"You okay?" I asked. 

Macey nodded, hugging Tyler's arm and hiding behind him. 

She had woken up about ten minutes after we had all made it out of the room, and she hadn't spoken a word (which wasn't unusual), and hadn't let go of Tyler's arm since. 

Skylar was leading the way through the seemingly endless hallway as we searched for the exit. 

"Hey, I hate to point out the bad stuff here, but what if there is no exit?" Alyssa said. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"You know, he's a demon. What if he just made the hallway never-ending, in case we escaped? It's what I would do if I were the bad guy."

"Well, let's hope you're a smarter bad guy." I heard Skylar say. She didn't look back at us. "And remind me not to get on your bad side." 

"You got it." Alyssa said, giving the back of Skylar's head a thumbs-up. 

"So, this Crystal guy, or whatever," Tyler said. "You think we can take him?"

"Absolutely not." Cameron muttered. 

"Oh yeah, keep the spirits up, Cam." I said. 

"Well, think about it. We have no weapons that can hurt the Shadows, which I'm certain Darklox did on purpose. That is, unless you count Tyler's sword, which, if you haven't noticed, doesn't always work."

"You have to believe in yourself if we're going to win, Cam." I grinned. 

"Like I said, if you think about it-"

"Cam?" 

"Yes?" 

"Maybe, just once, don't think about it?" I said. 

"Right. End up hitting anything I can find and nearly perish like you do. Sounds fun." 

"I don't know if you've noticed," I said. "But we've almost 'perished' multiple times, plan or no plan." 

"Shane's got a point." Jenna said. "If we don't act first, nothing will work." 

"Alright, fine. I just don't like entertaining the idea of going somewhere unprepared." 

"Well, you might not have to entertain the idea for much longer." Skylar said as we turned a corner.

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked. 

"I think we've got trouble." She said. "Don't you feel the breeze?" 

I noticed it the second she said it. There shouldn't have been a breeze inside a tunnel. 

"Hit the deck?" Tyler suggested. 

"Yeah, I think so." Skylar said. 

Not a second after she said that, the wind picked up, and we all dropped to the floor as fast as we could, myself earning a bad scrape on my arm and landing ungracefully on my face. 

"Get ready!" Skylar yelled over the wind. "We've got company!" 

"You think?" I shot back. 

As quickly as it started, the wind died down, and looked up to see-

Him.

Shane grinned down at me. "Well, if it isn't the nephew. Didn't know we'd be having a family reunion so soon!" 

I got to my feet, pulling the plain stone sword that had been left with me out. 

"Wow. No, 'hi'? No, 'how's it going'? I'm hurt, Shane."

"Sure you are." I muttered. 

The others stood, Skylar pointing her own iron sword at him. 

"Okay, so we're doing it this way." He said. "Didn't you all learn anything from the last time we saw each other?"

"Yeah. You almost killed us." Skylar said, glaring at him. 

"Exactly! So you should be aware that it would be pointless to try and fight!"

He glanced back at Cameron, who was shaking as he held up his sword. "See? Cam knows!"

I gritted my teeth. "I'm the only one who gets to call him that." 

I slashed at him, but my blade passed through him, doing nothing. 

"Yeah, see," He said. "That isn't going to work." 

He held up his hand, and I went flying backwards into a wall, falling to the floor.

I shook my head, and looked back up to see all of the others going after him. 

As I pushed myself up, Cameron came flying towards me, smacking into me and sending both of us down. 

"Cam!"

"The crystal." He said. "It's the crystal."

"What?" I asked. 

"I watched when he attacked you, and then let him do the same to me to confirm." He said. "The crystal around his neck - it glows brighter whenever he attacks. His powers must come from it."

I stared at him. "Well, I guess thinking does get us somewhere."

"I told you." He said. "I'll distract him, you get the crystal."

"Are you sure?" I asked. 

"I can't get it myself, I'm not good at stealth or agility or anything."

"Yeah, but Cam, that's really dangerous. He could kill you!"

He looked at me, a scared expression on his face. "Do we have a choice?"

I looked up to see he was right. Skylar was being held in the air, and she was struggling to get out while Jenna and Alyssa were already on the ground, pushing themselves back up. Tyler and Quinn were trying to keep Macey out of Shane's view. 

We wouldn't be lasting much longer.

"You're right, as always." I said. 

"Thank you." He replied. "Let's go."

I nodded, and we both stood back up and ran towards Shane.

"Hey!" Cameron yelled as he ran away from me, getting Shane's attention. 

Shane dropped Skylar, and she landed on her face. 

Ouch. 

"I'll bet you can't hit me!" Cameron yelled at him. 

While his attention was on Cameron, I kept quiet, moving closer behind him. 

"Is that a challenge?" Shane asked. 

I was right behind him. Now was the time. 

"Hey!" I yelled, and as he spun around to see me, I cut the string from his neck, grasping the crystal in my hand, and ran. 

"You little brat!" He yelled. 

"Tell Darklox to switch to a chain instead of a string to hold power sources." I said, and I threw the crystal to the ground as hard as I could, and watched it shatter into pieces.

An agonized scream made me snap my head back up. I stared as the Crystal fell backwards as if he'd been punched in the gut.

His eyes opened again, but this time, his eyes weren't all white. Instead, gray irises stared me right in the eye.

I tensed, expecting the worse.

He smiled at me, but it wasn't a cruel smile. "Thanks."

"What? I shattered your stupid crystal, you should be gone." I said.

His expression changed to a serious one. "Right, there's not a lot of time."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are definitely my brother's kid." He said. "Shut up and listen to me before I am gone. Which one of you has the amulet?"

When no one moved a muscle, he spoke again. "Come on, I'm trying to give you an advantage here, you have to listen to me!"

"Just ten seconds ago you were trying to kill us." Skylar said.

"That wasn't me. That was the stupid curse, alright? I died when he was possessing me, yadda yadda yadda, I was cursed to be completely under his power, yadda yadda, you smashed my crystal, now I'm free. Can we move on now? There's not much time."

Tyler hesitantly pulled the amulet out from underneath his hoodie. "My dad gave me the amulet."

"He should have kept it with himself." Shane said. "Then Darklox couldn't touch it."

"What are you talking about?" I repeated.

"Shut up and let me explain, okay?" He said, and looked back to Tyler. "Protect that with your life, you understand? With your life. Darklox wants that amulet, and you have to keep it away from him. He needs it to kill your dad, and that's all he wants to do. You let him have that, your dad dies, do you understand?"

"How...what would a sword do?" Tyler asked, looking scared and confused, like the rest of us were.

Shane looked taken aback. "You don't know what it does, do you?"

"I know it gives me a sword sometimes."

"That's not the only thing it can do. When you first get the amulet, it waits until you really need something. When that moment comes, it gives you what you really need, and from that moment on, it will only give you that something when you need it, but only when you need it."

"How do you know that?" Jenna asked.

"He told me. I was forced to follow his rules, I wouldn't have said anything. But now you freed me, so I'm giving you facts. I don't like the thought of my brother dying."

"So what you're saying is," Skylar cut in. "If Darklox gets his hands on that amulet-"

"You're done. Through. There's no stopping him after that."

"Oh, so...no pressure, then." Tyler said, his voice sounding slightly panicked.

"I'm confused." I said. "How come Darklox can't just kill Sky if he wants to?"

"Not sure." Shane replied. "But he can't. He needs that amulet to do it. And something tells me that once he's got that amulet, not only Sky will be targeted."

"The rest of us will be goners, too." Alyssa guessed.

"Bingo. All eight of you and your parents. You've caused him way too much trouble."

"Well, that's just peachy." Skylar grumbled, and looked back at Tyler. "Keep that thing hidden."

Tyler nodded, slowly tucking the amulet back under his hoodie.

"One more thing," Shane said. "Darklox's vessel is dying. Pretty soon, Darklox will either leave him behind or let him implode and go looking for a new one."

Both Tyler and Macey drew a shaky breath and looked at each other. Macey seemed to be on the brink of tears.

Shane ignored them. "But he's not going to have to go looking for one for long. He's got somebody in line."

He shot a pointed look at Skylar.

Skylar got to her feet. "No. That's impossible. Dad would never let him-"

"He would if he thought you would die otherwise." Shane said.

"No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't, he hasn't known anything that's happened to me!"

"He knows about the first time I attacked you. Darklox tricked him into thinking I was supposed to kill you instead of bring you here. He gave him permission pretty quickly after that."

Skylar slowly sunk back down to her knees. "He's such an..."

She didn't finish her sentence, only covering her face with her hands.

I looked back over to see Shane starting to fade away.

"Well, looks like that's all the time I have..." He muttered. "Remember, keep that amulet safe, okay? Don't let him get it! And Shane?"

"Yeah?" I asked, slightly taken aback that he was talking to just me, and not to everyone.

"Tell your dad I said I'm sorry for everything."

And with that, he was gone.