the other daemon into the air amidst its screams. The shrieks increased in volume, rattling through Seiren's skull and echoing around the chamber in a relentless onslaught.

Seiren threw her ball, her aim straight and true. Rowan released his charge at the same time.

Seiren's ball of white flash magic and Rowan's lightning both struck an invisible wall. The surface rippled and almost gave way. Their flash wore out, fizzled into nothing, and the invisible barrier knitted back together, resealing itself.

Seiren swore. The same magic that protected the royal palace in Benover. She should have known. There must be a rune, still active but hidden with an invisible sigil, sitting around Kristen giving her the protection. But she shouldn't have magic. This couldn't be possible. Seiren grabbed a loose stone from nearby and threw it as hard as she could. It bounced off the invisible wall and clattered on the ground. Kristen looked up at the sound and caught Seiren's eyes – and smiled.

"You b—"

Kristen stepped back. The sarcophagus glowed white – as did Kristen's hands. The light pooled at the base of the stone box before shooting outwards in three different directions. Rowan grabbed her by the waist and yanked her back, out of the way of the streak of light. "Watch out!" he yelled over his shoulder, the volume making Seiren's right ear ring. The reinforcement's heads raised, catching sight of the light. Eleia took to the skies on Apollinon again, leaving behind the eviscerated corpse of Fautos's daemon, and Portendorfer stumbled back, his great belly heaving and sweat dripping down his face. Oerse Gulmore spun around and was struck by the light – no, it was as if the light aimed specifically for her. Her lips curled up in a triumphant smile as the light devoured her. It branched off and then hit Soleus, who froze, his hair standing on end. He, too, bore a great grin before the light swallowed him whole.

The second streak of light shot past Seiren and Rowan towards where Madeleine lay.

"Watch out!" Seiren screamed.

Dent grabbed Madeleine, but the light wasn't heading for her. Instead, it struck Cazadia's still body, engulfing her in a pure white light. It branched off, tearing up the stone steps to where Tylene subdued Ravin between the open double doors. Tylene leapt on top of one of the statues, her gun still pointed at the unconscious Ravin. The corridor behind the doors lit up – the light continued its journey out of the auditorium.

"What was that?" Seiren said, breathless. "A spell?"

"We're too late." Marya Bonneville's voice was hollow.

"What...?"

"Kommora had predicted this. She said Harred would try to revive Hanna."

"Revive – but she's dead! You can't revive a dead body!"

"She isn't a dead body."

The light withdrew. The bodies of the four Daemonium members disappeared into the blinding glow, sucked back to the sarcophagus that now gleamed with all the colours of rune magic. Kristen stood with her feet planted apart, hands placed over the sarcophagus. Heavy waves of magic pulsed from the epicentre, suffocating and stifling in its intensity. Seiren gasped, feeling as though magic were being ripped from her very core.

"What is this?" she croaked, her legs giving way. All around her, the mages were forced onto hands and knees. "So much... power!"

"Sacrificial magic." Marya's voice was barely audible over the roar of the white magic. She collapsed onto her front. A vicious wind formed, tearing up loose rubble and sand into the air. "The same as... the one used in Benover... last year..."

"She's sacrificing us?!" Seiren forced herself onto trembling feet.

"Just the Daemonium – it seems."

"But why?!"

"What have you done?!" Magus roared at Fautos. Both were on their knees, too. Whatever magic Kristen was wielding, it had the same effect on summoners. "You're killing your own guards?"

"They agreed to it," Fautos said, his voice raspy. His daemon sizzled, the ashes devoured by the roaring storm around them. Sweat poured down his grey face. Another pulse of Kristen's magic knocked him onto all fours. The tornado strengthened, forcing them all to squint in order to see. "I promised them their holy blood will purge all their sins and injuries. And it has – in the distant lands."

Rowan clapped his hands and threw out his arm. The flash fizzled on his fingertips and died, swept away by the magical currents.

"None of our magic will work!" Marya yelled. "Whatever this is will suck up all derivatives of Karman and Hannan magic!" She swallowed her next words and groaned, before summoning more energy. "Sallows wrote about it in the journals Kommora found. Hanna – her soul is tethered – Harred is sacrificing the Daemonium to catalyse the transplant!"

"But transplant into what? What does Hanna want?" Rowan said. The roar intensified, but it became quiet and distant for Seiren.

The celestial mage. Not Kristen. Hanna was after a body with celestial magic. Seiren.

"The shield is down! We need to get her!"

"Try it if you can stand!" Marya yelled.

Seiren reached down to Rowan's pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk. The pulses of energy from Kristen raised goosebumps and sent electric shocks racing up and down her body, but she steeled her spine, staring ahead. Kristen's plait defied gravity in the torrential wind. A white ball of light lifted from the sarcophagus. Hanna's soul.

Seiren's hand moved of its own accord, sketching a complex rune. The progress was sluggish, hindered by the waves of energy flooding from the sarcophagus. Her muscles strained and screamed in protest. Beside her, Rowan and Marya collapsed, stunned from the pressure. The wind continued to howl in Seiren's ears. Tears fell from her eyes, whisked away by the ravenous beast of a tornado before they touched her cheeks. The sand, whipped up by the magic, constricted, closing in on them all.

She dropped the chalk. The wind picked it up and ripped it out of her reach. Hanna's soul glowed brighter and brighter until it hurt to even face its direction. It would seek out a body soon – just as Madeleine's soul had sought out Maura's body. Seiren didn't have much time before Hanna returned to life.

With a grunt, she dug her incisors into her thumb, drawing blood, and ran her thumb over the last part of her rune, completing it with a scarlet smear. She looked up. The soul constricted. From its core, a bolt of light shot out – straight towards her.

Time slowed. Seiren stared. In the middle of the ball of light was a small mould, possibly made out of clay, glistening just as Madeleine's necklace had prior to Seiren transplanting her. Shooting towards her wasn't a pure white stream of light, but rather a cluster of very fine crystalline matter, sparkling an array of colours and mesmerising in its beauty. Dreams and wishes, desires and fears, all wrapped in one dazzling explosion of light.

She vaguely remembered the rune before her. She could knock Kristen out before she regained her magic. That would mean one fewer opponent to worry about.

But if she took the time to activate the magic, the light could hit her and Hanna would absorb her body and her celestial magic, just as she'd absorbed the souls of the four Daemonium members here. She would die.

I'll always look after you. Madeleine's whispered words caressed Seiren's ear.

Seiren slammed her palms down. The chalk glowed scarlet, tingled with violet. The outlet lit up and a bolt of energy shot out. Crimson light streaked over the ground, flying beneath the light from the sarcophagus, followed by purple light, penetrated the space which was previously protected by the invisible rune, and struck Kristen side-on. She gave a yelp – the storm stole her voice – and her feet left the ground briefly before she crashed to the ground in a pile. The rune magic snaked over her body, wrapping her body in a binding spell.

Rowan shouted something back – incomprehensible; his voice vanished in the roaring wind, which intensified. Broken chunks of statue were ripped into the air. The next moment, the world spun and Seiren rolled, head over heels, head bashing onto solid surfaces and ears ringing. Tears poured out of her eyes from the flying sand. She cried out when her arm bent at an awkward angle. A sickening crack reached her ears, followed by an explosion of agony up her left arm.

The wind died down without warning. Rubble and dust, airborne up to that point, rained from the sky. Seiren panted, each breath scorching like fire in her throat. Rowan cradled her to his chest, his own gasps rapid and shallow.

"Oh runes, oh hell no," he murmured. Seiren tried to sit up and whimpered. The sleeve of her left arm had torn off and her forearm bent back in a sickeningly unnatural fashion. A massive purple bruise bloomed over the bump and her arm swelled before her eyes. Cradling it, she glanced up, but Rowan wasn't looking down at her. She followed his line of sight and let out a choked cry.

Tylene and Dent backed away, their weapons drawn. A white light sat in a circle at the bottom of the stone steps, shooting up to the ceiling in an explosion of rainbow, dazzling and full of life. The air around it rippled, distorted like the undulating atmosphere above desert sand. Shards of glass from the broken window above rained down like slivers of silvery rain, shattering on the ground with high-pitched musical tinkling. Seiren's throat closed. Rowan's hands almost crushed her shoulder bones in their steely grips.

Cloaked in the pure white light, Madeleine sat up. Seiren couldn't see any details beyond the blinding outline. Her torn-off plait regrew, falling down to her waist once more. She tilted her head back and exhaled, her chest falling and eyelashes fluttering.

The light above her retreated into her body. With the lightness of a feather, Madeleine picked herself off the ground, long, slender fingers elegantly straightening her ripped robe and skimming over her arms. The energy receded into her flesh. She arched her back, straightening joints and stretching muscles. With another inhale and exhale, she turned to face Seiren.

It wasn't Madeleine.

Seiren's heart stopped.

She bore the long, dark blonde plaits Madeleine wore and observed her with the same serious dark brown eyes as her. The freckles across the bridge of her nose and the curved lips were unchanged. But there was an alien look on her face. Penetrating and coldly analytical, behind which was an impermeable mask of indifference – and wholly devoid of the warmth and care Seiren was so used to seeing.

A smile spread across her face – again, one Seiren had never seen before. A gloating, triumphant smile, worn by someone who believed they finally received their long-awaited prize, a predator who had finally caught its elusive prey.

"Hanna," Seiren said, in a hollow voice.

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